“You’ll like this,” I told him, turning on the television. “It’ll be educational. More fun than Big Bird.”
“Mraff,” he opined skeptically.
“Oh, give it a chance. Look,” I told him, “there’s someone you know. Your favorite bedmate. Next to me, that is.”
He perked up, seeming to recognize the voice.
It was the end of the televised debate at U Vic on nonviolent alternatives to war. I hadn’t been very interested in hearing what the debaters had to say, thug that I am, but I did want to check in on Tonia. With relief I saw that she seemed to be suffering no ill effects from her early morning ordeal. That would come later, I supposed—she’d had a big blow to her principles. For the time being, however, she seemed to be functioning fairly well.
She looked good, I was pleased to see. Her glossy black hair shone, and she was wearing a vivid blue sweater that made her eyes look like pieces of lapis lazuli. She had a terrific television presence, and when she looked straight into the camera lens, you were sure she was talking directly to you. After I had missed half of what she was saying, I realized she was talking to me.
“...happened to me recently,” she told me. “A crisis of faith. I, and my beliefs, were put to the test. I like to think that I made the right choice.” She smiled a little ruefully. “I will now have to amend my long held assertion that violence is never a viable option in conflict resolution. Because of course, it is.” Then she turned to the audience to answer a question. I switched off the television.
“So, the estimable Dr. Konig is battered but unbowed,” I commented to Repo.
He didn’t answer, which was just as well. I couldn’t have replied. There was suddenly another lump in my throat, and my lower lip started to quiver. I even felt, or fancied I felt, a pang in that region of the romantic anatomy commonly called the heart. It’s just the weather, you fool, I chastised myself through an attack of watering eyes. Probably a cloud of errant pollen from the apple tree. Everyone knows spring can be a tricky season. I blew my nose several times, dried my eyes, and lay back down on the couch. More Bach, I decided. And more Glenfiddich. And get a grip on yourself, Reece. You can’t lie here sniveling like someone’s maiden aunt—it’s bad for client morale. What if someone were to phone? To hell with it, I thought uncharitably, I need my rest, too.
I closed my eyes, willing the telephone silent, the fearful brave, the needy self sufficient, the cat quiescent, and the doorbell mute. For a few hours, anyhow.
It worked.
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The Always Anonymous Beast Page 17