“Oh, yes. I see. He who invented the perfect mirror. Georgia. Isn’t he the guy that built that crazy place … ?”
“Vindemia. That’s where I’m going.”
“I see. I guess I wouldn’t mind meeting the guy who invented the wheel.”
“‘To collect characters for the long ride,’” Jack quoted. “Isn’t that what I’m supposed to say at this point?”
“Jeez, kid, you’re stealing all my best lines.”
“It might be interesting, don’t you think? For some reason Shana thinks the Professor’s life is in danger.”
“If it doesn’t work out, come back to Priory Farm, will you? Carrie insists she likes you and wouldn’t mind having you around for a while. Besides, the fences always need painting. We can offer you minimum wage, a shed to sleep in, and a bath on Saturdays.”
“Naw,” Jack said. “As a father and son, we’ve grown too close.”
“Sure,” Fletch said. “I’ve seen you two or three times now, spent hours with you.”
“It’s not the quantity of time we spend together, it’s the quality.”
“Well …” Fletch spotted the sign for Forward and slowed the van for a left turn. “You sure got my attention the few days we spent together.”
“How is Carrie?”
“Didn’t I just say? She’s crazy. She likes you. She loves me.”
“Just wanted you to know where I’ll be,” Jack said. “Tell my mother, please.”
“Sure,” Fletch said, turning the van left at the intersection. “Call if you find work.”
•
“Want to go have lunch?” Andy Cyst asked.
“Yeah,” John Fletcher Faoni answered.
“We might as well go to the employees’ dining room. Lasagna is the special today.”
“No,” Jack said, “I want an Italian submarine sandwich.”
“Where are you going to get that?”
“Subs Rosa.”
“Where’s that?”
“North Carolina.”
“Uh?”
Jack shook Andy’s hand. “It’s been fun. Thanks for all your help.”
“Blair didn’t give you a job?”
“He gave me what he called ‘fatherly advice,’ to wit: get lost.”
“Hey, Jack!” Andy called after him. “Will I see you again?”
Walking toward the exit of Global Cable News, Jack turned and waved at Andy.
Jack sang, “Maybe when I learn not to end a sentence with a proposition.”
4
“Tell me who the bastard is now,” Crystal demanded through clenched jaws at the sight of Fletch.
She was lying on the big bed in what had been her room on the second floor of Blythe Spirit. There were no pillowcases, sheets, blankets on the bed. There was no curtain around the bed.
She was an enormous mound of mostly useless flesh in an outsized nightgown and bathrobe.
To Fletch she looked as helpless, vulnerable as someone lying in the middle of a highway after a car wreck.
Except through a curtain the week before, Fletch had not seen Crystal in years. When he had entered the room he was physically shocked by her mammoth size.
Fletch exhaled. “Hi.”
“They’ve even taken the lamps,” Crystal said. “The reading lamps.”
“Yeah. This is a busy old place today.” There were cars, station wagons, ambulances, trucks, some of them with official insignias on their doors, crammed in Blythe Spirit’s horseshoe driveway. Files were being wheeled out of the administration offices downstairs on dollies. He cleared his throat. “Let me take you away from all this.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” Crystal snapped. “You put the law on us. Your damned report on Global Cable News.”
“You know I’m right.”
“I know no such thing. These people were taking care of me.”
“These people were keeping you handicapped so they could pick your pockets.”
“Where’s Jack?”
“Virginia. I was just talking to him.”
“Is he coming?”
“No. He’s on his way to Georgia.”
“What did he say to you?”
Fletch smiled. “He told me to be careful not to let you fall on me again.”
After looking at Fletch a moment from the bed, Crystal laughed. “This time, I’d crush you to death.”
“Flatter than a manhole cover.”
“You’re both bastards. Father and son. I shouldn’t have let one of you know the other existed. Get out of here. Who needs you?”
“You do.”
“I don’t.”
“Okay. What are your plans?”
On her bed, Crystal raised her arm and dropped it in an impatient gesture. Watching her, Fletch realized the woman was so fat she probably could not sit up without help. “You have no responsibility for me,” she muttered.
“I know.” Softly, Fletch said, “But I told you Sunday I’d be back.”
He continued to stand halfway between the bed and the door to the hall.
“Yeah,” Crystal said. “You sneak in here as a reporter, spy on me, spy on the people taking care of me, blow the story on Global Cable News, cause every law enforcement agency, health agency, and tin-whistle politician to lay siege to this place, get everybody from the cook to the secretary in the office indicted, get the place closed down in hours, and here I am, stranded on this bed, unable to move, with nothing to eat all morning, I might add, without even a tissue to throw at you! You came back, all right. You’re back like the second half of a hurricane on a seaside resort!”
Fletch grinned. “Haven’t lost your fight, anyway.”
“Why didn’t Jack come?”
“Oh, I suspect he’s giving us a chance to get reacquainted.”
“You don’t want to know me.”
“Maybe not.”
“I’m a mess.”
“You’re in a mess.”
“It’s not your fault.”
“Who’s talking about fault?”
“You didn’t neglect me. You didn’t know I had a son by you. I purposely dropped out of your sight so I could raise him myself.”
“I know.”
“I didn’t need you then, and I don’t need you now.”
“You needed me once. A little bit. For a few minutes.”
“I don’t blame you for hating me. Doing this to me. Wrecking Blythe Spirit with a stroke of your coaxial sword. You always know how to get back at people, don’t you, Fletch?”
“I’m not getting back at you.”
“Of course you are. You found out about our son, Jack, that I had him and kept him from you and in four days
