“That Tiffany’s thing?”
“I hate it. I’m sorry, but I do.”
I groaned. “No wonder you never wear it. Do you have any idea how much-” I stopped. “Thanks for telling me now. It’s kinda late to return it.”
“Jason, it’s not me,” she said gently. “It’s glitzy and showy and…hideous. It’s Susie, not me.”
“You went gaga over it when you saw it on her.”
“I was just trying to make her feel good. You think I want to compete with Susie on everything? I don’t want her husband and I don’t want her kid and I hate the way they treat him and I don’t want her stupid glitzy social-climbing life. You think I’m like my sister? Ever notice she’s got a thousand dollars’ worth of cosmetics in her travel bag? I use stuff from CVS. We’re just worlds apart. Always have been.”
Maybe I underestimated her even more than she ever underestimated me.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” she said. “I’ve hurt your feelings.”
“The brooch? Nah, I can deal. Actually, I’m just glad I don’t have to look at the thing.”
She laughed, relieved, through her tears. “You really think it’s too late to return it?”
“They won’t be happy about it, but hey, I’m in sales. I’m sure I can persuade them to take it back.”
“What am I going to do about tomorrow?” she said. “I can’t uninvite Kurt, can I?”
I shook my head. “Better not to, I think.”
“I think it’s better for him to think everything’s normal.”
“Whatever normal is with him.”
“Well,” she said, “until you do whatever you do about him-and you need to do something-I just think it’s better to stay on his good side.”
45
Thursday afternoon Kate called me to ask me to pick up some Thai food for dinner. “Susie loves Thai food,” she said.
“Why don’t you ask Susie to pick it up?”
“She doesn’t have a car, you know that.”
“Oh, right. Is Kurt there now?”
“He just left. He already fixed the cable box, but he’s coming back around seven.”
“I’ll be home at six forty-five,” I said.
On the way home I picked up a book on medieval torture that I was fairly certain Ethan didn’t have. I was long past feeling guilty about aiding and abetting Ethan’s twisted obsessions. I also stopped at a cell phone store and bought a new cell phone, keeping the same phone number. I had no idea if it was even possible to bug a cell phone, but if so, I’d have to assume that Kurt had bugged mine.
I kissed and hugged Susie, who was making herbal tea for Kate in the kitchen. She was so deeply tanned she looked like she’d applied walnut stain. “Enjoying Nantucket?” I said. “You’ve really been out in the sun.”
“Me? Please. Clarins self-tanner. I hate the sun.”
“And where’s Ethan?”
“Upstairs reading.” She noticed the gift-wrapped book. “Is that for him?”
“The latest from the Torture-Book-of-the-Month Club.”
“Oh. Um, he’s not into torture anymore.”
“Hey, well, that’s good news.”
“Well, it’s not really an improvement,” she started to say, but Ethan had appeared in the kitchen doorway.
I went up to the kid and gave him a hug. “I bought you a book, but I guess I’m behind the curve. I hear you’re not interested in medieval torture these days.”
“I’ve become interested in cannibalism,” he said.
“Oh,” I said. “Well, I bet that makes for some fascinating dinner conversation.”
“I told him he should look into vampires,” Susie said, with an edge of hysteria. “There’s lots of books on vampires. Lots of excellent novels.”
“Vampires are for teenage girls,” Ethan said. “Did you know the Fore tribe in Papua New Guinea used to eat the brains of their deceased relatives, and that’s why they got this fatal disease called kuru?”
“That’ll teach you not to eat your relatives’ brains,” I said, wagging my forefinger sternly.
“Who’s this friend who’s coming over for dinner?” Susie asked.
“He’s-he’s an interesting guy,” I said. I looked at my watch. “He’s late.”
“Is that dinner?” Ethan asked, pointing at the oil-stained paper bags I’d just brought in.
“Yep,” I said. “Thai food.”
“I hate Thai food. Is there any sushi?”
“No sushi,” I said. “Sorry.”
“Mom, can I have Froot Loops for dinner?”
“Kurt’s late,” I said to Kate. “Should we just start eating?”
“Let’s wait a bit longer.”
I’d set up the Thai food in a kind of buffet on a table in the dining room. Kate was lying back on Grammy Spencer’s couch. She was now allowed to sit up, even get out of bed, so long as she lay down as much as possible.
She was tapping at the keyboard of her laptop. “Hey, you’re not going to believe this,” she said. “I just got an e-mail from the director of the Koerner gallery in New York. She loves Marie’s works. I mean, loves it. She compares her to Faith Ringgold-just like I told you! She thinks Marie’s going to be up there with Romare Bearden and Jacob Lawrence, and she’s throwing around names like Philomé Obin and Hector Hyppolite!”
“That’s wonderful,” I said.
At seven forty-five I tried Kurt’s cell, but there was no answer. I took out his business card from my wallet and got his office number and tried it, but there was no answer there either. I’d never called him on his home phone, just his cell, but I looked in the phone book, just in case. No Kurt Semko listed.
By eight, Susie and Kate and I started in on the skewers of chicken satay. At eight-thirty, the doorbell rang.
Kurt’s hair was wet, and he smelled like soap and looked like he’d just gotten out of a shower. “Sorry, man,” he said. “I must have fallen asleep.”
“Turned off your cell? After giving me all that grief?”
“Didn’t have it with me. Sorry.”
“I hope you don’t mind we ate already.”
“No worries. Can I join you anyway?”
“Of course.”
Ethan came down from his bedroom and said hello. “Are you a soldier?” he said.
“Was,” said Kurt.
“Do you know that when Napoleon’s army retreated from Russia they got so hungry they ate their own horses? And then they resorted to cannibalism?”
Kurt glanced at me quickly, then said, “Oh, sure. That also happened to the German soldiers during World War II. Battle of Stalingrad. Ran out of food, so they started eating their fellow soldiers. Dead ones, I mean. Talk about your military snafus.”
“That wasn’t in my book,” Ethan said. “I’m going to have to look into that. Soldiers and cannibalism.”
He followed me into the living room, where Kurt kissed Kate on the cheek. I didn’t know they were on kissing terms already, but I didn’t say anything. He shook Susie’s hand. “How’s the cable TV?” he asked Kate.
“You know,” Kate said, “I’ve noticed the reception is even better than it used to be. I mean, it’s digital cable, and it’s supposed to be perfect, but the analog channels were always a little fuzzy. Now they’re as good as the digital ones. Oh, there’s one satay skewer left-sorry-but there’s plenty of pad thai.”
I thought I heard my cell phone ringing in my study upstairs, but I ignored it.
Kurt took a paper plate and shoveled on pad thai, vegetables in garlic sauce, fried rice, beef salad. “I don’t know who wired the cable for you, but I changed the RF connection to S-video, and it’s way better. Now you’re taking advantage of the plasma.”
“I see,” Kate said. “Thank you.”
“Plus, I replaced the old four-way splitter with a powered signal amplifier/splitter-makes a big difference. Also the analog-to-digital converter hardware in this cable box was lousy-I went over to the cable company and swapped this out for a new box. They never tell you, but they have a much better one now. And I put in some nice silver-coated video cables. Really upgrades the picture.”