“Sure, go ahead.”
I heard her pick up the call in the hallway. “Oh, good,” she said. “That’ll be great. Yeah. No, no, everything is fine. I’m fine. I was dusting the house. Some dust in my throat. It’s fine. Everything is just fine. I’ll see you tonight. What? Oh, uh. Meatloaf. Yeah. Whatever you want. Yeah. I can make that too. Sure. Sure. No. I think there’s another carton of cookie dough ice cream in the freezer. Right. I’ll see you when you get home.”
For a few minutes there is no sound at all then I hear her footsteps come back to the living room.
“That was Mike,” she said.
I smiled politely.
“I love Mike.”
I didn’t know what to say. I nodded. “I know.”
“He’s a good man. He stood by me. I can trust him. You should leave now.”
“Roger had a message for you.”
Her mouth dropped open. “A message? For me?”
“Yeah, he died in my arms. You were the last thing on his mind.”
Her legs just gave way and she collapsed to the floor. I rushed to help her to the sofa. “Shall I get you a glass of water?”
“No, get me that bottle of whiskey over there.”
I walked up to the little tray, picked up the bottle of whiskey, and turned to her. “Where are the glasses?”
“Just bring the bottle,” she said harshly.
I gave her the bottle and she swigged from it like a sailor. She must have drunk a quarter of the bottle’s contents. Then she closed her eyes. When she opened them they were different. “What’s the message?”
“He wanted you to know he loved you. There was no one else for him. Ever.”
She blinked very quickly. “Then why did he leave me?”
“He wanted to protect you. He knew he would leave you a widow. He didn’t want that for you.”
She began to cry then. Softly then harder and harder. “That was not his decision to make. I’ve lost everything. He broke my heart, Kit. He broke my heart.”
“It was the job, Marla. It broke us all.”
“You know what he used to say?”
“What?”
“He used to say there would be no more wars if politicians had to send their sons to fight.”
“Yeah, and how right he was.”
She swallowed and stood up. “Thank you for coming here.”
“No problem.” I turned to leave. “Look, I can see myself out.”
“Kit?”
“Yeah?”
“You remember that time we all went up to the mountain?”
I smiled sadly at the memory. It was the last time we were all together. “Yeah, sure.”
“We got married, you know? We exchanged rings under the moonlight and he swore to me that he would never love anybody else.”
“He kept his promise, Marla.”
“So did I,” she whispered, so softly I almost didn’t hear.
Fifty
Lara
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jorJh8DTMVM
“Who all is out there, then?” I asked.
Elaine walked to the door and opening it a crack, peeked out into the church interior. We were in the small room built to the side of the Church. It was really a sort of storeroom, but the minister had allowed us to use it for this occasion.
“Well?’ I prompted nervously.
Elaine shut the door and came back to stand in front of me. Her voice trembled slightly. “Are you sure you want to know?”
“You mean no one came?” I whispered shocked and sad, even while another part of me rebelled. So what if the townspeople did not turn up for my wedding. I didn’t care. They and their high and mighty, self-righteous sensibilities could go to hell. I was getting married today to the man of my dreams. Nothing, and no one, was going to spoil that for me.
Elaine took my hand in both of hers. “No one came? The church is packed to the rafters, Lara.”
“What?”
“I’ve never seen anything like it. Everyone has come to see you get married. Heck even Rhett Haverbooke. He brought his wife and all six of his brats. Snooty cow Kayleigh looks like she’s chewing on a handful of hornets, but she’s out there in her Sunday best too.”
“Really?” I gasped.
“And guess who else is there? Loopy Luther. Sitting in the front row.”
“Marybeth Luther came to witness me marrying the heathen?”
“Yup. Clutching her rosary and praying for your salvation, no doubt.”
I was suddenly nervous. A host of butterflies were fluttering madly in my stomach. “Did you see Kit?”
“You can’t exactly miss him. He’s bigger than everybody else.”
“What’s he doing?”
“He turned around and saw me, so I’d say he’s waiting impatiently for you.”
I smiled. “How do I look?”
“Like a woman who’s marrying a heathen,” she chirped.
“Are you thinking the red dress is too much now?”
“No, way. I think it’s perfect.” She touched the little flowers in my hair. “You look bewitching in it, like some kind of forest siren that lures men onto their bloody deaths.”
“Elaine?”
“Just kidding. You are the most radiant bride I’ve ever set eyes on. Hell, I’d marry you myself of Kit wasn’t so big and fierce.”
I giggled. “You’re mad.”
“Are you ready?”
I nod.
“Shall I go get my father?”
“Yeah.”
She went out and I stood in the stillness of the room alone. I took a deep, calming breath and the strangest thing happened. I thought my Ma was in the room with me. The sensation was so strong, I called out. “Ma.”
There was no reply, but something that felt like a feather landed on my shoulder.
I didn’t move a muscle.
“Ma,” I called again. Again, the feather light touch on my hand this time, and suddenly, I understood. My mother had reached out from heaven to bless me on my wedding day. Tears of awe and love filled my eyes, and ran down my face.
