The Four Corners of the Sky_ A Novel - Michael Malone [78]
Brad said it had been a rough flight to St. Louis, but if Annie’s father was dying and had asked for Annie and if she had gone to find him—well, that was a wonderful thing for her to do, considering the negative comments Brad had heard her make about her father. “But you can’t help loving your dad. Losing Jack’s going to wipe her out.”
“Yes, it is,” agreed Sam. “But she doesn’t know that yet. You’ve got to help her now, Brad. We need to keep Jack out of jail and get him in a hospital. Be there for her. You want her back? That’s the key.”
Brad told Sam he had well-placed connections in St. Louis. “I’ll see what I can do.”
“Find Jack before he gets arrested and get him out of St. Louis. If he needs medical help, get it. Otherwise, bring him here if you can. Just don’t let him get arrested. We’re counting on you.”
Brad chuckled the way he always did before conniving to negotiate a trade; even Sam recognized the laugh. “How ’bout this? I help Jack and you stop Annie from signing the divorce papers.”
Sam tried to walk away from Clark, but he followed her. “I can’t stop the divorce but I can maybe slow it down a little. And don’t tell her we had this conversation. Bye.” She patted the handle as she hung up the phone.
Clark shook his head. “I don’t believe you.”
Sam bit both thumbs. “I wish there were a God and She’d work things out this way.”
“You mean sneaky?” Clark opened the door to the kitchen porch. “What are you going to do, hang out at Annie’s condo, wait for the mail, and shred her divorce papers before she sees them? Why are you Brad’s best friend?”
“She must have loved him.” Sam followed Clark outside. “You’ll have to gut it up, Clark, and let her go.”
He looked at her astonished. “Me? You gut it up and give it up. Sam, you’re getting desperate and she isn’t even thirty!” Clark headed into the backyard. Stars blazed in the summer night as if they’d never been extinguished by the storm. Sam came after him and together they dragged a fallen hickory branch away from the bay window.
She said, “I always believed in ‘the One.’ But you can wake up, you’ve been waiting for ‘the One,’ and your life is gone. Some Like It Hot? You think Jack Lemmon thought Joe E. Brown was the One? ‘Nobody’s perfect.’”
“Sam, listen to me: Joe E. Brown says, ‘Nobody’s perfect,’ and then the movie says, The End. Movies end, life goes on. You think Joe E. Brown and Jack Lemmon lived happily ever after?” Clark ambled off toward the Nickerson house.
“We sort of do,” she shouted after him.
He turned around, walked back to her. “Sort of…but look at us, a couple of old baby-boomers that thought America was going to give the whole world liberty and a great big free clinic. We thought everybody would just get along and go to good public schools and use good public transportation…”
Sam held up the two-fingered symbol. “Peace, baby. I still believe it.”
Clark blew her a kiss with his fingers.
She caught the kiss and brought it to her cheek. “Hey, if I suddenly go straight, Clark, you’re the first to know.”
“Sure.” He gestured at the Nickersons’ house. “Just want to grab Georgette’s cat.”
“Nobody can grab a cat. Leave her alone. She’ll get out of the tree when she’s ready.”
Clark yelled back. “How come you don’t take that advice about Annie?”
Sam called across the long black yard. “Tell me Annie’s okay.”
“Annie’s okay. This yard looks so different.”
“Yeah, it’s got trees lying all over it. I noticed that, Clark. Tell me she’ll find the One. I don’t care if he’s good-looking, homely, rich, poor, dumb, smart, tall, short—”
His voice came through the darkness, steady and slow. “Well, it’s better to love a short man than not a tall.”
“Oh God. No more puns. Top ten worst.”
Chapter 24
The Spirit of St. Louis
At this time, Annie, flying westward through the humid night, was less than fifteen minutes from St. Louis. She was talking aloud to the sleeping dog beside her, remembering numbers. Number games and word games had long been a way to pass the time while flying, a heritage from her father: “A is for Acapulco,