“Who is that?” He wrote down the name.
“Sheryl Goldfein. I had already changed my dress for the night’s game, but then she called and said that they had filled up for bridge that night. I know they always have room for more people in bridge. She thinks that just because she heads up the council she can do anything.”
He tapped his pen on the side of his notebook. Gary’s head nodded back and then he snapped awake.
“Charlotte, what is this council you’ve mentioned?”
“Oh.” She blushed, her pale cheeks spotted red. “We all make decisions about the community. There are eight of us and Sheryl is the chair. She’s very bossy, and I’m sure that’s why she was able to kick me out of bridge.”
“Right. So what do you do on the council?”
“For one of our recent projects, we helped decide where our new garden would be.”
He smiled.
“I saw that spot. Mel showed me.”
“Yes. It will be lovely. We chose relatively rare flowers. They will be an interesting mix.”
“Do you remember the name?”
“I don’t remember right now.”
“That’s fine.” He wanted Mel to tell him anyway. “Does the council work on anything else?”
“We have many projects.” She was getting excited again. “I’ve always ensured Sheryl doesn’t roll over everyone else. She can do that.”
“How so?”
“The worst thing happened a month ago. We eventually passed the motion, although I tried to stop it.”
“What happened?”
“Well,” she began, “every year, we make a donation to a local charity. It has been a tradition for years.”
“Did she try to stop the donation?”
“No. However, she pushed very hard for her charity to receive the money. Every year since I have lived here, we have donated to a charity called Ducks Unlimited.”
“What do they do?”
“They preserve wetlands. I just know that it has been a tradition here. Sheryl, however, decided that we should change to a different charity this year.”
“Did you mind?”
“I wouldn’t have minded. Though I do love ducks.”
She pointed to the left side of the room. A small painted wooden duck sat against the wall. It was swimming in the blue carpet.
“Isn’t he cute?” She sounded happy again.
“I can see you like them.”
“My husband made me that one.”
“He made that?”
“He was very handy.” She touched her face, letting her hand linger on the side of her cheek. “He could carve a piece of wood easily. He carved pumpkins for Halloween. He could hollow them out in a few minutes. The skin would be so thin you could see the candle.”
“I can’t imagine Halloween in this weather.”
“Oh yes. We used to live in the North. He made the pumpkin as thin as paper. Our daughter made the designs.”
“You love ducks.” He looked at the green wooden one again. “Did you like that charity?”
“Honestly, I’m not particularly attached to the one we’ve used in the past. There are so many good causes. Still, Sheryl nearly forced us to donate to the Saving Tomorrow Initiative.”
“What is that?”
“None of us knew. It was very vague. Eventually, she told us it was an educational charity to help save the wetlands. I believe the wetlands are important, but I had not heard of the Initiative. I didn’t see why we had to switch from the ducks.”
“I see.” He looked at his notebook. A full page. He hadn’t had that in a while. Then he looked at Gary, who was gently snoring in the chair. Charlotte didn’t notice.
“I challenged Sheryl at the meeting, in front of everyone. I told her that I would be willing to switch, but I needed evidence of the group’s quality. Almost all of them voted against me, except for Abram. She’s unstoppable.”
“That’s odd. No one wanted to know?”
“None except Abram and I.” She threw up her hands in frustration.
“And so you’re still having problems with Sheryl?”
She smiled and narrowed her eyes.
“After Sheryl kicked me out of the bridge games, I started to do research on everything about her. I don’t have anything to do at night, since Sheryl won’t let me play. They have two games a week now, too. But apparently not enough space for me.”
“I see.”
Charlotte looked down again.
“I’m starting to discover some very interesting things in the course of my investigations. I’m closer than ever. She’ll regret what she did.”
“I see.”
Her hair nearly covered her face. He stood up and touched her back. Bones. Hard, bent over bones. She looked up and smiled weakly.
“That sounded cruel, didn’t it? I’m so dramatic these days.”
“No, you aren’t.”
“I know I am,” she said and laughed. “All this for a game. If my daughter saw me…”
“Where is she?”
“Pennsylvania.”
“I see.”
“And now I’m causing all this commotion over what you say is a prank call. I’m like a child. I said I wouldn’t cry…” She trailed off. Then she turned her head, her back holding still. She looked at the closed blinds. Jake stood up quickly.
“You know what? Let’s fix something.”
He walked over and opened the blinds. Light entered the room and thick beams of it made everything bright. The duck’s bill turned from black to orange, and the walls seemed cleaner. Gary snapped awake and looked around in shock.
“The white light! Am I dead again?”
“Gary, let’s get a picture.”
Charlotte looked worried.
“A picture for publication?”
“Of course not. Just for you.”
She stayed seated in her chair, the walker at her side. Jake helped Gary set up the camera. It was heavier than he thought. Then Gary smiled as he screwed on his special lens. Charlotte touched her hair and pulled it back and up. She sat up as straight as she could. The light smoothed out her face. It was a pale plane, but a pretty one. Around it, her hair looked like rising smoke. Gary adjusted the angle and clicked. He didn’t even need to use the flash because the room was so bright.
CHAPTER 7
It wasn’t until 3PM the next day that Jake realized his problem. When he came home and went inside, he realized it as soon as he looked at his open closet. He had a semi-formal dinner date. His first date with a beautiful woman. But he didn’t have a suit that fit. He’d brought two suits down to Sarasota, but both of them had been made for a different man. Black and navy blue, and both for someone 75 pounds heavier. He couldn’t tell Mel, but he didn’t want to cancel.
He tried to do all his other work first. He filed his dispatch to Thompson as quickly as he could and hoped he wouldn’t call. He went in the bathroom and took a shower. Razor. Deodorant. Toothbrush. But it was all stalling from trying to solve the problem of his suit.
He put on underwear and a white shirt. That one was new and tailored. Then he walked slowly to the closet. He picked out the black suit. Black was slimming, he’d heard. He’d heard it when he was 75 pounds heavier. And he was sure that black only made the person look thinner. It didn’t work for the suit.
He held it up and looked in the mirror. It looked fine then. But he knew that it fit differently on your body than it did held in front of it, like a paper doll. Even his ties seemed fat now. He didn’t know why he’d kept the suits. Maybe it was supposed to be motivational, a reminder to eat carefully. Now he didn’t know if he’d be able to go to dinner.
He’d have to cancel. He picked up the phone and scrolled to “M.” It was the way it had to be. Her name flashed, but he didn’t press send. No, it would be fine. It was just a suit. People didn’t notice what men wore anyway-he couldn’t cancel over that. The women were the show. He admired the crisp outline of his shirt. Then he put on the jacket and pants.
It looked like he’d snuck into his fathers’ clothes. It wasn’t just baggier, it seemed longer. His bulk had taken up length, not just width. The sleeves went down through his wrists and the pant legs covered his feet. He didn’t know he’d been shrunk. Around his waist, the belt bunched so much cloth it looked like he was wearing frills. He stood in front of the mirror. Then he jumped. Someone was standing outside the window behind him.