A DATE WITH DESTINY

    A Candy Candy Mini Fanfic

    Conceived and Written by: Lady Gato

    Webmistress, Candy Candy Nation

    Candy Candy Nation©, 2005
    Candy Candy Characters    © and Story Kyoko Mizuki and Yumiko Igarishi

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    Author’s Note

    The following fan fic was written by me and submitted for the Valentine’s Day contest being held by Lily Ramirez Venegas (Lady Grandchester) on her Fanfic/Fanart website in Spanish. The theme of the contest was "Dream date with your Favorite CC Leading Character". The following represents my entry, translated from Spanish. Enjoy, and wish me luck…the winning fic for each CC Leading Character will be posted on Valentine’s Day on her website!

    If you want to visit the website:

    http://mx.geocities.com/lramirez_venegas/inicio/default.html

    Tell her Lady Gato sent you!

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    It was a beautiful day in New York City. From the window in my living room I could see the tops of the trees in Central Park, which was located in front of the building where I lived in. I closed the book I was reading, because my desk clock had sweetly chimed that it was five o’clock. That evening, I was going out to dinner with Terrence Grandchtester, the most dashing and enigmatic leading actor of Broadway…

    Turns out, I didn’t even know who Terrence was. My father, a Guatemalan diplomat, had recently taken the post of Consul in the City; and everyone, including my mother, my younger sister, my Siamese cats and even my Yellow Headed Amazonian parrot had arrived last January. It was snowing horribly, something that was so alien to my Zacapanecan blood (the part of Guatemala where we were from). True, we had spent time in Paris, Florence, Madrid and London, but never during the winter. Soon enough, I acclimated myself to my new home. It had always been a goal of mine to study in college, and knowing that in my home country that was an endeavor that was not looked kindly upon if the student in question was a lady; I applied myself to perfect my English. All my life, I practiced…I was helped by my parents, who had studied in London, and by my English nanny…I had succeeded, for I did not have a trace of an accent. I had always considered New York and its famous Columbia University as my dream…I spent many days in my younger adolescence picturing myself there, in the great city of the New World, making my own path. Marrying young and having children young was never my immediate priority…I always knew, with great certainty, that one day the man who was predestined for me would come, would come long after I had achieved my scholastic goals. I wanted to be independent, do things on my own…to see the world.

    With my parents’ support, I was accepted into Columbia. To afford me certain space, since I was already 19 years old, my parents gave me my own flat to live in…of course, it was next to theirs and there were interconnecting doors…but this allowed me the privacy I would need to complete my double major in Literature and Business. The first was my favorite hobby, for I was a voracious reader and the second ran through my veins…I descended from families who were established businesspeople back home.

    It was on a February day, the 14th to be exact, under another smothering snowstorm, that my life was upended.

    I was fussing my way out of the taxi with my fur coat, my briefcase with my books and notebooks, my fur hat, my leather gloves lined in fur, trying to alight in front of our building on 5th Avenue, wondering where the doorman had disappeared to. He was nowhere to be seen to shield me with his umbrella from the flurry of snowflakes. I thought I could reach the door by myself with minimal exposure if I gauged it right…I made my mad dash and the next thing I felt was my body crashing against something or someone…and suddenly I was face down in a drift of snow.

    "Good God! Can’t you see where you are going?!" a voice snapped, a masculine voice with the most exquisite English accent I had ever heard in my life...without even seeing him, I knew that the man who had spoken to me was an aristocrat of the highest echelon.

    "Perdóneme..." I gasped in Spanish, still dazed "I’m so clumsy! I must have looked like a skittish rabbit slipping on ice!!" I continued in English, realizing where I was. I started to collect my briefcase, which now looked like it had just gone through the war.

    "If that is the case, I never saw a rabbit that was bilingual and with so many curls!" my victim laughed. "Allow me, Miss…" he offered.

    It was then when I raised my eyes and looked into the most mysteriously profound gaze in my whole life.

    "Thank you…" I replied, grateful and just a bit awed.