“I love you, Ma,” I whispered.
Then the door burst open and Elaine came in with her father.
“My goodness me,” she exclaimed. “Don’t you dare start crying. You’re ruining all my good work.”
“Stop bullying the poor child,” her father scolded. “She can cry on her own wedding day if she wants to.”
“Pa, how many times does Ma have to tell you? Stay out of women’s business,” she said, and began to dab at my face.
I grasped her hand. “My ma was here, Elaine. I felt her.”
She became still. “Oh, Lara. What a beautiful thing to happen on your wedding day?”
“It was. It was the most peaceful and beautiful thing that has ever happened to me.”
“What did it feel like?”
“It was just a feather light touch and the sensation that she was in the room with me.” I paused. “She was happy for me, Elaine. Very happy.” More tears flowed from my eyes.
“I’m so glad for you, Lara, but now, you’ve got to stop the waterworks, or all my hard graft will be for nothing.”
I was still trembling while she repaired what I had ruined. Then, she thrust my bouquet into my hand and guided me towards her dad’s arm. I laid my hand on it, and he led me out into the church where my beautiful future waited with open arms.
Epilogue
Kit
Three months later
The waves roared, one after the other, constant motion that created the most soothing sound I had ever heard. I dug my toes into the sand and watched as a pretty woman in a bikini walked by. Then I looked again to my right, to the incomparably beautiful woman in a sleek one-piece suit, her hair cascading down her shoulders, her eyes closed, her toes pushed into the sand, and her head tilted back to catch the sun’s rays and the soft breezes.
As we listened to the waves roll in, I described the scene around us: the l
adies in their bikinis, the colorful towels spread on the sand, the surfers trying to catch a wave and doing a shit job of it. It was not weather for surfing. I told her about the kids and the sandcastles they were building down the beach. I told her the sky was so blue it looked almost unreal, so clear that if I stared at it too long, I would get dizzy.
Condensation ran down the ice bucket in little rivulets of cold. I ran my fingers through it and then touched Lara’s thigh. She jumped and laughed at me. “Stop being so evil.”
I leaned in and kissed her. “Wanna beer?”
“Yeah,” she said.
I opened it up with a delicious hiss and handed the ice-cold bottle to her. I opened up my own and looked over at her. She raised her beer in the air and tilted it toward me.
Her wedding band flashed in the light. “To Roger,” she said.
“To Roger.”
“I wish I had met him.”
“He would have loved you. Maybe too much. I might have got jealous.”
I watched as she took one long pull of the beer. Then she casually handed her almost-full bottle to me. “That was delicious.”
I was puzzled. “Just one sip?”
Lara smiled and leaned back on her chair. “As soon as I have this baby, you can bring me an ice-cold beer at the maternity ward, and I promise I’ll drink the whole thing.”
I sat straight up, my heart pounding. “What did you just say?”
“You heard me,” she said smugly.
I stared at my wife. She leaned her head back and smiled up at the sun. The news hit me in the gut and gave me the strangest feeling, a warmth that was entirely different from anything else I had ever experienced. I reached over to take her hand. “You’re sure?”
She nodded and pulled my hand up to kiss my fingers. “And I was thinking … if it’s a boy, we can name him Roger.”
Tears stung my eyes. This woman had brought everything I ever dreamed of into my life, and now she was giving me even more. I looked at her flat belly, thinking about how wonderful it would be to see it grow.
“I love you,” I said against her hand.
“I love you too,” she replied, and we sat together in our little cocoon of happiness, with our little secret deep in her belly, and somewhere, my old friend Roger was laughing, and sipping a beer in our honor.
Lara
Six months later
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Id_UYLPSn6U
“Hey. How’s it going in Cloneland?” I asked as soon as I heard Elaine’s voice on the phone.
Cloneland was Elaine’s nickname for Hollywood. When she first arrived there she was stunned by how uniformly beautiful, blonde and tanned all the women were.
“It’s shocking how white everyone’s teeth are,” she whispered the first time she called back. She claimed their teeth were so blinding she had to buy her first pair of sunglasses.
For the last two months she had been, her words, not mine, working her ass off twelve hours a day, six days a week, doing whatever anyone asked her to do for a production designer friend of Haverbrooke, but she was happy. So happy, in fact, she forgot to ask for the latest gossip, not that I’d know any.
“You’re not going to believe what just happened to me,” she squealed excitedly.
I sat down. “What?” I asked, smiling.
“I think I just sold my screenplay. Remember that production designer friend I told you about?”
“Yeah?”
“Remember how she was going to mention to a producer friend of hers that I had a script?”
“Yeah?”
“The producer asked for the script.”
I screamed with joy for her. “So you have to take it to him?”
“It’s moved along a bit farther than that.”
“What?”
“I didn’t want to tell you in case he didn’t bother to get back or said he hated it.”
“Well.”
