Because of it being the Fourth of July weekend, they had four shows instead of the three on most weekends. The Monday matinee was the only one that wasn’t a sellout, but it was close enough. Brett and the others didn’t get a lot of comment from Marty, but from what he said it was clear that the balance sheet was starting to look pretty good.

Whatever jitters Kellye may have had disappeared as one good show followed another. Simply speaking, she continued to nail Florence in every show. If anything, Brett suspected that Meredith was a little off, but figured the distraction of having Janine present had the most to do with it.

While the four of them spent some time together, Meredith and Janine spent a lot of time by themselves, sometimes in their upstairs room, and sometimes elsewhere. Brett knew that the two of them walked back to the swimming hole on one occasion, and there was another when they got in the car and drove over to Coopersport for whatever reason. It may have only been for sightseeing, but he figured a stop at Bushes, the quasi-lesbian bar, might have been part of it, not that it mattered to him.

If there was a downside to the weekend, it came from the fact that Meredith and Janine were only going to be together for four days; they had barely gotten their arms around each other that first day before they obviously felt the weight of time pressing on their shoulders. Brett and Kellye realized that and tried to give the two of them as much time together as they could.

Janine had been able to work it out so that she didn’t have to leave until after the matinee performance on Monday. After some discussion, Brett and Kellye offered to drive Meredith and Janine to the airport after the matinee was over. They decided to use Kellye’s car, too, so the lovers could sit in the back seat and be as mushy as they wanted to be without having to worry about the driving.

It was probably just as well that they decided to do it that way, since the parting at the airport was extremely tearful. It was obvious that the two didn’t want to be parted, even though it would only be a few more weeks before Janine came back to Curlew Creek. She hoped to get in a couple of days early so she would be available for any final script changes to The Back Table that might be needed.

Since there was no possibility that Meredith could see her lover off at the departure gate, they had to say their good-byes in the back seat of Kellye’s car. They were pretty emotional and didn’t care very much that both Brett and Kellye were watching, but in the rear view mirror Brett could see that there was rather more than just some serious kissing going on as they were stopped in the drop-off lane. In fact, he was wondering if the two of them might be thinking of doing each other one last time before they finally tore themselves apart.

“Meredith, I’d b-better go,” Janine finally managed to stammer. “I d-don’t w-want to b-but I h-have to.”

“It’ll only be a few weeks,” Meredith promised. “Then we can be together for a while. I’ll be looking forward to it.”

“I w-will t-too. I b-better g-go.”

Somehow Janine managed to tear herself away from her lover and get out of the car as Brett got her bag from the trunk and handed it to her. “Take care,” he told her. “We’ll take care of Meredith for you while you’re gone.”

“Oh God, p-p-please do,” Janine replied. “I d-don’t kn-know w-what I’d do w-w-without her. I d-don’t kn-know h-how I m-managed th-this long.”

“We’ll see you soon,” Brett promised.

It took him a moment to get back in the car, but he sat there buckling his seat belt while Meredith watched Janine disappear into the bowels of the airport. Those two really have it bad, he thought. I love Kellye, but I don’t think we’d be that emotional. But that probably is a thought I ought to keep to myself.

Meredith remained pretty teary and quiet until long after they were back on the highway toward Curlew Creek. “God, I miss her already,” she finally said. “That was harder than the last time.”

“She’ll be back in a few weeks,” Brett reminded her.

“That doesn’t mean it’s going to be any easier to see her go again,” Meredith sighed. “But with any kind of luck, it’ll be the last time for a while. Then we can be together without all this airline and good-bye manure.”

Brett smiled to himself. He’d been pretty sure this was coming, after all. “I take it you’re going to be moving in together?”

“Yeah,” Meredith replied hopefully. “As soon as we’re done with Barefoot. I’m planning on being on the road the morning after it ends. We talked about it the last time she was here, but we never settled on anything. This time we didn’t even hardly have to talk about it. It’s the obvious thing to do.”

“Yeah, but in New York?”

