Dont C lo se Your Eyes Chapter 1; Part 3. Tamara looked at her

Dont    C lo se   Your  Eyes Chapter 1; Part 3.
 
Tamara looked at her watched again. 8:45. She should return home. She could be bathed and ready for bed by the time Warren called. She smiled. When she was ready for bed, Lily would be ready for a night at trendy Panache. Their old friend Natalie St. John was back in town and Lily wanted to show her a good time. She'd invited Tamara along, but Tamara declined, telling her she would be waiting for Warren's call. "You're hopeless," Lily teasted. "I might get married some day but I'll never be as settled as you. Hovering around the phone at for a husband?" Apprarently Lily thought hovering only jusitfied in cases of handsome, unpredicable boyfriends.
The dog looked up at her expectantly. She's forgotten their game. "Okay, Happy Face." Tamara bent and picked up a stick. The dog shifted from paw to paw in anticipation. Tamara threw the stick far into the trees. The dog shot after it. Usually it returned in less than a minute with the stick, which it dropped at her feet. This Tamara heard it barking. The barking grew fainter. Obviously it had spotted a rabbit and was giving it a chase. At least she hoped it was a rabbit. She didn't want to be greeted by a dog reeking of skunk.
She stood on the road for a few minutes. Up ahead reared the remains of the Saunders House built back in the early nineteenth century when Port Ariel was called Winthrop. When the senior Saunderses died, their beautiful daughter Ariel became the loved of Captain Zebediah Winthrop, whose father founded the town. Ariel was labeled a "scarlet women" after she gave birth to Zebediah's son Thaddeus out of wedlock. In his youth Zabediah had been forced to marry a homely crab of a women named Mercy. While Zebediah sailed Lake Erie, Mercy and her pious friends delighted in wreaking pretty vengeances on Ariel and the baby, terrorizing the young mother. Then, when Thaddeus was barely one year old, Captain Winthrop's ships, the Mercy,
caught fire and foundered on the shore near Ariel's house. Ariel had spotted the wreck from her widow's walk and rushed to the rescue, single-handedly saving two injured sailors and her beloved Zeb from drowning.
Mercy died shortly afterward, mostly from bitterness and jealously and pure meanness, people claimed. She was barely in the ground when Zebediah married Ariel. Most citizens had forgiven her in light of her bravery and did not object when Zebediah changed the name of the town in her honor. Together they had two more children. Zeb died long before Ariel and she had a large monument built to him in the town square. Although she lived to be eighty, she never remarried.
As children Tamara and Lily were entranced by the story of Ariel who had lived alone on the windy shore of Lake Erie, tormented yet strong and loving. They thought she was beautiful, wonderful, courageous, and all that a women should be. They used to dress up and play for hours in the Saunders house, taking turns at pretending to be Ariel. Sometimes Natalie St. John played with them. Tamara had seen pictures of Ariel and thought that with her long black hair and dark eyes, Natalie made the best Ariel, but she never told Lily. Natalie was the only one of their friends with whom they shared the secret of the game. Natalie could always be trusted with a secret.