Thomas Tryon by All That Glitters

Author:All That Glitters
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2011-12-04T11:30:24+00:00

April 239

company. She wasn't in good shape, but nothing like she became later. I tried to establish a bridge to the doctor, and he came to trust me, as I did him. He was an April fan from way back and he was worried about her, more than he let on.

Frank kept in touch by phone; I gave my weekly reports and tried to buoy him with any good news I could drum up. When he came back he drove out to Woodland Hills directly from the airport and spent the weekend assessing for himself exactly how things were. I already knew what he was busy finding out: things weren't good. He'd been shocked to see how she looked—she'd really let herself go, her body was badly run down, her appetite bad. When he left she handed him a small parcel, asking him not to open it until he was home. He didn't wait, but opened it in the car; it held the diamond unicorn pin he'd given her that night at Malibu. The brief note the package contained asked him not to come anymore; it was too painful and his visits left her distressed.

So there it was: she wasn't going to marry him; worse, she held no hope now for the future. He wrote her a letter, saying he understood, and releasing her from any previous understanding they'd had. He loved her and would be there for her any time she needed him. But the awful truth was, she didn't need him anymore. What she needed was her sanity, and if she stood any chance of getting that back she couldn't go on seeing him.

It was a brutal blow for Frank, and he really took it on the chin. In the passing months I saw a lot of him, because I too was nursing wounds of my own. One night we had dinner, he and I, and in a booth at Frascatti's I saw him weep for a second time. He'd lost Maxine, now he'd lost April; there wasn't much else to lose, except his own life, and that, too, waited around the corner.

As a result of Bud's manager's crooked shenanigans, the till was all but bare, and Frank was picking up the tabs. He'd previously arranged to pay for April's upkeep at Woodland, relying on monies left him by Frances, but the family had successfully contested the will, leaving him in somewhat straitened circumstances. April stayed on at Woodland for nearly two years, with horrendous expenses that drained Frank's pocket-book, and then, after he was killed and her own money ran out, she made the trip to Libertad, taking the road to Simi Valley, the long road that led to nowhere. And I began my pilgrimages, the Sunday and holiday trips that have gone on for so many years. Read it and weep, as I do.

What with one thing and another, my life changed drastically in the next year and a half. Somewhere along the line I'd begun

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