‘How do we know the whole country hasn’t been wiped out?’ said Nicholas. ‘I mean – Jesus – the whole of New York in three days!’
Dr. Petrie riffled through the papers of equations and formulae. ‘We don’t know. The last we heard, they’d managed to hold the plague at the Alleghenies. Maybe the situation’s worse by now. It probably is. But if we can get these papers to Washington in time… Well, who knows? We might be able to save the mid-West and the West Coast.’
Kenneth Garunisch said, ‘Well… that sounds impressive enough. You could have had my car, but I left the keys in my apartment.’
‘Esmeralda?’ asked Dr. Petrie. ‘Plow about you?’
‘I left mine parked on the street,’ said Esmeralda. ‘I expect it’s a total wreck by now.’
Nicholas said, ‘I should think that Herbert’s Mercedes is okay. It’s in the basement. I have the keys here – he always left them with me.’
Kenneth Garunisch looked at him appreciatively. ‘Looks like Captain Dashfoot did us a good turn after all.’
‘It’s only a two-seater,’ said Nicholas. ‘There’s a kind of small contingency seat at the back, but you couldn’t travel for very far in that.’
Kenneth Garunisch opened the cigarette box on the table and took out the last of Ivor Glantz’s cigarettes. ‘In that case,’ he said, striking a light, ‘I suggest that Dr. Petrie goes, and takes his daughter along with him. Prickles would fit in the back – wouldn’t you, Prickles?’
Prickles nodded shyly.
Dr. Petrie said, ‘No – this has to be fair. I suggest we draw straws, and give everybody a chance.’
Garunisch pulled a face. ‘Don’t talk dumb. Supposing Gay draws it. How’s she going to get out of this goddamned rat-infested building, drive all the way to Washington, and then convince the federal department of health that she’s found a way to cure the plague? Gay couldn’t convince the Mother’s Union that fish paste sandwiches are better value than bagels and lox.’
‘Ken,’ said Mrs. Garunisch, hurt.
Garunisch put his arm around her. ‘Don’t take it the wrong way. Gay, but it’s true. Dr. Petrie has to go. It’s his idea, anyway. Can you imagine me trying to sell it? You know what they think of me in Washington right now. Or Nicholas here, in his sailor suit?’
‘There’s still a spare seat,’ said Dr. Petrie.
Adelaide, sitting next to him, looked up. She frowned, and said, ‘But surely—’
‘That’s true,’ said Garunisch, interrupting her. ‘We can draw lots for that. Esmeralda – do you have any drinking straws?’
‘Of course,’ said Esmeralda, and went into the kitchen to fetch them.
Adelaide tugged gently at Dr. Petrie’s sleeve. He turned around.
‘Leonard,’ she whispered. ‘I thought that—’
He put his finger to his lips. ‘Don’t worry. Whatever happens, you’ll be okay.’
‘But I want to go with you!’
He laid his hand over hers. ‘Darling – we’re all in this together. We all have to take the same risks. Trying to get out of here is going to be far more dangerous than staying. If you ask me, Herbert Gaines didn’t even make it upstairs.’
‘That’s not the point!’
‘Sshh,’ he said. Esmeralda had come back with the straws. She handed them to Dr. Petrie along with a pair of kitchen scissors.
‘Okay,’ said Garunisch. ‘Cut them to different lengths, and whoever draws the longest straw gets to go. Agreed?’
Dr. Petrie trimmed the straws. Keeping his back turned, he arranged them in his hand. Then he walked over and offered them to Nicholas.
Nicholas plucked one out quickly, with his eyes shut. ‘It’s a short one,’ he said, ‘I know it is.’
He held it up. It was.
Dr. Petrie moved across to Kenneth Garunisch. The old union leader thought for a while, rubbing his chin, and then he carefully picked the straw in the middle. It was longer than Nicholas’ straw, but it was still short. He shrugged, and twisted it up.
Mrs. Garunisch was next. She was dithering and anxious. She didn’t actually want to pick the longest straw, because she preferred to stay with her husband, but she knew how insistent he was on playing by the rules. If she picked it, he would make her go.
She pulled one out. It was short. She let out a big puff of relief.
Adelaide looked across at Esmeralda. ‘Her first,’ she said to Dr. Petrie.
Dr. Petrie shook his head. ‘I’m going around the room clockwise,’ he said.
Adelaide lifted her eyes and stared at Dr. Petrie for a long moment. He stared back, sadly. They say that a woman can always sense when a man no longer wants her, and he wondered how it showed. He wondered, too, when he had stopped wanting her. It hadn’t happened all at once, and it was nothing to do with Esmeralda. What had happened last night had been no more than a human attempt to feel something after so much misery.
Maybe the whole experience since the beginning of the plague had changed him, and made him come to terms with what he really was and what he wanted to be. It seemed to him now that Adelaide was part of a life that had become remote and irrelevant. Like tennis, and swimming, and Normandy Shores Golf Club.
‘Pick,’ he said softly, holding out the two remaining straws.
Adelaide picked.
Dr. Petrie held out the last straw to Esmeralda. She didn’t look at him – simply took it, and held it up.
Esmeralda’s straw was fractionally longer than Adelaide’s.
‘There you go, then,’ said Kenneth Garunisch loudly. ‘That settles that!’
Esmeralda stood up. She kept her eyes downcast, and she said simply, ‘I’ll get my things together.’
Adelaide shrieked out, ‘You won’t!’
Dr. Petrie held Adelaide’s shoulder. ‘Darling, it was a fair draw. I can’t do anything about it. We had to decide somehow.’
‘I’m left behind while you’re going,’ said Adelaide. There were angry tears running down her cheeks. ‘You didn’t have to pick a stupid straw!’
‘Come on, now,’ put in Kenneth Garunisch, ‘I thought we’d decided all that!’
‘Well, decide again,’
