Dante's Wood
Page 33
“Are you going to see them?” Charlie asked.
“I’d like to, but I won’t have time this trip.”
Charlie took me inside and showed me his room and his collection of action figures. Afterwards we played video games on the floor of the family den, Charlie beating me handily every time.
“You’re even worse than Dad,” he told me.
“Give me some time,” I said. “I’m still getting used to this.”
I stayed until it was almost time for Charlie’s dinner, when Boris appeared on schedule with the town car. I said good-bye to Charlie with promises to return soon.
The ride out to O’Hare was the usual conga line, compounded by a sudden thunderstorm that pummeled the town car’s roof like a percussionist gone amok. But when we pulled up to the departures level forty minutes later the squall was beginning to let up, and from the corner of my right eye I glimpsed a pale glimmer of sunshine peaking from behind the clouds.
I tipped Boris a C-note and asked him to treat Yelena to a nice night out.
And then I boarded a plane headed east, to where Louis would be waiting with his mother to meet me.
Acknowledgments
To give proper credit to all those who aided and abetted this book, I should start with my mother, Janice Raimondo, who instilled in me the love of words that led to my first career as a lawyer, and then to the not-unrelated job of writing fiction. I wish she were here to share this achievement.
A close second place goes to my sister, Sandra Berg, MD, my ideal reader, scientific consultant, and volunteer proofreader, who was always there to cheer me on when it seemed as though I should have heeded the warning above those famous gates to hell.
I also owe an enormous debt of gratitude to all my other early readers and cheerleaders—Caryn Jacobs, Julia Parzen, Brian Massengill, Jill Martensen, Blair Wellensieck, Mike Feagley, John and Denise Noell, Melissa Widen, and Debra de Hoyos—for their candid, insightful, and generous support.
To my agent, Kate Folkers, who rescued me from the slush pile and gave me invaluable suggestions for the novel’s improvement.
To my editor, Dan Mayer, and all the folks at Seventh Street Books, for taking a chance on a first-time author and for all the things, big and small, that went into the book’s publication. A special thanks also to my copy editor, Ian Birnbaum, my proofreader, Jade Zora Ballard, and my cover designer, Jackie Cooke.
To my wonderful children, Kendra, Jacob, and Tamsin Parzen, for putting up with late dinners, missed pick-ups, and a semideranged parent while it was being written. You are my constant joy and inspiration.
And last, but not least, to my husband, Stanley Parzen, whose incurable optimism has always been the lifeline keeping me afloat. It is no cliché to say I couldn’t have done it without you.
A portion of the proceeds of this book will be donated to IFOND, the International Foundation for Optic Nerve Disease. To learn more about the foundation’s work, please visit its website at www.ifond.org.
About the Author
Before turning to writing, Lynne Raimondo was a trial lawyer at a major Chicago law firm, the general counsel of what was formerly the fifth-largest accounting firm in the United States, and the general counsel of the Illinois Department of Revenue. She lives with her family in Evanston, Illinois, where she is at work on the next Mark Angelotti novel.