Self-Defence

regulations.

Two beers sat in front of him. He pushed one over to me. In the dirty glare his green eyes were gray- brown.

'How come all of a sudden you can talk to me?'

'Because Lucy asked me to. She said someone was trying to kill her, and she wants you to protect her. I'm sure it's some sort of gas-induced delusion- or massive denial because she just can't face the fact that she tried to kill herself. But I'm taking it as a formal instruction.'

'How does she figure someone tried to kill her with gas? Dragged her to the stove and jammed her head in?'

'She's nowhere near coherent enough to discuss details.'

'Remember those four calls she put in? Seems she's been getting some hang-ups.'

'She told me. Said you didn't think it was serious.'

'I didn't because she didn't. She told me it might be some technical problem with her phone; the line goes out all the time. Kind of casual about the whole thing, made me wonder if she just wanted to talk.'

'I'm sure she did. That's part of what I have to tell you. She's got a major crush on you. Admitted it to me during yesterday's session.'

He was silent and still.

'She wanted approval from me, Milo. I couldn't tell her you were gay because I didn't want to violate your privacy. And I couldn't warn you about the way she felt because of confidentiality. She got really upset and left. Now this. I feel like I've really screwed up, but I don't know what I could've done differently.'

'You coulda told her about me, Alex. I'm not your patient.'

'I didn't think it was appropriate to get into your personal life. She was the patient; I was trying to keep the focus on her.'

'Jesus.' His cheeks turned to bellows and he blew out beery air.

'Has she ever shown any romantic feelings?'

'I don't know,' he said furiously. 'I guess looking back… I mean, she hung around, phoned, but I figured it was a cop-victim thing. Looking for big brother.' Rubbing one eye. 'Pretty fucking dense, huh? Goddammit! I'm an asshole to let it get this far. All these years I've been careful not to get personal with victims or their families. So why her?'

'You didn't do anything wrong,' I said. 'You gave her support, and when it became clear she needed something more, you referred her to me.'

'Yeah, but there was more. In my head. She probably picked up on it.'

'More what?'

'Involvement. I'd find myself thinking about her. Worrying. Couple of times I called her, just to see how she was doing.'

He slammed a big hand down on the table. 'How else could she take it? What am I, brain dead?'

He shook his head. 'For chrissake, she was only a juror. I've dealt with thousands of victims who had it a helluva lot worse. I must be losing it.'

'You didn't put her head in the oven.'

'Neither did you, but you still feel like shit.'

Both of us drank.

'If I hadn't tried to help her,' he said, 'I wouldn't know about her head being in the oven, would I? And you and I would be sitting here talking about something else.'

His glass was empty and he called for a refill, looking at me.

'No, thanks.'

He said, 'Ignorance is bliss, right? All the talk about insight and self-understanding, but far as I can tell, being a good ostrich is the key to psychological adjustment. Christ, now I have her sitting on my shoulder… So what do I do, tell her, Gee, honeybunch, if I went for women you'd be at the top of my list? Might as well shove her head back in the oven.'

'There's no need to do anything right now,' I said. 'Let's see how she handles the seventy-two hours. If the psychiatrist at Woodbridge is good, she'll know how to deal with it.'

'Seventy-two hours… praise the law.'

'There's more you need to know about.' I told him about Lucy's summer as a prostitute.

'Oh, man, it keeps getting better. Just a summer fling, huh?'

'So she says. She confessed right after she told me how she felt about you. Asked me if I thought she wasn't good enough for you. As if she was giving me a reason to reject her.'

'Not good enough for me.' He gave a scary laugh. 'Remember I told you she reminded me of a girl in high school who became a nun? Someone else who convinced herself I was wonderful.'

This time he rubbed his face. Hard.

'Prom night back in Hoosierville. All the little virgins and would-be virgins from Our Lady on the arms of us pimpled lads from St. Thomas. I was eighteen and knew I was gay for a couple of years, no one to tell it to. Her name was Nancy Squires, and when she asked me to be her date I said yes because I didn't want to hurt her feelings. Orchid corsage, tux, Dad's car washed and waxed. Doing the Twist in the gym. Mashed Potatoes and the fucking Hully Gully. Drinking the fucking spiked punch.'

He looked into his beer glass.

'She was pretty, if you liked skinny and pale and tortured. Wrote poetry, collected these little porcelain doohickeys, didn't know how to dress, tutored the boys in math. Of course the other girls treated her like a leper.'

He turned and faced me.

'She was nice to talk to, a little lady. Then when I drove her home, she put her hands all over me, and when I parked in front of her house she told me she loved me. It was like being sucker-punched. Genius that I was, I told her I liked her as a friend but couldn't love her. Then I explained why.'

He gave another frightful laugh. In the bad light he looked homicidal.

'She didn't say a thing for a while. Just let her hands drop and stared at me as if I was the biggest goddamn disappointment in her eighteen-year life. She didn't have it easy. Her whole family was a bunch of assholes, brothers in jail, father a drunken shit who slapped her around from time to time, maybe worse. And here I was, the last straw.'

He rubbed his eyelids. 'She kept staring at me. Finally shook her head and said, 'Oh, Milo, you're going to end up in Hell.' No anger. Sympathetic. Then she patted her brand-new Tonette and got out of the car and that's the last I saw her. Next week she shipped off to a convent in Indianapolis. Five years ago my mother wrote me she was murdered, over in El Salvador. She and a bunch of other nuns washing clothes in a stream.' He threw up his hands. 'Let's do a screenplay.'

'Lucy reminds you of her that strongly.'

'They could be sisters, Alex. The way she carries herself- the vulnerability.'

'The vulnerability's definitely there,' I said. 'Given what I've learned of her childhood, it's no surprise. Her mom died right after she was born; her father deserted the family. She's functionally an orphan.'

'Yeah, I know. She was talking to me about Shwandt, once. Said he had two parents, nice home, father who was a lawyer, so what was his excuse? Said her own father was a lowlife.'

'Did she tell you who her father is?'

He looked up. 'Who?'

'M. Bayard Lowell.'

Staring, he put his hands around his beer glass. 'What is this, Big Fucking Surprise Day? The goddamn moon in Pisces with Herpes or something? Lowell as in Mr. Belles Lettruh?'

'None other.'

'Unbelievable. He still alive?'