“What?” Bette asked in a weary voice.

“I read your book, Wuthering Heights,” Tina said.

“So.  What about it?”  Bette asked. 

“You lied to me, Bette.  You said it had a happy ending.  But it doesn’t.  Cathy was terrible to Heathcliff, treated him so cruelly and broke his heart.  She drove him mad, made him insane.”

Bette was at a loss for words.  The memory of that summer night six years ago came flooding back.  She had recognized then the eerie similarity in hers and Tina’s childhood relationship to that of the fictional child characters.  But she had been too young, too inexperienced, to see the evidence that when she and Tina grew to maturity that they would play out the drama of the doomed literary lovers in their own manner. 

“Yes,” Bette finally found her voice.  “Yes, Tina, she treated him like shit, broke his heart and drove him mad.  But he wasn’t exactly an innocent victim.  He was pretty awful to her and drove her into an early grave.”

“Well then I guess they both got what they deserved, now didn’t they,” Tina said sadly.  She turned away and headed toward her tree house, aching for the comfort of its protection. But before she reached it, she turned around and called out, “Church is at nine.  We leave the house about ten till…breakfast is at 8:00.” Then she was gone into the darkness of the trees, up the ladder and into the structure, locking the door behind her.

Bette had watched her walk away, following the reflection of the moon on the blonde hair.  She was trying to process again, trying to understand.  When had her mother come to Tennessee, she wondered.  Why hadn’t someone told her how upset and hurt Tina had become over her lack of writing? What had happened to Tina in these last two years? But more importantly, what was she going to do?  She realized her feelings for Tina were still there, reignited by their passionate screaming match and stoked by Bette’s physical attraction to her.  Yet the young woman hated her…or loved her, Bette thought, thinking of Heathcliff’s conflicting emotions.  She needed to find a way to rewrite this story and she only had two weeks.  Two weeks to win Tina back and to heal all the hurt she had caused.

TBC