    By then, the doorman finally returned and pretended he was interested in helping me. The gentleman told him that he would help me up to my flat.

    Even though my first reaction was to tell him that I was fine and that I would manage, I didn’t do so.

    "I’m so sorry…you were right…I should have paid attention to where I was going…but waddling around with so many dead creatures on me just makes me so darn clumsy!" I excused.

    He laughed again, a wonderful sounding laugh. "Miss, you definitely are not from around here…no lady that I know dares to talk that way…except…" his mirth was suddenly tempered with a melancholy so deep and ephemeral that if I were not an observer by nature, I would have not caught it. "Where are you from?" he asked, changing the subject.

    "I’m Guatemalan…"

    "You speak English so well…and you look like…" he stopped, because I interrupted him. I interrupted him because this was something I had heard so many times that it peeved me to no end.

    "Excuse me, sir, but in my country, as it is in many of the countries of Latin America, there are people of all types and colors…" I slightly huffed with pride. I knew why he was saying that…my skin was white, I had a scattering of freckles on my nose, my eyes were large and blue-green, and my auburn hair was curly. All that and my fine features made many people try to place me and my origins.

    "Phewwwweee! With that fire, you definitely are Latina! Although the few that I know are a bit submissive, are they not?

    "Nothing of the sort, Mister! My two grandmothers handled large estates after becoming widows…if I had to learn something from them, it was that you have to depend on yourself…independence makes you free…"

    That strange look again, so devastatingly sad. His gaze fixed itself in the distance, as if evoking somebody.

    We had arrived at my door.

    "May I see if you are hurt?" he asked, coming back to the present.

    "Thank you sir, that is very thoughtful and kind of you…my mother will tend to me, my parents live next door…"

    "Your parents live next door? Are you the daughter of the Consul?" he asked, curious.

    "That is so…but how do you know?"

    "I see that you definitely weren’t paying any attention…I was exiting the building when you were trying to make your way in…I live here, too…"

    "Oh…" I was surprised and embarrassed at the same time. I didn’t like to be clumsy, but I had always been.

    "I’ll see you later then, Curly!" he said, jovially.

    I saw him leave. He looked so sure of himself, yet vulnerable and melancholy at the same time.

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    The following weeks, I ran into him many times, generally when I was coming back from my classes in the afternoon. He always greeted me "Hello, Curly!" and always got into the taxi I was exiting. I didn’t know where he was going, but he surely was an important gentleman with equally important meetings to attend.

    Over time I realized that he was a well dressed man, elegant and a bit cutting edge…his chestnut hair was styled a bit on the long side; sometimes he used a ponytail. He had, without a doubt, the bearing and carriage of a nobleman. He was tall and well proportioned. But the most fascinating feature of his terribly handsome face were his sapphire colored eyes. And his voice, which was very refined and modulated, I had to admit, was irresistibly velvety and seductive.

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    One spring day, when I didn’t have to use the hated furs to ward off the cold, I decided to go read a bit of Shakespeare in Central Park. I was on a mission…I had to write an essay in my test the next day about the influence of Queen Elizabeth the 1st of England over Shakespeare and his contemporaries. Since the essay had to use "A Midsummer’s Night Dream" as a reference, I thought that the open space and the green areas of the park would help inspire me and assist me in formulating my hypothesis.

    I was so concentrated on my task at hand, that I did not notice someone standing in front of me.

    "You don’t say…you also like Shakespeare?" The voice was unmistakable.

    "You don’t say…you also like Shakespeare?" I replied, jokingly.

    "Do you mind if I sat down next to you?"

    "Of course not…but to be honest, I have to study…" I didn’t want to sound like I was brushing him off, but that was the truth…I could not possibly make a social visit out of this.

    "Well that explains your comings and going…where are you studying?"

    "At Columbia…"

    "Well, well, well! You are a smart one! You know, Miss Curly, you would stand out in any society…but it is quite admirable…" he said, sincerely.

    We regarded each other for a moment…I had to admit that for the first time in my life I felt inexorably attracted to a member of the opposite sex.

