“Maybe you should consider yourself lucky,” Daniel said. “I know I do.”
It was early Tuesday evening, thirty-odd hours since I’d agreed to help Carla hide out from Vince Ryan. Daniel had agreed, readily but without any great enthusiasm, to let her use his house in Halfmoon Bay. But she still hadn’t shown up.
“I really shouldn’t care,” I said. “If Vince Ryan wants to lock her in a cellar and feed her cold Kraft dinner once a day, let him. She probably deserves it. But…” I shrugged.
“You do care.”
“Stupid, huh?”
“Not stupid,” Daniel said. “Unwise.”
“I try to tell myself it’s not personal,” I said. “That I care about her the way I care that there are too many homeless people on the streets, too many teenage whores, too many drunk drivers, too much violence on television, and that you can’t buy a decent bottle of wine for under ten bucks anymore. But it doesn’t work.”
“Of course not.”
“Fuck it,” I said.
“That’s a little bitter, Thomas,” he said.
“I think I’ve earned the right to be a little bitter, after what she did.”
“What did she do? She screwed you silly for six months then swiped a few trinkets.”
“Have a little sympathy, please,” I said. “She broke my heart.”
“Think of it as a learning experience. You haven’t suffered any permanent damage, have you?”
“No,” I conceded. “Except for slightly elevated insurance rates. A Hasselblad and a Macintosh laptop are hardly trinkets.”
“While she isn’t exactly my type,” he said, “many men might think it was worth it.”
“Well…”
Hilly was off somewhere. Daniel and I were sitting on his roof deck amid a forest of potted trees and shrubs and ferns and flowering vines. All that was missing was the sound of jungle birds.
Daniel stood up. “Do you want another?” he asked, indicating my drink.
“Gee, I dunno. Two club sodas is about my limit. Oh, what the heck. Why not?” I handed him my glass. Daniel didn’t keep anything stronger than tea in the house. He went to the little mobile bar parked under the awning at the rear of the deck.
“Has it occurred to you that she might have been less than truthful with you?” he said as he fussed with ice and lime twists.
“She does have a tendency to, ah, dissemble,” I said.
“Dissemble,” he said. He shook his head, refusing the challenge. “Not today, Thomas.” He handed me my drink.
“Two lime twists,” I said. “I can barely control my excitement.”
“Oh, shut up.” He returned to his seat. “So you think that she stole something from her employer-cum-boyfriend and came to you because she needs a place to hide out till the heat’s off, so to speak.”
“I’d say it was a safe bet.” Nor had she actually denied it in so many words.
“Why did you agree to help her then?”
“Because she might be telling the truth.”
“And you’re still a little in love with her.”
I saluted him with my drink. “Unwise, huh?”
“No,” he said. “Stupid.”
“Thank you.”
“How are things going between you and Hilly?” he asked, changing the subject.
“Oh, you know,” I said with a shrug.
“Actually, I don’t.”
“I’m beginning to wonder if I made a mistake, agreeing to take her for the whole summer. She tries hard, but it’s pretty obvious she’s bored out of her mind at the studio. There isn’t a whole lot to do, especially when we get busy, which isn’t often enough lately, but does happen occasionally. The community centre has a day camp program, she could meet kids her own age, but when I suggested it she that those places were for geeks and dweebs. I never knew there was a difference. We got into a bit of a row over it this morning.”
“Give her some slack, Thomas. She’s a good kid.”
“She’s a great kid,” I agreed.
“She needs some time to adjust,” Daniel said. “She’s likely just homesick. She misses her friends, her own room, her things, her mother. Don’t take it too seriously if when she’s upset she tells you she wants to go home.”
“I worry about her,” I admitted. “She did something during our row this morning that she’s never done before, at least with me. She turned off her hearing aids.”
“Did you never stick your fingers in your ears when you were a kid?” Daniel asked. Of course I had. “Just give her a chance,” Daniel said. “Yourself as well.”
