New Cardiff

by Charles Webb

Doug held his arms out beside himself and looked up at the sky. ‘Oh, Colin,’ he said, ‘that terrible yet wondrous thing the poets have sung about down through the ages has finally found its way into the lonely heart of Douglas Elmore Reed.’

  Colin looked at him a few moments longer. Then he closed the door and slipped the security chain into place.

  17

  Dear Mandy,

  Due to our agreement we won’t be seeing each other again, and though I wish I hadn’t made that promise, I know you wouldn’t respect me if I went back on it.

  So let me say it’s been a great pleasure to know you, and you’ve made my stay here in New Cardiff a memorable one. I’ll always look back fondly on the times we had together, and hope you’ll give my best to your brother Rob.

  Your friend,

  Colin

  PS Coincidentally, I’ve just heard from a cousin of mine who’s touring the States at this time. Cheswick’s more or less the black sheep of the family, which is why I didn’t mention him before.

  But he’s visiting Washington DC now, and plans to come up to New England after that. Unfortunately, I’ll be gone by the time he gets here and won’t be able to show him around.

  Any chance you could spend a little time with him? I told him to be at the library Saturday morning in case you had a minute or two to stop by and try and pick up his spirits.

  I don’t know exactly how to describe Cheswick. I’ve been told we look alike but I shudder to think it’s true.

  Being a Saturday, the New Cardiff Public Library was crowded, with a group of children sitting on the carpet in one corner as a woman read to them, several high school students studying, some older New Cardiff residents looking at newspapers and various patrons coming in and out to return the books they’d finished reading or to check out new ones.

  After coming through the entrance, Mandy stopped beside the front desk and stood a few moments looking at Colin, on the other side of the room. Then she walked over to the table where he was sitting. She stood across from him till he looked up. It was quiet a moment, then Colin closed his magazine and set it on the table. ‘Are you Mandy?’

  ‘I guess you’re Cheswick.’

  ‘Yes,’ Colin said, holding out his hand.

  She shook it. ‘You do look a little like your cousin.’

  ‘Sad to say.’ He continued to hold her hand as they looked at each other.

  ‘You’ve been in DC then.’

  ‘I have.’

  ‘Sightseeing?’

  ‘This and that.’ He kept her hand in his.

  ‘Colin wrote me that you were down there.’

  ‘An odd chap, that cousin of mine, didn’t you find?’

  ‘Colin’s a little odd.’

  ‘Very peculiar.’

  ‘I don’t know if I’d go that far.’

  They looked at each other a few more moments, then glanced at a woman seating herself at the end of the table.

  Colin indicated the chair across from his. ‘Don’t you want to sit down?’

  ‘Maybe for a minute.’ Mandy pulled the chair out and sat.

  The woman at the end reached into her purse for a pair of glasses.

  ‘So let’s see,’ Colin said, ‘I’m trying to think what Colin said you were doing these days. Didn’t he say you were waiting for a passport to come through?’

  ‘He might have. He said I should probably have one when he was over at my place a week ago.’

  ‘I wondered if it came through.’

  ‘It did,’ she said. ‘Did you want to see it?’

  ‘Yes, I enjoy looking at people’s passports.’

  Mandy reached into the back pocket of her Levi’s and removed her passport. ‘The picture came out pretty well,’ she said, handing it to him.

  He opened it and looked inside. ‘Very well.’

  ‘My driver’s licence picture always comes out well too.’

  ‘Really,’ Colin said, giving it back to her. ‘Most people’s don’t.’

  ‘I’m just the opposite.’ She returned it to her pocket. ‘It’s all the other ones that never turn out.’

  The woman at the end of the table opened a book, touched the end of her finger to her tongue and began going through its pages.

  ‘Let’s see,’ Colin said. ‘I’m trying to think what Colin said you were doing these days.’

  ‘You might have already said that.’

  ‘Oh yes, so I did.’ It was quiet a few moments. ‘Oh I know what I was going to ask you, that’s right. Didn’t Colin say something about how you were thinking of going back to England with him at one point?’

