talk and order wine in a restaurant. You'd be better off than you are now.'
'In New York?'
'Yes.'
'I never been to New York.'
'I'll take you,' I said. 'And if she likes you and you like her and she's willing to take you on, she'll look out for you.'
'You're really going to introduce me to a madam?'
'Best I can think of,' I said. 'You decide you don't like it, let me know and I'll come down and get you and bring you back.'
'Is it in a nice part of New York?'
I nodded. The sandwiches were gone. I was on my third beer. Susan was sitting very quietly now, watching and listening and not saying a word.
'Should I?' April said to Susan.
'No,' Susan said. 'I don't think you should. I think you should go home, and I will try, with you, to get you and your parents into counseling. I cannot believe that being a whore is a better choice.'
April looked back at me.
'I won't urge you,' I said. 'Susan may be right. You have to decide. You have to judge whether your parents would seek counseling, whether you would, and if it would help.'
'And,' Susan said, 'you have to judge how you really feel about being a prostitute.'
'If you want me to be a whore, why'd you take me away from Red and them in the first place?' April said. Nobody says a whore has to be smart.
I took a deep breath. 'I don't want you to be a whore or not a whore. I want you to be free. I want you to choose what you do and I want you to live a better life than you were living in the sheep ranch in Providence. If your choice is between growing up with Red and growing up with Patricia Utley, 1 think you're better off with Utley.'
We were all quiet then, Susan and I looking at April, April with her plump, sullen little face clenched in confusion staring at the counter. I got up and cleared away the dishes. Susan made herself another cup of coffee.
'Would you come with me?' April said to Susan.
'To see Patricia Utley?'
'Yes. You and him both?'
Susan was quiet for a moment.
I said, 'She can't, April. What happens to a guidance counselor who places students in a whorehouse?'
'You think it's okay,' April said to me.
'I do, or I might,' I said, 'But I'm not on the school committee in Smithfield. People rarely get elected to school committees because they have a broad and flexible sense of life's possibilities.'
April said, 'Huh?'
Susan said, 'I'll go with you, April.'
'If I don't like it I don't have to stay, do I?' April said.
'No,' I said.
'Okay. I'll talk to this lady,' April said.
Chapter 33
It was about two thirty in the morning. April was asleep on my couch. I was showered and aspirined and retaped and lying in bed beside Susan.
'Is this crazy?' I said.
She turned her head on the pillow and looked at me and said, 'I think so.'
'You think it will work out if she goes home and you try to arrange therapy?'
Her eyes were lovely, dark and deep. 'No,' Susan said. 'I don't think it would.'
'So the best we can do is give her a chance to sell her body less often for more money,' I said.
Susan was quiet.
'I know how much you care about your job and your profession,' I said to her. 'The kid doesn't understand, but I know what it took for you to say you'd go visit the madam with her.' 'I can't put the profession ahead of the people it's supposed to serve,' Susan said. 'It would be like teachers who care more about education than students.'
'Because it's right doesn't make it easy,' I said. 'I admire you quite a lot.'
Susan's eyes were much closer. 'You made me what I am today, big boy.'
'And I did a hell of a job,' I murmured.
