The Four Corners of the Sky_ A Novel - Michael Malone [168]
“Was that Georgette?” He looked at the Nickerson house next door where lights were burning.
“No, it was D. K.”
“Hey, let’s ask Georgette over too. She’s awake. We could look up how to play bridge on the Internet.”
Sam glanced out the window. “Those are just the lights Georgette always leaves on. Don’t bother her. She needs her rest.”
He snorted elaborately. “Oh, okay! I was headed right over there to wake her up. But that’s good advice, Sam. Not to barge in on somebody while they’re sleeping.”
Teddy growled with impatience until Sam took her away.
Left alone, Clark lit a cigarette and leaned far out the opened window, turning south, away from the Nickerson house, toward the dark roll of green fields, as if he could see Annie all the way in Miami if he looked hard enough.
But all he saw were stars, making way for dawn.
***
Hours later he was awakened by a sweet smell. Down in the kitchen, Sam was flipping flapjacks at the stove griddle.
At the kitchen table, dressed for work but still in her pink fluffy bedroom slippers, Georgette sleepily drank coffee from one of the “Movie Mugs” Sam sold at Now Voyager. This one showed Claudette Colbert in Misleading Lady.
“I’ll give you this, Sam,” said Georgette, studying her mug. “In so far as an ’80s girl can look like a ’30s star, Ruthie looks a little like Claudette. It’s the eyes. What color were their eyes? Isn’t that weird? We only have black-and-white photos. D. K., what color were Ruthie’s eyes?”
At the back door, D. K. Destin smoked a cigarette, leaning from his wheelchair to puff the smoke outside. “Give me a break, how the hell am I suppose to know what color? White people’s color. Green, blue, one of those colors.”
Clark walked into the kitchen with a yawn. “So what’s happening?”
“Banana pancakes,” Sam told him.
The kitchen wall phone rang. Georgette answered it. “Peregrine-Goode residence.”
“Hello,” said a cheerful male voice. “My name is Trevor Smithwall, I’m Annie’s next-door neighbor. Are you Aunt Sam?”
Georgette made a phhtt noise. “Do I sound like a grown woman’s aunt? I’m Annie’s friend Georgette Nickerson.”
“Oh, you’re Georgette. I probably know more about you than you can imagine.”
Georgette told him that he had no idea how imaginative she could be.
“Who is it?” asked Clark. “Why don’t people say who they’re talking to?”
When Georgette explained who it was, Sam ran at her. “Ask about Amy Johnson. Did something happen to Annie’s cat?”
Trevor passed along his assurances that Annie’s cat was fine. No, he was calling to tell Annie’s family that the best thing they could do would be to encourage her not to try to solve her father’s legal troubles. Trevor would have told her so himself but she had not returned his calls—
“Join the crowd,” said Georgette. “So just lay it out, Trev, what’s this got to do with you? You’re with the FBI.”
Trevor admitted that was true.
“I know it’s true. That’s why I’m asking, what’s this got to do with you?”
“Just tell her to stay out of her father’s problems and come home. And tell her to call me. Nice to talk to you. Bye.”
Georgette relayed Trevor’s cryptic advice to the others.
Dropping her spatula in the sink, Sam shut off the gas griddle. “That’s it. I’m going to Miami and bring Jack home. I can’t stand this stress anymore.” She made a quick phone call to the college student who worked summers at Now Voyager and asked her if she could take care of the store for a few days, that Sam had to go to Miami. The request elicited a groggy “No problem,” which Sam decided to take at face value.
“What’s the fastest way I can fly to Miami?” she asked D. K., who was soaking his cigarette butt under the faucet.
“In a plane,” he told her.
“Can’t you tell when I’m serious?”
Clark said, “I need to get to the emergency room where things are a little calmer.”
***
Clark and Georgette drove together to Emerald Hospital. Neither spoke until they reached River Road. Below them, the Aquene River roiled over its banks, fast, muddy red, still floating debris from the storm. “You know aquene is the Algonquin word for ‘peace