by Lumen Reese
“They’re only thinking of offering it to me, though?”
“They asked me what I thought, I said I’d need to think about it. I think it would be good, and I know you can handle yourself, but you would have to learn to do things by the book. And that would mean you would have to rely on people, like the police inside the Quarters and other citizens, too. People like me.”
“I trust you,” I said.
“That’s good, I’m glad. But it’s not about trust. You trust Henry, too. It didn’t stop you from keeping things from us, getting us to help you without giving us the choice. You use people, Stella. -It doesn’t make you a bad person.”
My heart had sank when she said it. I took a sip.
Of course I used people, it was easier to keep them at arm ’ s length. I just hadn’t realized before, that that was what I was doing.
“Did we ever let you down?” she asked. “Henry, Clark and I? Even Corso. Even Jericho and Kayla, she let you go, she wanted the victims saved so much. Other people are smart enough and good enough to help, sometimes. If you’re going to be the lead investigator in the Four Quarters, you would have to let people in, and that’s not an easy change to make. What do you think?”
I thought she was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen.
“I’m changing every day,” I declared.
Chapter Thirty
After that, it was a few parties. First it was a send-off for Clark. He was released from his contract in the Four Quarters, and had been given a bonus, as well. He was heading home to Chicago the next morning. The four of us met in his hotel room, an orange and brown, contemporary affair, and ate pizza.
I got Henry alone after an hour. “They might offer me a position investigating in the Four Quarters. Hatley told me.” I couldn’t keep the excitement out of my voice.
“Good for you,” he said.
His smile was odd, so I asked, “What?”
“Nothing. You’re a creature of habit. You find trouble.”
“Well, hey, I’ll still get to see you sometimes.”
He took a drink of beer from a green bottle. “What makes you think I’m going back? They tore up Clark’s contract, they could have done the same for me.”
I shrugged. “You’re going back. Of course you are.”
“Yeah, of course I am. I’m a creature of habit, too.”
“Do you have any other plans? Jericho must have paid you something.”
He smiled, and nodded. “I might take a week off, somewhere.”
“Some tropical island?”
He made a face. I guessed he was thinking of Sickness Island, where we found Danielle St. Peter’s body. “…Maybe not. Maybe Iceland.”
“Iceland?”
“Whale-watching. I’ve always wanted to. They have whale-watching in Iceland, right?”
“Sounds right.”
“Do you want to go?”
I scoffed. “Go to Iceland? And go whale-watching?”
“Why not?”
“I can’t,” I said instantly, though it took me a moment to figure out why. I had been away too long, already, I had been through too much, and New York was the place I had to be to deal with it all. Not to mention, the cost of a vacation could probably feed my family for a month. Not to mention, Corso was still recovering. I hadn’t seen him in days, only because I didn’t know how to. “I have to be here, right now.”
“It would’ve been fun,” he shrugged.
“Yeah.”
We said goodbye, late that night. Clark gave me his address and we said we would write.
Anna’s birthday was a few days after that. She was eleven. Stacey made her a cake, Joey cooked her favorite meal. When we sang to her, I sort of felt like I was watching it from outside my body.
Two days after that, I was able to move into my new apartment, across the street. I had a bed and dresser delivered, and Stacey and the kids were gone that morning when Joey had woken up, had his coffee and breakfast and was finally ready to help me move my two boxes over. He had forbidden me from going without him.
“I remember the first time you moved out,” he said. “You were sixteen, you were a jerk, I didn’t think I’d ever see you again-.”
“You weren’t that lucky,” I huffed, fumbling for a grip on my box as we managed the stairs down to the street.
“Now it’s ten years later, you’re a bona-fide adult, and you’re only moving across the street.”
“You’re still gonna feed me every night, right?”
“Sure,” he said. We started across the street. “Time is a funny thing. It passes all at once, sometimes, and then not at all, you know?”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
We reached my lobby, and started up the first flight of stairs. I was only on the second floor.
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “Just trying to be wise, for once.”
We reached my new door, and I unlocked it, pushed it open and saw a crowd waiting inside, gathered around and scattered past the small counter that extended from the wall and divided the kitchen and living area. Stacey and the kids were there, Henry and Hatley, Corso and Alex and their mother, too.
A confused chorus of, ‘hey’, ‘surprise’ and ‘congratulations’ rang out.
“Oh, God,” I think I said, and turned for the door but Joey had dropped my box and caught my arm, closing me in.
“Come on, it’s a little champagne, a little brunch.”
Henry popped the champagne bottle. They had eleven plastic cups laid out and he started slopping it in, glass by glass. Alex came over and hugged me, and the other two followed.
“Hey, Stella, congratulations!”
“How are you?”
“I’m good,” she said, and it was full of energy.
“How’s the job?”
“The job is great.”
Shea hugged me, too. “How are you? I brought you some tea, for if you haven’t been sleeping.” She passed a small tin into my hand.
“Thank you.”