“New York is fine,” she replied. “I’ve been there before, but never for a long time. I’ve always wanted to find a place to dig in there and make a serious run at the theater scene there, but I never had the resources to do it. But now, since I’ll be living with her, I ought to be able to give it a decent try. If it doesn’t work, I’m sure I can find some other job, but I feel like I need to take one honest shot at the big time.”

“Having been there and done that, although in Hollywood, I have to admit that it ought to go a little easier if you have something to fall back on,” Brett agreed. “How does she feel about it?”

“Oh she’d agree with you. Look, I don’t know how much you know about it since I don’t know all that much about it myself, but her life there seems on the bleak side to me. I mean, no friends, not much family who gives a shit about her, not much in the way of outside interests but theater and work, and she doesn’t even care for the job that much. Even if I didn’t do jack shit but be there when she gets home her life will be so much better it’s not funny. But I don’t want to just be a leech on her, and she agrees that taking a shot at the big leagues is the right thing for me to do.”

“I know just exactly how you feel on that. For the last few years I’ve had in mind taking another shot at them myself, but I just haven’t been able to bring myself to do it. Now,” he said, glancing at Kellye, “I’m not so sure I want to do it after all.”

“Yeah, things change, and they sure have changed around me,” Meredith agreed. “Look, when you get right down to it, I don’t care all that much how things work out for me in New York, so long as I’m with her. I never believed I could feel this way, and now I’m wondering how I ever managed to get along without it.”

It was late before they got back that evening, but the next morning Meredith came downstairs carrying a couple of full garbage bags while Brett and Kellye were sipping on their morning coffee. “What’s all that?” Kellye asked.

“Oh, just a bunch of shit I don’t need any more,” she replied. “Clothes and stuff I’ve hauled around from one place to another and hardly ever use. I don’t want to have the car stacked to the eyeballs when I drive to New York, and I get the impression that Janine’s apartment isn’t all that big. I don’t think Marty would mind my using the dumpster over at the winery, so long as I don’t fill it all at once.”

“If you move out a bag a week between now and the end of the summer, you ought to make a pretty good dent in your pile of stuff,” Brett observed.

“Yeah, that’s what I’m thinking. I don’t want to get rid of everything, but I do need to get rid of a lot.”

Neither Kellye nor Brett said anything, but the look they shared said the same thing: this is really serious.

That day they got started on serious rehearsals for The Man with the Plastic Sandwich. Brett would have the main role, and he had been working on the lines when he had the time all through the rehearsals for The Odd Couple.

In the play, the main character, Walter, has just been fired after twenty years on the job. Sitting on a park bench – the only dressing of the set – he encounters first Ellie, who would be played by Kellye, who represents hope to him. Mike would play the next character Walter meets, Haley, a distinguished hobo who represents wisdom. Finally he encounters Lenore, who would be played by Meredith, a hooker who represents reality. The play had looked funny when read silently, and when all four of the actors got together to do a reading, it had come across even funnier.

Brett felt he was taking a little bit of a risk with the play since the title sounded a little goofy, but then it was goofy play, so maybe it didn’t matter – or at least, that was what he allowed himself to believe. Besides, it was just the kind of a small-cast project that seemed like it would do well in a dinner theater.

In a way, Plastic Sandwich came as something of a relief after The Odd Couple, mostly because it would be done by a small crew with lots of experience at learning lines quickly and picking up the subtleties of the roles. They expected to be able to put the play together quickly, and they did.

Putting together Back Table, which got under way at the same time, was both simpler and more complicated. There were a number of characters in the play, most without names. However, most of the parts were relatively short, so it wasn’t much trouble for the rest of the crew to put together. Everyone who had appeared in a play so far during the season would have a part, and some would have to be doubled up, playing two different characters in different scenes, by changes in costume and makeup.

All that kept them busy throughout the week, which meant that Meredith didn’t have quite as much time to mope about being separated from Janine. The two still e-mailed and sent text messages back and forth frequently, usually several times a day. Meredith was still actively involved in developing the plays, but it was easy to see that her mind was elsewhere a lot of the time, too.

