'And she called me a prick master.'
'Prick master? What a dandy phrase. But I meant 'and what resulted from the fact that you said no one was following her?'
' 'I was going to stop being her shadow.'
'Do you think she knew that no one was following her?'
'Unless she's delusional,' I said.
'There was no one there.'
'So why would she tell you she was being followed?'
'To get my attention?'
'And eventually your companionship.'
Pearl shifted on the floor and made a snurffing sound in her sleep. I drank a little of my beer.
'Just before she was calling me a prick master she was complaining that I was going to spend time with you.'
Susan nodded. We were quiet. The flames moved in the fireplace. A bubble of residual moisture, squeezed by the heat, oozed out of the end of one log and vaporized with a barely audible hiss.
'Is this a case of 'hunk city' strikes again?' I said.
'She's jealous,' Susan said.
'She has attached to you in some way, and she's jealous of me.'
'Well, any woman would be,' I said.
Susan went on as if I hadn't spoken. When she began to think about something, she could think it to a crisp.
'You are a powerful man in a protector, rescuer, kind of way.'
'She talked about being rescued.'
'It's a voguish pop psyche jargon phrase at the moment,' Susan said.
'I hear it in therapy all the time. And it's a useful concept, as long as everyone understands that it is shorthand for a much larger and more complicated emotional issue.'
'Does she seriously think she can break us apart by anonymous accusations of infidelity?' I said.
Susan smiled.
'Fancy talk for a guy with an eighteen-inch neck,' she said.
'I been bopping a shrink,' I said.
'Lucky you,' Susan said.
'A woman like that reflects her own emotional life. She has no depth of commitment; she doesn't understand it in others. She has no trust; she assumes others don't either. If he doesn't want me, it's because there's someone else; if I can get rid of someone else, he'll want me. It's an adolescent vision of love, which is to say romanticized sexual desire.'
'Thank you, doctor.'
'Be sure you understand it. I'll be passing out blue books before supper.'
'You have any thoughts on what I should do about this?'
'Ignore it,' Susan said.
'You think she'll keep calling?'
'Probably, but only on my machine. She won't want to talk with me.'
'You shouldn't have to be bothered.'
'No bother,' Susan said.
'Just another message on my machine at night. It might get exciting. She might give me details on what you and she do.'
'She's pretty good-looking,' I said.
'Un huh.'
'Maybe, just to help her regain her mental health, if I came across for her?'
'Or maybe the disappointment would put her over the edge,' Susan said.
'You never seem disappointed,' I said.
'I'm a Harvard graduate,' Susan said.
'Yeah, good point. I guess we'd better not risk it with Jocelyn.'
'I agree,' Susan said.
'Another thing about her,' I said.