“He said he loved it that I had a blind heroine, but could I rewrite to make her 13 instead of 17 so she will be more appealing to the tween market.”
“Your heroine is blind?”
“Of course.”
“What’s the story about?”
“It’s a story about a blind girl who finds a hurt baby deer in the forest and saves it from the hunters.”
“I’m so happy for you, Elaine.”
“I owe it all to you. Thank you, Lara.”
“Owe it to me? I didn’t even know you were writing screenplays.”
“You got Haverbrooke to help me, didn’t you?”
“No way. I don’t even know the man.”
“Lara. You are such a lousy liar. I mean, how obvious can you get? I tell you I want to go LA and Haverbrooke’s secretary calls me up to offer me a job, and wait for it, in Hollywood, working as what? Oh, yeah, a production director’s assistant.”
“If your screenplay hadn’t been good enough the producer would not have wanted it. You do know that, don’t you?”
She laughed. “Yeah, I know that. Okay enough about me. How’s the baby coming along?”
“Just fine. We went for the 20 week scan the other day. Kit says she is gorgeous. He says she has my nose.”
“That’s a good thing. His nose would be too big on a girl.”
“Her eyes were closed, but her eyelashes are really long. He said they were so long they were almost an inch long. For the first time in my life I felt sad that I couldn’t see.”
“Oh, Lara. You will see her soon.”
“Yes, I know. I can’t wait to feel her little body, her little face, her little hands, hug her, kiss her, smell her. I’m counting the days before I can be her mommy.”
“Oh fuck. Someone is calling me. I gotta go, but I’ll call you tomorrow.”
“Okay, and congratulations, Elaine. I’m real proud of you.”
“Thanks,” she sang, and making a loud kissing sound, rang off. I lay the phone back on the table and stroked my stomach. I heard the front door open and I began to smile.
Kit’s footsteps came across the room towards me. He knelt beside me.
“How are my two girls today?” he asked.
“Missing you,” I whispered.
“I got a surprise for you,” he said.
I grinned. “What?”
He took my hands and put them in my lap. Then he put something that felt like a plastic or silicone square wrapped in a napkin in my hand. “What is this?” I asked.
“It’s your daughter’s face.”
I frowned. “What? How?”
“It’s a 3D printed ultrasound. I sent the ultrasound files to Poland and they produced this.”
Speechless, my fingers mapped the little raised face. Her little nose, her lips, her eyes, and then I began to cry with joy.
“Oh, Kit. Thank you. Thank you,” I sobbed. “She is so beautiful. Our daughter is a little miracle.”
He held me close. “Yes, she is as beautiful as her mother.”
“Oh no. She is far more beautiful, and her eyelashes. My goodness. I never thought a baby could have such long lashes.”
“I love you, my sweet and wonderful wife,” he whispered in my ear.
“I love you too, my wonderful husband, and little baby Carson is the most amazing and splendid treasure I could ever have dreamed of. I’m so glad fate delivered you to Durango Falls, and you went and put up that weird advert at the library.”
I felt his breath close to my temple, then he lifted me into his arms.
“Where are you taking me?” I asked, laughing.
“I realized I’d better take advantage of the last few quiet moments we have left before the little one comes.”
“What did you have in mind?’’ I asked as he carried me upstairs.
“I thought I’d put you on your back for a little rest, Mrs. Carson, since you must be very tired, what with being pregnant and all.’’
Mr. Carson was wrong. Turned out I wasn’t tired at all!
THE END
&n
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SUBMITTING
TO THE BILLIONAIRE
GEORGIA LE CARRE
One
Nikolai
Thump, thump, thump.
Fucking hell! Someone take my head out of the drum of this washing machine. The wash cycle continues when my cellphone ring vibrates against the bedside table. The sound is like a nail gun going crazy. I unglue my eyes and my lofty, gilded ceiling comes into view.
I’m still in my clothes. I stretch out my arm, fumble around, locate the blasted thing, hold it in front of my face, and squint at it. The screen comes on, blinding me. I hit the green button and put it to my ear.
“Boss, I've been pushing the bell for some time, and didn't get a response. Are you okay?’’ Semyon's alarmed, booming voice tips the washing machine into spin cycle.
“What time is it?”
“After seven, boss.”
“So?”
“At night, boss.”
“What?”
I took four pills and decided to lie down for a few minutes, but I must have been more wiped out than I thought. It’s Friday and I should have been in the club by seven.
''Bring the car around to the front in fifteen,'' I instruct, pulling myself off the bed. Rolling my shoulders, I make my way to the bathroom. I open my mirrored cabinet, and take a new box of tablets. Discarding the plastic wrapper, I go into the drawing room and head for the bar. It’s an antique, made from wood reclaimed from a Russian church.
Warning. Do not take more than
twelve tablets in any twenty-four
hour period.
Fuck that. I open the box of tablets and popped out eight pills into the palm of my hand. Grabbing a bottle of Grey Goose, I unscrew the top, and take a generous swig of neat vodka. Nice.
Blind Reader Wanted Page 19