That weekend brought the second and final weekend of The Odd Couple – The Female Version. As expected, it continued to draw a good crowd, and again they were sold out on all but one night, and then only missed by a couple of seats. In spite of the good reaction, they were glad to see the show come to an end. It had been an awful lot of work, the most of the season so far, and only Barefoot in the Park at the end of the season seemed as if it might approach it in difficulty. However, while the closing play would be a heavy load for the lead characters, played by Brett and Meredith, they were sure they could handle it. They had already started working on memorizing their lines, with Kellye prompting them, and they were both picking them up quickly.

Still, when they stood greeting the audience at the end of the play, Brett was struck by the thought that with The Odd Couple done, the season was half over, and perhaps the hardest part of the season at that. Everyone was getting used to each other now, and things that had taken some work and some thought earlier didn’t seem as daunting. The end of the season and the uncertainties that would follow seemed much closer now.

The next morning they tore down the set for The Odd Couple, although much of it would be re-used later in the season. Building the set for Plastic Sandwich seemed almost absurdly easy by comparison – it just consisted of a park bench they stole from outside; since the logo for Curlew Creek Wineries had been routed into the back of the bench, it almost seemed like extra advertising.

With that done the rehearsals for Plastic Sandwich moved to the main stage. As expected, the play went together quickly, and Brett, Kellye, Mike, and Meredith soon had it well under control. Dress rehearsal came on Thursday evening, as always, and it went smoothly. Kellye did well as the free-spirited Ellie, although Brett didn’t feel he was in a position to comment about Ellie’s statement that she hadn’t worn underwear since high school. From somewhere in her surviving collection of clothing Meredith managed to find a hooker outfit for Lenore that seemed as if it was barely legal, and she did a good job of acting like a prostitute, however out of character for her it might have been.

The turnout for Plastic Sandwich wasn’t as good as it had been for The Odd Couple, not that anyone had expected any different. But the audience was appreciative and laughed a lot, which was the point of the exercise. The play went over well, and the next two shows were a lot better in terms of the size of the audience, which meant that there was still some good word of mouth going around about the play.

By now they were deep in rehearsals for Back Table, which would premiere only a couple weeks away, and Meredith was anxious to see it come – not just because she would be seeing Janine again, but because of what it represented for her lover. Chocolate, Roses and Sex had been a validation of a sort for Janine as a writer, but Back Table was a real, full-length play, although admittedly assembled from spare parts. If it proved to be a success, it would mean a lot of satisfaction and self-confidence for Janine. There was no way of telling, but Meredith and Brett had a feeling it would not be the last time it was produced.

By now it was the middle of July, and it was hot, hot enough that they couldn’t always quite justify walking from the house to the winery for the sake of exercise. The days were long and the sun beat down, so it was tempting to stay in the air conditioning when they could.

But the situation at the house was not exactly as carefree as back in the spring, before Janine and Meredith had met. Though it was only a few more days before Janine arrived, Meredith seemed lonely and moody. Brett and Kellye tried to keep her upbeat, including her in some of their diversions when they could, but it didn’t always work, and sometimes the best they could do was to get out of the house and leave Meredith alone.

It was that way one afternoon when they decided they needed a little breather; on the spur of the moment they decided to walk back to the swimming hole just to have something to do. The idea came up so quickly they didn’t even bother to take their swimsuits; they just wanted a breath of fresh air.

The walk back there was hot and sweaty, and they were barely halfway to the swimming hole before they realized that forgetting the swimsuits may have been something of a mistake, but neither one felt much like turning around to go back and get them. The fact that Meredith was in a mood may have factored into their decision, but the question was settled when Kellye said, “Do you remember Lu telling us that she used to come back here to go skinny-dipping? If there’s nobody back there, let’s just not worry about it.”

“Works for me,” Brett smiled. “I was thinking I wanted to do that with you sometime anyway.”

