I drank a little beer.
'You sound almost cynical,' I said.
'Be the ghet-to experience,' Hawk said, rolling the word ghetto into two long syllables. 'Ah'm fighting to overcome it.'
'So he knows about me and he needs help and he figures he can get it for nothing if he goes to Susan and cries dissolution.'
'And it worked,' Hawk said.
'If you're right,' I said.
'Sure,' Hawk said. 'How you feel 'bout working for Susan's former husband?'
I shrugged. 'Water over the dam,' I said.
'Sure it is, and it really was the tooth fairy left all those quarters under your pillow.'
'Got nothing to do with me,' I said.
'That's true. But I know you, some of you, maybe not even Susan know. The hard part. Part makes you almost as good as me.'
'Better,' I said automatically.
'It ain't no water over no dam for that part,' Hawk said.
I finished my beer. Jimmy brought me another pint. ' 'Course it's not,' I said.
Hawk smiled. 'Umm,' he said.
'You got that right,' I said.
'So you going to help him?'
'I told Susan I would.'
'You think this sexual harassment suit be the problem?'
'Be surprised,' I said. 'But it's a place to start.'
'Should we have some more oysters?' Hawk said.
'We'd be fools not to,' I said.
chapter four
MARCH WAS STILL chilly enough for a fire and I had one going in Susan's apartment when she came upstairs from her last appointment of the day. Pearl the Wonder Dog was lying on the rug in front of it, and I was on the couch with a bottle of my new favorite, Blue Moon Belgian White Ale, that Susan kept for me. It was not hard to locate. The only other thing in the refrigerator was a head of broccoli and two cans of Diet Coke.
Susan came in wearing her subdued professional wardrobe-dark suit, tailored blouse, understated makeup, little jewelry. When she was off duty she dressed far more flamboyantly. But she generated such intensity that dressing up or down made little difference.
Pearl got up at once, took a silk cushion from the wing chair, and carried it around wagging her tail. When Susan got that attended to, she got a bottle of Merlot out of the kitchen cabinet, poured half a glass, and brought it over to the couch. She plopped down beside me, put her feet up on the coffee table, leaned her head over, and kissed me lightly on the mouth.
'Some days are longer than others,' she said.
Pearl eyed us speculatively, the pillow still in her mouth, and lay down by the fire and put her head on the pillow.
'Do you understand why she prances around with that pillow?' Susan said.
'No.'
'Me either.'
'Why was today so long?' I said.
Susan sighed and sipped her wine. It must have been a hell of a day, she took in nearly an ounce at one sip.
'One of the things a therapist runs into is the person who thinks now that they understand why they behave as they do, they are cured.'
'And you think there may be another step?' I said.
'Changing the behavior would seem appropriate,' Susan said.
'Appropriate,' I said.
The logs settled a little in the fireplace. The front logs slid back in toward the back ones, making the fire more intense. I built a hell of a fire.
'The ability to understand doesn't automatically confer the ability to change.'
'So people have another whole thing to go through,' I said.
'Yep.'
