Write me a Letter

receptionist said she was napping and better I didn’t disturb her. I said please tell her I’d drop by tomorrow, late afternoon, all being well. She said it would be a pleasure. I called up Precious, who I estimated should be just home from school, and she was. She answered me from her garden, on her portable phone she was so proud of, where she was thinning her parsley, she informed me. I told her that I was tiptop and that Benny was progressing better than could be expected, according to the doctor.
    ”How’s his wife?” she said, giggling. ”Bet you were surprised when Sara walked in.”
    ”Nothing that birdbrain does has the slightest effect on me anymore,” I said. ”You are the one who surprised me, quite frankly. Thanks for forewarning me. Thanks for telling me you two flew up together, in adjoining seats no doubt, giggling away, just like you’re doing now, knocking back Shirley Temples and having a right old time.”
    When her merriment had subsided somewhat, we made a date for that eve. I made her promise no serious messing about as I wasn’t sure my back was up to it. She said she was having second thoughts about our date already. Then I dug out the yellow pages and began calling airline charter firms. On my third attempt I found one that had a flying ambulance service—they used a Cherokee 100 that had been converted to hold four stretchers, pilot, copilot, attendant, and one other passenger. I made a tentative booking early the following week. Then I obtained the number of Sara’s motel from information and tried her, I figured it was safe enough. ”Yeah?” she said when we were connected.
    ”Yeah yourself,” I said. ”So how’s it going, Mrs. Clam? How’s the patient?”
    ”He’s doing OK,” she said. ”It’s me who’s freaking out. You should see this dump I’m in. I’m thinking of moving, like maybe to the Sheraton.”
    ”No, no!” I said. ”Stay right where you are, I need you there. Anyway, you should be out of there soon.” I told her about the plane I’d booked.
    ”I didn’t know they had planes like that,” she said.
    ”I did,” I said. ”Any more visits from Kalagan and his straight man?”
    ”One,” she said. ”Just for a minute. He says as far as his department is concerned, they’ve closed the case.”
    ”Sure, sure,” I said. ”Remain alert is my warning to you two, even if he says he’s been transferred to a desk job in Death Valley.”
    ”That old guy,” she said. ”They buried him today, you want me to send you the bit from the paper?”
    ”Forget it,” I said. I told her to write down the name of the charter airline so she wouldn’t forget it. I told her if the lieutenant did come back, your story was, having your hubby in L.A. would be a lot more convenient as you had a place to stay there and the use of a car so you wouldn’t have to keep paying out for the motel and cabs twice a day to and from the hospital, and restaurant food all the time.
    She said she got it, she got it, she wasn’t totally thick. Then she asked me in a heavily casual fashion if Marlon had just happened to call, looking for her.
    ”No, he hasn’t, sugarplum,” I said. ”If he should chance to, what do you want me to tell him?”
    ”Aw, forget it,” she said. ”He’s not going to anyway. Even if he does, don’t tell him where I am, promise?”
    I said I promised. There was a pause.
    ”Were you ever in love, Vic?” she asked then.
    ”Twice,” I said, ”not counting juvenile follies.”
    ”Oh yeah? Who with?”
    ”Well, before Evonne, there was Benny’s Aunt Jessica.”
    ”What happened with her?”
    ”She went back east.”
    ”That ain’t no answer.”
    ”It’s all you’re going to get, nosy, I’m no kiss and tell. Talk to you soon. Give us a call if there’s problems.”
    She said, ”OK, adios, VD.,” and rang off. I did likewise. There followed a brief conversation with Mrs. Leduc in Canada, and an almost equally brief one with Will; all seemed to be progressing smoothly up there in the land of the Northern Lights. Big John D., too, had put my plan into operation, he informed me, with no mishaps so far, but he was finding it hard to bowl strikes with his fingers crossed. There were other things as well he was finding it difficult to do with crossed fingers, he said. Do not be crude over the phone, I said.
    Then, without enormous expectations, I tried the Lew Lewellens again. To my surprise, I got Mrs. Lew. After greeting her