Эд Макбейн - Love, Dad

“Knew what?”

“I thought your daughter had permission.”

“My daughter? Permission for what?”

“Well, to... to share the apartment.”

“My daughter’s sharing an apartment with a girl named Judy Gordon, now perhaps you can explain...”

“Is that what she told you?”

“That’s not only what she told me, that’s what happens to be the fact of the matter.”

“Judy Gordon,” Mrs. Steinberg said.

“Yes, Judy Gordon.”

“It’s Judd Gordon. Not Judy.”

There was a long silence on the line.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Croft, I... so many young people are living together these days, I thought... I really thought you knew. The reason I wrote is they’ve left for California now, you see. Lissie and Judd. Without paying the February rent. And now the March rent is also coming due...”

“Lissie will be home before Easter, I’m sure the March rent...”

“Well, that’s not the impression Joshua got. My son.”

“What do you mean? What impression did he get?”

“That it was indefinite.”

“What was indefinite? I’m sorry, Mrs. Steinberg, but I find this entire situation...”

“I can understand...”

“What did he find indefinite?”

“Whether or not they planned to come back.”

“From California, do you mean?”

“Well... yes. That’s where they went, didn’t she tell you she was going to California?”

“Yes, she told me, of course she told me.”

“Then... well, I don’t know what to say. My son had the distinct impression they planned to... well... stay there.”

“Your son is mistaken,” Jamie said flatly. “My daughter has every intention of returning to Boston after the spring break.”

“Well, if that’s what she told you.”

“That’s what she told me, and I have no reason to doubt her.”

“Well,” Mrs. Steinberg said, and the single word said all there was to say. Lissie had lied to him about the apartment, she had told him her roommate was a girl named Judy Gordon; how in hell could he believe anything else she’d told him! The silence lengthened.

At last, he said, “I’ll send you my check for... what is it?”

“Her share is sixty-five for February, and sixty-five for March. But if she plans to come back, maybe...”

“She plans to come back, but she won’t be living in that apartment anymore,” Jamie said.

“Then I’d want the sixty-five for March, too.”

“I’ll send you my check for a hundred and thirty.”

“You understand that Joshua will refund the March rent the minute...”

“Yes, I understand that.”

“Mr. Croft, please forgive me, I had no intention of...”

“That’s quite all right.”

“The way things are nowadays, a parent doesn’t know what to do. If I’ve caused any trouble...”

“No, that’s all right.”

“I worry about Joshua day and night. I don’t know where it’ll end, Mr. Croft, I just don’t. And I realize how you, with a daughter...”

“That’s all right, Mrs. Steinberg,” he said.

“I’m sorry if I’ve caused any problem between you.”

“No, no problem at all,” he said.

They had known, of course, that Lissie was headed for California, had in fact argued fruitlessly against the plan from the moment she’d proposed it, astonished when they realized she wasn’t asking permission to go, but was simply filling them in as a matter of courtesy. It was Connie’s contention now that nothing so terribly drastic had happened; their daughter had simply lost her virginity, something that had to happen, anyway, sooner or—

“She’s been living with this guy!” Jamie shouted.

“Yes, so I understand,” Connie said.

“How can you take this so calmly?”

“I don’t think she’s committed a crime of heinous proportions. She’s...”

“When you were eighteen...”

“When I was eighteen, you seemed singularly intent on doing to me exactly what this boy has done to her. ”

“And never got to first base!”

“The times they are a-changin’, dear.”

“I don’t want you transmitting that attitude to Lissie,” Jamie said. “When she calls...”

“ If she calls...”

“She’d damn well better call.”

“My God, you sound positively Victorian,” Connie said.

“Oh? Really? My daughter’s...”

“Our daughter.”

“Our daughter’s fucking around with some pimply-faced...”

“Jamie, what the hell’s the matter with you?” Connie asked flatly. “Would you please tell me?”

“Nothing,” he said. “Nothing’s the matter with me.”

And then, as she found him doing more and more often these days, he turned away from her, ending the conversation, ending whatever brief moment of intimacy had been inspired by his daughter’s malfeasance and the revelation of it by the woman in Chicago.

Lissie did not call until that Sunday night, the twenty-second. Jamie picked up the phone in the kitchen, and the moment the operator told him it was a collect call from a Melissa Croft in San Francisco, he yelled to Connie to pick up the extension in the upstairs bedroom. They had barely exchanged hellos when he heard the small click telling him Connie was on the line.

“Lissie,” she said, “are you all right?”

“Yes, fine, Mom,” Lissie said. “Exhausted, but fine.”

“Where are you staying?”

“We crashed with a friend out here. A girl Judy knows.”

“Give me the number there,” Jamie said at once, “and let’s cut the Judy crap.”

“Jamie...”

“Stay out of this, Connie. What’s the number there?”

“Dad?”

“Give me the number.”

“It’s... just a second,” she said. “It’s 824-7996.”

“What’s the area code?”

“415.”

“Thank you. Why’d you lie to us, Lissie?”

“About what?”

“Lissie...” he warned.

“Okay, there’s no Judy, okay?”

“No, there’s a Judd.”

“Yes.”

“And a Joshua, and Christ knows how many...”

“Just Judd and Joshua.”

“Are you sleeping with both of them?”

“Jamie!”

“Or just Judd?”

“Come on, Dad.”

“Jamie, you’re being...”

“Answer me, Liss?”

“Dad,” she said, slowly and carefully, “I don’t think that’s any of your business.”

“It isn’t huh? I get a letter from a woman in Chicago, there’s a goddamn court order in the letter, she wants to know why my daughter ran off without paying the rent...”

“I didn’t run off! We forgot, that’s all. Jesus, that fucking Steinberg! He knows we...”

“I don’t appreciate that kind of language,” Connie said.

“I’m sorry, Mom, but he knew we planned to pay the rent, Jesus! Do you know what this is? It’s he’s a lousy guitar player, and he knows Judd’s about to break up with him...”

“He’s a musician, is he?” Jamie said. “This Judd Gordon.”

“Yes, he’s a musician.”

“Marvelous,” Jamie said.

“He went to Harvard,” Lissie said defensively.

“How old is he?”

“Nineteen. Well, he’ll be twenty soon.”

“And he’s already graduated from Harvard?” Connie said.

“No, he didn’t graduate.”

“What did he do?” Jamie asked.

“He left.”

“He dropped out, you mean.”

“Well, yes, if you want to put it that way.”

“And now he’s a musician.”