“Yeah, but it ain’t easy. It doesn’t help that I’ve missed so much of her life. Damned near half. It’s like having a stranger in my house.” I drained my glass of club soda, chewed on a sliver a lime. “Have you heard the music she listens to? It sounds like the inmates of a lunatic asylum destroying musical instruments with hockey sticks. Groups with names like Tossed Cookies, Toe Jam and On the Rag. And that bloody ferret. It’s cute as hell, but it gets into everything. The other day I left my sock drawer open and it ripped up a whole box of condoms.”
“You keep condoms in your sock drawer.”
“Of course. Where else?”
He shrugged. “I suppose it serves you right for leaving your sock drawer open.”
“And it smells.”
“Your sock drawer?”
“The ferret, damnit. A little like a skunk.”
“Maybe you could leave the cage out on your deck, under the awning.”
“I thought of that, but Hilly would have a fit.”
“Ah, parenthood,” he said. “I’m grateful I was spared the experience. Most of the time I am, anyway.”
“You mean sometimes you aren’t?”
“Not too often, but, yes, I sometimes regret not having children. Today it’s possible for same-sex couples to adopt.” He shuddered. “God, I hate that expression. But when I was younger homosexuality was still illegal in many places, which made it difficult to have a family. Ah, at the risk of opening a rather nasty can of worms, the police busted some kids dealing dope around the market. Have you talked to Hilly about drugs?”
“Yes. Some. I don’t think I have too much to worry about in that department. She’s a pretty sensible kid. But who knows?”
“How about sex?”
“Christ, Daniel, she’s only twelve.”
“Age isn’t relevant, physical and emotional development is. And she’s starting to develop physically, or hadn’t you noticed.”
I admitted I had. “The last thing I need is to have to talk to Hilly about the birds and the bees,” I said.
“I’d offer my services,” Daniel said, “but – ” He shrugged. “Speaking of parenting, I spoke to your father briefly on the weekend. How is your mother?”
“Hasn’t changed,” I said.
“I wouldn’t wait,” he said. “Your father seemed somewhat down in the dumps.”
“Hilly thinks they’re getting a divorce. She told me they’re acting just like Linda and I did before our divorce.”
“Unfortunately it happens,” Daniel said.
“If they do,” I said, “my sister will go absolutely ballistic.” I pitched my voice an octave higher. “‘Tom, my god, this is awful. We can’t let them do this. There must be something we can do.’ Mary-Alice is pathologically incapable of minding her own business.”
“How do you feel about it?”
“I’m not sure,” I said. “What are your views on astrology?”
“Pardon me?”
“Astrology. Y’know, birth signs, zodiacs?
“I had a Zodiac once, but it sank.”
“Not that kind of zodiac. The Age of Aquarius kind of zodiac.”
“Yes, of course. Personally, I don’t have much use for it. Why do you ask?”
“Did you know that Maggie Urquhart was studying to become an astrologer?”
“No, I didn’t.”
“She came over for lunch on Sunday to meet Hilly. My father could barely contain himself. He was actually charming. It was embarrassing.”
“Embarrassing? Why were you embarrassed, Thomas?”
“He was making a fool of himself.”
“And you’ve never made a fool of yourself over a woman.”
“Of course I have. But it’s not the same thing. He’s my father and he’s being disloyal to my mother.” I sighed heavily. “I guess we always tend to relate to our parents as if we were still children. It’s difficult, maybe even impossible, to see them as ordinary people.”
“Try, Thomas.”
I looked at my watch and stood up. It was five-thirty and I was supposed to be at Susan’s at six. “You’re sure you don’t mind looking after Hilly? I shouldn’t be late.”
“No, of course not,” he said. He walked me downstairs.
At the front door I said, “If Carla shows up, would you mind entertaining her until I get back?”
“Not at all. It will give me an opportunity to practice my sleight of hand. By the way, is Susan thinking about moving out of her condo?”
“Not to my knowledge,” I said. “Why?”
“It may be nothing,” he said, “but I ran into her the other day in front of the Island Realty office. She was looking through listings of bungalows.”