    "Mademoiselle, we have spent many weeks greeting each other, and I know your father is the Consul Aldana, but I do not know your Christian name…and the doorman won’t tell me…he protects you as if he were your own personal bodyguard…"

    I laughed and said "My name is Ana Luisa…Ana Luisa Aldana…"

    "Ana Luisa…" he said, in that beautiful voice of his, "Terrence Grandchester…it is a great honor and pleasure to make your acquaintance…". He gently took my hand and kissed the back of it.

    It wasn’t the first time a gentleman had introduced himself thus…however, it was the first time I felt a warm reaction in me. His hands were elegant and soft.

    He looked at me, as if expecting to hear something from me, but once he realized that I wasn’t saying anything, he continued, "I also study Shakespeare…would you like to have a bit of dialogue and discussion?"

    I nodded and we spent a couple of hours going over several themes and topics. He helped me with a few things, and in turn, to my delight, I helped him with some.

    He sighed deeply. "It has been a very long time that I have felt this way…" Once again there was the melancholy gaze.

    "Were you not well?"

    "Yes…and perhaps I have never recovered…" he admitted, then "would you like an ice cream? I have to go to work soon…"

    The idea sounded good to me. "Of course!"

    I wanted to ask him about what had ailed him, but I refrained. The camaraderie between us was very easy and friendly, and I realized that he was becoming a friend.

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    Sometimes we went to the museum, sometimes we walked in the Park, or sometimes we rode horses. He loved horseback riding as much as I did. As the weeks went by, I felt our friendship becoming deeper. There were still so many things I didn’t know about him…I did know that he was the son of an English Duke and that he had renounced his rights to the title to come to New York, something that I found admirable. I knew he was intelligent, very well read…he loved to read as much as I did. He had not traveled through the Continent as much as I had, and listened very rapt to my stories about my travels. I knew he was a bit arrogant yet sweet at the same time. There was a rebellious spirit trapped in him. He loved to play jokes and his wit had a sardonic edge to it. Above all, he was very very kind and gentlemanly. I couldn’t understand why a man like him was not married or formally affianced. Yet, even thought I felt so comfortable with him and he was very nice to me, there was something…something I could not fully understand or explain. Something that didn’t allow me to look at him with the eyes of a woman in love.

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    One day we decided to go to the Loews Theatre. This time, I waited for him in my parents’ formal living room. They were very curious to meet my friend, whom they knew by description but not by name. My father, who always loved to give monikers to people called him "Union Jack", apropos for his place of origin.

    "Are you sure you aren’t secret beaus or anything like that?" my father asked.

    "No…of course not! We are just good friends…we enjoy each other’s company…that’s all" I replied, a bit nervous and a bit irritated at the same time.

    "But your eyes sparkle a certain way when you talk about him, Ana Luisa…maybe you are in love with him and you just don’t realize it…" my mother said. She sometimes knew me better than I did myself.

    Truth was, I didn’t know….I didn’t know because I had never given love a second thought. My reply hung in the air, because our butler announced, "Monsieur Terrence Grandchester has arrived, your Excellency…"

    "Terrence Grandchester!" my parents exclaimed at the same time, their united voice startling me so that my cup of Guatemalan coffee that I had in my hands went crashing onto the floor. My clumsiness ruining my every attempt to remain calm and collected.

    "Good afternoon, your Excellency, Madam…" Terrence said with a courteous voice, greeting my parents.

    "The pleasure is ours, Señor Grandchester…we understand that you also live in this building…"

    "That is correct…and I have to admit, it was quite boring until you arrived with Ana Luisa…" he responded, flashing a smile at me.

    I felt my cheeks flush hotly.

    He accepted a cup of coffee before we left, chatting with my parents all about London. Turns out he had studied in the same boarding school my parents went to. They talked and laughed about people and things I didn’t know anything about, and I felt excluded.

