“You did say the blue coat?” Harriet checked as she paused on the bottom step to let Vanessa pass.
“Yes, that’s the one.” Vanessa slipped it on, took the purse, and went into the den and over to the desk. Outside the doorway, Harriet’s footsteps receded to the front of the house.
“Is this all? Shall I take these things out to the car?” her voice called distantly.
“Yes, please,” Vanessa called back as she sorted through papers. “The stuff other than the bags can go on the back seat. It isn’t locked. Be careful with the yellow box.” Notes, references, prints of slides. Better take the papers by Christie and Rolands, too. . . .
In the front hallway, Harriet picked up the suitcase and plastic carrier, tried taking the loose folders as well, but they didn’t feel very safe. So she put everything down again and stuffed the folders into the carrier; and since there was still room to spare, she slipped the envelopes in as well. Along with them and not really noticing, she put into the carrier a folded black plastic bag, secured with a rubber band, that had also been on the hall table, and which Vanessa hadn’t noticed either. That felt better. She picked up the items again, found that she could now manage the hanging bag as well, and hauled all of them out through the front door.
A harsh roaring sound, rising in pitch to a whine and then falling again, made her look up as she began crossing to where Vanessa’s Jaguar was parked. One of Kevin’s model planes, red with yellow wings, fin, and tail surfaces, was circling above the open area at the end of the driveway. Taki was visiting and had been busy with Kevin in the workshop all day. The plane dived to pass low overhead, making Harriet flinch as she dropped the bags by the trunk, wondering for a moment if it was out of control and about to crash, but it climbed again and banked away over the garage. She looked around as she opened the rear door of the car to put the plastic carrier and the yellow box inside as Vanessa had said, but she was unable to spot where the boys were operating the plane from. Probably they were up at one of the windows, or hidden, chuckling, in the greenery somewhere. “Young monkeys,” she muttered. “Always up to some kind of mischief.”
Vanessa came out of the house with the rest of her things and opened the trunk. Inside were a couple of boxes of assorted paraphernalia belonging to Kevin and Eric, but enough room for her bags. Harriet handed them to her, and she hoisted them in. If the stuff in the boxes was important they wouldn’t have left them there, she decided, and closed the lid. For once, Eric didn’t seem to have a particularly pressing schedule this weekend. In fact, he’d said he might show up at a barbecue that Hiroyuki was throwing for his countless relatives to show their assimilation into American culture. Vanessa was happy that she would be away. It meant she wouldn’t have to make excuses.
A noise like a motor boat that had been rising and falling grew louder, and Kevin’s red-and-yellow KJ-3 swooped over a tree and disappeared around the side of the house.
“It’s the two rogues,” Harriet said needlessly. “Don’t ask me where they are, though. That thing has been buzzing around since I came out, but I still haven’t been able to spot where they are. It looks as if they’re having fun, though.”
“Yes,” Vanessa agreed distantly. She paused as she was about to climb into the car and checked mentally for any last-minute things she might have forgotten. “If Eric does go over to Hiroyuki’s tomorrow he’ll probably take Kevin with him, so you might as well use the day for yourself,” she told Harriet.
“Thanks. There are a few things I need to catch up on.”
“If the washing machine man stops by before you go, there’s a check for him tacked to the board in the kitchen.”
“Okay.”
“And I’ve marked a few things in the Dillards catalog that I’d like ordered.”