Part 29 (1/2)

”h.e.l.l of a hunting dog,” Hawk said.

”And she's got no patients to work with,” I said.

”Cept you.”

”And most of what I need you do better than she does.”

”Like getting your sorry a.s.s up and down that hill,” Hawk said.

”Like that.”

”You think you be able to handle all this weakness and pain without her?”

”I hope so.”

”You handle it as well, you think?”

”No.”

”I don't think so either,” Hawk said.

When we got home, the door to our bedroom was closed. I could hear the television blatting inside. I opened the door quietly. One of the indistinguishable ghastly talk shows was on. The room was empty. The door to the master bath was open, and Pearl came out of it and wagged her tail and jumped up and gave me a lap. I went in. Susan was taking a bath. She had moved the shotgun in, and it leaned within reach against the laundry hamper. Pearl lay back down on the rug near the tub. I went to the tub and bent over and kissed Susan.

”Does this mean something good for me?”

”Not right away,” Susan said. ”I got us reservations at Acacia.”

”Should I take a shower?”

”Unless you'd like to make a separate reservation for yourself.” Susan said.

So I did. And Hawk did. And we dressed up with ties and jackets, and Susan put on a dress and some sort of high-laced, high-heeled black boots to subvert the rain, and Pearl got in the car with us, and we drove down to the lower village and parked and left Pearl in the locked car and went in to Acacia.

Acacia is the kind of place that people have in mind when they say they'd like to open a little restaurant somewhere. It's a small building with a patio in front and the look of bleached wood. Inside there are tables up front, a bar along the left wall in the back, and booths opposite the bar. There was a mirror over the bar, and I got a look at myself unexpectedly as we went to our booth. I was walking upright. I didn't limp. I had a hint of a tan from running up the hill in the occasional suns.h.i.+ne. My collar didn't look too big for my neck.

I had fried chicken with cream gravy and mashed potatoes and a gentle Chardonnay from a winery about half a mile down the road. I cut my own food. It was the first time I'd eaten in a restaurant since I'd gone off the bridge.

”For dessert,” Susan said, ”I think I will have something packed with empty calories and covered with chocolate.”

”Good choice,” I said and put my right hand out and covered hers for a moment. She smiled at me.

”Maybe I'll have two,” she said.

She didn't. But she had one huge ice-cream-and-chocolate-cake-and-fudge-sauce thing, which for Susan was an Isadora Duncan-esque act of joyful abandon.

The rains abated in late February. By that time I was beginning to put some right hooks into the heavy bag with enough starch to discourage an opponent. By mid-March I was able to lift the entire stack on the chest press machine at the Y. By the end of March, I was able to shoot right handed and hit something. Hawk had a speed bag up now, bolted to the inside wall of the garage, and I was starting to hit it with some rhythm. Hawk had the big target mitts on and I was starting to put combinations together on them, as Hawk moved around me, holding the target mitts in different positions. All of us, Pearl included, after I'd slogged up the hill each morning, went down to Santa Barbara Harbor and ran along the beach, down near the water where the sand was harder. Pearl peeled off regularly to harry a sea bird, and then caught up to us easily. There were signs that said No Pets, but no one seemed to pay them any mind, except a few beach drifters who were grouchy about Pearl, but n.o.body paid them any mind either. Glowing with sweat, and breathing deeply, we went to the upper village and, except for Pearl who waited in the car, ate late breakfast on the terrace of a little dining room attached to the local pharmacy where movie stars ate. I had fresh orange juice and whole wheat toast and something they called a California Omelet. I drank three cups of coffee. People probably thought I was a movie star.

One morning I ran up the hill.

All the way.

Chapter 40.

WE COT BACK to Boston in the late summer. I weighed 195 pounds, fifteen less than I had when I went into the water, and about what I weighed when I was fighting. But I could walk, and run, and shoot. My right hook was nearly ninety percent, and gaining. I had an impressive beard and my hair was long and slicked back. Hawk was driving.

We got off the Ma.s.s. Turnpike in Newton and cruised in along the last stretch of the Charles River that was navigable before you reached the falls near Watertown Square. The sh.e.l.ls moved back and forth as they had for all the summers I'd looked at it. We cruised past the MDC Rink, and Martignetti's Liquors. In back with Susan, Pearl began to snuffle at the car window on the side near the river. Susan cracked the window slightly and Pearl snuffled harder.

”I think she knows she's home,” Susan said.

”Smart,” I said. ”Who knows I'm alive.”

”Me and Susan,” Hawk said. ”Quirk, Belson, Farrell, Vinnie, Paul Giacomon, Henry, Dr. Marinaro.”

”And Rita Fiore,” Susan said.

”Why Rita?”

”She sold the Concord house for me,” Susan said. ”You were presumed dead.”

”Sold?”

”Where do you think we got the money to spend ten months in California with none of us working?” Susan said. ”Rita arranged, or had someone from her firm arrange, to sell the Concord house in my absence. I was sure we could trust her, and she was quite upset when she thought you were gone.”

”Did we make a profit?”

”Yes. We cashed in all that sweat equity,” Susan said.

”I never thought about money,” I said.

”You had other things to think about,” Susan said. ”Rita sold it and wire transferred the money to a bank in Santa Barbara where I had opened an account.”

”I was a kept man for all this time?”

”Un huh.”

”Me too,” Hawk said.

”Yeah,” I said. ”But you're used to it.”

”I deserve it,” Hawk said.

”I feel like a jerk. I never thought about the money.”

”Well, you probably are a jerk,” Susan said. ”But you're the jerk of my dreams, and whether you deserved it or not, you needed it.”