Sebastian Stuart - The Mentor

“I’m home.”

“I thought your flight got in at midnight.”

Anne purses her lips and spits out, “We had favorable tailwinds.”

“I told Emma she could take a shower.”

“Did you also tell her to slip into something comfortable while she was at it?”

“Emma, the food is up front. I’ll be right there.”

Anne is alone with the bastard and there isn’t a lot of room to maneuver in the small space.

“Does she fuck as well as she types?”

“Don’t be vulgar, Anne.”

“You’re screwing your secretary in our apartment and you accuse me of being vulgar?”

Charles lowers his voice. “Anne, there’s something about Emma I haven’t told you.”

“I think I just figured it out on my own.”

“I’m using her, for the new book. I’m studying her, the way she talks, the way she thinks.”

“The way she makes love?”

“I let it go too far. Boundaries got blurred. I’m sorry.”

Anne looks at him, at that face, telling her that his work is more important than their marriage. Or is he just using that as an excuse to get his rocks off? She slaps him hard, so hard her palm burns. She stands there for a moment, not quite believing what’s happening. It’s all so wrong-that their marriage has come to this. And tomorrow she’s going to kill her baby.

“We had everything, Charles, everything. Why… why?”

He puts a hand on her shoulder.

“Don’t touch me! Don’t you dare touch me!”

Charles looks her right in the eye. “I won’t touch her again, that’s over. I promise you that. But try to understand. The last book was hell, and the truth is I’m afraid to let her go. I’ve grown dependent on her for this new book, in some way I don’t really understand. This is for our future.”

Anne can feel his fear and it makes her afraid. She’s confused and weary and soiled. She believes him-he is using the girl for his new book-but what kind of man does that make him?

“I don’t ever want her to set foot in this apartment again.”

“Fair enough. And I promise you that as soon as the book is finished, she’ll be out of our lives forever.”

Anne feels the fight go out of her. The fact that Emma is inspiring him hurts the most. A fuck is one thing, but that Emma could be such a part of his work, in a way that she’s never been… Suddenly all Anne wants is for him to be out of her sight, to be alone. A bath, a hot bath.

“I don’t know, Charles, I honestly don’t know.”

“I love you, Anne, and I’m very sorry.”

Without answering, Anne walks past him, through the bedroom and into the bathroom, locking the door behind her…

Charles races down the hallway toward the elevator. The door is closing-he sticks out his arm to stop it. It rolls open and he steps in. Emma is backed into the corner, her forearm covered with bloody scratches.

“Did Anne do that?”

She quickly rolls down her sleeve. “Leave me alone.”

My God, she did it to herself.

“I’m so sorry you had to go through that.”

She stares straight ahead as the elevator begins its descent.

“Emma, talk to me.”

“There’s nothing to say.”

“There’s everything to say.”

“Go fuck yourself.”

“Be reasonable.”

“Don’t you mean obedient?”

And she turns on him, fierce. A bloodstain appears on her sleeve. They both notice it. She turns away, breathing in quick, shallow gulps, her lower lip trembling. She might leave town, and the book isn’t finished; he needs her, needs to protect her-she’s suicidal, isn’t she?

“Emma, listen to me. I’m going to tell Anne I want a divorce.”

Emma tries to disguise her shock, and her hope-but it sparks in her eyes. She just keeps staring straight ahead. Charles lets his words sink in.

“And from now on, we’ll work at your place. You’ll never have to see her again. Emma, you must know you’re more important to me than she is. Didn’t we prove that today?”

Still she won’t look at him.

“I love you, Emma. But I won’t force you to do anything. It’s all up to you.”

The elevator doors open. Emma turns and looks at Charles, a dare in her eyes. Then she walks away.

At this hour, in the dark belly of night, the streetlights of Central Park glitter like lost jewels. Charles stands at the window in his study, tracing the path of a lone taxicab as it makes its way beneath the spindly web of trees. He hopes that whoever is in the cab is beautiful and young and that the night holds them gently.

Charles turns away from the window and reaches for the bottle of Chivas on his desk. He pours himself another drink and takes a long, slow sip. The only light comes from a small desk lamp with a green glass shade. Charles is comfortable in its shadows.

It isn’t really Emma’s book anymore. He’s changed virtually every sentence, suggested whole scenes, molded Zack, given the mother complexity and pathos. It’s written in his style; it has his voice. It’s his book now. Besides, he needs it so much more than she does. It’s his resurrection. If Emma publishes the book, it will destroy her. Her past will come out, the media will create a sideshow, and she’ll be turned into a freak: The Girl Who Murdered Her Mother. She’ll have a psychotic break. What had the psychiatrist said? Incipient schizophrenia. Charles has to protect her. She’s all alone in the world.

He walks into the outer office. She’s left a sweater, a simple gray cardigan, on the back of her chair. He picks it up and feels the wool, running it slowly between his fingers. Then he presses his face into the sweater, and smells Emma, his Emma, and thinks of their day together, their lovemaking. They gave each other so much of themselves-from the beginning, really. What he’ll do is set up some kind of fund for her, from the earnings. He’ll call his old Dartmouth classmate, Dan Leber, he’s one of the best psychiatrists in the city. When they finish their work, Emma will need a good long rest somewhere, somewhere in the country, somewhere peaceful.

Charles goes back to his desk and pours himself another two fingers of Chivas, which he downs in a swallow. He’ll have to be very careful from here on in. If he can just keep things on keel for another two weeks, that’s all the time he needs, he’s that close. Portia wrote him a letter, demanding to see the book. And so he’ll show her what he has. He gathers up the manuscript and slides it into a manila envelope. He switches on his computer, its screen bathing him in a ghostly glow, and types the title page: The Sky Is Falling

A novel by

Charles Davis

For the briefest time, between the reveler’s last hour and the laborer’s first, Manhattan feels like a ghost town. In the unearthly calm and quiet, Charles walks out of his building with the manila envelope under his arm. The mailbox is a block away, but it feels like a mile. Charles loves the stillness, the sense of having stepped into a world with its own rules. Of course he’s doing the right thing, the right thing for everyone. He reaches the mailbox and opens it. For a moment he hesitates, and then he drops in the envelope and the box clangs shut.

Anne can’t sit still. She’s overwhelmed by anxiety, and she hates this overdecorated suite at Kayla’s hotel. She wants to rip down the hideous window treatments-acres of swag-infested paisley. The coffee on the room-service tray is cold but she takes another gulp anyway, lights a Kent, and flicks on the television. She races through the channels until they blur into a vomitous kaleidoscope of American culture. She walks into one of the enormous bathrooms and turns on a hot bath. Then she turns it off. She tosses her cigarette into the toilet. When she walks back out into the living room Kayla is standing there.