Silent Prey

Kennett said vaguely. “The Windwards, or the Leewards, or some shit . . .”
    “What difference would it make?” Lucas asked Lily.
    She shrugged: “Don’t ask me, they’re your islands.”
    After a moment of silence, Kennett said, “A unipolar depression. Did you hear your guns calling you?”
    Lucas, startled, looked at him. “You’ve had one?”
    “Right after the second heart attack,” Kennett said. “The second heart attack wasn’t so bad. The depression goddamned near killed me.”
    They turned and started back downriver. Kennett fished in his pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes.
    “Dick. Throw those fuckin’ cigarettes . . .”
    “Lily . . . I’m smoking one. Just one. That’s all for today.”
    “God damn it, Dick . . .” Lily looked as though she were going to cry.
    “Lily . . . aw, fuck it,” Kennett said, and he flipped the pack of Marlboros over the side, where they floated away on the river.
    “That’s better,” Lily said, but tears ran down her cheeks.
    “I tried to bum one from Fell the other day, but she wouldn’t give it to me,” Kennett said.
    “Good for her,” said Lily, still teary-eyed.
    “Look at the city,” Lucas said, embarrassed. Kennett and Lily both turned to look at the sunlight breaking over the towers in Midtown. The stone buildings glowedlike butter, the modern glass towers flickering like knives.
    “What a place,” Kennett said. Lily wiped her cheeks with the heels of her hands and tried to smile.
    “Can’t see the patches from here,” Lucas said. “That’s what New York is, you know. About a billion patches. Patches on patches. I was walking to Midtown South from the hotel, crossing Broadway there at Thirty-fifth, and there was a pothole, and in the bottom of the pothole was another pothole, but somebody had patched the bottom pothole. Not the big one, just the little one in the bottom.”
    “Fuckin’ rube,” Kennett muttered.
    They brought the boat back late in the afternoon, their faces flushed with the sun. And after Lucas dropped the mainsail, Lily ran it into the marina with a soft, skillful touch.
    “This has been the best day of my month,” Kennett said. He looked at Lucas. “I’d like to do it again before you go.”
    “So would I,” Lucas said. “We oughta go down to the Islands sometime . . . .”
    Lucas hauled the cooler back to the truck and Lily brought along an armload of bedding that Kennett wanted to wash at home.
    “Shame that he can’t drive the truck,” Lucas said as Lily popped up the back lid.
    “He does,” she said in a confidential voice. “He tells me he doesn’t, but I know goddamn well that he sneaks out at night and drives. A couple of months ago I drove back to his place, and when we parked I noticed that the mileage was something like 1-2-3-4-4, and I was thinking that if I only drove one more mile, I’d have a straight line of numbers: 1-2-3-4-5. When I came over the next day, the mileage was like 1-2-4-1-0, or something like that. Sohe’d been out driving. I check it now, and lots of times the mileage is up. He doesn’t know . . . . I haven’t mentioned it, because he gets so pissed. I’m afraid he’ll get so pissed he’ll have another attack. As long as it has power steering and brakes . . .”
    “It’ll drive a guy nuts, being penned up,” Lucas said. “You oughta stay off his case.”
    “I try,” she said. “But sometimes I just can’t help it. Men can be so fucking stupid, it gives me a headache.”
    They went back to the boat and found Kennett below, digging around. “Hey, Lucas, a little help? I need to pull this marine battery, but it’s too heavy for Lily.”
    “Dick, are you messing around with that wrench again . . . ?” Lily started, but Lucas put an index finger over his lips and she stopped.
    “I’ll be down,” Lucas said.
    Ten minutes later, while Kennett and Lily did the last of the buttoning-up, Lucas humped the battery back to the car. In the parking lot, he propped one end of it on the truck bumper while he sorted out the keys, then turned and looked back through the fence. Lily and Kennett were on the dock, Lily leaning into him, his arms around her waist. She was talking to him, then leaned forward and kissed him on the mouth. Lucas felt a pang, but only a small one.
    Kennett was okay.

CHAPTER
17
    The New School auditorium was compact, with a narrow lobby between the interior auditorium doors and the doors to the