Part 8 (1/2)

The moderator on Heavy Hitters Heavy Hitters was trying to get one of the experts to quiet down long enough for someone else to say something. was trying to get one of the experts to quiet down long enough for someone else to say something.

The show that would really draw the ratings would be the talk show from the future. Tomorrow's News Today Tomorrow's News Today. Imagine how many people would tune in to watch that. Shel pictured himself as host.

He checked his watch. It was 8:47.

A car pulled up outside. Doors opened and closed. Laughter. Then the car pulled away.

”Love in Bloom” sounded. He picked up. ”Hi, Dad,” he said. ”You're early.”

”Shel?” A woman's voice. A woman's voice.

”Yes. Who is it, please?”

”Charlotte.” His cousin. His cousin. ”Have you heard anything new about your father?” ”Have you heard anything new about your father?”

”Nothing yet, Charlotte. Listen, let me get back to you. Just a few minutes. I'm expecting a call.”

”But you haven't heard anything? I wondered because you answered sort of funny.”

”No. I think I got confused, Charlotte. Listen. I'll call you right back.” He disconnected and put the phone down on the coffee table. Beside the connector. The calibrator. Whatever the d.a.m.ned thing was called. And he started thinking how he'd explain it to Charlotte. And Jerry. And everybody else.

Maybe it wasn't just his father's problem at that.

HEAVY Hitters. .h.i.tters was running commercials. Take this to increase your s.e.xual prowess. Take that to get rid of arthritic knees. The moderator returned, posed against the standard background of the Capitol dome, inviting everyone to be with him tomorrow when his special guest would be Elizabeth Staple, who was head of the House Judiciary Committee. Then he was gone, and the nine o'clock show, was running commercials. Take this to increase your s.e.xual prowess. Take that to get rid of arthritic knees. The moderator returned, posed against the standard background of the Capitol dome, inviting everyone to be with him tomorrow when his special guest would be Elizabeth Staple, who was head of the House Judiciary Committee. Then he was gone, and the nine o'clock show, The News Room The News Room, started, with its discordant theme that suggested the world was going mad. Host Bob Ostermaier appeared behind his desk with a handful of papers. ”Tonight,” he said, ”Was.h.i.+ngton has a brand-new s.e.x scandal involving a senator who's spent most of his career running on family values.”

Shel turned it off.

He sat in the sudden stillness. He could hear music somewhere.

It was two minutes after nine.

He picked up the phone, put it in his pocket, and went out to the garage. Fifteen minutes later, he pulled into his dad's driveway. Under the basket. The house was dark, save for the security lights.

HE waited an hour. He sat in the car with the converter on the seat beside him and the cell phone in his pocket, and he realized he'd done the wrong thing. Shouldn't have caved in. Should have insisted he be allowed to go along. But of course he'd waited an hour. He sat in the car with the converter on the seat beside him and the cell phone in his pocket, and he realized he'd done the wrong thing. Shouldn't have caved in. Should have insisted he be allowed to go along. But of course he'd always always caved in to his father. caved in to his father.

He took out the cell phone and punched in Dave's number. It was late, but that was what friends were for.

Dave was in a restaurant somewhere. ”h.e.l.lo, Shel,” ”h.e.l.lo, Shel,” he said. He took a minute to speak to someone else. Then he was back. he said. He took a minute to speak to someone else. Then he was back. ”Anything wrong?” ”Anything wrong?”

”Yeah. You teach Greek and Latin.”

”More or less.”

”How's your Italian?”

”It's okay. Maybe a little shaky. Why? You headed for Rome?”

”Dave, are you doing anything Sat.u.r.day morning?”

”I'll be on the run. What's wrong?”

”I've got a problem.”

”What do you need, Shel?”

”I want to show you something.”

CHAPTER 7.

Americans generally do the right thing, after first exhausting all the available alternatives.

-WINSTON CHURCHILL

DAVE was at one of those stages in his life where nothing special was happening. He'd gotten bored with cla.s.sroom work. He spent most of his evenings grading papers, preparing seminars, and watching old movies on TV. There were a few women drifting around the fringes. But none for whom he could work up any pa.s.sion. was at one of those stages in his life where nothing special was happening. He'd gotten bored with cla.s.sroom work. He spent most of his evenings grading papers, preparing seminars, and watching old movies on TV. There were a few women drifting around the fringes. But none for whom he could work up any pa.s.sion.