    There was no doubt that he was very simpático to my parents, because he almost forgot the start time at the Theatre. We barely arrived with minutes to spare at the box office and purchased our tickets. The movie was "Daddy Long Legs" with Mary Pickford, along with some Harold Lloyd comic shorts. We had started to make our way towards the entrance when several loud voices shocked me.

    "Terrence Grandchester!!"

    "Terry!!"

    "Grandchester!!!"

    "Autograph, please!!"

    I noticed that we could not walk on, our paths had been cut off by several people who were milling about us.

    "Curly…let’s get out of here!" he exclaimed, upset…he took my hand possessively and took off like a bat out of hell, towing me behind him.

    "Wait! What’s the matter!! What about the movie??!!" I argued, completely floored by what was happening.

    He didn’t even answer. Finally, we ducked into an Italian Café, away from the hubbub. Sullenly, he silently showed me where to sit.

    I did so. He ordered two Italian sodas. I could tell he was fuming.

    "Why were they calling at you?" I asked, calculating when it was the right time.

    "You really don’t know? Or are you playing dumb!" his voice hissed at me. The glow in his eyes was furious.

    "Who knows what goes on in that pea-brain of yours!! Of course I don’t know, that is why I ask…you know what, if you are going to be an ass, I’m leaving!" I snapped, grabbing my purse. I didn’t allow anybody to talk to me that way.

    Suddenly, his face lost its hard edge. "No…please…don’t go…stay with me…we will have our soda…and …" he pleaded, taking my hand, gently this time.

    "And then what?" I demanded, still miffed at him.

    "I’ll tell you everything…" he promised.

    Curious now, and calmer upon seeing the change in him, I sat down and started to listen to the story of his life.

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    Hours later, I knew everything…his birth, singed with bastardy, separated cruelly from his mother, growing up without parental love, the arrival of his angel, who was his one true love, having to separate from her in order to save her, following his dream, the happy re-encounter with his angel that was cut short by a heartbreaking separation because of duty…because of a woman who had crossed and forked the path that was surely their destiny…one of a happy marriage. The passing of said woman during the 1918 flu pandemic which had hit the U.S. hard, and the ascent into stardom...becoming the best actor on Broadway.

    I shed some tears the whole time…the story tugged my heart. He was so vulnerable, so wounded, so sad…I wanted to comfort him…yet at the same time, I felt shy about showing him that affection in public.

    He finally said, "I had lost all hope to feel good in the presence of a woman…but now I have to admit that only you have given me that hope again…Ana Luisa…would you consider me as your beau?"

    I didn’t know what to say.

    He took my hand and caressed it lightly. "Would you like to have dinner with me next Saturday? My mother is hosting a dinner party at her flat, which is very close to our building…" His voice had never sounded so tender.

    Generally, ladies did not dine alone with gentlemen, unless they were quite forward and independent…and I was one of them. At the same time, I wanted to be prudent.

    "As it is in your mother’s home, of course…" I accepted.

    He was expecting this. "Certainly…and don’t worry, I will ask your parents permission as well, as soon as we return home.

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    That night, my mind was in a whirlwind….

    Candice White Andrew…Candy…that was the name of Terrence Grandchester’s lost love. The man who wanted to be my beau.

    I felt very honored, but there was a nagging feeling in me.

    Andrew…that surname…

    There was a William Albert Andrew from Chicago who had arrived in Guatemala last year. My parents had helped him out to establish relationships with some estates in the eastern part of the country. He wanted to set up some banana plantations. I remembered having been struck by the relative youth and placid, charitable disposition of the magnate. He had insisted in making sure the plantations had clinics and schools, something that was unheard of by foreign investors….generally they didn’t care about the laborers.

    Was this Candy anything of William Andrew?

    I had to find out.

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    With the punctuality that typified his nationality, Terrence arrived. My butler announced him and with that I sent my butler on an errand…I wanted to be alone with Terrence. I had to be alone with him…I wanted to validate what I was feeling for him, and I had to do it without discreet eyes looking upon me. I felt as if that night was going to be a turning point in our relationship.  

