I closed my eyes and looked into darkness. I waited, almost sure what I wanted would come… and it did. I saw a checkbook in a
I thought:
And I thought:
No, of course not. He was a man, not a cartoon character. But it was close.
“I’m coming for you, Mr. Rabbit,” I said. “Still coming.”
The phone rang shortly before nine-thirty. Sadie was home safe. “Don’t suppose anything came to you, did it? I’m a pest, I know.”
“Nothing. And you’re the farthest thing in the world from a pest.” She was also going to be the farthest thing in the world from Oswald Rabbit, if I had anything to do about it. Not to mention his wife, whose name might or might not be Mary, and his little girl, who I felt sure was named April.
“You were pulling my leg about a Negro being in the White House, weren’t you?”
I smiled. “Wait awhile. You can see for yourself.”
The DAVIN nurses, one old and formidable, the other young and pretty, arrived at 9:00 A.M. sharp. They did their thing. When the older one felt that I had grimaced, twitched, and moaned enough, she handed me a paper envelope with two pills in it. “Pain.”
“I don’t really think—”
“Take em,” she said — a woman of few words. “Freebies.”
I popped them in my mouth, cheeked them, swallowed water, then excused myself to use the bathroom. There I spat them out.
When I returned to the kitchen, the older nurse said: “Good progress. Don’t overdo.”
“Absolutely not.”
“Catch them?”
“Beg pardon?”
“The assholes who beat you up.”
“Uh… not yet.”
“Doing something you shouldn’t have been doing?”
I gave her my widest smile, the one Christy used to say made me look like a game-show host on crack. “I don’t remember.”
Dr. Ellerton came for lunch, bringing huge roast beef sandwiches, crispy french fries dripping in grease, and the promised milkshakes. I ate as much as I could manage, which was really quite a lot. My appetite was returning.
“Mike talked up the idea of doing yet another variety show,” he said. “This time to benefit you. In the end, wiser heads prevailed. A small town can only give so much.” He lit a cigarette, dropped the match into the ashtray on the table, and inhaled with gusto. “Any chance the police will catch the mugs who tuned up on you? What do you hear?”
“Nothing, but I doubt it. They cleaned out my wallet, stole my car, and split.”
“What were you doing on that side of Dallas, anyway? It’s not exactly the high-society part of town.”
“I don’t remember. Visiting someone, maybe.”
“Are you getting plenty of rest? Not straining the knee too much?”
“No.” Although I suspected I’d be straining it plenty before much longer.
“Still falling asleep suddenly?”
“That’s quite a bit better.”
“Terrific. I guess—”
The phone rang. “That’ll be Sadie,” I said. “She calls on her lunch break.”
“I have to be shoving off, anyway. It’s great to see you putting on weight, George. Say hello to the pretty lady for me.”
I did so. She asked me if any
I told her no, no new memories, but I was going to take a nap and hope something would be there when I woke up. I added that I loved her (it was nice to say something that was the God’s honest), asked after Deke, wished her a good afternoon, and hung up. But I didn’t take a nap. I took my car keys and my briefcase and drove downtown. I hoped to God I’d have something in that briefcase when I came back.
I motored slowly and carefully, but my knee was still aching badly when I entered the First Corn Bank and presented my safe deposit box key.
My banker came out of his office to meet me, and his name clicked home immediately: Richard Link. His eyes widened with concern when I limped to meet him. “What happened to you, Mr. Amberson?”
“Car accident.” Hoping he’d missed or forgotten the squib in the
“
The safe deposit boxes were in the basement. I negotiated the stairs in a series of hops. We used our keys, and Link carried the box into one of the cubicles for me. He set it on a tiny wedge of desk just big enough to hold it, then pointed to the button on the wall.
