The garden of dead thoughts

by Natasha A. Salnikova

  Frank was smiling. Of course, he didn’t disappoint her. He would have had less chance if she had met him before her first marriage, but now she was vulnerable and needed support. He got her at the right time. Everything was always done on time. Wasn’t it?

  “The same with me,” he said. “I devoted myself to work so I could cope. You know? And then I met you. I think if my wife could see me now, she would approve of my choice.”

  “You think?” Margo kissed Frank on the cheek. “Do you think the dead are watching us?”

  Frank really hoped it wasn’t true and as a skeptic he believed it wasn’t. It was just dumb to think that. People died and that was it, the end of a movie, the curtain was down.

  “I think they are always with us,” he said. “I talk to my wife every night.”

  “Do you miss her?” Margo asked.

  Frank pricked up his ears. It was a sneaky question. If he said yes then there was a possibility he would never forget her. If he said no, then who was he? An insensible jerk?

  “She’s like a sweet memory, which makes you feel warm inside, but life goes on. We are here. God sent us to this land for some reason and I think it’s because we should try to be happy until he calls us back. I want to be happy.”

  “You said the right thing. I agree with you.”

  He felt that Margo relaxed and mentally sighed with relief. He really was a smart son of a bitch.

  They talked for a few minutes before Margo hinted politely that she had to get up early in the morning.

  “I forgot! I have an early meeting as well!” Frank suddenly remembered. He jumped out of bed and put on the remaining items of his clothing, kissed Margo on the lips, and returned to the living room, where he had dropped his bag on the floor. Margo followed him. “Work, work, it’s always with me,” he told her.

  He had sleeping pills and gloves in his bag. He wasn’t one hundred percent sure he wanted to use these things, but he wanted to be ready for action if his date didn’t go the way it was supposed to go. He would not go home empty-handed, that he decided one hundred percent. There were too many disappointments lately, too much wasted time and money. Fortunately for this woman, she behaved to his liking and most important—she wasn’t a man.

  “Yes,” Margo said. “It’s always good to work. Especially when two people work in a family. You can afford so much more, a better lifestyle.”

  Frank froze for a moment. What was that? A hint? After glancing into the bag again, he closed it and went to Margo.

  “I can’t wait to see you again!” he said as he leaned over to the beauty and gave her a kiss she couldn’t possibly forget.

  “Me too.”

  Margo led Frank to the door, where they kissed once again.

  Everything turned out to be so easy that he couldn’t believe it. She didn’t want to let him go. Frank was sure it was because she was still suffering from the loss of her husband and was vulnerable. He also thought he probably reminded her of her first husband. He didn’t see any photos of them together, but she mentioned it somewhere in the conversation. The combination of all this brought them to this result. Whatever it was, Frank knew that she was in his hip pocket. He didn’t care if she compared him to an elephant. He didn’t care about anything. He had a goal and he was on the right path to reach it.

  CHAPTER 8

  Frank didn’t beat around the bush and proclaimed his love to Margo after three more dates. He told her that when you knew—you knew. She told him that she loved him too and he saw it in her eyes, in her behavior. She did fall for him.

  He took out boxes of jewelry that he had collected from his lovers over the years and hadn’t had time to sell or just didn’t see the need quite yet, and chose a bracelet with diamonds, which he gave Margo after his declaration of love, to support his claim. Then he gave her diamond earrings. He took these items for a reason, for his gain, but now he considered giving the jewelry to her as a good investment, so to speak and he did plan to collect dividends.

  Of course, Margo couldn’t not fall in love with him and she believed his words, in spite of being smart and undoubtedly beautiful. He knew how to play her like a brilliant musician played a piano. In her heart, she was an ordinary woman who was avid for words. What did the smart ones say? Ladies loved with their ears? For them it would be better to have brains, although for him it would be a losing option. He deliberately set up their relationship to create an atmosphere of light hunger, but the main thing for him was to not spend too much time together. When people were together too much, they had to speak. What should he say? It was tiring to create stories or discuss the shapes of clouds all the time. There was nothing to talk about, and he might blurt out something he didn’t mean to express. Did he need these problems? That was why he told her he was going to a business meeting or on a business trip, and spent time on his boat or in stores, where he continued to meet women. Just in case. Margo was his number one stake, but he wasn’t going to put all eggs in one basket.

