Chapter twenty-eight

It was a long weekend. Saturday I lay upstairs in bed. Sometimes she came and sat with me. Sometimes, she sat downstairs. I could hear their voices, but not what they said. I had dizzy spells whenever I tried to stand. I didn’t sleep most of the night. I lay awake, listening intently to the silence of the house.

On Sunday I came downstairs and sat in the living room a while. I told Yardley what had happened between me and Marvin Campbell. Yardley listened with a cigarette stuck in his mouth. The smoke rose and veiled his granite face, and his eyes squinted through the smoke. Now and then he plucked the filter from his lips: like pulling the drain from the tub; I half expected the smoke to swirl away into his mouth like water. Now and then he’d ask me to repeat myself, and his finger would lay against the side of his jaw and his eyes would close and he’d listen. When I finished telling it, he was quiet for a long time. I excused myself. I went to the bathroom and was sick. Susannah came and stood in the doorway while I knelt by the toilet.

“Get out,” I told her.

She went back to the living room.

It was a long weekend.

When Monday came, I lay in bed until I heard Yardley’s Chevy drive away. Then I got up gingerly. I felt better. My head felt smaller. I was hungry. I dressed and went downstairs.

Susannah gave me coffee and eggs and toast. I ate it all. She sat and watched me with her hands folded on the kitchen table in front of her. The morning sun was shooting in through the window over the sink. It made her red hair glow. I finished my coffee and set the empty mug down with a thud. She reached out and put her hand on mine. I stared at it. After a moment, I stood up.

“Well,” I said. “See you.”

She smiled.

I went to see Nathan Jersey.