The Mural. Michael Mallory

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СКАЧАТЬ the flesh colored images. Finally he shook his head and broke his gaze away from the poster. His lip was perspiring and he was hard. He took a drink of his water. Sneaking a look back at the poster, he now saw only a triple-decker ice cream cone. Jesus, did simply hearing Dani’s recorded voice on a cell phone greeting really have that big of an effect? Even if it had, what exactly he would be able to do about it now that he had his five-year-old in tow? You just sit there and watch Elmo, punkin, while Daddy and Dani go into the bathroom and get all bare nakedy and rub up against each other and make funny noises until they scream. Oh, and don’t say anything to Mommy, okay?

      “What the hell am I doing?” he asked the poster. He knew he should call Dani back right now and tell her that he had committed a terrible lapse in judgment having rushed up here with Robin in tow. Shit, maybe Elley was right all those times she’d rail about how he was nothing more than a fifteen-year-old in the body of an adult. He turned back toward Robynn to tell her that it was time to go. But no words came out of his mouth, only a gasp.

      Robynn was not there.

      His daughter was gone.

      “Robynn?” he called out inside the ice cream shop, but he could clearly see that she was not there.

      Leaping up from the table so forcefully that he nearly knocked it over, he demanded of the girl behind the counter where his daughter had gone.

      “I dunno,” the girl shrugged.

      “Maybe she’s in the bathroom.”

      “Nope, key’s right here.”

      “Well didn’t you see her leave?” Jack demanded.

      “It’s your kid, not mine.”

      Jack had a sudden impulse to slap her, but he held it in check. Then he saw the girl look behind him through the window. “Hey, isn’t that her out there on the sidewalk?”

      Jack turned around and saw Robynn standing near a concrete-and-board bench on the street, her half-eaten scoop dripping down her fingers, chatting amiably with an old woman, who was seated on the bench. “Jesus,” Jack exhaled. He ran out of the door of the shop. “Robynn!” he shouted, and the girl turned to look at him.

      “Hi, Daddy,” she said.

      He knelt down and grabbed her arms tightly.

      “Ow!” she cried, nearly dropping her cone.

      “Why did you leave like that?” he demanded. “You know better than to go off on your own!”

      She looked frightened now. “Sorry, Daddy, but this lady needed help.”

      Jack looked up into the face of the woman seated on the bus bench. She was old and had snowy hair, a lined face, and clear hazel eyes that right now looked a bit confused.

      “I didn’t mean to do anything bad,” Robynn was saying, now near tears.

      “Okay, punkin, it’s okay,” Jack said, loosening his grip and managing to turn it into a hug. “I just got scared because you weren’t there and I couldn’t find you at first. We’re in a strange town so if you got lost, I wouldn’t know where to look.”

      “I hope I haven’t caused any trouble,” the old woman said.

      “No, no, it’s just that we try to teach her not to wander off, you know.”

      “You and your wife?” the woman asked absently.

      There was a pause before Jack answered, “Yes, and usually she’s pretty good about it.”

      “Oh, well, you know how kids are,” the woman went on, seeming to clear. “Nobody really looked after me like that when I was young. Today it’s different, of course.” She looked at Robynn and smiled. “I think she’s the one I’m supposed to meet.”

      “I’m sorry?”

      The woman looked at Jack. “I was told to meet a girl here. Why here, I don’t know, but there she is.”

      Jack was now convinced he was dealing with some poor, senile woman who had wandered off from home, or perhaps from a care facility, and had gotten hopelessly lost. Robynn, in her innate sweetness, probably saw the woman walking around in circles with a puzzled look on her face through the window of the ice cream shop, and slipped out to see if she could help her when Jack was not looking.

      When he was looking at pictures of ice cream and turning them into sexual fantasies.

      “No harm done,” Jack said to the old woman. “My name’s Jack Hayden, by the way, and this is Robynn.”

      The woman looked at Robynn and smiled. “Oh, like the bird?”

      “Actually, it’s with a y and two n’s,” Jack said. “My wife’s idea. Look, is there some way I can help you?”

      “I don’t know, actually. My name is Althea Kinchloe. I guess you could say I’m visiting here too. I’m really from Vancouver.”

      “Canada?” Jack asked, amazed he had managed to get so far away from home.

      “No, Washington State, just across the line from Oregon. I grew up in California, though. Does my name mean anything to you?”

      “Uh, no, not really. Were you famous?”

      “Oh, heavens no, I just thought that, well, Howard is the one who told me to come down here, and I thought maybe that Howard spoke to you, too.”

      “I’m sorry, but I haven’t spoken with anyone named Howard. Is he your son?”

      “Howard? Oh, no, he and I were talking about getting married, but that was a long time ago.”

      “You’ve kept up with him, though.”

      “No, no, I can’t say as I have, but he contacted me a couple of days ago. I think it was a couple of days ago. I’m a little tired from the bus ride. It was in the middle of the night, so I don’t know which day to count it as.”

      Howard must be her husband, then, Jack thought. In the poor woman’s addled mind, he must have been relegated to a suitor. “You know, if you have Howard’s number we can call him,” he suggested, taking out his cell phone and showing it to her.

      “Oh, no,” Althea replied with a knowing smile. “Howard’s dead. That’s why I was so surprised to see him.”

      “Yeeesss...I imagine that would be something of a surprise.”

      There was an awkward silence, filled only by the sounds of cars driving slowly by on the street and the crunching of Robynn’s wafer cone. Then Althea said: “I know what you’re thinking, young man, that I’m some old biddy who’s not right in the head.”

      Jack had to smile at her candor.

      “I think you’re nice,” said Robynn.

      “Thank you, honey. I think you’re nice, too. If you like, you can call me Noni. That’s what my own grandchildren call me.”

      “Look, СКАЧАТЬ