  Margo, unlike him, worked a lot. Or he should say that she worked a lot too. That was good, he liked hardworking women. They were the best and this one was the best of the best. Her income was enough to keep the big house and buy expensive stuff like clothing and shoes. He had no idea how much she earned yet even though he tried to find out about it on the Internet. There was no info about her and later she told him that she did anything to avoid the craziness of social networks and to stay away from prying eyes. Her business wasn’t anyone else’s business. He liked that, but tried to estimate his possible win. Besides her earnings from her business she had to have gotten something from her deceased husband. That something could also flow into Frank’s pockets after he married her. She was a good option in many ways, but she wasn’t Tiffany or Dolores. It wasn’t easy with her, but he couldn’t let her go. Who would refuse a luxurious sports car if they could get it for free, in addition to a sum of money on top of that.

  They had sex almost every morning and she didn’t irritate him, he wanted her even more. He could have done it twice in the morning, but each time she got up and went to the shower. After that she didn’t look like she wanted to undress again and dive into bed. She often hinted that it was time to work.

  It was the same this morning. Margo threw a robe over her shoulders to go to the shower. She had never gone around the house naked. Frank wanted to go outside and opened the door leading from the bedroom to the pool. His foot landed on something nasty and when he looked down, he saw a cigarette butt. Margo didn’t smoke, as far as he knew.

  “Someone left a cigarette butt near the door,” he said, turning to Margo, who was already holding the bathroom door handle.

  “Oh, that?” she said indifferently. She said it too indifferently and stretched, pausing before saying the rest. “The pool boy came yesterday and probably dropped it, bastard.”

  Frank didn’t say anything, although the thoughts in his head took a new turn and spun with mad speed, despite the morning hour and lack of coffee in his body.

  “The pool boy, you say,” he muttered, bypassing the pool and stopping at the metal fence that was protecting any clumsy individual from a possible fall into the canal. The water in the canal was high and dark. Leaves of trees, rotten coconuts, and rare trash slowly passed by. The yacht at the house across the canal pompously rose over the water.

  “Right.”

  He didn’t believe Margo’s explanation. Her reaction was too indifferent to be real, her stretching looked like she was thinking over the answer. But if he accepted the fact that she lied to him then he had to admit she had cheated on him, but this couldn’t be true. Why would she?

  So she was telling the truth?

  She could actually be telling the truth about the pool boy, but he didn’t ask why the cigarette butt was right at the bedroom door. These pool boys were young most of the time. Could he seduce her or try to seduce her? Anything was possible. That meant he needed to move faster.

  “That’s it. How?”


  He decided that today he would devote his time to planning his next steps and it calmed him down. He returned to the house with this thought and in a good mood.

  Margo sat at the table with a glass of juice, and her assistant, who always came early, was standing with her back to Frank and collecting something on the table. Her name was Daisy and she had a sweet ass, although otherwise she was a plain Jane. Frank wouldn’t have any problem with her if he went for her instead of her boss, except that she had nothing besides her ass. Maybe he would fuck her in the future. She was friendly and would let him do it out of politeness.

  “Oh, hello, Daisy!” he greeted.

  “Morning, Michael,” she answered. Friendly and polite, as always.

  Frank opened the fridge and saw a pack of strawberry yogurt there. He mentioned it when Margo gave Daisy a list of groceries. He hoped that the assistant heard him even though his beautiful girl missed the hint.

  “Thank you, Daisy!” he said.

  “You mentioned it last time and I ...”

  “Go change the bedding,” Margo interrupted.

