Tales of the City 03 - Further Tales of the City

do the announcing. You can interview me.”
    “I’m ever so grateful.”
    “You should be. I’ve been leaning toward Wendy lately. The book rights are mine, incidentally.” Mary Ann smiled. “Not that you’d pose any threat there.”
    “So … you weren’t in Cleveland, then?”
    “Of course I was in Cleveland!” Mary Ann’s indignation was heroic. “Do you think I would lie about my own grandmother?”

A Garden Wedding
    A FTER SLEEPING FOR ALMOST FIFTEEN HOURS, MARY Ann awoke at 9:00 A.M . and hurried downstairs to Mrs. Madrigal’s apartment. The landlady was in her kitchen, baking a cake.
    Baking the cake.
    Mary Ann pecked her on the cheek. “You’re so sweet to be doing that. What are those little brown specks in the batter?”
    “Carrots,” said Mrs. Madrigal.
    “You’re lying.”
    “Then don’t ask impertinent questions. I take it you worked things out with Bambi?”
    “Completely.”
    “Good girl. Have you called your mother yet?”
    “After the ceremony,” said Mary Ann. “I want this to be just family. I mean … my family here.”
    The landlady smiled lovingly. “I knew what you meant.” She held out a spoon for Mary Ann to lick.
    “Yum-hum,” said Mary Ann. “Carrots!”
    DeDe phoned at eleven o’clock.
    “I just saw the papers,” she said breathlessly. “I’m so sorry about Brian!”
    “Thanks.”
    “You poor thing! You must think this week will never end!”
    “It can’t,” said Mary Ann, “until tonight.”
    “Jesus. I’m afraid to ask.”
    Mary Ann laughed. “No. It’s good this time. We’re getting married tonight. At the hospital. I’d love it if you could come.”
    “Of course! How exciting! Can I bring the children?”
    “That would be marvelous!”
    “What about the show?”
    “You mean our debut on the news?”
    DeDe laughed. “Yeah.”
    “Is Monday all right with you?”
    “Sure,” said DeDe. “Fine.”
    Mary Ann giggled. “It sounds like we just made a date for lunch or something.”
    “Well … we can do that, too.”
By midafternoon, Mary Ann was back at the hospital. When she opened the door to Brian and Michael’s room, the sight that confronted her took her breath away.
    “My God!”
    Michael beamed at her from his bed. “Pretty neat, huh?” The room was a veritable jungle of greenery and flowers—most of which were obviously not indigenous to the hospital florist. Both beds were framed by boxwood bushes, passion vines trailed along the window sill, and a bright pink fuchsia drooped luxuriantly from Brian’s IV pole.
    “They’re on loan,” said Brian. “Ned and a friend brought them by a little while ago.”
    Mary Ann was undone. “What a sweet thing!”
    Brian nodded. “You get your garden wedding, after all.”
    “Where is he?”
    “Who?”
    “Ned. I want to call and thank him.”
    “They’ll be back in a minute,” said Brian. “They went to get coffee.”
    “Anyway,” said Michael, “we’ve got some questions to ask you.”
    “If you mean Bambi, I’ve taken care of that.”
    “What did you tell her? That the whole damn thing was a wild goose chase?”
    “She doesn’t know about the kidnapping,” said Mary Ann. “She doesn’t even know about my trip to Alaska. She thinks we locked her up to prevent early release of the story.” She looked earnestly at both men. “I don’t want her—or anybody—to know about Mr. Starr.”
    “Why?” asked Michael.
    “Because that whole thing was a big fiasco. It’s embarrassing. It makes DeDe and me both look a little drifty.”
    A smile flickered across Brian’s face. “What were you doing up there, anyway? Chartering dog sleds? Chasing Eskimos across the ice?”
    “Brian …”
    “And this Starr guy?” asked Michael. “You have no idea where he went after he dropped the kids off at Prue Giroux’s house?”
    “None,” said Mary Ann.
    “In other words, it was just Mrs. Halcyon’s dumb mistake. There was never a kidnapping. There was never a real threat of any kind. Slow curtain … The End.”
    Mary Ann nodded vaguely. “That’s about it, I’m afraid.”
    Michael addressed his next question to Brian. “Why do I have such a hard time believing that?”
    Brian gazed lovingly at Mary Ann. “It’s all right,” he said. “She never lies to us about the important stuff.”
    A bald head poked through the doorway.
    “Ned!” exclaimed Mary Ann, grateful for the interruption. “This is the sweetest thing anyone has ever done! We’ve definitely