    He graced me with one of his marvelous smiles. He was dressed entirely in bone colored linen…the shirt was poet style. He looked magnificent and the look suited him very well. This time, his hair was down. He took my hand, kissed it fervently and offered me a small nosegay of Muguet, which he knew was one of my favorite flowers.

    "You look wonderful, Ana Luisa…" he murmured admiringly. I was wearing an antique Japanese kimono the color of the softest pink with a pattern of goldfish in ying/yang position. This had been a gift given to my father during a diplomatic mission to Japan, and I had taken it and modified it to how it was being used in Paris, where all things Japanese were the rage. My hair was in a loose chignon, several of my curls hung in tendrils. As I knew we were going to dine with other artists, this was my attempt to look somewhat bohemian.

    I took his crooked arm and we left. Upon exiting the door of our building and under the curious gaze of the doorman, I spied a white Hansom Cab, its lamps aglow, waiting for us.

    "I thought we would take a little ride through the Park before we went to dinner…" Terrence explained.

    I nodded slightly, pleased with this and trying to hide my excitedness.

    I couldn’t appropriately describe how marvelous the carriage ride with him was. The sun was setting, the summer air was still warm, faint fireflies blinked. Everything moved differently, as if it were another world. Terrence had sat very close next to me, taking my hand and putting his arm around my shoulders. I felt so cherished and appreciated…the warmth between was so intimate and cozy. We talked about all and nothing, as it was with us, but this time I noticed the special tone in his voice.

    "This was a wonderful idea, thank you, Terrence…" I smiled with a soft sigh.

    "Thanks to you, I have a new inspiration…" he murmured, softly touching my cheek.

    I blushed a bit...I couldn’t deny how good I felt next to him.

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    Dinner had been delightful, Eleanor Baker very charming and hospitable and the rest of the guests very curious to meet me. I could see Terrence was introducing me with pride. There were so many interesting people that I wanted to get to know and I was able to talk to many of them. I was having a conversation with Terrence’s director, a man by the name of Hathaway, when Terrence arrived by my side and said "You must excuse me Robert, but I have to steal her…" He took my hand and led me out towards the garden in his mother’s penthouse flat.

    I was a little nervous, because I knew the moment I had been anticipating all evening was possibly going to arrive very soon…

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    Night had fallen…the sky was sparkling with myriad stars; the moon was full. We spoke quietly, softly, not wanting to break the stillness around us. We stopped at a spot where the moon was shining shimmering on the Central Park reservoir.

    "Ana Luisa…you have been the highlight of the evening…everyone can’t stop talking about you…" he started, standing a bit closer in front of me, never letting my hand go.

    "It’s a good thing that nothing fell from my hands…if that had happened, I surely would have been the highlight, for all the wrong reasons…" I replied, a bit edgy.

    "That is what I treasure about you the most…you are so natural and sure of yourself…something that I find so delicious…as delicious as the warmth of your breath…" he murmured. Before I could reply, he tilted my chin up towards him and then I felt his lips gently engaging mine, allowing me to taste his sweet, masculine mouth.

    What can one say about their first kiss? It was all so new, all so magical…all so wonderfully pleasant…I felt tenderness, gentleness, respect, admiration…I felt the softness of his lips taking me in an intimate game only for us two…it was all so sudden for me that I could only respond to him in kind, in the way my feelings were carrying me…I felt as if we were melting into one…one warm, pulsating being…

    However…

    "Terrence…" I whispered, parting from his lips.

    "Did I frighten you, darling? Please forgive me…I just wanted to tell you that I…"

    "Terrence…" I said, friendly, putting my fingertips on his lips.

    I had felt everything that I had expected to feel, except for the one thing that even if I didn’t know how it would feel, I knew was missing.

    "Listen to me, Terrence….I am very fond of you and I am sure that you are very fond of me…but somehow I feel that with this kiss you have given me, something is just not right…"

    "Come again?" he gasped.

