FRIDAY AT THE RIVER

A Novel by Darwin Hageman

Dedicated to Delius who wrote the music that inspired me to write this work.

PART ONE

The river, at the point where they stood, ran in a smooth ribbon, a very broad, flat ribbon.

"Do you think I'll stay here?"

"I don't see why not?"

"All through winter?"

"Well, you have plenty of money; you can always go to the resort and stay there if it snows heavily."

"There's something about rivers."

"Good or bad?"

"I always see a bear in them."

"Are you going to paint a bear in the river? How are you going to get a bear to stand still long enough as a model?"

"Yes, I know, I always need a model, for the kind of art I do, anyway. Why don't you stay and be my model?"

"In the river? What as, a fisherman?"

"No, I see you more as a nude bather."

"Meaning you want me to model nude. Meaning, you have something sexual in mind."

"Is that a question or a statement?"

"Both."

"I have never had sex with any of my models, of either sex."

"Did you paint them nude?"

"Of course, always. Whatever the painting is, I paint the nude figure; then after I pay them and they leave, because you see, whatever they eventually wear in my painting, I want to know there is a real body under there."

"A la Klimt."

"A la Klimt, except he puts very elaborate garments on them, full of designs, and patterns and a lot of gold. I study what I have painted after the model goes, and then I start creating the kind of clothes they would wear, for, you see, the figure on my canvas is never the same person as the model was."

"So, you don't paint in the clothes they were wearing, when they came in the door of your studio?"

"Never. Ugh, never."

"Well, I am saved, I have to go back to work on Monday, so I can't model for you."

"But we have the weekend, you can model for me, at least for preliminary sketches."

"Oh, modeling must be so boring. I don't want to spend the weekend sitting there or standing there, I want to go out hiking, and take pictures, and go swimming in the river, and, of course, eat delicious food."

"And watch television."

"And watch television or read the book I brought."

"What book did you bring?"

"A murder mystery." Bobby Burns turned away from the river's edge, and picking up a stick, stood scratching in the earth with it. Then he asked, "Have you ever been in love?"

"Oh, always."

"I mean besides with yourself."

"Now, don't be rude. I fell in love with you the moment I set eyes on you."

"That is probably your problem, your eyeballs, you fall in love with your eyeballs, being a painter. Anyway, you only met me this year."

"It has been a short love affair. You don't know much about love, do you?"
"No, I admit I don't. Anyway, a model must have a certain state of mind. After all, they are getting paid for it. You see, the only time I have ever had my clothes off in the presence of another person is for...you know what. I'm afraid if I modeled, I'd get an erection."

"That won't bother me, I won't draw or paint it in the erect state."

"It would be awkward to later paint the clothes on."

"Exactly."

"Have any of your male models ever gotten an erection?"

"Um, I think so, but I never paid attention, I was always concentrating on something else."

"Remember when you first invited me to your studio, you were painting, a still-life, and I watched you, you are a very slow painter."

"Yes, I am, but I don't mind paying my models for several hours of work. Besides, I'd pay you by giving you lunch and dinner. Speaking of food, how about breakfast?"

"Do you need help?"

"No. Bacon and eggs all right? I brought cereal, also."

"Bacon and eggs are fine, but if cereal is easier...I'm going to take a walk and take a few pictures. I won't be long."

"Half an hour, then."

"Good."

Angus Salter walked back towards the cabin. Bobby watched him go up the slope, then swinging his camera up over his shoulder Bobby walked away from the river and into the woods.

Angus went up onto the back porch of the cabin, and careful to latch the screen door as he entered the kitchen, to guarantee that no flies or mosquitoes would get in - at least, more than were probably already in - he walked directly past the bathroom and two bedrooms to the dining and living room area and out to the front porch, careful again to latch that screen behind him. Standing on the porch, he took a deep breath of the wonderful air. As he stood there alone, he remembered what Bob Burns had said, and maybe it was leading Angus to realize he was meant to be alone. For some reason it seemed to terrify him as a thought, but in reality, he handled it very well.

Really, why he had come out onto the front porch was because when they arrived, he had noticed that the horizontal mailbox was hanging down vertically, on one screw, like a broken winged thing. "Lordy," he thought, "how am I ever to remember where the screws and a screwdriver are kept?"

Angus usually rented out the cabin, and made a very nice profit from doing so, and had not been there in several seasons. Almost throwing up his hands, he realized he would have to let the mailbox hang. He ignored the fact that he should do a lot of weeding in the front yard, but it was nearly September, and when the cold came the weeds would all die back, anyway.

So, reentering the house, and again carefully closing the front screened door, he walked back into the kitchen and took four eggs out of the refrigerator, to get them room temperature. It was then he heard the voice calling to him.

"Angus! Angus!" It was coming from the woods at the back. He stepped slowly - almost cautiously to the back screened door there, and then he stepped out onto the back porch.

The call came again.

Angus called back, "Bob? Bobby? Is that you? Yes, I hear you! I'm coming, but keep calling, so I can tell where you are!"

Angus realized he was shouting, and already he was losing his voice, he was not used to shouting. The call came again and he realized it was to the left, away from where they had been standing at the edge of the river, it was from deep in the woods. Angus started running until he reached the edge of the thick woods, and then he stopped running. Running in the woods was crazy, you would fall on your head, tripping over fallen limbs and rocks. They only do that in the movies, and then some poor creature of an employee has to clear the path for the actor.

