Джон Макдональд - A Flash of Green

Kat turned the little car into her driveway just after dark on Sunday. Alicia was asleep in the backseat, collapsed uncomfortably across the big wicker picnic basket. Roy slept beside her, curled against the door. For the last half hour Kat had become uncomfortably aware of having burned herself again. It had been a long dazzle of day on the beaches of Sanibel, the sand like snow and diamonds, the Gulf like a stream of hot blue milk. In spite of the wide brim of her coolie hat, the shoulder scarf, the big black glasses, the continual oiling, the time spent in patches of shade, the sun had found her. Her thighs stung, her shoulders smarted, and there were little needles of pain in her back. The all-day sun had merely deepened the brown-bronze of the tough hides of her children.

Never seem to learn, she thought. Now pray that it isn’t the chills-and-fever kind. And that there won’t be too many blisters, and they won’t be too huge and wet.

But nothing could spoil her sense of relief and accomplishment at having gotten through the day. During the day she had tried to make herself lose track of the hours. She had hidden her watch in her beach bag. But she had kept stealing glances at it...

About now he is finishing lunch in Venice, after talking to those men about the design for the new professional building.

Now he is in the car, heading south, heading home, thinking about the contract, planning the preliminary sketches, and at about that same time that drunken woman is storming out of the roadside bar in Punta Gorda, getting into that old pickup truck and heading north, with no license to drive, with the gas pedal flat against the floor, heading in a rage toward Venice where, as it has been reported to her, her common-law husband, missing for over a week, is now in a bowling alley with her sister.

Now both vehicles are entering that big curve north of Murdock.

Now they are a hundred feet apart.

Now the bald tire blows on the pickup truck.

Now Van is dead. Forty minutes from now, I will answer the phone. I will hear it ringing and come in from the yard, running and smiling because I am so sure it is him calling to give me good news.

“Miz Hubble, m’am? This is the State Highway Patrol...”

She drove into the carport. In the sudden silence Roy made a murmuring sighing noise. She put her hand on his shoulder and shook him gently. “Come on, boy. We’re home.”

She got them roused and they each took their share of the things to be carried in. Mosquitoes whined around them in the hot crickety night. When they were inside, with the lights on, the children were astonished to find it was only eight-thirty.

Kat showered away the layers of sun lotion and the crust of sea salt. Then she used an antiseptic spray can, a medication which also contained some pain-deadening agent. She called Alicia in to spray it on her back.

It was so icy it made her yelp, and made Alicia laugh. “Get it on evenly, dear.”

“Your back is pretty, Mommie.”

“Thank you, honey.”

“It’s so smooth, but it’s awful red.”

Roy came into the hallway and yelled, “Colonel Jennings wants you on the phone.”

“Please tell him I’ll call him back in five minutes, dear.”

“I don’t care if they fill up the darn bay,” Alicia said. “We don’t have a boat any more anyhow.”

Kat put her robe on and sat on the edge of the tub and took hold of Alicia’s hands. “That isn’t a very nice thing to say, dear.”

“What’s wrong with it?” the little girl demanded, looking sullen.

“Don’t you like to look out across Grassy Bay?”

“I can’t see it from here, can I?”

“You’re being a little bit fresh. Now, don’t try to pull away from me. I want you to understand something. You can’t think of these things just in terms of yourself, ’Licia. You have to think of them in terms of pleasure for other people. Do you know about those huge redwood trees in California?”

“Sure. We had them in school. They’re the oldest living things.”

“Now just imagine that you’re never going to see them in your whole life. I suppose if they were cut up into boards, they’d be worth a lot of money. Would you care if some men bought them and cut them all down?”

Alicia frowned and bit her lip. “And I wasn’t going to see them anyway? Well... I guess I wouldn’t like it. I mean it’s nice knowing they’re there.”

“You own part of those trees, dear. If they were all divided into a hundred and eighty million parts, one part would be yours. Your part might be just a twig and a couple of leaves.”

“That’s silly!”

“And you own a part of Grassy Bay too. It’s what is called an undivided interest. You don’t know what part you own and I don’t know what part I own, but if it was divided up, our parts wouldn’t be worth very much. Maybe a little sand and a shell and a fiddler crab apiece. But with everybody’s parts of it left together there, it’s a beautiful thing, isn’t it?”

“I guess so.”

“Now, listen carefully, dear. This is hard to understand. If those redwoods were sold, or if the bay is sold, you won’t get any part of the money, even though you own a part of both of them.”

“That would be cheating, wouldn’t it?”

“Clever men can use the laws to cheat all of us and make it sound as if they’re doing us a big favor. That’s what we’re trying to keep from happening. Colonel Jennings and Mr. Sinnat and Jackie Halley and all of us. Do you understand?”

“I... I guess so.”

“Now do you care if they fill up Grassy Bay and put houses there?”

Alicia frowned. “It wouldn’t be right. No, I guess I wouldn’t like it.”

“Now, you run along, honey, and figure out what we’re going to cook up for three tired beachcombers.”

When she was alone, Kat looked at herself in the bathroom mirror. How can you know if you’re doing it right? she thought. How do you know exactly what you’re doing to them with the things you say? You could have done these things so much better, darling. You’d have the right words. They’d understand and remember. I don’t think they really pay much attention to anything I say.

Tom Jennings’ voice was not as forceful as usual over the phone. He sounded remote and windy and indecisive.

“I’ve been trying to get hold of you, Katherine. I don’t know if you can help or not. I hope so. This is very upsetting.”

“What’s the matter, Tom?”

“Di Sinnat phoned me about three o’clock. He was... almost formal. It was as if he was talking to a stranger. He said he had decided not to get involved in committee work this time. He said he was resigning. He said he was sorry to have to withdraw his offer of financial assistance to the committee. He wished us luck. I tried to find out why, but he was very terse and strange.”

“I can’t understand it!”

“Neither can I. I was counting on his help. I never thought he’d... Anyway, I called him back a half hour later to ask him if I could come over and talk to him. I got the housekeeper. She took my name. She came back to the phone and said Mr. and Mrs. Sinnat were gone for the rest of the day.”

“But what could have happened, Tom?”

“I don’t know. I really don’t. I can’t imagine him changing because he’s gotten in with Burt Lesser and those people. And I can’t imagine him being frightened off. I just don’t know, Katherine. You’re as close to them as anybody I can think of. I must tell you he did sound as if there’s no chance of his changing his mind. But one always hopes. At least, maybe you can find out why this has happened. Without the two thousand dollars he promised for our campaign fund, we’re going to have financial difficulty. It will... weaken our effort to have to spend time and energy raising money when we should be stirring up public opinion.”