"I came around because Daisy needed urgent help with her multiplication."
"No you didn't."
"All right, I came here to give you your birthday present. Sorry it's two days late."
He reached down beside the couch and produced a large box wrapped in shiny gold paper with a silver bow on it.
"Mickey, for goodness' sake. You didn't have to do that."
"Of course I did. I love you more than any child welfare officer I know. Go on, take it."
"Not until I know what you want me to do."
"You see right through me, don't you?"
"No, I can't. I can't see round corners."
"All right," he said. "Merlin Krauss does most of his business at the Compass, in the Sternwheeler Bar. I've been talking to the barman and Krauss kind of holds court there while various people come and go. I'd like to take you there tomorrow afternoon and see if you can pick up on anything he's saying."
"I have a welfare appointment in the Hawthorne District at three."
"Can't you put it off?"
"No, I can't. Supposing it turns out to be another Daniel Joseph?"
"Okay, Friday, then. How about Friday?"
The Beauty of the World
After supper, when Marcella had washed up the dishes and gone home, they sat in the living room together and finished the bottle of pinot noir. Daisy sat close to Mickey, and Holly could tell that she loved having a man in the house. David had been killed when Daisy was only three years old, and she could scarcely remember him, although she kept a faded color photograph of him next to her bed and she always talked to her friends about the times when "my daddy used to take me for long, long walks" and "my daddy always let me have as much candy as I wanted." Holly had never told her that the "long, long walks" had been a single stroll around Hoyt and Irving one August evening, and the candy had been a single bag of M&M's.
"Come on, Daisy, bedtime," Holly said at last.
"Can't I stay up late tonight?"
"You have school in the morning and I have to go to court."
"But Uncle Mickey's here."
Mickey said, "I'll tell you what: If you go to bed now, I'll tell you a story. It's an old, old story that my mother used to tell me, and my grandmother used to tell my mother, and my great-grandmother told my grandmother. It's probably the oldest story in the world, except for the story I always tell when I'm late for duty."
Mickey sat on the edge of Daisy's bed while Holly had to share the pine rocking chair in the corner with about fifteen knobbly-kneed and sharp-elbowed Barbies. Holly was beginning to feel very tired, but she hadn't seen Daisy so happy for such a long time, and she managed to raise a smile. Daisy's eyes were shining in the light from her pink frilly bedside lamp.
Holly thought to herself:I wonder if I could let another man into my life just for Daisy's sake?
Mickey said, "This is a story about a lonely king who was looking for a queen. The lonely king went riding in the forest one winter's day,clippety-clop, clippety-clop. The ground was covered in snow, and as he came to a clearing a raven came and perched on a hollybush next to him-caw! caw!-to peck at the bright red holly berries. The lonely king said, 'I am not going to rest until I find a queen who has hair as black as that raven's wing, and cheeks as white as the snow, and lips as red as those berries.'
"He went riding on a little further,clippety-clop, clippety-clop,and he came to a churchyard. Four men were sitting outside the churchyard with an open coffin in which a dead man was lying, with the snow falling on him. 'Why don't you bury him?' asked the lonely king, but the men said,'Boo-hoo,we don't have enough money for a funeral.'
"The lonely king said, 'He must be buried; it is only right,' and he laid five gold coins on the dead man's chest and went riding off,clippety-clop, clippety-clop. He rode and he rode, and as night fell he realized he would have to find somewhere to stay for the night. After a while he saw somebody swinging a lantern in the darkness. It was a red-haired man all dressed in leather, with a sack on his back. He said, 'My lord, I know where you can rest your head this very night, and also find your heart's desire.'
"The lonely king invited the red-haired man to climb up on the back of his horse, and the red-haired man guided him to a tall, crumbling castle by the sea. They knocked on the door,rappity-rap,and they were answered by an elderly king with a long white beard, who invited them to stay for the night and to share some of his meat loaf.
"While the lonely king and the red-haired man were eating their meat loaf, a beautiful girl came tripping down the stairs,trippity-trip,with hair as black as a raven's wing, and cheeks as white as snow, and lips as red as holly berries. For the lonely king-whoa!-it was love at first sight.
"He asked the elderly king if he could take his daughter's hand in marriage. The elderly king agreed, but the daughter said, 'You shall not have me unless you keep safe this comb and give it back to me in the morning.' She gave the lonely king a silver comb and he put it in his pocket.
"When they were getting ready for bed, however, the red-haired man said, 'Do you still have the comb, master?' And when the lonely king searched in his pocket, he found that it was gone. He went to bed deeply upset, and wept so much that he soaked his pillow. I mean, some crybaby, or what?
"But the red-haired man opened up his bag, and out of his bag he took a dark cloak and some slippery shoes and a sword made of shining white light. He tippy-toed downstairs, and he saw the daughter leaving the castle with the silver comb in her hand. He followed her to the seashore, where she threw a seashell into the water-splish!-which magically became a boat. He did the same-splish!-and he rowed behind her to a rocky island.
"On the island, next to a flickering fire, sat a giant. The daughter gave him the silver comb and told him what she had done. 'Lock it in your treasure chest,' she said, 'and keep it safe for me.' The giant dropped the silver comb in his treasure chest, but the red-haired man fished it out again with the tip of his sword before the giant had time to lock it, and he rowed back to the mainland.
"In the morning the lonely king presented the daughter with the silver comb, and she was so furious that she made smash of every dish on the breakfast table-smash! smash! smash!She said, 'You shall not have me unless you keep safe these scissors and give them back to me in the morning.'
"Again that night the lonely king found that the scissors had disappeared out of his pocket.Boo-hoo, boohoo. But again the red-haired man put on his dark cloak and his slippery shoes and followed the daughter to the seashore, and rowed out to the island. He caught the scissors with the tip of his sword just as the giant tossed them into his treasure chest, and took them back to the lonely king. The next day the daughter was so angry that she smashed every dish on the breakfast table and all the chairs as well-smash! crash! smash! crash!-and threw a whole box of Cheerios out of the window.
"On the third day she said to the lonely king, 'Very well I will marry you in the morning if you bring me the last lips I kiss tonight.' The lonely king thought that this was probably hopeless, but agreed to try. That night the red-haired man put on his dark cloak and his slippery shoes and followed her down to the seashore, and across to the giant's island. The daughter said to the giant, 'Kiss me, to make sure that your lips are the last lips I kiss tonight.'