In the light of the next day, killing Charlie didn’t seem like such a good idea. Given Calvin’s luck, he was bound to get caught for a start. And, technically, Charlie would still be the winner. If you didn’t phone your picks in on time, the administrator assigned you the underdogs, and even with the DAWGS, as they were called, Charlie would still beat the field. He would be too dead to collect his winnings, of course, and Calvin supposed they would go to whoever came second.
The way the pool worked was every Wednesday before five o’clock you phoned in your picks, based on that day’s point spread, to the administrator, who ran the whole thing from his desk at one of the major newspapers downtown. You always got his answering machine with its curt message: ‘I’m away from my desk right now. Please leave your message after the beep.’ There were over a hundred people in the pool, at a hundred bucks each for the season, and in addition to the grand prize of $2000, there were also smaller weekly prizes. Calvin had actually covered this year’s entry fee on one weekly win. Usually by Friday evening a photocopy of everyone’s picks, along with the weekly and accumulated scores, was faxed to Jeff, who made copies and distributed them in the bar.
Calvin liked to see which teams everyone else had chosen – especially Charlie – but this week he would miss it. On Thursday he had to accompany Mother down to Fort Myers, where they would spend Christmas with their only living relatives, his Aunt Vicky and Uncle Frank, who had retired there seven years ago and were generous enough to help out with the airfare.
The Florida trip used to be the highlight of Calvin’s year. Not because he liked the place. Three or four days was about all he could stand. It was too hot and too full of old people, or people who didn’t speak English, as if Toronto wasn’t bad enough that way. No, what Florida used to mean to him was freedom, glorious freedom! Mother used to stay down there for at least six weeks, and as soon as she was ‘settled’ Calvin was allowed to go home alone. God only knew how Vicky and Frank put up with the old bat, Calvin thought, but they did. Now she was too worried about getting sick and not being able to afford US medical bills, so they were both returning on the following Wednesday.
That Tuesday morning at breakfast Calvin checked the sports section to see if the spreads had changed since Monday. He liked to do that, factor it into his calculations. Sometimes you could guess a lot just by the ways the spreads were changing. After that, his day followed its usual dull routine. He cleared the driveway of snow, did household chores, did some food shopping and took care of Mother. But on Tuesday evening Calvin had a date.
This was one thing nobody knew about him – at least, so he believed. Calvin had a secret girlfriend. Heidi. Probably no one would believe it if he told them that a pudgy, balding, boring fifty-one-year-old man like him could have an attractive blonde forty-year-old woman as a girlfriend. Sometimes he could hardly believe it himself. They had met six months ago in HMV downtown, both looking at the selection of show tunes. A common interest in film musicals led them to venture to a local coffee shop together, where they found they enjoyed one another’s company immensely. A loner by nature – apart from the easy and informal gregariousness of the bar – Calvin found it hard to talk to her at first, but Heidi had a way of drawing him out of his shell. There was, of course, a big problem.
Heidi was married.
Slowly, piece by piece, it emerged over furtive meetings in the city centre, first just for coffees, then regular lunches at Red Lobster, that Heidi was not exactly happy with her marriage. Her children had both left home, one for Winnipeg, poor sod, and the other for southern California, so it was only a matter of time, she told Calvin, before the separation occurred. Until then, they had to be very careful and keep their relationship a secret. Her husband worked shifts for a security company, and this week he was working evenings. Calvin would go over to the west end, where Heidi lived, not far from High Park, and they would talk and make love until midnight, at which time he would dress and sneak out of the back door to where he had parked his car several blocks away.
That Tuesday Heidi did not seem to be in her usual good spirits.
‘What’s wrong?’ Calvin asked, after he had suspected her of counting cracks in the ceiling while they made love.
‘Nothing,’ she said.
‘Come on. I can tell there’s something bothering you.’
‘I told you, it’s nothing. Leave it.’
‘Maybe I can help.’
Heidi turned, propped herself on her elbow and looked at him. ‘I don’t think I can go on,’ she said after a pause.
Calvin felt his chest tighten, his heart race. ‘What do you mean?’
‘This. You and me. I don’t think I can go on.’
‘But why?’
‘It’s not that I don’t like you, Calvin.’ She stroked his cheek. ‘It’s just… oh, everything, the lies, the guilt. Joe and I had a really long talk the other night.’
‘For God’s sake, Heidi, you didn’t tell him…?’
‘No. No, of course not. What sort of a fool do you think I am? No, we just… well, he realized he’d been neglecting me, and I realized I missed him more than I thought. We decided… you know… to try to make a go of things.’
‘Make a go of things?’
‘Yes.’ She smiled. ‘We’re going to start with a trip to Mexico. A sort of second honeymoon. We’re going for New Year.’
‘B-but…’
‘Oh, Calvin. Don’t be upset. Please don’t be upset. You had fun while it lasted, didn’t you?’
‘Yes, but… but I thought…’
‘You thought what?’
‘I mean, just now, even when you knew this, you… we…’ He shook his head.
‘Was that so unfair of me, Calvin? Just to have you one last time? Was that too selfish of me?’
‘It’s not that.’
‘Then what?’
‘It just seems so sudden, so abrupt, that’s all.’ Calvin sat on the edge of the bed and reached for his clothes.
‘But you knew it had to end one day.’
‘I sort of hoped that when you and Joe split up, we might… you know…’
‘Oh, Calvin, that’s sweet. That’s too sweet.’
‘I gather you didn’t?’
Heidi lay back on the pillow. ‘I never thought, really, not beyond the next time. I’ve hurt you, haven’t I?’
‘It’s all right. I’ll mend.’
‘I’m sorry, Calvin.’
‘Don’t worry about it. I’ll go now.’
‘You’ll be careful? Make sure no one sees you?’
‘I’ll be careful.’
Calvin bent over to give her a goodnight kiss, as he always did. She turned her head and offered him her cheek. He kissed it lightly and found it surprisingly cool, then he went downstairs and sneaked out of the back door. He thought of making a lot of noise, but Calvin wasn’t the type to draw too much attention to himself.
He was OK to drive, he told himself as he headed out of the nearest bar – to which he had gone as soon as he’d left Heidi’s – he’d only had two pints and a shot of whisky, and he felt in control. Sad, hurt, but in control.
The city crews had been through the neighbourhood and the roads were pretty clear. He headed down Roncesvalles towards Lakeshore and the Gardiner, noting how quiet the roads were. Hardly surprising, as it was going on for half past one on a cold, miserable Tuesday evening.
It was all over with Heidi. He couldn’t believe it, couldn’t believe the callous way she had treated him. How could she? He had even fantasized a real life for them: restaurants, theatres, musicals, weekends together. Now this.