These Dreams of You

~ ~ ~

Zan points out the window of the pub. “Our second day in London,” he says, “or maybe it was the third, I forget. . before I met you, before Viv vanished, the kids and I sat here at this same table and Sheba was watching someone right out that window, there across the street — and it was Molly, staring back. A day or so later, she shows up at the hotel and says, Here I am, the nanny.”

“That is peculiar, isn’t it?” says Brown.

Jesus, you think so? Zan wants to reach across the table and grab Brown by the lapels; the British diffidence is driving him nuts. “Now,” he says, “Molly claims she heard we needed a nanny from Viv — who I haven’t heard from at all. Nothing. No email, no phone call, I can’t reach anyone in Ethiopia. . ”

“Viv is a resilient woman,” says Brown.

“Will you stop saying that?” Zan hears his voice rise. “I know she’s resilient. I also know she’s driven about this thing with Sheba’s mother, that this whole business has become a moral crisis for her—”

“She can hardly hold herself responsible—”

“I know that. . ”

“Right. Ronnie Joe. . ”

“Ronnie Jack Flowers. . I know all this. Doesn’t matter what perspective you or I hold on it, what matters is how Viv feels about it and whatever lengths she’s compelled to go to in order to find or help someone who may or may not be Sheba’s mother — and no sooner does Viv go looking for Sheba’s mother and suddenly become incommunicado than Molly shows up.”

The other man frowns. “Not sure I follow that last bit.”

“Never mind,” Zan shakes his head. He doesn’t want to explain the crazy thing that’s been in his head since Molly appeared. “What’s important at this point is finding Viv.”

“Of course.”

“Until then, we’re stuck in London,” and we have no money and we’re about to lose our house but he doesn’t want to explain that either.

Brown replies, “Let me see who I can talk to.”

First useful thing you’ve said, thinks Zan.