'God,' Susan said.
'I won't be able to walk.'
'How about other activity.'
'Anything prone is fine,' Susan said.
'My feelings exactly.'
'Good,' Susan said.
'What happened to Bibi.'
'She said she was going back to Fairhaven,' I said.
'With her old name,' Susan said.
'Starting over.'
'Who was it who said there are no second acts in American life,' I said.
'I don't know,' Susan said.
'But he or she was wrong. You might recall that we're in act two ourselves.'
'I remember.'
'She's been abused. She needs help,' Susan said.
'I suggested that. She said she wasn't interested. I gave her your phone number anyway, and said you might be useful.'
'If she calls, I can get her a referral down there,' Susan said.
'I'm too tied to you to help her myself.'
'Good to know,' I said.
'She may not call,' Susan said.
I shrugged.
'She isn't able to know yet,' Susan said, 'how much you helped her. She's got too much history weighing on her, and all she remembers is you used her to get Marty.'
'I know,' I said.
'She may know some day,' Susan said.
'Doesn't matter,' I said.
Susan got up and walked around the couch. Pearl immediately expanded into the vacant area. Susan sat on the arm of the couch and put her arm around my shoulder and laid her cheek at the top of my head.
'Yes, it does,' she said.
Robert B. Parker was born in 1932 and has a PhD from Boston University. He has been Professor of English at Northeastern University, Massachusetts, teaching courses in American literature, and has written several textbooks.
He has written many bestsellers, including All Our Yesterdays and his recent Spenser novels Walking Shadow and Thin Air.
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