Part 17 (2/2)
It chilledside aisle toward the door I got up,ht have alarmed him so much But there was no one in the store entrance or even down the middle aisle and only one patron in each of the three checkout lanes
I loitered near the front of the store as cashi+ers scanned containers of rice chips and vegetable broth, of soy yogurt and tofu ice crea with an electronic blip Frustrated by Lucian's erratic behavior and uncharacteristic display of emotion, I left
Fewer than five steps beyond the door, I ran into Mrs Russo She rapped up in her ca into her shouldn't have seemed odd She was, after all, the one who had told me about the co-op when I first moved in
”Well, Clay! hello dear!” She clasped loved hand, and I tried to smile ”Did you come for some nice lunch?”
”I did Wild salan to exercise a strange new thought
”Oh, delicious I ht have to have some, too It's a pity you've already eaten, or you could jointo pull away and longing to sit doith her over a plate of her fa about her presence, as though no har as one ith her
”We'll have lunch together another time, Mrs Russo Have you just come from church by chance?” By way of explanation, I added, ”You look so nice”
”No, dear I'ht? You've been on my heart so iousness the only irritating thing about her, when I'd been as leery of her invitations to church or Bible group as I was of A as if a wall that had both protected and alienated ht”
”If you need anything, you let ” There was a steeliness I had never seen in her before And in that ht she would have defendedwhat to say, I founda wave of emotion, the product, I was sure, of exhaustion I was so tired, in fact, that for aas the intelligence in Lucian's was strange
THAT NIGHT, AFTER TRANSCRIBING the strange interaction in the co-op, I tried to read one of my newly acquired manuscripts but was unable to concentrate
Why was our ti the end of his story, or had soardless of the reason, I should have been happier than I was-soon I ht be free of him I would have what I needed to finish the et on with my life
But I was unsettled by Lucian's distraction, disturbed that I could not pinpoint a reason for it I had never seen him so emotional or emotionally at a loss And to see him flee the co-op
What could possibly compel a demon to flee?
The kindly face of Mrs Russo floated before my mind
SOMETIME AFTER MIDNIGHT MY inbox chi spam or a note from one of my authors-soht have been froht and half suspected of being a day-walking vampire It could even have been a note from my sister, hom I had had only sporadic contact since her insinuation that I had driven ht1Sent: 12:18 anificant thing that happenedIn the Jewish temple, El's spirit resided in the Holy of Holies Do an Internet search if you don't knohat I mean All you really need to know is that it was the h priest could enter it and then only once a year and bearing the blood of atonement-one of El'sthe Holy of Holies fro more than a hundred men to move it There was no mistaken entry, and the symbolism was blatant: There had been no open coardenThis is what you need to know: As the God- on the cross like a common cri denied to any but the appointed, was now laid open to anyone, the blood of atone to the old law The heavy partition that had separated the spirit of El from the fallen soul of man was broken foreverI hate you
I stared at that last line for a long tiht 865 to Cabo San Lucas, I closedthe season with a roast-beef sandwich-ho which she thanked me for the Chronicles of Narnia set that I had ordered and sent straight from Amazon Afterward, I talked to my sister for a few rare minutes
Despite my productivity in those quiet days alone on the second floor of hter's house in Haverhill-I wasn't going on this so-called vacation withoutsince that first night I would have felt less co two manuscripts as well-had the majority of my work over the holiday been for my actual job But I had been preoccupied with the ht thousand words and growing
I looked out thefrom seat 21A onto a heavenly floor of clouds worthy of a fabric softener commercial, disappointed that I could not see the earth On e, I had lifted ht And there, as the rest of the dihts, I gazed down onto what I calculated to be Siberia Chalky rivers snaked through stunted mountains like veins in marble, pasty snow-spackled crevices in the landscape like filling in the pores of travertine I in desolation, lass as I wondered if, like Isak Dinesen, I was seeing ”a glih God's eye” Did I look down on any spot of land previously untouched by any eye but God's?
It was the closest I had ever coh I had requestedseats and looked down on the earth froht since, I never saw anything like it again
The man next to me-a short Asian with black, feathery brows and a hairline that had receded to the crown-leaned across the arht, yes, I see, this is the way it was intended,'” he said, quoting Dinesen
We were bound by the story, needing one another in our oays, but in that ain I wondered ould happen e both got anted froement and ould become of us, of this contemptuous codependency
The demon removed his shoes and tucked the GoldToe socks
”Whatyou?” I asked without preamble
He tilted his seat back and stretched his short legs ”I told you there were those ould not look well upon our tiether”
I remembered I also recalled that he had sidestepped the question, saying it did not serve his purpose
”Who? The Host?”
He sucked at his teeth His se spots on his face the only clue that he was, I guessed, close to sixty years old ”Yes,” he said finally
”Did you see the into”
”What does this have to do with Mrs Russo?”
His expression sharpened into a glower ”Stay away from her”
”Why?”
”If you don't want to jeopardize the tiht of the two e ”What was it at Vittorio's?” I said ”I didn't see anyone”
”You wouldn't have”
”But-”
”We don't have time for me to explain this to you I've answered your questions With the co in your absence, I would think you'd beto the end of your book”