  ‘At one point,’ she said.

  ‘Is that plan still on?’

  ‘Not if he went back without me.’

  Colin nodded. ‘Unpredictability,’ he said, ‘that’s always been Colin’s biggest problem. But what surprises me is that last time we talked he mentioned some business opportunity he’d heard about over there.’

  ‘In England?’

  ‘Right.’

  ‘Well that’s probably why he went back. So he could do that.’

  ‘Not for him,’ Colin said. ‘For you.’

  ‘For me?’

  ‘A business opportunity over there for you.’

  She frowned. ‘I’m sure he didn’t say that.’

  ‘No, he did.’ Colin smoothed the cover of the magazine on the table in front of him. ‘He definitely did. Apparently he wanted to be certain when you got there you’d have enough to do. So he got his friend to help him find you a job.’

  ‘A friend over there?’

  ‘One here,’ Colin said. ‘Didn’t you introduce him to some fellow at the Chamber of Commerce?’

  ‘Oh, Doug.’

  ‘That’s who it was. He and Doug went on the Internet and turned up a job opening at some seaside town.’

  ‘But for me?’ she said, pointing to herself.

  ‘You are Mandy.’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘That’s who it was for.’

  ‘Well what could it be?’

  ‘At some home over there, I think it was.’

  ‘Home?’

  ‘A retirement home.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘I know what it was.’ Colin held up his hand. ‘Now I remember. A home for retired bus conductors.’

  She looked at him a few moments, then shook her head.

  ‘Bus conductors,’ he said again.

  ‘What are they.’

  ‘They sell you your ticket on the bus. But I don’t think they have them as much as they used to.’

  Mandy looked down at the picture of a man behind bars on the cover of the magazine in front of Colin.

  ‘Anyway, he and Doug were searching websites for job opportunities over there, and they ran across an employment notice for someone to take over this place because the last managers had been mistreating the residents.’

  ‘Mistreating them.’

  ‘Right.’

  ‘The retired bus conductors?’

  ‘Apparently.’

  ‘How could you do that.’

  ‘Mistreat them? Same way you’d mistreat retired schoolteachers or retired firemen, I suppose.’

  Mandy watched him smooth the magazine cover again. ‘Look, Colin. Could we not do this Cheswick stuff any more?’

  ‘Cheswick stuff.’

  ‘I mean it was amusing at first,’ she said. ‘But I think it’s getting a little old.’

  ‘Could we do it just a little longer?’

  ‘But I’m trying to find out what you’re talking about.’

  ‘And you will,’ he said, ‘but could we do the Cheswick stuff one more minute.’

  ‘I guess if you insist.’

  ‘Thank you.’ He reached into the pocket of his shirt. ‘Now. Did Colin tell you anything about my hobby?’

  ‘No, Cheswick.’

  ‘He didn’t.’

  ‘No, Cheswick. What’s your hobby.’

  ‘Jewellery collecting,’
Colin said, bringing out a small white envelope. ‘He didn’t tell you that?’

  ‘No, Cheswick.’

  ‘I guess it slipped his mind,’ Colin said, removing a small ring from the envelope, ‘but that is sort of my passion. Here’s something I ran across in a jewellery shop down in DC the other day.’

  ‘What’s that.’

  ‘Just a little ring.’

  She waited a moment, then leaned across the table to look at it.

  ‘Just a little gold ring,’ he said, ‘with a little butterfly on it. Nothing much. But I saw it and I just went ahead and bought it on the spot. I couldn’t help myself.’ He held it for a few moments as Mandy studied it. ‘That’s how I am when I see a piece of jewellery I like. Impulsive.’

  The woman at the end of the table glanced down at them, then back at her book.

  ‘You can hold it,’ Colin said.

  ‘I don’t have to.’

  ‘Go ahead.’ He gave it to her.

  ‘There it was,’ Colin said, ‘sitting in the glass case. I took one look at it and …’

  ‘It’s not real gold though.’

  ‘Excuse me?’

  ‘It’s not made out of real gold.’

  ‘It’s not?’

