Mr. Clement made it clear he was not blaming Bucky for how unspectacular the Boston event turned out to be. Bucky had not been assigned to that one. Bucky didn’t know who Clement had trusted to do Boston, but he was betting whoever it was, he wouldn’t be doing any Flyovers missions in the future.
Bucky, however, was in the old man’s good books. Bucky’d engineered the Seattle coffee shop bombing the week before, which left two dead. That made headlines, to be sure.
“New York’s special,” Mr. Clement had said. “That’s why we have to be more ambitious here, Bucky. Not some simple coffee shop bombing.”
“I hear ya,” Bucky said.
His real name was Garnet — last name Wooler — but he’d gotten the nickname Bucky when he was a kid, before his parents managed to scrape up enough money to have him fitted with braces. But the name stuck, and just as well, because as names went, Garnet was no great shakes, either. These days, if anybody asked, he told them he was named after Captain America’s sidekick, Bucky Barnes. There were those who thought the name made him sound stupid, like some country hick. But if he were some dumb rube, Mr. Clement wouldn’t have been putting so much faith in him. That was for sure.
Bucky liked the man, and even though Bucky was now in his late thirties, he looked up to Mr. Clement, who was pushing seventy, as a father figure. Bucky had lost his own dad when he was seventeen, and he missed having someone older and wiser — and male — to mentor him, guide him. Mr. Clement, to a degree, had filled that role.
“We’ll talk again tomorrow,” Mr. Clement said. “A progress report.”
“Sure thing,” Bucky said. “Are you having a nice time?”
Without nodding, Mr. Clement said, “We are. Estelle has never been to New York before. Long way to come, all the way from Denver. So we’re taking in the sights. Might see a show.”
Bucky chuckled. “Oh, there’ll be a show, all right.”
Mr. Clement managed a smile. “Nice to have a front row seat. I didn’t go to Seattle, or Portland, or Boston, and just as well. Would have been hard to explain how I just happened to be in those places at those times. But New York? This trip’s been in the works for months. We’re here celebrating our anniversary.”
“I didn’t know. Congratulations.”
“Thank you, Bucky. You have a restful evening.”
“You, too, Mr. Clement.”
“I’d suggest you hang in here another five minutes after I leave.”
“Sure.”
With that, the older man departed.
Bucky didn’t stay an extra five minutes. He stayed an extra twenty. The truth was, Bucky found watching the penguins very entertaining. Darned if they weren’t the cutest damn things he’d ever seen.
Nine
Barbara had poured herself another finger of scotch, brought it into the bedroom with her, and decided, before turning off the light, to look one last time at online responses to her column. An argument could be made that the comments section on all websites should be disabled. It was just possible that giving an outlet to every anonymous wingnut on the planet to spew hate and spread lunatic conspiracy theories was not in society’s best interests. Barbara sometimes thought wistfully back to the old days when if you wrote a letter to the editor of your local newspaper, you had to include an address and a phone number. Before they printed your letter, they had to confirm that you were really you.
Fucking quaint was what it was. The days before the trolls and the bots and the people with tinfoil hats.
Not every online comment was written by a crazy person, but enough were that it made sense to think twice before dipping in. After you’d read a few, you might feel the need for a shower.
And yet, Barbara could not help herself.
Sitting up in bed, she opened the laptop resting atop her thighs and went to the Manhattan Today website.
Readers who despised Mayor Richard Headley might give passing praise to the column, but mostly they wanted to hurl insults at the man himself. “Rat fucker,” wrote BoroughBob. Well, Barbara thought, that certainly seemed, for New York, more appropriate than “goat fucker,” and was, by current standards, relatively tame. SuzieQ saw the mayor as “a cum stain on the city’s reputashun.” Barbara wondered where SuzieQ had gone to school.
Then there were the Headley supporters who took out their anger against Barbara. “When’s the last time you actually did anything for the city, you cunt Jew?” asked PatriotPaul. Was it worth replying to tell PatriotPaul that, while raised Presbyterian, she no longer belonged to any organized religion whatsoever? Perhaps not. The numerically named C67363 asked, “How’s anything ever going to get done in this city when people like you are always complaining?” It was downright charming when someone could express an opinion without being vulgar.
Barbara scrolled through a few more. On very rare occasions, someone might actually have something useful to say, maybe even point Barbara in the direction of a future article, although she wasn’t seeing anything like that tonight.
But then there was this:
“Sorry about your friend. It’s often the case that innocents are lost in the pursuit of a greater good.”
Barbara blinked, read it again. It was a reference, of course, to the column’s postscript about Paula Chatsworth. How she’d worked briefly at Manhattan Today, how she’d shown so much promise, how her life had been cut short by tragedy when she clearly had so much still to offer.
It was, for Barbara, an emotionally honest bit of writing, and her sadness at the young woman’s death was genuine. People came to the big city to pursue a dream, not get killed in some freakish accident.
Barbara read the comment again.
“Sorry about your friend. It’s often the case that innocents are lost in the pursuit of a greater good.”
What the hell was that supposed to mean?
What “greater good” could the author possibly be referring to?
The author went by the handle GoingDown.
“Very fucking funny,” Barbara said aloud, shaking her head. But then she thought, maybe it wasn’t intended as an elevator joke. The writer could be an oral sex aficionado.
She was about to close the laptop when it dinged. An incoming email.
From Arla.
Barbara could not remember the last time she’d heard from her daughter. A few weeks, at least. Could it have been as long as a month?
Barbara clicked on the email.
“Hey,” Arla wrote. No “Dear Mom.” That would be too much to expect, Barbara knew.
It went on: “I have news. Want to meet for a coffee or something tomorrow?”
News? What kind of news could Arla have? So far as Barbara knew, she wasn’t seeing anyone. Then again, Arla had never been big on sharing the details of her private life with her mother. It would have to be something big for Arla to actually propose getting together.
Maybe Arla had been seeing someone. Maybe Arla was engaged.
Would she be expecting her mother to foot the bill for a wedding? Christ, how much was Headley offering to ghost-write his bio again? Mid — six figures?
No. No way. Arla would have to need life-saving surgery before Barbara would sink that low.
Maybe Arla was pregnant.
Wouldn’t that just be history repeating itself.
Anything was possible.
Barbara clicked on Reply and began tapping away.
“Sure,” she wrote. “When and where?”