Part 22 (2/2)
”Say what? This better not be the part where you tell ot a wife in Quebec”
He shook his head He turned his attention to the wine, trying to shi+mmy the cork out of the bottle with a corkscrew that didn't work any better than a paper clip ”You knoas there, filht? Of course you didn't notice s on your uilty verdict You didn't cry You stood there with your chin up, like you were facing a firing squad, like you were going to ask for a last cigarette and yell Vive la France! And I just sort of”
He thuo up to you, wrapto be okay But of course, it wasn't okay”
I shook my head Definitely not okay
”I've never been able to let the thing go I felt that you hadn't been given a fair shake I got a copy of your trial transcript and went over it word by word, trying to pinpoint rong It's bothered me ever since I used to wonder what it was like for you in prison This is going to sound kind of stalkerazzi, but I once even wrote you a letter You never wrote back”
”I threay most of my mail Too many crazies”
”When I heard you'd escaped froned to the crew that was covering the story”
”Really?” I was starting to soften, but then I reht ”Then ere you so mean?”
”Mean? I saved your skin!”
”You manhandled me, forced me to take a bath, made me think you were a sociopathic killer-”
”Self-defense, baby You scared the hell out of me”
”Oh, please!”
”At that point I was only half-convinced you were innocent And I had to keep le away if I so ht and thrown back behind bars”
He ca atop the bed, I was taller than him for once My emotions were a jumbled mess, my eyes were hot with incipient tears, and my voice cahtwhat just happened between uswas because I was here, conveniently available-”
He put his arainstabout this whole thing has been convenient, Mazie My life has been turned upside down since the day you stoay inso my tears wouldn't drip down my cheeks
”But convenience is very overrated”
For a not-rouy, this was not bad stuff
”Okay, I just handed younice back?”
I wasn't ready to serve up my heart yet Not with my track record So, stall ”Nice Like a cohed ”It's a start”
”Well,” I said ”It's good that you turned out not to be a psycho killer”
He agged his hand ”Might go psycho on Senator Brenner”
I took a deep breath ”And you're an excellent doctor”
”Thank you” He turned es
”Andyou're really sneaky The radon guy thing and the way you snuck me into Vanessa's house? That was impressive, sneakiness-wise”
”Thank you nobody's ever appreciatedhis hands around ed the pilloe'd knocked to the floor and drank the El Cheapo after Ben finally ood as talking to your best girlfriend I told hirowing up in a town on the Canada-Vermont border, about his dad, as a cabinete, and his three sisters, whoseto Ben's spin on it, were tore in Wisconsin on a hockey scholarshi+p and gotten a part-tie television station Eventually this had led to full-time jobs with commercial stations He hadn't wanted to adlected to reapply for his visa extension and was currently a resident alien
The Canadians a us They talk like us They look like us They're undetectable, like radon
”What about that na to punch Magenta in his big fat mouth”
”Come on You know all my secrets”
”It's a family name”
”It could be worse”
”Like what-Mussolini?”
”My real naarita Pretty lauire though That's Irish, right?”
”Uh-huh”
”You Catholic?”
”Not exactly” I explained how I pictured God as Atticus Finch
”Let ht” Labeck rose up on his elbow and leaned over me ”You think God is a dead white ion”
”God is that black woman on the Law and Order reruns The one with the funny name”
”S Epatha Merkerson?” We watched a lot of Law & Order in the can
”That's the one She's tough but fair You can tell she's seen it all She wouldn't be allowing any holocausts to happen, no sir You wouldn't want toS Epatha and Atticus are on our side to ”Any wine left?”
He upended the bottle A couple of drops dribbled out ”Gone” His eyes had changed from Hershey's Kisses brown to dark, decadent chocolate, the kind with 80 percent cocoa He ran a finger from my neck hollow to the valley between my breasts and spoke in tones that sent tre my nerves ”But I'm back”