When they got back to the big tree with the rope hanging from it, there was no one else around, so it still seemed like a good idea. They quickly stripped off their T-shirts and shorts – unlike Ellie, Kellye did wear underwear – and soon were swinging out on the rope and dropping into the water, yelling and having a high old time. The coolness of the water took some of the edge off of the heat, and it made things a lot more relaxing.

Finally they found a grassy, shady spot to just lie back and relax, and let the heat dry them off a bit. “You know,” Brett told her, “I’d be tempted to make love to you right out here in the open, but that would get us all hot and sweaty again.”

“So what?” Kellye smiled. “All we’d have to do is to get in the water again to rinse off.”

“Talked me into it,” he laughed, and soon they were involved in their favorite activity. It went on for a while – they were believers in taking their time – and afterwards they just lay side by side on the grass, with the sweat still running off them, but satisfied, at least for the moment.

“You know,” Kellye said after a while, “this summer has been so nice I don’t want it to end.”

“Me, either,” he agreed. “Unfortunately, it seems to be heading that way, and fall is going to get here all too soon. I sure don’t want it to get here. I’ve had so much fun just being with you I don’t want that to end, but I can see the day coming when you’re back in school and I’m having serious confrontations with either 649 or with fifth graders. Believe me, being with you is much more pleasurable.”

“I pretty much feel the same way, and I’m beginning to wonder if I even want to go back to school.”

“You’d be a fool not to,” he said. “The way I see it, the degree may or may not mean that you learned anything, but it can be nice to have on a résumé. It can make the difference between having a job and not having one. Nothing in this life comes without putting in the time, working for it, Kellye. It’s just like a play, you have to learn the lines first.”

“I know. I keep telling myself that. I really don’t want to go back to school, but I guess I will if I have to. The hell of it is that it means we’re not going to be together very much all winter long, and I really hate to give that up. I mean, I don’t think I’m going to be as bad about it as Meredith seems to be, but I don’t want to do it, either.”

“I’m the same way. I’ve learned to depend on having you around, Kellye, and it’s going to be hard to get along without you. But we’re going to have to be a little like Meredith and Janine and figure out some way to get along until the waiting is over with.”

“I know. I don’t like it, but there it is. But what are we going to do when I get done with school?”

“Beats the hell out of me. Hopefully by then one or the other of us will have worked something out, and I guess we’ll just have to go from there. I have résumés out for several teaching positions, but I’m not hearing much back on them, not that I expected I would. Maybe I’ll just have to think of something else to do.”

“Has Marty said anything to you about doing plays again next summer?

“He’s dropped a few hints, but he’s never come right out and said that’s what he’s planning. He may not have made up his mind about it, anyway. But I can’t believe things haven’t gone well enough that he has to be thinking about it.”

“It would be neat if we could come back.”

“I think so, too. I’ve had a few ideas in the back of my mind about what plays we could do, though they’re not thought out all the way yet. If we do, I’m dead sure Meredith won’t be with us, so it seems likely you would have the lead in a lot of them. But the hell of it is, I’m not exactly sure I want to come back here another summer. It would be just another dead end like it’s beginning to look like this summer will be.”

“Yeah, you’re right. Damn it, why can’t things be simple?”

“If they were simple my dad wouldn’t have gotten out of the dairy business and I’d be milking every damn day except when I can come up with some idiot to sub for me, and then I’d have to pay him. If things had been a little different I could have dropped into that, but I know I’m glad they didn’t.”

“I suppose. After all, I’d never have met you if you were just a dairy farmer.”

“There is that. I have to say that part of the summer has worked out pretty well. I know it came as something of an accident, but I love you, Kellye.”

“I love you too, Brett. I sure wasn’t expecting it, either.” In spite of the heat and the sweat, she rolled over to kiss him, and it went on for a while.

“Brett,” she said finally, “since we’re still hot and sweaty, why don’t we enjoy ourselves again before we jump in the water to rinse off?”

“Don’t you ever quit?”

“Not since I found you, and I don’t want to quit. I love you, Brett.”

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