Corso shrugged, his arm was out of the sling, he moved forward and wrapped the other around me, smiling honestly. He was firm, and he smelled nice. I felt a surge of excitement when he kissed the side of my head. “Happy moving day,” he said, hanging onto me a little longer than the others had. “Take me with you,” he muttered as he broke away, loud enough for the others to hear.
“You’re not going anywhere,” his mother said.
“How are you?” I asked him.
“Okay, how about you?”
“Okay.”
I moved to Henry and Hatley. “Thanks for coming.”
She put a glass of fizzy amber liquid in my hand. “Came to say goodbye. Citizens started shipping back to the Quarters a couple days ago. We can go whenever we’d like.”
“Wow.” The word was the only thing that came out for a minute. “You must be relieved. How long until they reopen?”
“Probably a few more weeks.”
Champagne went around. Stacey and Shea brought over a bowl each and set it on the counter for everyone to crowd around, dishing out scoops of pasta and Ambrosia salad for the children. I gave the fruit a try and hummed my approval.
“This is very good.”
“Old family recipe,” Shea said. “If you want it, you’ll have to marry my son.”
Stacey intoned, “Don’t worry, she will.”
Awkward chuckles went around. My cheeks got warm.
Joey looked at the two from Four Quarters. “So, you two are heading back, soon? Didn’t Jericho pay you like the others? Couldn’t you have bought your way out?”
Hatley answered for them both. “We could have. But a lot of things are better, in there. It’s a great job to have.”
“Mm-hm.”
Joey looked confused, still, but said no more. A man like him, grounded, meat-and-potatoes, family-oriented, probably would never understand. He had never run from anything in his life. I had run from reality for most of my life
, and so the place had begun to make sense to me, but I saw it as a crutch, not life-support. It had to be given some credit for helping me find my feet again.
Alex talked about her job when asked. “It’s not hard for me to find the good in all this. A hundred interns picked from thousands of applicants. Now I’m a junior anchor because I was lucky enough to get abducted . I actually had someone I used to work with say that to me, a few days ago. I told him to go fetch me a mocha.”
That got the usual, uncomfortable smiles.
After another moment, Alex said, “You know what, I do have to get some sleep before work tonight. It’s got my schedule all messed up, so I think I’ll go. Congratulations again, Stella.”
“Thanks for coming,” I said.
“I’ll see you around.”
Shea stood with her daughter and looked back at Corso, pointing an accusing finger at him. “I don’t want you out for much longer.”
He held up both hands. “Don’t shoot, I’ll be home soon.”
As they went and the door shut behind them, he sighed. Everyone was watching him, and he shrugged.
“It’s like being seventeen again. The woman is so stubborn, you have no idea. I was damned if I was gonna kick my own mother out of her bed, and so that standoff lasted a full night, on the floor. Mom works firsts, Alex works thirds, they won’t let me work, it’s just hours and hours of that house and the damn television.”
“Damn televisions,” Henry chimed in, and we all grunted in agreement.
“Sure makes it hard to move on when nobody else is willing to,” I said. “You must have options for finding a new place, though. I know Jericho paid you, too.”
He raised a brow. “You snooped?”
“I didn’t snoop, Stacey did.”
“Tattletale,” Stacey hissed.
“It surprised me,” Corso said. “I thought my freedom was all the thanks I’d get. Would’ve been more than enough.”
“No,” I said, because that was all I felt the need to say.
Stacey asked Hatley about her son.
“His name is Elliot, he’s eight.”
“And he likes it, in there?”
“Oh yes. Well, it’s all he’s ever known. I like it for him, I grew up in the big city, with bad air and crime. He has a lot of chances I didn’t.”
“Maybe I should sign up,” Stacey said. “They must need chubby factory workers in there, too.” That got chuckles and she nudged Anna, who was nearest to her. “What do you think? Do you want to grow up to be a pirate?”
Anna shook her head, she had a mouthful of Ambrosia salad. Josie chimed in, “I thought we agreed, we were going to trade schools?”
Joey put an arm around her. “None of my girls are going anywhere, for now. Jericho can keep his paws off.”
I glanced at Henry and Hatley, and we shared smiles.
“He might drop by,” Hatley said.
“I might have to explain to him a thing or two,” Joey said, crossing his arms over his chest in a show of fake bravado.
Corso grinned, shaking his head. Henry and Hatley, too, were amused. I was amazed at how seamless the whole thing had been, particularly the men.
Joey went on, mumbling, “Can’t imagine you’d do too well in there. You can take a girl out of Brooklyn…”
“Can’t take Brooklyn out of a girl,” Stacey and I said together, and her high voice and my low one cued me in for a second, again, to that elusive idea of how different all women were, but how we could all be the same.
We were all finished and stacked plates, and Stacey insisted she would wash them, and Joey went over to help her rinse. I pointed to the bigger of my two boxes, waiting just inside the door, and Henry lugged it over into the opposite corner between the window and the bed, and Hatley followed.
“How do you want your books?” he asked.
I moved the other box and started to put clothes away in my new dresser. “Stacked,” I answered.
“Not alphabetized? By genre?”
“Surprise me.”
They stacked.