  “But I …” Daisy said hesitantly as she turned a bottle of Chardonnay in her hand. “Sylvia’s coming today.”

  “Are you saying this is not your job? It’s okay. Just tell me.”

  Frank stopped with a pack of yogurt in his hand, looking from the boss to the assistant and back. It was interesting.

  “Do you want me to finish with the groceries?” Daisy asked.

  “Of course. Michael, dear, let’s go outside. I don’t want to be in her way.”

  “Yes, of course, darling,” Frank said obediently.

  Margo went to the door that led to the pool and Frank followed her. He grabbed a spoon on his way and patted Daisy on her arm, smiling sympathetically. No, he couldn’t fuck her now, but no one could foresee the future. Different people could gain different purposes and come in handy.

  “It’s all right,” she whispered.

  Frank nodded. Margo already went outside and when he did the same, he found her sitting in the hammock and smiling, as if nothing had happened. Maybe nothing happened for her, but for him it was an interesting observation. First, he found a cigarette butt near the door of the bedroom and now he’d seen a side of Margo he hadn’t experienced yet. Stinging, rude, and negative. Maybe she hadn’t had her coffee yet?

  Frank forgot about the situation as soon as he joined Margo in the hammock. He forgot about his yogurt too. His girlfriend didn’t have time to put on anything under her robe and she didn’t want Frank to miss it.

  CHAPTER 9

  Frank left Margo’s house, but didn’t hurry to get back to the boat. He traveled around the neighborhood towns, from Miami to Palm Beach, thinking about ways he could change the situation quickly and with confidence. He dined at Aventura Mall, drank coffee in Weston where he had never been before, and went to Hollywood for dinner, where he ate a sandwich at Chocolada Cafe on Hollywood Boulevard. When Frank went to Fort Lauderdale, he decided it was time to move into Margo’s house. The reason for this move would be his ex-girlfriend, a crazy bitch who didn’t want to let him go. Margo would ask why he didn’t tell her about this bitch and he would say that he was ashamed he had actually dated her. Of course there was an explanation for that. When he met this woman, he was like a wounded bird because of the untimely death of his wife. He had no clue what he was doing. Now she kept coming to his house and he didn’t know how to get rid of her. He could involve the police, but he felt responsibility because he gave her hope. Frank was proud of his story and thought it would work. If not, he would come up with something else and this crazy ex-girlfriend story would come in handy some other time.

  The place where he kept his boat was near a street of expensive upper and middle class houses. Frank noticed lately that there were fewer and fewer cars there and more and more houses had dark windows at night. Most rich people had a couple or more houses in different places and didn’t stay in hot Florida during holidays or summer. They had second and third homes in the mountains of Colorado or in the forests of Virginia, some even invested in real estate in Europe. He also thought about buying a house in another country. He had to have a safe place, but before he could move on with that idea, he had to refill his bank account. Maybe he would open one in a Swiss bank as he heard they were the best. Frank loved to imagine his future and it was all rainbows and pots of gold.

  When Frank went back to the boat it was already dark and there were only three houses on the street that had lights in the windows and cars in the driveways.

  Frank parked the car in his spot and headed to the boat without seeing anyone. There were two boats parked near him at the Marina, but he had never seen the owners. He was the only one in this area who lived on the boat and it was perfect. It didn’t mean that he didn’t want to move onto land or wouldn’t do that. In order to keep Margo and her money all to himself he had to be around her.

  Frank took a shower and went to bed. He woke up soon after he fell asleep to the sounds of sirens howling and people screaming. Frank didn’t understand what was happening or where he was. When he was finally able to think, he looked at his watch and saw that it was two minutes past midnight, and then he smelled smoke.

  Frank pulled on his pants and T-shirt with lightning speed, flew to the street, and saw a red glow coloring the sky as well as a bunch of fire trucks.

  One of the houses on the street was on fire.

