Part 16 (1/2)
”Your name is Helen?”
”Yes, Helen.”
Raymond pulled the beige handkerchief out of his pocket and pa.s.sed it to Helen so she would stop sniffing. Nearly falling off the bridge had sped up his hangover by several hours, and the seeming omnipresence of Helen's snot was making him feel queasy. ”This is for you.”
They reached the top of the small hill on the south side of the bridge and stopped at the red light. Helen waved the handkerchief. ”What's it for?”
”To blow your nose.”
”I'll get it all gross.”
”You can have the handkerchief. It's my gift to you. Just please blow your nose, Helen.”
The green walk symbol appeared and they started toward Garneau. Candlelight shone up on the faces of attractive couples and parties of four inside the High Level Diner, eating salmon and tiny steamed gourds. A gust of wind came up out of the valley and dislodged several leaves from a nearby aspen tree. Helen stopped in the wind and blew her nose for a while. As she did, Raymond leaned against a bicycle rack and hoped that somewhere, perhaps Egypt, a genius was inventing that time machine he wanted.
”I should tell you, Helen, what you did tonight was temporary.”
Finished with the handkerchief, Helen stuffed it into the pocket of her ski jacket. ”What d'ya mean?”
”I mean I don't have a choice in the matter. When a man only has the past, when his future is a most certain disaster, he has to be honest with himself. Ask the bus driver to stop and get off.”
”Dr. Terletsky, I don't even have my grade twelve, but I think I'm way smarter than you.”
”All recent evidence suggests you're right about that.”
Raymond led Helen through the parking lot across the street from the diner and into the Garneau Block. They pa.s.sed through the tall mountain ash trees and shrubbery that hid the alley from the block, and Helen stopped. She turned to Raymond and back to the five houses in the crescent. ”Hey. This is the place where that guy got shot.” Helen pointed at 10 Garneau. ”That's the house. It was on the TV. He held his wife and daughter hostage for a while, right?”
Raymond nodded.
”I remember watching and thinking, geez, what a sc.u.mbag. Then when they shot him...what was his name?”
”Benjamin Perlitz.”
”Then when they shot him I figured, hey, come on. Did you really have to kill the guy?”
A silence ensued.
”Benjamin Perlitz. Why do people do stuff like that?”
Raymond thought for a moment and said, ”Because they have nothing left. Their hearts are broken. I guess Benjamin Perlitz didn't have the guts to jump off the High Level Bridge either.”
”That's not guts, Dr. Terletsky.”
Since he was on the verge of sleeping on his feet, and since the muscles in the front of his neck hurt when he talked, Raymond conceded the point. He stepped toward his home across the street from 10 Garneau and said, ”This one's mine.”
Helen followed him, and moved in close as they pa.s.sed in front of the Perlitz house. ”You can feel the blood in the air, can't you?”
”Well, actually...” Raymond started, but he was interrupted by the sound of his front door opening. s.h.i.+rley Wong stood on the front porch, with a velour housecoat wrapped around the dress she had worn to the Let's Fix It meeting. Raymond waved at her. ”Hi, honey.”
”A new friend already? That didn't take long.”
Helen smiled. ”You must be s.h.i.+rley. When we were still on the bridge he told me about you. I'm Helen Radowitz and I saved his life.”
”You aren't sleeping here, Raymond.”
”It's my house.”
”You aren't sleeping here.”
”The couch?”
Helen took a couple of steps away from Raymond. ”Now I get it,” she said.
”You don't get anything, Helen.” He turned back to s.h.i.+rley. ”Technically, I didn't cheat on you.”
By the time Raymond had finished the word cheat, s.h.i.+rley had already slammed the door.
”That's why you were gonna jump.”
”Yes.” Raymond began considering the cheapest hotels in Old Strathcona when another door opened behind them.
David Weiss called out. ”Professor!”
”h.e.l.lo, David.”
”Abby's making up the spare bed for you, but I don't think she'll be keen on your companion.”
Raymond and Helen started across the street, with Helen taking a wide route around 10 Garneau. ”I'm Helen Radowitz and I saved his life.”
”Thank you, David. I know Abby probably isn't all that thrilled with me.”
”No one is all that thrilled with you. But friends are friends.”
Helen shook her head. ”You see, Dr. Terletsky? You have friends.”
”I guess I do. Thanks very much, David. I'll make this up to you.”
”Just don't bawl all night if you can help it.”
”Can Helen wait inside while we call her a cab?”
”Oh, I don't need a cab.”
”Helen, I insist.”
”It'd be fifteen bucks. Just give me the fifteen bucks and I'll walk.”