Corso moved over to me and his hand found the top drawer, started to slide it open, but I slammed it shut, making him grin.
“No,” I said. My unmentionables had been the first thing I hastily shoved in.
“Sorry, just trying to help,” he said.
“With my underwear?”
“My area of expertise…” He ambled over to the window and looked down to the street. He looked over his shoulder.
“The boss is here.”
I stood and moved to the door before Jericho had even knocked, and opened it when he was coming up the hall.
“Hello,” he said, still approaching. He had a large, glass case in his arms, and shrugged around it. “Housewarming gift.”
It was an orchid, I could see. “Wow. That’s so nice, you shouldn’t have.”
He passed it into my hands but then lingered in the doorway when I set it on the counter inside. I saw it, then. A little golden plaque set in the black base that made up the bottom of the enclosed glass case for filtering the orchid’s air.
In loving memory,
Officer Paul Grady,
Precinct 83.
It froze me in place for a moment, my eyes actually prickled. Inside the apartment, people were saying hello to Jericho and Henry and Hatley tried to get him inside.
“Come on, Jer, there’s champagne.”
“Yeah, it’s alright.”
Stacey said, “We don’t bite, Mr. Sullivan.”
But he blushed and turned his head down. “Thank you, but I can’t stay. If I could just speak to you for a minute, Stella?”
“Sure.”
I stepped back out into the hall and closed the door all the way behind me. “Thank you, for that,” I said. My throat was tight but I had fought down the tears.
“It’s not a statue-.”
“It’s better.”
“Hatley mentioned the job to you?”
“Yes.”
“Isaac, Kayla and I are in agreement. It’s yours if you want it. We’ll train you, you could start next year. We would call you as needed. What do you think?”
“I want to do it,” I said. “Thank you.”
He smiled. “Alright. When do you want to begin your training?”
“Immediately,” I said.
“How about the beginning of next month?”
“Okay.”
I held my hand out, and he sort of huffed, and shook it. I stepped forward and put my arms around him, and he chuckled as he hugged me back.
“Thank you, Stella. You are doing alright, aren’t you?”
“I’m fine,” I said. “What about the victims? You were going around, talking to all of them, right?”
“Ah. Yes. Finding their families, setting up any kind of assistance they could need to get their lives back on track. We’re doing what we can…”
“You know all their names, don’t you?”
He answered after a minute, “Every one.”
“How many are there, total?”
“A hundred and forty-three.”
The door opened behind us, Hatley peaked out. “If you’re not staying, can we get a ride from you, Jer?”
“Sure. I’ll see you soon, Stella.”
She and Henry both came out into the hall and gave me bear hugs.
“Bye. See you soon.” Hatley kissed my neck.
Henry kissed the side of my head and it made me feel warm. H e squeezed me, so hard I couldn’t really breathe. “Bye.”
“Bye,” I managed, though I was choked up again.
The tears actually fell as they started down the hall. He looked back. I waved. They disappeared, down the stairs and around the corner. I didn’t even have a moment to compose myself because the door opened again and all the family were gathered there.
Joey said, “Dishes are on the drying rack, we’re gonna get out of your hair.”
Stacey gave me a hug and then her and the kids sta
rted away. Joey lingered. Corso had joined him and leaned in the doorway.
“You coming over for dinner?” Joey asked.
I shrugged. “What are you making?”
“Fried cockroaches.”
“Yeah, I’ll be there.”
“Okay, then, let’s not get emotional.” He clapped a hand on my arm, then looked at Corso. “How bout you?”
“Hell, I’ll take the couch, now that Stella’s gone.”
“Alright, see you both later.” He was looking between us, and grinned, shaking his head as he walked away.
As soon as Joey had gone, Corso moved out into the hall with me. His arm was no longer in a sling, he put both hands in his pockets.
“You okay?” he asked, in a low voice.
“Yeah,” I said. “What about you?”
“‘M okay. Arm still hurts.”
And of course I had noticed, he had been babying it all day.
“Jericho offered me a job. Lead investigator, in the Four Quarters. I’m gonna do it.”
He pursed his lips. “That sounds exciting. You’ll still be living here, though?”
“Yes.”
He shuffled a little closer. He looked bashful, shockingly boyish. “You really want to live here, all alone? How about a roommate? I’m tiny, you could fit me somewhere…”
“I think I need to get some independence back.”
“That’s good, I understand. I like you that way, too. So no roommate.” He took a breath and removed his hands from his pockets, and took a step closer to me where I was leaning on the door. He reached out so his arms were around me, placing his hands on either side of my shoulders. “I could still hang around, if you wanted. I could come in, if you’re lonely… You had your champagne, but you haven’t really christened the place.” He broke out into a smile.
I smiled, too, and turned my face away, looking anywhere but his eyes, his lips. Our bodies were close but not touching anywhere, and I was so tense I found my knees shaking and reached out for a hold on the door’s frame, and its knob. I was arching my hips up to where they didn’t quite meet his, but he leaned in closer, too, going from bracing on his hands to his forearms on my door, around my head, and my hip grazed his, sending a tingling all the way up my side and down my thigh.