The joist was tubular metal, still bentraggedly. Tragic to look at. A terrible downer reminding them of a sad,troubled life that ended badly.
Liddy stared at the joist. Her heartstarted pounding, and the oddest feeling came to her that Charlie was there inthe room, reaching out to her. Where had that come from? She didn’tknow. She felt sorrow and…something else; looked around, then looked at theothers as if trying to explain her feelings to herself.
“I feel connected to this place. Thatstudio? Charlie made it like a cozy cave for a hermit who loved to read. Andhis plants…I love plants.” She looked back to the foliage. “You missed someferns, Beth, they are frying.”
She went for the plastic bottle and startedto spray ferns and other leafy branches. Paul came next to her, fingering thetelescope as she sprayed, up, down, back up, inadvertently hitting the window’sglass as droplets slid and coalesced and then…lit up in colors.
“A rainbow!” Liddy exclaimed. “Ohh…” The glowingarc shimmered, then changed into something like back-lit stained glass, then meltedas droplets dripped down, and were gone. The glass still steamed and glowed.
“Pretty,” Beth said.
Softly, Liddy said, “This place speaks tome.”
Paul said dubiously, “Today this place ischeery with the sun pouring in. But picture it when it’s dark and gloomy, andyour painting isn’t going well or you’ve had one of your clients reject yourhard work or you’ve had another one of your dreams. What then?”
It didn’t penetrate, his words seemed likewhite noise. Liddy kept staring out, then down to the street again. She feltmesmerized, thrilled. “It’s cheaper than those places you’ve already looked at,”she said, trying to sound as if practical considerations stood foremost in hermind. A force took greater hold and she found herself turning, looking back inthe direction of the second bedroom.
“I could be happy in just that studio! Lockme up in it and it could be my happy little cell.”
Beth made comic tugging motions on hersleeve. “Sleep on it, Lids. Come on, I’ve got other places to show you and youshouldn’t tire.”
On the way down they passed another couplecoming up with another realtor Beth greeted. Liddy stopped at the landing below;looked fretfully up as the couple entered the loft.
“They’re gonna take it,” she whimpered therest of the way down and on the sidewalk. And three apartments later – threeelevator apartments later - exploring a place with a terrace on Sullivan, shelooked anxiously out trying to see the Prince Street building. It frustratedher that she couldn’t. She kept insisting, as they left the third place, how thePrince Street loft felt as if she already lived there and had been livingthere. It felt so perfect but that other couple was going to grab it! Or otherswould!
They almost argued as they stood thankingBeth on the corner of Moore Street.
“You said sleep on it,” Liddy pleaded, “butit’s too great a deal for that.”
Beth repeated that the place’s sad past andLiddy’s fragile state and the fact that it was a walk-up were what worried her.Paul agreed, but also admitted to not being completely thrilled with any of theplaces he’d seen alone with Beth.
“You didn’t like any of them?” Beth askedLiddy.
“Liked them, didn’t love them,” Liddy said.
“Maybe if you saw them for real instead ofjust online?”
Liddy shook her head, and Paul, grimacing,said, “I’m just afraid of jumping in too fast.”
In the cab the pressure was palpable. Liddylooked tired, torn, and stared fretfully out. Paul hunched forward, fiddlingwith his cell phone.
The cab swerved, and he said suddenly, “Youknow what I want most?”
“What?” Liddy didn’t turn.
“I want you to be happy and us to besettled, back ASAP to being able to concentrate on work. That was Carl whocalled while we were in the café.”
“I heard.”
“He’s working today, and he worked latelast night. Saturday night and he was the only one in the lab.”
“He’s obsessed.”
“Obsessed gets the job done.”
“So you’ll both develop a breakthrough newanesthesia drug a week later.”
“There’s the time factor, Lids. We’re underthe gun.”
“Oh right.” Now she felt beaten. “So maybewe shouldn’t move at all.”
“Stop.”
In his phone Paul studied a map of Soho, scrollingto the neighborhood of NYU just to the north. “Am I crazy for hesitating? Youlove the loft and Prince Street is just a few blocks from the lab. I can’t evenimagine being free of subways.”
Heartened, Liddy grabbed his arm. “Oh, let’stake it! It’s a wonderful apartment! It was Hollywood thatbrought Charlie Bass down, destroyed him because he must have been too sensitive- but we can make it beautiful and home. Bring it back to life!”
Paul gave in to a grin and called Beth andtold her they wanted the place. He turned his phone up to blast the reaction.
“Just in time, I checked that other couple andthey were ready to bid! This is so great - after seeing Liddy’s reaction Ithink she really will be happy there. Lemme talk to her! I’m thrilled!”
7
The paperwork wentfast, contracts were signed, and four days later Carl Finn came to see it. “Wow,you could flip this and make a fortune.”
“We’re not flipping it.”
It was Thursday. Carl was tense aboutPaul’s taking time off from the lab and he let it show. Liddy did her best toignore him. She was using Paul’s measurements of the living area to make sketchesof where furniture would go. Over by the arched window, Paul was busy with CharlieBass’s executor, a solemn man in his sixties named Griffin who was pointing outthings the estate wanted to sell and naming his prices, all of them low. Betterthan having herds of looky-loos charging in “to see where it happened,” Griffinhad said when they called him. He’d cared about Charlie, didn’t want thedisposal of his things turned into a circus. Charlie’s suicide had been allover the media.
So Liddy had Carl standing over her whileshe sat, in her blouse and black jeans, scribbling designs on inexpensive paper.She had her regular sketchbook open next to her on the couch. Carl didn’t sit.He paced and kept peering impatiently over to Paul.
“You’re keeping this too?” he said,reaching to touch the couch’s fabric inches from her.
