Robert B. Parker’s Damned If You Do

51

Jesse was in his living room. The TV was tuned to the old-movie channel and his right hand was submerged in a bowl of ice water.

Mildred Memory was sitting on the other chair, keeping her distance from the water, eyeing him suspiciously.

He had already taken a Vicodin, and the pain had diminished. The ice water would help with the swelling. He had difficulty concentrating on the movie, which, coincidentally, was Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull. It served only to remind him that he shouldn’t have thrown the punch with such abandon.

He muted the TV and sat back in his chair. His hand was nearly frozen, and he had begun to think about taking it out of the water. He had also begun to consider a scotch, but having already downed the Vicodin, he thought better of it.

He removed his hand from the ice water and wrapped it in a towel. He brought the bowl to the sink and emptied it. Mildred Memory was still sitting on the arm of her chair, eyeing him.

“What are you looking at,” he said to her.

She didn’t respond.

He turned off the living room lights and shut down the TV. He went back to the kitchen and loaded a glass with ice. He looked longingly at the bottle of Johnny Walker Black that sat so invitingly on the shelf. He sighed. Then he opened the tap and filled the glass with water. He turned off the kitchen lights and went upstairs.

He stripped to his T-shirt and shorts, washed his face, brushed his teeth, and got into bed. He turned off the bedside lamp, and after his eyes became accustomed to the dark, he fixated on the slits of moonlight that poured across his bed through the partially open venetian blinds.

He closed his eyes and surrendered anew to the effects of the Vicodin. The pain in his hand was now a dull throb. He tried to open his eyes, but the lids were too heavy. He began to drift in and out of sleep.

Sometime during the night, he became aware of Mildred jumping onto the bed and insinuating herself beside him, forcing him to change his position.

Other than that, he slept the sleep of the dead.