Part 19 (1/2)

When the last wall was studded we leaned it against its end of the foundation and went and got two beers and sat down on the steps of the old cabin to drink them. The clearing smelled strongly of sawdust and fresh lumber, with a quieter sense of the lake and the forest lurking behind the big smells.

Paul sipped at his beer. Some starlings hopped in the clearing near the new foundation. Two squirrels spiraled up the trunk of a tree, one chasing the other. The distance between them remained the same as if one didn't want to get away and the other didn't want to catch it.

”'Ever will thou love and she be fair,'” I said.

”What?”

I shook my head. ”It's a line from Keats. Those two squirrels made me think of it.”

”What two squirrels?”

”Never mind. It's pointless if you didn't see the squirrels.”

I finished my beer. Paul got me another one. He didn't get one for himself. He still sipped at his first can. The starlings found nothing but sawdust by the foundation. They flew away. Some mourning doves came and sat on the tree limb just above the speed bag. Something plopped in the lake. There was a locust hum like background music.

”What's going to happen?” Paul said.

”I don't know,” I said.

”Can they make me come back?”

”They can try.”

”Could you get in trouble?”

”I have refused to give a fifteen-year-old boy back to his mother and father. There are people who would call that kidnapping.”

”I'm almost sixteen.”

I nodded.

”I want to stay with you,” he said.

I nodded again.

”Can I?” he said.

”Yes,” I said. I got up from the steps and walked down toward the lake. The wind had died as the sun settled and the lake was nearly motionless. In the middle of it the loon made his noise again.

I gestured toward him with my beer can.

”Right on, brother,” I said to the loon.

CHAPTER 23.

”Well, Father Flanagan,” Susan said when she opened her door. ”Where's the little tyke?”

”He's with Henry Cimoli,” I said. ”I need to talk.”

”Oh, really. I thought perhaps you'd been celibate too long and stopped by to get your ashes hauled.”

I shook my head. ”Knock off the bulls.h.i.+t, Suze. I got to talk.”

”Well, that's what's important, isn't it,” she said, and stepped away from the door. ”Coffee?” she said. ”A drink? A quick feel? I know how busy you are. I don't want to keep you.”

”Coffee,” I said, and sat at her kitchen table by the bay window and looked out at her yard. Susan put the water on. It was Sat.u.r.day. She was wearing faded jeans and a plaid s.h.i.+rt and no socks and Top-Siders.

”I have some cinnamon doughnuts,” she said. ”Do you want some?”

”Yes.”

She put a blue-figured plate out and took four cinnamon doughnuts out of the box and put them on the plate. Then she put instant coffee into two blue-figured mugs and added boiling water. She put one cup in front of me and sat down across the table from me and sipped from the other cup.

”You always drink it too soon,” I said. ”Instant coffee's better if it sits a minute.”

She broke a doughnut in half and took a bite of one half. ”Go ahead,” she said, ”talk.”

I told her about Paul and his mother. ”The kid's making real progress,” I said. ”I couldn't let her take him.”

Susan shook her head slowly. Her mouth was clamped into thin disapproval.

”What a mess,” she said.

”Agreed.”

”Are you ready to be a father?”

”No.”

”And where does this leave us?” she said.

”Same place we've always been.”

”Oh? Last time we went out to dinner it was a fun threesome.”

”It wouldn't be that way all the time.”

”Really? Who would guard him when we were being a twosome? Do you plan to employ Hawk as a baby-sitter?”

I ate a doughnut. I drank some coffee. ”I don't know,” I said.

”Wonderful,” Susan said. ”That's really wonderful. So what do I do while you're playing Captains Courageous? Should I maybe join a bridge club? Take dancing lessons? Thumb through The Total Woman?”

”I don't know. I don't know what you should do, or I should do. I know only what I won't do. I won't turn the kid back to them and let them play marital Ping-Pong with him some more. That's what I know. The rest has to be figured out. That's what I wanted to talk with you about.”

”Oh, lucky me,” Susan said.