  ‘I mean I’m asking.’

  ‘I won’t go near costume jewellery.’

  She inspected it more closely. ‘And what are those.’

  He pulled his chair up to the table so he could lean across to look more closely at it himself.

  ‘In its wings,’ she said, pointing to it.

  ‘It has a little ruby in each wing,’ he said.

  ‘Those are rubies?’

  ‘The little red stones.’

  ‘But they’re not real.’

  ‘They’d better be.’

  ‘Those are actual rubies?’

  ‘Actual.’ He nodded.

  Mandy held it closer to her face. ‘And you just saw it in a case?’

  ‘There it was, mixed in with a couple of dozen other rings and watches and bracelets, and I just saw it and I said, “I’ll take it.” Just like that.’

  ‘So what kind is it,’ she said.

  ‘Kind?’

  ‘Like a friendship ring or something?’

  ‘Oh, what kind. Well I did ask the jeweller that. And he said it was an engagement ring.’

  ‘Engagement.’

  ‘Which surprised me,’ Colin said. ‘I said, “I didn’t think engagement rings looked like this. I thought they were sort of silver, maybe with a diamond or something in them.”

  ‘That’s what I thought,’ Mandy said, looking up at him.

  Colin shook his head. ‘No. He said they can be any way people want them to be.’

  ‘I guess that’s the latest thing,’ she said, looking back at it.

  ‘Those were his very words. “It’s the latest thing now,” he said, “for people to just have them be any old way they want.’” Colin sat quietly a moment as she continued to examine the ring. ‘Of course there was one very disappointing thing about it.’

  ‘What was that.’

  ‘It’s used.’

  ‘It is?’

  ‘Second-hand. I was leaving DC and I took it out to look at it and I noticed it was used.’

  ‘It has a scratch on it or something?’

  ‘I almost went back and returned it,’ he said, ‘but the train was leaving the station and I figured …’

  ‘But I mean how could you tell it was used.’

  ‘Because it has the last people’s names in it.’

  ‘It has what?’

  ‘If you look inside,’ he said, ‘two names are engraved in it, who must have been the last people who owned it.’

  ‘’Where.’

  ‘Hold it up and look on the other side of the butterfly. They’re very small, but you can make them out. They’re in a little heart.’

  Mandy turned it at an angle, to get more light on it, then squinted as she looked inside.

  ‘See the names? I forget what they are.’

  For a long time she held it perfectly still next to her eyes, then suddenly she sucked in her breath, let it out and drew in another deep breath.

  ‘Mandy?’

  She pushed the ring on to one of her fingers, then again sucked in a deep breath.

  The woman at the end of the table looked up over her book.

  ‘Mandy,’ Colin said.

  Mandy put her hand on her chest, just below her neck, and took several short breaths.

  ‘Let’s remove this,’ Colin said, taking her hand with the ring on it.

  She shook her head, pulling her hand away before he could remove it, and sucked in more air.

  ‘What’s wrong with her,’ the woman said.

  ‘Mandy.’

  ‘She’s hyperventilating,’ the woman said.

  Colin took one of her hands in both of his. ‘Mandy.’

  Her chest rose up and down as she continued gulping air.

  Taking off her glasses, the woman at the end of the table stood up. ‘Could we have some help here! We have an emergency!’

  ‘Mandy,’ Colin said, rubbing her hand between his.

  ‘I’ll be okay,’ she said between breaths.

  ‘We need help here!’ the woman yelled.

  Colin glanced over toward the corner. The children had stood up and turned around. The woman who had been reading to them hurried in front of them and motioned for them to sit back down.

  ‘Mandy?’

  Her eyes were closed. ‘Just give me a minute.’

  ‘Here come the librarians,’ the woman said.

  Colin looked up to see a man and a woman hurrying toward the table. ‘What’s happening.’

  ‘She just started hyperventilating,’ the woman said.

  The man stepped over to Mandy. ‘Can you hear me?’ he said.

  ‘Yes,’ she said.

  ‘Are you going to lose consciousness?’

  ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘I don’t think she is,’ Colin said.

