Summer Cool

32

It was dark when Paine got to his office. There was no one laying for him in the alley, no one waiting in the hallway outside his door, only a new pile of bills and supermarket flyers inside the door, which he dropped straight into his wastebasket. There were no messages on the tape machine, but there was a long, thin manila envelope on his desk. Inside was his new lease, in triplicate, with all the changes he had insisted on. There was also a short note from Anapolos, apologizing for the delay, promising that he would never use his pass key again. The key was enclosed in the envelope. There was a new air conditioner in the window, the instruction booklet still on its string around one of the control knobs.

But the heat had broken. It had grown cool in the office, and Paine didn't need the new air conditioner. Anapolos's note ended by saying, "Have a nice day."

Have a nice day. Paine had had a nice day, but it hadn't been easy. He had gone with Bob Petty to his house, and he had watched, and smiled, while Bob Petty held his wife and his daughters as tight as a man can, telling them how sorry he was and what a fool he was and asking for their forgiveness. They had given it, of course. Terry had cried, so uncontrollably that for a while she'd had to leave the room, and later, after they had all talked until they were talked out, as Paine was leaving, Bobby had gone away, and Terry had taken Paine aside and kissed him and held him and cried again.

"There'll always be a special place for you in my heart, Jack," she had said.

Paine had smiled, and said, "Good, Terry" and then she had continued to hold him and said, "I'm not over you yet. I don't know if I want to be."

He had answered, remembering the way she had looked at Bobby when he'd come in, the fire that had leapt back into her from her supposedly closed, cold heart, "Yes, you do, Terry" and he had kissed her on the cheek and held her himself and then left.

Have a nice day.

Paine thought about driving upstate. He thought about the bass still in the pond behind his summer house, the summer books he had left unread, the iced tea he had left warming in its glass next to his chair in the shade, the telescope dome waiting to be opened to the night stars.

But he did not feel like looking at the stars for a while. He had found what he had searched for among them in his dreams, and found what he needed in his heart, holding him, at least for now.

And hot summer was over. Iced tea wouldn't taste the same; he no longer wanted to read the books piled next to his shade chair. With the breaking of the heat, shade would chill him. The bass would not jump so high from their cooling lake.

Have a nice day.

Leaning back in his chair, Paine put his feet on his desk, and waited for the phone to ring.