The Don Quixote Piece
finale

"Come give Lucia a kiss," Beth commanded.

And Jacob, roused out of a deep brooding, gazed down from his square wooden desk, gazed down across the wooden floor of the dining area, across the wooden floor of the living area, down to where Beth and Lucia the French girl posed at center stage. They posed next to the sofa. They posed a few steps from the exit Jacob could not see.

Jacob sighed aggrievedly.

She was leaving.

He was pressing Lucia the French girl's warm fingers then. He leaned into Lucia the French girl's svelte form. He kissed her soft cheek with his lips and felt the brush of hers on his own. He smelled the familiar odor of apples.

"You know you're welcome anytime," Jacob uttered with aplomb, but anemically.

Lucia's mouth drew exposed, embarrassed smiles. "How did you know, my Beth?!" She turned blushing to her friend. "You would not believe to what degree I tormented him!"

And, "Oh!" Beth erupted. She leapt upon Jacob. She wrapped her arms about him with an ecstatic shriek.

Jacob might have reacted. But Jacob was made wordless by Beth's eruption, by Beth's fierce embrace. Finally, "What is this?" he breathed.

"Let us go, my Beth. I have my airplane to board. You will be able to give to him your love and explanations later."

"What?" Jacob said now, finding a firmer footing on this side of speechlessness.

"Oh, my love," and Beth had pealed herself away from him and was gliding toward the door. "My love, my love," she said to Jacob, cackling, as she threw open the door, as she held it open triumphantly for Lucia. Lucia the French girl smiled at Jacob playfully. She winked in collusion. Then, with a silent wave, she gracefully moved to and through the doorway. Beth waved too--laughingly, giddy. She closed the door behind her.

And, with the door now secure, Jacob moved toward the steps that would lift him from the wooden stage to the dining area. Pacing through that dining area, his thoughts fell again on the subject of his brooding. He climbed the last three steps to his workspace. He sat again before his typewriter. He sat. The brooding deepened. For even as Jacob tried to understand Beth's sudden renewed passion for him, he was considering how best to confess to her his infidelity.

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