  ‘Who are you.’

  ‘Her fiancé.’

  Several other patrons had begun to move toward the table.

  ‘Margaret,’ the man said, ‘get them back.’

  ‘Go about your reading,’ she said, motioning them away. ‘She needs air.’

  Suddenly the man began sweeping books and magazines off the table and on to the floor with his arm.

  ‘What are you doing,’ Colin said.

  ‘Get her on her back on the table,’ he said. ‘Margaret, call a doctor.’

  ‘No doctor,’ Mandy said, waving her arm through the air, her eyes still shut.

  ‘Lay her on her back,’ the man said to Colin. ‘I’ll take her legs, you take her shoulders.’ He bent down and grasped Mandy by the ankles. ‘Hurry up, man.’

  Colin put his arms around Mandy’s shoulders.

  ‘Have you got her?’

  ‘Yes.’

  The man kicked the chair away, then hooked his arm around Mandy’s legs and hoisted her up. ‘A doctor,’ he said to the other librarian.

  ‘She doesn’t want one.’

  ‘Call one, Margaret.’

  ‘What if she’s Christian Science,’ Margaret said. ‘Liability.’

  ‘Are you?’ the man said, putting Mandy’s legs down on the table.

  ‘What.’

  ‘A Christian Scientist.’

  ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘She is,’ Colin said. ‘Don’t call a doctor.’ He rested her back and shoulders carefully down on to the table.

  ‘You,’ the man said, pointing to the woman at the end of the table. ‘A book to put under her head.’

  The woman bent over and began going through the books he’d pushed off the table.

  ‘Has this happened before?’ the man said to Colin.

  ‘Not that I know of.’

  The patrons had not obeyed Margaret’s request to return to their seats, and in fact several more had come to look curiously at Ma
ndy lying on her back on the table.

  ‘You,’ the man said, pointing at a white-haired patron holding a newspaper at his side several yards away. ‘Go to the medical section and find me Layman’s Guide to Health Emergencies. I believe it’s by Morrison, Albert.’

  ‘I really wouldn’t do that,’ Margaret said.

  The woman at the end of the table was holding a book out to him that she’d picked up from the floor.

  ‘What’s her name,’ the man said to Colin, as he took it.

  ‘Mandy, but I think—’

  ‘Mandy,’ the man said, ‘we’re going to use this book as your pillow.’ He held it up in front of her closed eyes. ‘You’re going to be all right.’

  Still sucking in her breath, Mandy let her arms fall beside her on to the table.

  ‘Where’s the medical section,’ the man with the newspaper said.

  ‘Margaret, show him.’

  She shook her head. ‘I won’t, Victor, I’m sorry. It’s for your good too.’

  ‘Well do something!’

  Margaret turned and started away.

  ‘Now where are you going.’

  ‘I’ll get The Life of Mary Baker Eddy.’

  ‘I might take her out of here,’ Colin said.

  ‘Oh no. Don’t move her.’

  ‘Yes, take me out.’ Mandy raised her arms again.

  ‘You don’t want to be moved, Mandy.’

  Mandy put her arm around Colin’s neck. Colin reached under her shoulders and put his other arm under her legs and lifted her up from the table.

  ‘Sir,’ the man said, ‘this is the very worst thing you could be doing for her.’

  ‘I want him to,’ Mandy said.

  ‘I’m chancing it.’ Colin hoisted her up slightly higher and started toward the door.

  ‘Here,’ Margaret said, coming up to Colin with a large book.

  ‘I don’t have a card.’

  A small boy separated himself from the other children and came toward them. ‘Is she dead?’

  ‘Not yet.’

  Another patron held open the front door as he carried her out of the building and down toward the street. ‘How do you feel.’

  ‘I just started gasping,’ she said.

  ‘But is it better.’

  ‘I think so.’

  ‘Can you open your eyes yet.’

  She opened them.

  ‘Good,’ he said. ‘Are you in the library car park?’

  ‘Rob has my car.’

  ‘You don’t have your car?’

  ‘His is in the shop. He borrowed mine.’