The Trouble With Eden - Lawrence Block [90]
“You and Peter are not fooling me, not for one moment. You treacherous cunt.”
Conversation died throughout the shop. Some customers began edging toward the door. Others stayed to watch the show. In the hallway outside, a crowd began to gather.
“Gretchen—”
“First it was just you, and then you managed to steal Peter away from me. You trapped him between your legs.” She thrust a forefinger in Linda’s face, shook it vigorously at her. The nail had been chewed ragged halfway to the cuticle. “And now the two of you are conspiring against me. But what you don’t realize is that I’m on to you. I know!”
Out of the corner of her eye Linda saw Olive McIntyre halfway down the aisle, a questioning look on her face. But no, she thought, I ought to be able to handle this myself.
“There’s nothing to know, Gretchen,” she said reasonably. “There’s nothing between Peter and me. I don’t think I’ve spoken two words to him in the past week. We’re friends but it’s never been more than that.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“It happens to be the truth.”
A peal of harsh laughter, rising hysterically at the end.
“Gretchen—”
“Pretending to be working at the theater. But I know he’s with you instead. Do you know something?” She leaned forward, clutching her hands together, making nervous washing movements with them. “I could live with that. But not what you’re trying to do next.”
“What are we trying to do, Gretchen?”
“As if you didn’t know!”
“Tell me.”
Her voice dropped to a conversational tone. “You’re trying to take Robin away from me,” she said. “You see, I do know, don’t I?”
“What makes you think—”
“Peter can’t take her from me. He’s not her father. He may try to poison her mind but I won’t let him. Do you know what Robin means to me?”
Very little, as far as Linda had ever been able to determine. But she said, “No one will ever take Robin away from you, Gretchen.”
“They can’t!”
“Of course not. Now—”
“Because I’m going to tell you something that very few people know. Robin did not have a father.”
“I see.”
“I was never with a man for the entire year before Robin’s birth. I purified myself. I thought temptation for an entire year. And then Robin was born.”
“I see,” she said again. The shop was virtually empty now, the performance evidently too embarrassing even for those who had been delighted spectators at the onset. Olive stood with her hands planted on her solid hips, rolling her eyes expressively heavenward.
Gretchen said, “I suppose you know what that means.”
That there was a bright star over Bethlehem, Linda thought. Or, at the very least, Allentown. But she said, “I’m not sure I understand, Gretchen.”
“Oh, you think you’re so fucking smart.”
“I—”
“You think I’m crazy.”
“No, I don’t.”
“That’s part of the plan, isn’t it? You had to try something when the poison didn’t work. Oh, it would work if I took it. But I know better than to eat anything Peter cooks for me. I’m not a fool. So the next step is to get me locked up in an insane asylum where they can burn out my brain with laser beams.” She put a hand palm down on the counter, sighed. “I don’t blame you for this. It’s Peter’s doing, isn’t it? He’s managed to convince you I’m crazy.”
“Peter loves you, Gretchen.”
She didn’t seem to hear the words. “What I told you before. About Robin?”
“Yes.”
“Of course you remember what I told you.”
“Yes.”
“I know what you thought. That I meant that my daughter was fathered by the Lord God. Right? Right?”
“Well—”
“Do you really think I’m crazy enough to believe such a load of shit? Oh, Peter has poisoned your mind me, hasn’t he? Let me explain. It’s very important you get this straight once and for all. Robin is not the Christ child. And I am not the Virgin Mary.”
“I see.”
“There was a time when I wondered. After all, no man fathered Robin, so what was I to think? But then I worked things