The Trouble With Eden - Lawrence Block [93]
“Fucking busybodies,” he said softly.
Anne didn’t say anything.
“I guess you’d better tell me.”
He propped his head on one hand and listened while she gave him a sketchy but reasonably accurate account of Gretchen’s behavior. She had paced back and forth on Main Street for awhile, talking to herself, obviously disoriented. Then she went to the Lemon Tree and confronted Linda. After Olive McIntyre got her back on the street again, she began accosting passersby and demanding that they help her find her son. Someone finally called one of the local cops, who couldn’t make up his mind whether to take her into custody or leave her alone. While he was still thinking about it, the woman at the candle shop took Gretchen inside, gave her a glass of water, and calmed her down.
“And then she snapped out of it,” Anne said. “She just got herself together and said that she had to get home and take care of Robin. She evidently was completely rational again.”
“They let her go home?”
“A couple of people walked her back to the place. They made sure that the kid was all right and that Gretchen had really settled down.”
“And they left her there?”
“Somebody’s staying with her until you get back. I don’t know who.”
“Whoever it is can stay there forever. I just want to get on a plane and get the hell away from all of this. I wish those clowns would stare at me again. It would be such a pleasure to hit somebody.”
“You okay, Peter?”
“Oh, sure,” he said. He got to his feet, put money on the table, pushed his unfinished Coke over to Anne. “Sure I’m a fucking tower of strength,” he said.
The woman who was keeping Gretchen company was stocky and fiftyish, with something of the look of a jail matron about her. At least they’d had the sense to post someone there who could handle her physically. Not that Gretchen looked hard to handle now. She was sitting on their bed, legs crossed, shoulders slumped, her arms folded over her breasts. She did not look up when Peter entered.
The other woman started to explain the situation, but Peter cut her off, saying he had heard all about it. He was being curt and knew it but didn’t much care. He just wanted the woman to go away.
“Well then. Mrs. Vann is fine now.”
“Is she.”
“She’s been resting, and—”
“And she’s fine. She’s getting ready to be the poster girl for the National Institute for Mental Health.”
“I guess I’ll be going, then.”
Then go, he wanted to scream. But he made himself mumble something vaguely thankful. She left and he closed the door after her.
“They tell you what happened, Petey?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m rational now. I didn’t need that old battle-ax standing guard over me, but the only way to get rid of her would have been to talk to her, and I couldn’t hack it. So I sat here while she put Robin to bed and then she sat over there and I sat here and I pretended I was alone. She talked, but I didn’t listen.”
She had her chin on her chest now. She had not met his eyes since he walked in. Her pose reminded him of photographs of Hindu mystics, and her bony gauntness was consistent with the image.
“I don’t know what happened. It’s all very vague in my mind. I’m completely rational now. I just came out of it all at once and I was standing in the candle shop drinking a glass of water. It was like waking up from a dream, but instead of being in bed I was in the candle shop.”
“Do you remember what happened?”
“The way you remember a dream. I threw a big with your girl. I remember that much.”
“She’s not my girl, Gretchen. But you go ahead and believe whatever you want.”
“No, I’ll believe whatever you tell me. It’s easier that way. Petey, I am a jigsaw puzzle all taken apart again. I’m a box of jumbled pieces but they won’t put the cover back on. I don’t know what happened.”
“Do you know why you flipped out that way?”
“The Devil made me do it.”
“I’m serious.”
“Oh, shit, so am I. I was not behind a fucking thing if that’s what you mean. I’ve been a wreck lately, and I haven’t taken so much as an aspirin in days. You know the Yoga trippers and their big shtick about how you can get high without