    "Terrence...because I care so deeply for you, I want you to go this very instant to the woman for whom your soul still cries for….your soulmate…I want you to go find her and tell her everything that you have been carrying inside of you, inside the deepest part of you for so long…"

    "But…but Ana Luisa…I want to be with you, I…."

    "Terrence…I do not doubt that you and I get along terribly well and that we would make a great couple…that we could be very happy together…but I cannot be at peace with myself knowing that perhaps your lost love still cries out for you the same way you cry out for her…all this time we have spent together I have seen it…you have the right to be happy, to be happy with her…I promised I would do this for you, if you did kiss me and I realized that something was missing…I can’t tell you how it feels to love that way, I just imagine it…from what you once told me when you met her…that you knew in that very instant that she was the only woman you would ever love…and I…I didn’t have that ‘revelation’ with you…"

    Terrence Grandchester stared at me; his face looking at me with a mixture of incredulity and hope.

    "Go, Terrence…go to her…" I exhorted him.

    "I don’t know if I can go to her…I don’t know what’s become of her…I don’t even know if she will take me back…" he stammered.

    "I’m going to tell you something...I’ll tell you later how I came to know about it…she’s living in the orphanage where she grew up…she hasn’t married, Terrence…that is why you have to go…Courage, Man! Go…Now!!" I said to him, with a smile.

    "And if she refuses me?"

    "If after opening your heart to her she refuses you, then come back to me…I will be right here, waiting for you…" I promised.

    He kissed my hand effusively and he tore out of there so fast with the biggest smile I had ever seen on him.

    I saw him go, and I felt very happy....I knew I had done the right thing.

    After a while, his mother came looking for me.

    "Ana Luisa….Terrence barely told me what you had talked about…oh, you don’t know what you have done for him…one day you will know what it is to find your soulmate…"

    "One day..." I murmured. I decided to go back inside and retake up on the conversation I was having with Mr. Hathaway.

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    What happened next? Well, as I had suspected, Candice White Andrew had never forgotten her Terry, and as soon as he found her on her Pony’s Hill, they swore never to be apart again. I had the great honor of being one of his witnesses at the marriage, and the even greater honor of being godmother to all their four children. They considered me a close family friend, and I never had a doubt about what I had done. There was nothing more beautiful than to see them together…the aura they gave off together was unmistakable. It was a joy to see them so happy…it would have been a sin to keep them apart.

    After graduating from Columbia, William Andrew offered me to head up his business in San Francisco, California. I didn’t hesitate and took the opportunity right away…I had heard so much about the City by the Bay, that I knew I wanted to live there. Besides, I would not have to wear furs in the winter!

    On the eve of my thirtieth birthday, my secretary announced that a friend of a friend of Terrence’s wanted to meet with me.

    "Very well, I shall see him…" I said, curious.

    In walked a gentleman who was very well dressed and groomed, with a certain distinguished poise. Despite this, he looked very friendly and affable. He was attractive, in his own way. I immediately felt something…something that I had never felt before.

    "Ms. Aldana…I am Peter Bloom…I am the president of my family’s company, L. Bloom Sons…I have been a theatre producer here in San Francisco, up until recently…my father passed away last year and I have had to assume the reins of the business that he founded…I have come her with several proposals for your consideration…"

    When he shook my hand, I felt as if I had been hit by lightning. The fountain pen I had in my hand had been struck from it and it fell to the floor; although I didn’t know if it was due to my clumsiness or due to something more.

    What followed next still surprises me to this day.

    "This is the father of your children…" I heard in my mind, clear as a bell, with a voice that had the weight of destiny on it. 

    I didn’t know how to explain it, or who or what had given me this revelation…all I knew is that it had probably been the same thing that had happened to Terrence Grandchester when he met Candy and I knew without a doubt that they were soulmates.

    "Pleased to meet you…" I replied.

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    We were married eleven months to the day we had met. Terry and Candy came to the wedding. I have no doubts that I married the man that had been predestined to me from the beginning of time…and all of this had been set in motion the day I clumsily bumped into my good friend, Terrence Grandchester…