Except Helen. His heart fluttered every time he saw her. Every time he thought about her.

She'd been the reason he'd hesitated when Shel asked about Sat.u.r.day morning. She usually ate a late Sat.u.r.day breakfast at the Serendip on Cleaver Street. He'd seen her there occasionally and had planned to run into her. Accidentally, of course. Why, Helen, nice to see you. He'd liked her for a long time, but her reaction to him had always been not exactly cool, but indifferent. He'd asked her out a few times, but she'd always found a reason why she couldn't manage it. Next time maybe, she'd told him. But the message was clear enough: Take the hint, Dave. He was accustomed, though, to pretty much getting his way with women. If he stayed with it, he was sure he could win her over.

Discovering that Shel was on her track had come as something of a shock. He should have informed Shel that first night, at the show, of his interest. But ultimately that would have required him to admit his lack of success with her. Couldn't let that happen. No way.

He'd known Adrian Shelborne all his life. They'd gone to the same schools, hung out together, even been in Scouts together. Once, they'd chased the same girl. She'd eventually run off with one of the male cheer-leaders, embarra.s.sing them both. Short of combat, nothing can bond males like being dumped by the same young woman.

Shel's father had money, and prestige, and had helped Shel get to Princeton. Dave had gone to Temple, a local school that his family could afford. But he'd done well, discovered a facility for languages, and learned Greek so he could read Homer in the original. Ho phylos esten allos autos. Ho phylos esten allos autos. A friend is a second self. He'd gone on to master Latin. A friend is a second self. He'd gone on to master Latin.

There was something majestic in the cla.s.sical tongues, a sense of dignity and power that, somehow, didn't surface in English. Maybe it was simply a matter of too much familiarity. Whatever it was, he eventually found himself immersed in h.e.l.lenic and Roman culture, acquired French and Spanish along the way, and was now in the process of learning Italian. Two years earlier, he'd published Speaking in Tongues Speaking in Tongues, a treatise on the development of language and its connection to social mores.

Shel had always been a wild type, a guy who'd been everywhere, who had pictures of himself standing in front of the Vatican, riding a camel around a pyramid, standing on a rope bridge in Turkestan. He'd once played a guitar with the Popinjays in Dallas, and had apparently fit right in. How could Dave, whose folks thought hanging out in the Poconos was a big deal, keep up with that?

Nevertheless, they'd remained close friends over the years. Despite his advantages, Shel was a solid guy. No pretense. No illusions about self-importance. And the last person who was likely to suffer a blackout and wake up two hundred miles away. That business Wednesday had sent chills through him and left him with a sense that reality was coming undone. It was like an experience he'd had when he was about ten. His folks had taken him to see a magician perform at the Walnut. The guy had made basketb.a.l.l.s flo at through the air, put a woman into a cabinet and taken the cabinet apart and she wasn't there anymore. They'd put chains around the magician, put him inside a narrow box, and hung the box from the overhead, so there was no way he could have gotten out of it without being seen, and when they lowered the box and opened it, he was gone, and in his place was the woman who'd disappeared from the cabinet.

It was the night in which Dave came to believe in magic. To conclude that anything could happen, that there were no rules. No boundaries. Wednesday had felt like that, too. The bewildered look in Shel's eyes, the way he'd sat slumped in the car on the road back from western Pennsylvania, the way his voice shook when he tried to explain what had happened and discovered he had no idea what had happened.

Sometimes it was just magic.

Then the phone call: Something had happened again. Shel hadn't admitted it, but it was in his voice. The guy was scared.

SO Dave pa.s.sed on Helen and the Serendip, and was dutifully waiting when Shel pulled up outside a little before nine. It was raining, one of those steady, bleak October drizzles. ”What's wrong?” Dave asked. Dave pa.s.sed on Helen and the Serendip, and was dutifully waiting when Shel pulled up outside a little before nine. It was raining, one of those steady, bleak October drizzles. ”What's wrong?” Dave asked.

”It's hard to explain.” Shel was carrying a computer bag. He dropped the bag on the floor, took off his jacket, and fell into a chair. ”Dave,” he said, ”I know what happened to my father.”

The room grew still.