The Last Refuge

I waved off the question before she was through with it.

“I got called down to the board meeting. George’s got a strategic plan worked out for TSS. Pretty slick, really. Make ’em a lot of money. Short term.”

“Did you do something stupid?”

I was grateful for the fuzzy cushion provided by the Absolut, even if I wasn’t entirely drunk. I ignored her question.

“The plan was to push really hard for the next six months to show an increase in productivity, lean out expenses and stop filling jobs lost to attrition. This pumps up profitability, as you know,” I paused, she blanched a little at the obvious condescension, “which is what you want to do if you’re fattening up for a sale.”

“What kind of sale?”

“The division. Technical Service and Support. My division. Spin it off and sell it. The whole thing, lock, stock and barrel. The ultimate unbundling.”

“They’re going to sell TSS? You can’t sell a division of a major corporation.”

Abby always told people I worked for a major corporation. It made me think of the blurbs on paperbacks. “Now a major motion picture, starring …”

“That will be a big surprise to George Donovan.”

“Who could possibly want to buy a division?” Like it was a piece of real estate in a crummy neighborhood.

“Probably one of the oil companies. A major oil company. A lot of what we’ve developed supports hydrocarbon processing. Most of the big refiners are dying to get their hands on a little high tech. They want it for the same reason I thought we wanted it. To diversify and hedge against the curse of commodity manufacturing.”

“I’ve never heard of anything so ridiculous.”

“Don’t sell yourself short.”

“Even if it’s true, why does it have anything to do with your job?”

“Oh, now Abby, anybody who buys us’ll have a Technical Service and Support division of their own with a bunch of people who do a lot of the same things we do. That means probably half our guys’ll be on the street within a year—after busting their asses for six months running up the value of the spinoff. They’ll gut us like a fish, then eat what’s left.”

“Including you.”

“A definite possibility.”

Abby noticed with a start that she’d finished off her drink. She rarely had more than one a day—usually a glass of white wine. Everything but vitriol in moderation.

“That’s not what they’re telling you. You’re on the presidential track.”

It irritated her that I was just a lousy divisional VP. I’d once made the mistake of telling her my job was often a step on the way to unit president. Which is what they called the guy who looked after a bunch of divisions. This was a pleasing eventuality for Abby to contemplate, though I always thought it was silly having more than one president at a single company, even a major corporation. Reminded me of Gilbert and Sullivan. Everybody gets to be the very perfect model of a modern major general.

“This is why you quit your job? Because you think they’re going to fire you anyway? You were going to be president and now they’re selling you? I’m just trying to understand.”

“Yeah, I guess that’s it. I could fill in the details, but that’s the gist.”

Something had begun to tighten up Abby’s face— probably the first signal to her brain that her life was about to careen off the highway.

“You’re serious, aren’t you.”

“You bet.”

“What do you think will happen to us if you do this monstrous thing?”

She sank way back into her chair, gripping the arms firmly enough to keep the chair from lifting off the living room floor.

“I’m tired,” I said into my drink.

She didn’t hear me.

“You’re what?”

“I’m retiring.”

“You’re forty-eight years old.”

“I’m retiring early.”

“We’ll lose the house.”

“We own the house. If I never earned another penny we could still live a thousand times better than my parents ever dreamed possible.”

“I have no intention of living like your parents.”

“That’s not what I said.”

“Why are you doing this to me?”

“I’m not doing anything to you.”

“This is unacceptable. I want you to take back everything you just said.”

I demurred. She pressed on.

“What do you expect me to do with this? What do you expect me to tell people you’re doing? What could possibly be in your head to think it would just be peachy keen with me for you to walk away from an important position at a major American corporation, to just walk away from everything we have so you can, what, just sit around the fucking house and drink yourself into fucking oblivion? Is that what you think would be okay with me? You fucking lowlife wop bastard.”

“French.”

She sucked in a rough breath and said, “French?”

“Fucking lowlife French bastard. Just a quarter Italian. Mostly French. My mom had a little American Indian mixed in there, too, we always thought. Would explain the cheekbones.”

She stood up from her chair, smoothed the wrinkles out of her skirt and picked up her empty glass, I think to provide a prop for the final flourish. She thrust it at me to emphasize each point.

“When you’re ready to stop speaking nonsense, when you get your nose out of the fucking vodka bottle, I’ll be willing to speak with you about this. In the meantime, I have things to do,” she said, and walked out of the room.

The next time I saw her was about six months later, and I haven’t seen her since.

The sun was trying like hell to break out of the early morning haze. I was in the Grand Prix heading down North Sea Road toward the Village. WLIU was playing jazz. Early Miles Davis. I had the windows open and the heat on. Eddie had both ears flapping in the wind. I was drinking a vat of straight unflavored coffee from one of the North Sea delis that catered to locals and tradesmen.

I almost had full use of my tongue. I used it to scat-sing along with Miles. He didn’t seem to mind.

I carried the Styrofoam cup with me when I rang the Lombards’ door bell. I had their New York Times stuck under my arm.

“Do you always bring a newspaper when you come to call?” Rosaline asked when she opened the door.

“Once a paperboy …”

She was wearing a sleeveless, collarless white shirt, a blue jean skirt over bare legs and moccasin slippers. Her long hair was piled up in the back and held in place with bobby pins, randomly situated. Her nose still filled up half the house.

“Did you bring me coffee, too?”

“Get a mug, we’ll split what’s left.”

“Very gallant.”

I followed her into the living room. No Arnold. She pointed at the ceiling.

“Still sleeping. Not dead.”

“I assumed.”