The Miraculous Plot of Leiter & Lott
Page 29
(Claire looks out at her pool. There is a gardener trimming the hedge along the wall behind the gazebo.)
CR:) So are you thinking of taking the AP job, or not, Valerie?
(Camera settles on Val's face as she looks past Claire into the distance. Finally it pans slowly to focus on the gazebo outside, where Val stares as she replies:)
VL:) I am now.
(Fade.)
Epilogue
Once above a time there lived a woman for whom life stood still. In this stillness she resided, and for her true self decided she did not need to know what she once thought. Her given name was Valerie Lott, but in deeper way it was not. This she learned, when the past lost its hold. When the future, for her, was emptied and exposed.
The letter she never read revealed to others some of the facts they sought: That a man named Leiter quit a job for which others fought. Before he obtained a patent used by defense contractors, he was a high school runner, a marathoner. An only child who grew to excel in science and math. An MIT grad who once tutored jocks and read books in coffee shops. Here was a devoted husband and son, they declared, who loved and lost, and also listened to jazz and Bach. With no criminal affair to uncover, they shook their heads in wonder to discover that he’d given control of his estate to his dead wife’s brother--a friend who supported his plan to help others. It must have been all this friend could do, they concluded, to prevent him from donating his house, too.
In anticipation of arraignment, the lawyers compared notes. They discussed the relationships, and rendered their votes. With no DNA samples or forensics to include, they prepared a case file from which others might conclude. Signed, sealed and delivered, this final report was labeled. It detailed their billings as a matter of course.
When finally paid, at last they felt good. And so they went to Happy Hour. Then home to sleep as soon as they could.
Val was eating a cheese sandwich in her studio when the door opened. And then the only man she knew beyond name or story stepped into the room. He was a man whose touch was no mystery, even though his loving hand she had yet to feel.
Having already traversed cosmic distances in bridging the frontier to her soul, the man did not say a word, as she rose. There was no need to speak. No time for her to consider the awakening that had come. No time at all, but only acceptance in place of fear, awareness instead of confusion. She knew, as she crossed to him, that whatever he would say, for the record or not, she would not be alone in hearing it. Just as she would never be alone again.
David was still smiling that gentle smile of his as he glanced around him and asked, “What happens now?”
A tear fell from Val's cheek when the answer came to her, and she whispered: “Everything.”