— What was wrong with that.
— It was spooky! she snapped back, her teeth clenched tight as her hands on the wheel headlong as though fleeing the sun rising behind them to the blare of brass and pounding bass and even voices raised in screams sounding almost human carrying them, relieved along the way by the usual complement of shopping suggestions, storm window and used car sales, television repair and septic tank rejuvenation, to the posted exit westward where — look, she muttered to him, the land was bright with the lights of — the main terminal, stay here with him while I go in and check it out will you? and she blazed into the curb cutting off a stretch limousine with this dark green status symbol of conspicuous consumption emerging from it with a disdainful toss of the blonde haired leisure class only to be reclaimed by her own once inside among the milling suppliants for Coach Class dodging from one line to another, trying Information and finally surrendering to Snack Bar where her approach was threatened by the friendly advances of a large ungainly dog.
— Pookie stop it! in a flurry of mink — get down now don't, my God it's you! That glorious day we had in the country, it's Lily isn't it? Pookie stop it, you see he remembers you doesn't he, I mean it's rather sweet because he doesn't seem to remember me he can't even remember his own name now get down! with a futile tug at the braided leash — he's just trying to thank you isn't he!
— Me? gathering back her skirt from the dripping muzzle, — but…
— I mean you must think me simply gauche never to have called to thank you myself for your marvelous inspiration, I put ads in the papers the way you suggested offering a reward really more of a ransom and a most unsavoury young man appeared at my door quite unshaven in clothing that looked like he slept on the grates of course it may be the latest fashion I scarcely know anymore and I hardly recognized him, Pookie I mean he had him on a rope and my mind wasn't quite clear I'd been at a party with some Tibetans drinking yak milk the night before and he seemed rather larger than I'd remembered him God knows what they'd been feeding him I mean he's really quite enormous isn't he but thank God he doesn't bark and yap like he used to and the young man seemed quite content with my five hundred dollars, I mean there wasn't a peep out of him when we were robbed two nights later but tell me, how are you all how is Oscar.
— He's okay, he's right out in the…
— Out in the country oh I know, it restores your faith in human nature not having to see anyone, I've been helping Bunker do over his country place and I can't tell you how the creative spirit takes wings simply choosing new slipcovers, of course the place is bedlam because they've torn up the floor to put in the new bar with the space behind it for his barman a good foot lower since Bunker can't bear to look up at him and he's putting in an entire carpentry shop where his handyman Can repair the furniture that gets broken at his parties without the outrageous prices and haggling these antique restorers put you through Pookie! get down!
Will you tell dear Teen that's why I haven't called her? I've simply been up to my eyes with these decorators and upholsterers and God knows what since the day we were married and I hope she wasn't annoyed at not being invited, I mean you only get married for the fourth time once but Bunker's lawyers wanted to get it out of the way this year on account of his taxes since I've had these marvelous losses wherever you look, will you just hold him for a moment? and she thrust out the leash, digging in her purse.
— But I have to go, I…
— Oh I know, it's down there on the left isn't it awful, I mean it always comes on you in public places like this God knows what you can catch.
— Get down quit it! Quit it!
— Pookie stop it! I just have to find my ticket to see where I'm going, there simply hasn't been a moment to get him spayed will you tell Teen that's why I haven't called? I mean I'd just seen her father's picture in the paper the old Judge, I don't remember what it was all about I think he'd done something terribly important and of course I haven't dared call dear Larry when I'm right in the midst of suing his ridiculous law firm behaving simply abominably over these bills and I really can't help blaming it is Larry, isn't it? because he got me mixed up with them in the first place but I haven't said a word because it might upset Teen whenever I've tried to call him they say he's out or in court of course I know he's simply trying to avoid facing me when they tell me he's away they can hardly expect me to believe them can they?
— Ouch! no, I think you can believe them this time…
— Pookie stop it! a ribbon of tickets fluttering in one hand as she yanked back the leash with the other — I mean after all self preservation's nine tenths of the law really, isn't it? and she was left clutching the ticket with — my God, Rio?
Outside at the curb, the policeman looming over the baleful figure huddled alone in the car's front seat looked up sharply from his summons pad to the disheveled onslaught of blonde hair, coat flying loose as she pulled up short for the moment it took her to seize the situation and rush at him with — Officer! pointing haphazard down the platform at a man who might have been fleeing for a tiled refuge from the throes of diarrhea — he stole my purse! and, the pursuit so joined, turned back to the car. — Where is he?
— Gone. I told him we'd wait for his… but she was already round the other side of the car.
— We're waiting for nothing! to the squeal of a cab's brakes behind them as she swept into the stream of traffic leading out to the highway full into the rising sun.
— You're driving too fast. What took you so long in there.
— A woman with a dog.
— But why did…
— I told you! Their course veered to the blare of horns as she reached up for the sunshade — a crazy woman with a dog!
— I thought you were finding out about his flight, I had to sit out there with him while he…
— What's that? where her eye caught the glitter of gold snapping open and closed in his hand.
— This? It's my grandfather's watch, it was in his pocket he almost forgot to give it to me. I had to sit out there with him while he dragged me through the whole thing again, Father getting furious when he saw that lower court decision where Mudpye put one over on that stupid woman judge and what fools we were not to spot the trap they laid for us letting us sue in district court here instead of California preempting the Federal statutes and getting it in under New York law and not even following through with an appeal, what kind of nitwits were my lawyers anyhow? This old bugger tried to run them down but they told him my lawyer had gone fishing and they didn't know anything about that black who showed up down there trying to register those family letters for copyright so Father sat down and did it himself. He knew Judge Bone, knew he'd see right through it but he sat down and wrote out the appeals brief himself and sent that local kid lawyer up here with it, that was Father. You want something done right you do it yourself, he could have called me couldn't he? what I was going through? May have thought I was a, that I was a damn fool that's what he said, that I was just a damn fool but I wasn't venal, that I'd sold out the family and Grandfather writing that movie he knew they were just using it to block his seat on the circuit court with the madness and all the rest of it but, and then he told me, when I said maybe Father thought I was a damn fool but, but he came through for me didn't he? snapping the watch case open, snapping it closed hard and clutching it there — that he cared about me, that he did it because he cared enough about me to…
— Is it gold?
— Is, it what. Is what gold.
The car veered again as she glanced down, her hands tight on the wheel and the sun catching the perspiration beading her lip. — You could sell it, she said. — You could sell it and buy something.