Two Much!

44

When Volpinex came out on the terrace, I was sitting in a chaise longue, smiling at the sunny park out there, and rerunning in my head last night’s Bart-Betty reconciliation. Betty herself was out right now with Carlos and the Lincoln, shopping for a surprise present for me, but she would be back before noon, when we would have the light snack — shrimp, lobster, and king crab salad — being prepared for us at this, very moment by Blondell. Following which, we would leave at once for our weekend together on Fire Island.

I was so content in my setting and my memories that at first I didn’t notice the arrival of Volpinex, but all at once there he was, standing beside me, looking down with a slight smile on his lips that did nothing to alter the coldness of big eyes. “Iy!” I said, startled, and sat up so quickly I spilled some of my champagne and orange juice. “Who let you in?”

“No one,” he said. His voice was so soft I could barely hear it over the swish of traffic from far below. “I have my own key,” he said.

“Your own key?” What absurdity was that?

“From Liz.” His thin smile thickened briefly. “I doubt she remembers I have it.”

“Well, I’ll be sure to tell her,” I said, and pushed my glasses up more firmly onto my nose. Bart’s priggishness was uncomfortably easy to fall into.

“I don’t think you will,” he said. The smile became so thin it nearly disappeared, then lived once more as he added, “But I don’t intend to use it again after this, in any event.”

“I should think not. You can’t just walk into other people’s houses.”

“Or other people’s lives,” he suggested. “Or other people’s plans.”

The morning sun was behind this building, casting its stunted shadow onto Fifth Avenue and a bit of the park, so there was no direct sunlight here on the terrace. Nevertheless, the sky was very bright and I couldn’t help but squint when I stared upward at Volpinex, whose face was little more than a silhouette, practically nothing showing but his cold eyes and that flickering humorless cold smile. I thought of standing, meeting him man to man, but became suddenly hyperaware of that railing very near me, and the masses of empty air just the other side. Seven stories down were the concrete sidewalk and the blacktop street. I seemed suddenly to have developed a fear of heights, to feel more secure with my entire body below the level of the railing.

“Why don’t you sit down?” I said. “As long as you’re here. I mean, if you won’t go away.”

“It’s your going away that I’m here to discuss,” he said. He remained standing. His hands, resting calmly at his sides — approximately my nose level — were very long and very thin, but with a look of strength about them. My earlier image of Volpinex as part vampire returned to me, more insistently.

“I am going away,” I said. “Betty will be back any minute—” it seemed for some reason important to make that point, that I wouldn’t be alone for long “—and then we’ll be off for Point O’ Woods.”

“I mean a different kind of going away.” His right hand lifted and made a slender graceful gesture toward the park, as though inviting me to admire it. Or perhaps to fly over it. “Something more permanent.”

What had failed with brother number one he was apparently now going to try with brother number two. I said, “I’m not leaving. I’m staying with Betty.”

An expression of cultured disgust rumpled the smiling lips. “I know you two are married.”

“Then that’s an end to it,” I said.

“Perhaps.” He leaned toward me, placing his hands in odd flattened positions in front of himself, reminding me that he was a self-proclaimed karate expert. “And perhaps not,” he said. His eyes glinted, and a muscle inside his left cheek began jumping, like a moth under a sheet.

“Oh!”

A female voice. It startled us both, and I suddenly realized I’d been sitting there like a hypnotist’s subject, staring up at Volpinex open-mouthed, saying nothing, thinking nothing, feeling only a steadily increasing nervousness. My mouth was dry, my shoulders stiff. My heart was pounding.

“Meestair Dahjj. I deed not know you had company.”

It was Nikki, blessed Nikki, in the living room doorway with the telephone in her hand. “Come out, Nikki,” I called, hoarse-voiced, and gestured extravagantly for her to approach. Meanwhile, Volpinex backed away a pace or two, his face as sternly angry as a Mayan stone god.

Nikki came out, tripping in much her usual fashion, but with apprehensive looks toward Volpinex. “Meez Kairnair on the phone for you,” she told me, and put the phone on the table beside me. She was in an uncharacteristic hurry to be off.

I said, “Mr. Volpinex was just leaving, Nikki. Show him to the door, will you?”

Volpinex stood glaring at me from under hooded eyes. I could almost see the gears of his brain ratcheting away in there. Leaning toward him, I said softly, “She’ll remember you were here.” His eyes flickered at that, and I added, “And so will I.”

He expelled air; apparently he’d been holding it for some time. “We’ll... talk again,” he said, nodded curtly at Nikki, and followed her away into the apartment.

I watched them go, then picked up the phone. My hand was shaking so much I could see two receivers. I put them both to my face, where they rattled against my skull, and said, “Betty?”

“I don’t want you to guess,” she said. “About what I’m getting. But I want to know your favorite color.”

“My favorite color.” I reached out for my champagne and orange juice. “Orange,” I said, and drank it down.