Chapter 20: A Walk in the Park

Arthur wanted to make sure Rachel was okay, but Jane stopped him. Looking at her was one thing, but talking about his concern for her welfare with Jane was impossible. Jane had started to see Rachel as a rival in her romantic pursuit of Arthur. His volunteering to reach out to Rachel did not disabuse Jane of that notion.

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One thing that Rachel loved about Clovelly was all of the public green spaces. Each neighborhood had its own park. Even though the residents lived in beautiful homes with amazing gardens, like Beatrice, residents often walked, ran, and sat in local parks.

After several weeks as a resident, she started to do the same.

While she was looking for a bench during her lunch break, she bumped into Arthur. Although they both lived at Beatrice’s house and usually carpooled together into and out of town, they never saw each other at other times. Arthur spent all of his time studying and Rachel kept busy in her new role of Assistant Manager at the bakery. If romance was going to take root between them, it would have to take place during rush hour or in the park on a nice day.

“Rachel. Hey. Thank goodness you are okay. Is everything alright?”

“Hi Arthur. I’m fine. Thanks for asking.”

“Of course. It seemed pretty awful in there. I wanted to check on you, but Jane...”

“I totally understand. No further explanation necessary. I made it home safe and sound.”

“Fancy seeing you here. I needed to get out of the library for a bit. The concepts were just clouding my head over and I wasn’t having success absorbing any of it. Finding you in one of the parks of Clovelly, is like finding a four leaf clover: lucky.”

Rachel smiled then patted a vacant space next to her on the park bench.

“Is the bakery closed during lunch hour?”

“No. Faye gave me a long lunch break away from the store if I’d work a split shift.”

“Yes...I see. I remember you mentioning the new extended hours. Giving bigger coffee chains a run for their money, huh?”

“Something like that.”

“I could use a change of scenery after eight hours in the public library. Maybe I’ll stop by and grab a strong cup of coffee and extend my study hours at the bakery then drive you home.”

“I would love that. I don’t want to put you out or anything. You’ve been so generous with enabling me to get by without my own car.”

“No problem, it’s my pleasure. Plus, I’d imagine you’d be too tired to walk after being on your feet all day long.”

“Yeah. Thanks.”

“We both know that you’ve got to save your taxi fund for your dating life,” he said taking a playful jab at her after the dating fiasco she had with Henry.

“I’ve definitely closed the book on that one.”

They both had brown bagged it. Lunch for Arthur was an apple, some walnuts and some carrot sticks with hummus.

“What are you, a horse? All you’re missing is a bowl of oats.”

“I had that before I left the house this morning,” he chuckled. “I don’t like to eat too heavy when I’m studying. It puts me to sleep.”

“The postprandial drop, huh?”

“You got it. I barely have time for sleep as it is being so busy with studying.”

“I really enjoyed our conversation at the restaurant the other night.”

“Yeah. Me too.”

“Too bad Jane has her claws in you or I’d really give you a run for your money.”

“I’d like to see that.”

They laughed at the joke, but there was some truth in their responses.

“Jane is more like a sister than a girlfriend,” Arthur clarified. “I give you the go ahead, remove her claws and stick your own in.”

Rachel was unsure of how to respond to the flirty comment that Arthur just made. She changed the subject to mask her shyness.

“You don’t talk much about that time, childhood in Clovelly. Who knows, you’re a few years older than me, but...my late mom was here around that time before my parents met and married and returned stateside. Our moms might have briefly known each other.”

Arthur’s entire demeanor changed when Rachel started talking about late moms. He became colder but cordial. “I doubt it. My mom did not hang out with many Black Americans. She tried to pass.”

“Pass what?” Rachel asked.

“Pass for White. It was one of the reasons that she married my father. She hoped for a boy to secure her future financially, but it needed to be a light-skinned boy to take his name as ‘the third’. She gave him an heir to his multi-generational fortune, but a bi-racial baby was not enough to keep them together. Although I am very light-skinned, my facial features and hair texture are more African-looking than Caucasian. ‘A waste of his seed’ she used to say.”

“I’m sorry your mom felt like she had to do it. But she probably did it because she wanted to give you a better life.”

“Do you condone that kind of b.s. reasoning, too?” His brow furrowed and his voice got louder and angrier. This was the Arthur that Rachel remembered and was used to.

“I did not mean to touch a sore nerve...” She reached out to touch his arm.

“No one ‘means to’”, he said, snatching his arm away from her touch. “It’s just ignorance about what it’s like to be biracial in the U.K. versus in the U.S.A.,” Arthur stated with a matter of fact tone.

“She couldn’t pass or fit in with a son with African-looking features no matter how light, and she left me here with my very White and very British father while she went to have a better life on American soil. Karma got her with cancer,” he continued. “But I, the son she abandoned, was the one she looked to for care in the end.”

“I wanted a family with a mom and dad who loved each other and me, but I got sent away to prep school cause my dad didn’t want the burden of raising a biracial teenager, even if I was his son. You. Have. No. Idea. What. I. Suffered. Here.” He concluded then just sat still on the bench for a few minutes to collect himself.

“I’m sorry Arthur.”

“I don’t need your uninformed pity. I think I’ll head back to the library. I may stop by the bakery after the library closes, but don’t count on me for a ride, just in case I don’t make it.”

He left her behind on the bench in the park to spend the rest of her lunch by herself. She spent her time thinking over how she could have known how else to respond. This man she was getting to know was in so much pain; she did not want to make it worse by bringing up a past he sought to bury or being a reminder of the kind of acceptance he wanted but was denied as a man of color, biracial and bicultural.