Eureka

CHAPTER 42

I drove back to the house, made a big fuss over Rosie, and gave him two cans of dog food and an extra bone. I kept my arm out of the shower so the bandage wouldn’t get wet, then dressed in my best navy slacks and blue shirt. I stopped by the drugstore and picked up the most expensive bottle of champagne they had, and went next door to the toy store to get a tin bucket, the kind kids take to the beach. There was a little girl, no more than eight or nine, selling roses on the corner. Ten cents apiece. She had sixteen left. I bought them all and gave her five bucks. I thought she was going to cry.

It was getting dusk when I turned into Millie’s drive.

She opened the door before I got to it.

“Hi,” I said, “I happened to be in the neighbor…”

She didn’t let me finish. She pulled me in the house and put the roses and the pail with the champagne on a table near the door and she kissed my cheeks and my lips, and then took the pail and led me up the stairs and into her bathroom. She turned on the faucets to the tub and poured in a bottle of bubble bath. She unbuttoned my shirt slowly, kissing my chest as she did. She unzipped my pants and pulled them down, and sat me down on the edge of the tub and took off my shoes and socks. Then she slowly unbuttoned her shirt and let it fall on the floor, and slipped off her tennis shorts and panties. She stuck a toe in the water, eased herself down into the bubbles, then took my hands and led me into the tub facing her.

Then she noticed the bandage.

“My God, what happened?” she said with alarm.

“Later,” I said. “How about the champagne?”

“Later,” she murmured.

I settled into the tub and she slipped her legs around my hips and took my arm and gently kissed the wound.

“How bad is it?” she asked softly.

“Well,” I whispered, “I think it may have ruined my dreams of becoming a concert pianist.”

She locked her legs around me and slid me to her.

“Thank God,” she whispered in my ear. “I hate Chopin.”