  Frank jumped from the boat to land and hurried to the site of the fire, joining the crowd that gathered there already. People probably were driving on the main street and turned here after noticing the haze. The firefighters divided into two groups: one was extinguishing the house and the other restraining people from approaching. Frank thought that no one would come too close to the blazing fire anyway unless they wanted to commit suicide.

  “How did it happen?” he asked.

  “Who knows?” a strange man answered him. “It’s terrible, isn’t it? Fortunately no one was home. They left for the weekend.”

  Frank shook his head and when the man turned away, went back to the boat. He was smiling from ear to ear and almost jumping with joy. As soon as he climbed back on the boat, he took off his T-shirt, threw it on the floor, and stomped over it. He ran his hands along the dusty surface of the table, which he hadn’t cleaned since he bought the boat, then touched his face and mussed his hair. He jumped, did a couple of push-ups, and crouched several times, so that the smell of cleanliness and soap would disappear, and then he got into the car and rang Margo.

  She didn’t answer the first time and he dialed her number a second time. When he was about to redial again, she called back herself. Her voice was hoarse and the words were indistinct.

  “Yes Dear.”

  “Oh, Margaret! I’m so glad you answered!” Frank exclaimed. He was so excited that he almost swerved into the opposite lane. He hadn’t been so excited by his own intelligence in a long time.

  “What? What happened?”

  “You have no idea! Fire! I had fire in my house!”

  “No way! How did it happen? Are you okay?”

  There was genuine concern in her voice.

  Frank drove past a Starbucks that was open twenty-four hours a day, and made a U-turn to go back to it. He wanted coffee like mad. He wanted it strong and sweet. Champagne would suit the situation better, but the smell of alcohol wouldn’t help his story.

  “I don’t know! There will be an investigation.” He turned to the cafe square and parked.

  “How are you? Are you okay?” Margo asked.

  “I’m in the hospital now.”

  “Hospital? Is it serious? What happened to you? Why didn’t you call me earlier?”

  “I didn’t mean to scare you, but everything is over now.”

  “Why are you in the hospital?”

  “I burnt my arm a little when I tried to find my cat, but it’s not a big deal. Except for the house. And my cat.” Frank looked at his left hand
and thought the idea about the burn wasn’t as smart as the rest.

  “What cat?”

  Women loved cats, Frank knew that. Cats, dogs, it didn’t matter. Every guy with an animal looked better in their eyes.

  “I couldn’t save her.”

  Frank made a few sobs that could pass for crying.

  “I’m so sorry, darling.” Margo almost cried herself. She really felt bad for him. She was just a typical woman. Cats, babies, all that crap moved her.

  “Everything is gone!” He breathed out. He wanted to make sure that she didn’t hold illusions and understood everything that was happening.

  Margo didn’t answer.

  “You know I’m alone, I have no one. I lost all my friends after my wife died. You’re the only one I could call.”

  Margo said nothing this time either, and Frank paused in a shockwave of fear. Did he overplay?

  “My poor Phoebe. My poor kitty.” He used a trump card again.

  Silence. He heard only her quiet breathing and another sound. Did she swallow something? She probably drank water.

  “I’m glad I left my wallet in the car. I can go to the bank, withdraw money, and get a room in a hotel.” Frank continued without losing hope. “I’ll stay in a hotel until the insurance company checks everything and pays me.”

  “It’s good you insured the house,” Margo said quietly and Frank sighed. Some women fell for cats, some for insurance.

  “Of course! It’s a five-million dollar property! I had to!” Frank exclaimed. If she loved money, this should work, there was nothing to lose. He felt his pockets and found that he had forgotten his wallet. There were a few crumpled bills in the cup holder fortunately.

  “All right, dear, you go to bed. Sorry for waking you up. I’ll call Uber now and find a hotel.”

  “Honey, what are you talking about?” Margo said passionately. “I’ll be right there to pick you up. It’s not a good idea to go to some hotel after what you’ve been through.”