Free Twisting Topeka by Lissa Staley Page B

“With water
streaming over my hair, down my back…all the way to my feet.” He
kissed her again, and she felt those same waters pouring over her
heart, removing any trace of any kisses that had been planted there
before.
    With Beau under one arm and a picnic
basket handle on the other, Melanie strolled across the Menninger
campus. The clock tower was beautiful with sunshine flooding down
over it. If her father had made it home at all last night, it had
been long after Melanie went to bed, and both he and Dr. Fritzl had
left before she awoke. In her mother’s absence, Melanie had decided
to take a warm lunch to her father at work. It was a Friday
tradition that dated back to before Melanie was born. As they got
closer to the tower Beau squirmed in her arms. He wiggled free and
ran toward a group of people on the east end of the tower base.
Melanie approached the group and discovered Beau at the feet of a
man wearing a tattered straw hat. Overjoyed, she ran to him.
“Reginald,” she cried when she was just a few feet behind him. He
turned around.
    The picnic basket slid
along her arm. “Who…?” she muttered. He didn’t say a word, but
looked at her for a moment. She pulled off his straw hat, and he
closed his eyes. “Dr. Fritzl? How…? Are you…?” She glanced down to
Beau, brushing against his dusty boots. “There was a dog in the
movie,” she finally said. “In Bringing up
Baby , there was a dog.” She looked deep
into the eyes of Reginald or Dr. Fritzl or whoever this man really
was. “I can’t remember. Was the dog named ‘Baby’?”
    The man shook his head. “Baby was the
leopard.”
    His voice didn’t match Reginald’s or
Dr. Fritzl’s. It sounded English. Melanie studied the group. A
young man holding a camera lingered about ten feet away, and
another man with glasses similar to Dr. Fritzl’s stood near,
holding a clipboard. Melanie pointed, “Are those the glasses you
wore last night?”
    “ Yes. That’s why I left the
table before you came in for dinner. Mr. Cukor was outside the
front door waiting to hand them to me.”
    “ But not because you need
them to see.”
    He shook his head. “Because I needed
to look like a doctor. I needed to play a part.”
    “ Because…” she felt dizzy.
“Because you’re an actor.”
    “ Yes Miss Rains, I’m an
actor.”
    “ And you’ve played a doctor
before. In that movie…the one with the leopard and the dog…that’s
who you really are. You’re…you’re…”
    “ I’m Cary
Grant.”
    “ Ahh…” she shrieked. “I
fell in love with Cary
Grant ?” She swung the picnic basket at him
then dropped it and ran. Beau barked behind and she continued
through the awakening spring grass until a hand grabbed her
arm.
    “ Listen to me,” he
said.
    “ You tricked me. Twice,”
she snapped. “What did I ever do to you?”
    “ You showed me compassion.
And kindness. And shared your inner beauty. And melted my
heart.”
    “ What are you talking
about?”
    He clapped his hands on his handsome
face and rubbed hard. “You can’t tell anyone what I’m about to tell
you. Ever.”
    “ Okay,” she
snapped.
    “ Kate Hepburn is here. She
had a nervous breakdown right before we started filming our next
movie.”
    “ Kate…” She closed her
eyes. “Katherine Hepburn. The Katherine Hepburn is here? I need to sit down.”
She went straight down into the grass, and Mr. Grant sat next to
her. “Miss Hepburn was in the leopard movie, too.”
    “ Yes. But she’s had
difficulties since that movie, and the pressure for this next film
was too much for her. Mr. Cukor, our director and friend, and I
came here to support her. Then he remembered a screenplay that had
been floating around MGM for a few years about a woman who went
crazy and her fiancé who sold the farm to get her well. We were
doing test shots yesterday for that potential film. This hospital
would make an excellent backdrop for it.”
    Melanie held her head in her hands.
“When I found