Gene Wolfe - There Are Doors

Tentatively he said, “It’s been a couple of days, I think.” Did some other version of himself eat here too?

“What you think you say? Maybe a month. You gonna get real skinny.” Mama Capini turned her smile on Fanny. “Look at him! Never eats right but here.”

“I know. He had waffles for breakfast.” Fannie shuddered elaborately.

“That’s right, no good! Maybe I open in the morning, give him omelets and some nice prosciutto, fresh bread. Then I save his life.”

He asked her, “Mama, do you remember Lara? The redhead I brought here?”

“Sure, I know Lara.” The gold tooth flashed again. “Nice girl, too good for you.”

He nodded. “I know, Mama. Has she been in here since she came with me?”

“Oh.” Mama lowered her voice and glanced at the vacant tables around them. “Lara dump you?”

“I’m trying to get undumped. Has she?”

“Last night for dinner, but real late.” Hopelessly, Mama spread plump, clean hands. “We’re all out of tortellini.”

Last night! He asked, “It was Lara? You’re sure?”

“Course. I know her right away.”

Fanny asked, “Was she with anyone?”

“You take him yourself. He don’t look so bad. You make him forget Lara.”

“I’m going to try. But was she?”

“Married couple, new married.” Mama noticed his skeptical expression. “I’m tellin’ you the truth. She’s got rings and everythin’. They hold hands under the table.”

Fanny said, “Describe them, please.” From a corner of his eye, he saw that she had slipped a small notebook and a stub of pencil out of her purse.

“He’s big! Bigger than Amedeo. She’s a little woman like you, real pretty. Both got yellow hair, the man and the woman.”

“How old?”

Mama shrugged. “’Bout the same as you.”

“How were they dressed?”

“Man’s got a blue suit. A tailor made it—he’s too big for Kopplemeyer’s. But all wore out, should have thrown it out last year, you know? I see the suit and I think, bet Lara pays. But I’m wrong. He pays.”

“How was his wife dressed?”

Mama looked thoughtful. “Got a red wool dress, nice dress, but off the rack. Red coat with a fox collar. You know her?”

Fanny shook her head. “How about Lara?”

“Fur coat, a nice one, a real mink, pretty dark. Gown for a ball, you know? Zecchinos all over, like a rainbow. Low in front. Green stones in a necklace, maybe real.” Mama touched her graying hair, then her neck. “I should have seen he’s goin’ to pay, not Lara. Lara knows he’s goin’ to, so she brings them where you took her. Not too high, you know? Nice girl.”

Fanny said, “You’re a good observer.”

“He brought her, then she brings this couple. It’s my business, so I noticed.”

The waitress arrived with their minestrone, and Mama rose. “Anything’s not good, you tell me.”

Fanny smiled. “We will, but I’m sure everything will be wonderful.”

When Mama was gone, he said, “I have to make a phone call.”

“Really? Your soup will get cold.”

“No,” he told her. “Not really. I’ll be right back.” He made handwashing gestures.

The restrooms were at the end of an alcove toward the rear, and there was a pay telephone between their doors. He went into the men’s, relieved himself, and rinsed and dried his fingers as well as he could. If Fanny had followed him, she would probably have returned to the table when she saw him go in. The coins in his pocket were mostly those of the real world, of his own world—fraudulent-looking quarters with nickel faces and copper rims, pennies of copper-coated zinc. But Capini’s itself was part of his real world too, and in it he should be able to telephone his apartment without difficulty and without getting Klamm or anyone else but Lara, if Lara were there.

One of Mama’s sons came in and stood at the urinal. “Ya gotta make a phone call? I can give ya change.”

“No, thanks,” he said. “I’ve got enough.”

On the other side of the door he put a quarter in the slot. The earpiece chimed once and reassured him with a dial tone. He wanted to push the buttons quickly; he made himself slow down so that he could be certain there had been no mistake.

He pressed the last digit, and the dial tone ceased. There was nothing, no sound at all. His quarter jingled into the coin return when he hung up. Reinserting it, he entered his number again.

Behind him, Mama’s son said, “Can’t get through, huh?”

He shook his head. “It doesn’t ring.”

“They shouldn’t have let those sons of bitches bust up the Bell System.” Mama’s son turned away.

“Wait a minute. Can you break a fifty for me?”

“No problem. Come up to the register.”

He followed Mama’s son to the desk, slipping a bill out of Sheng’s packet.

“Need singles?”

“No,” he said. For a moment he held his breath. “Just a couple fives.”

“Okay.” Mama’s son accepted the fifty, laid it on the cash register, and gave him two twenties and two fives; the twenties had Andrew Jackson’s picture, the fives had Lincoln’s. “Whatcha think about the fight?”

“What fight?” He had been studying the bills. Suddenly afraid he had studied them too long, he thrust them hurriedly into a pocket.

“What fight?” Mama’s son sounded aggrieved. “Joe’s gonna fight the champ. Don’tcha read the paper?”

“That’s right,” he said. “I did see that. Let’s hope Joe gives him a hell of a match.”

“Take it to the bank, pal. Joe’s a customer, ya know. He was in last night with his wife and some other mantrap. Big as a house, but he don’t throw his weight around. He’s as nice an’ polite as you or me.”

He said, “I’ll keep my fingers crossed,” and went back to the table, where he sat with his head in his hands. There was an empty bowl in front of him.

“Yours was getting cold,” Fanny said, “so I ate it.” There was a full bowl before her, still steaming. After a moment, she picked it up and offered it to him.

“That’s all right,” he said.

“I was just trying to make a joke. Take it, it’s yours anyway. What’s the matter?”

“How long have you been eating here?”

“What?”

“I asked how long you’ve been coming in here. When we were in your room you said there was a good Italian place a couple of blocks away—something like that. So you’ve eaten here before. When was the first time?”

Fanny counted on her fingers. “Four days ago. Tuesday.”

“And they took your money?”

“I didn’t pay.” She hesitated. “I was with a sergeant I know, a sergeant in uniform. We were hungry, so we decided to try it. He was going to buy, but one of the men who work here said it was okay, on the house. You know how they do for cops sometimes. Now if you want to stay at my place tonight, you’d better tell me what’s up.”

“We’re in my world—the place the Visitors come from. Or if we’re not, this whole place is a Visitor.”

She stared at him in disbelief.

“I’ve eaten here two or three times a week for the past few years. Tuesday night I brought Lara here. Some of her power or magic dust or whatever you want to call it rubbed off. Were you here for dinner? What time?”

Fanny nodded. “About eight.”

“That was when we were here. The store closes at six, and it takes me about an hour to get home on the bus. I came home, showered, and changed clothes. My apartment’s a block and a half that way.” He pointed. “I think if I leave here without you, I might be able to spend the night in my own bed. Maybe even if I leave with you.”

“Then you’ll have to put me up.”

“Sure.”