So Angus started moving slowly, stepping over things, clinging to tree trunks for his balance. And he kept calling. "I'm coming, Bob! Keep calling! So I can find you!" But Angus's voice was getting more croaky at each yell. Angus, as he climbed and held back bushes so he could get through without having them swat him in the face, was thinking about opera singers, who often said, in interviews, that singing was easy, but the speaking voice is what tires them.

Well, of course, Angus was a painter, he would sit for hours with a model and never use his voice at all. Angus thought, as he plowed along, "Maybe, I should practice singing to strengthen my voice, or just read poetry aloud or something." Now he was having a hard time swallowing, his throat was getting sore. And then, when Bobby called again, "I'm here, I'm here!" Angus realized he had passed him by and had gone too far.

Angus stopped and turned and said aloud, "If this is some kind of a joke, Bobby, I'll kill you!"

Now Angus, never, ever used the word 'kill' but it had come out of his mouth. Angus was a dignified man and he realized he did not like practical jokes.

When Angus finally found Bobby, he tripped over him and fell down right into a bush and scratched his face and hands, for Bobby was lying down on the earth and leaves.

Angus did not care about the scratches on his face and hands, he crawled back and threw himself on Bobby's broad chest and laid there for a moment to catch his breath, for Angus had gotten very frightened. Bobby kept babbling something, but Angus was not listening, he kept swallowing to get his dry throat moist and kept breathing to get his heart to stop pounding. Finally he started listening.

"I fell and I think I have broken my ankle, and I can't walk."

"I'll get you to the hospital at once. I'll help you walk, I can't carry you, you are too heavy. Oh, God, I've gotten so turned around, I've forgotten which way I came, and I know these woods, now I feel lost."

"That way!" And Bobby lifted his big arm and pointed.

Angus got up, "Oh, thank God, you remember."

The earth seemed suddenly soft, as if his feet were sinking into it, as they struggled back towards the cabin, but that was because he was supporting Bobby on his back and shoulders, and Angus had never carried a heavy man like that, and so he kept taking deep breaths and letting them out slowly, and his mind went sort of blank. Finally the cabin came into sight and he stopped. Bobby was babbling about something, but Angus had to get his breathing back and he knew they could not go through the house with those steps, they would go around the house to the car and then he had to come back into the house to get the car keys.

Bobby kept babbling, but Angus did not pay attention to him, he got Bobby up the slope to the house, then down the path around the house, and then down through the weeds to the car, and the car was locked, and he did not have the car keys. Angus sort of dumped Bobby onto the hood of the car and said, "Stay there! Don't move! The car is locked and I don't have the keys. I'll go into the house and get them."

Angus had to actually heave that heavy body up onto the hood of the car because Bobby kept sliding down. Then stepping back, and seeing that Bobby's body stayed there on top of the hood, Angus turned back to the house and suddenly realized he had to go to the bathroom. He fortunately had not locked the front door, and he got in, and went to the bathroom. Then he remembered he had taken out the eggs and he put them back into the refrigerator, and getting the keys and his wallet he went to the front door and locked it and returned to the car.

PART TWO

When Angus got back to the car, with the keys and his wallet and having locked the house, he approached the car carefully. Angus's back was killing him after dragging that huge body through the woods, but he could not think of that right then. Bobby had fallen asleep on top of the car hood, for he was in shock. After all, sleep heals pain, so they say.

Angus, using all of his brain power at that moment, got the car doors unlocked first and then put the key in the ignition knowing he could not start at once, and went back to the sleeping body on the hood.

"Don't use any words," a voice inside him said, a voice he had never heard or at least never acknowledged, and he did not acknowledge it then, he just did it, he dragged Bobby off the hood and got him in his arms and dragged his legs through the leaves and dumped him in the opened door of the car, and then got his legs in and closed the car door on the left side.

Angus ran around to the right side of the car and got in, by shoving the head and shoulders of the man back into a sitting position and then strapping him in, with the seat belt. Reaching into the glove compartment, he got out a Kleenex and wiped the poor guy's brow, for he was covered in sweat, as he slept. Oh, sleep was taking care of the pain, oh. Angus suddenly was so grateful for sleep, though he had really never thought about it before.

Angus used the same Kleenex on his own brow, and then threw it onto the car floor, and carefully closed the glove compartment.

Bobby was sleeping, he was sleeping. And driving as carefully as Angus could, he got onto the road, which was a dirt road, and then onto the highway, and then he put his foot down and drove as fast as he could. Oh, he thought, why didn't I call the hospital to alert them I was coming?

Angus knew he did not have that kind of mind and he almost instantaneously forgave himself. If there was scenery on the way into Stroudsburg, from the cabin, by the river, he did not notice it. Oh, there it is. Yes, Angus had done a mural for the city, after all, Angus had been raised in the Poconos, but for his education and to develop his career he had had to move to New York, to Manhattan. And that is how he became a part of the Manhattan School of Painting, though he always knew all of his art came from the Poconos.

There was the hospital, and he knew a nurse there, who had posed as a model for the mural he had painted for the public library. He slowed down, and drove into the parking lot. Oh, God, there was a nurse all in white getting out of her car. Angus grappled with the door handle on his side of the car and finally got the door opened and crawled, not leaping, he had not had breakfast and he was getting weaker and weaker, "Miss, please?"

The woman turned, of course, she had to get to work on time. "I...I..."

The woman, who had black hair was digging in her purse, she had just locked her car doors and in her white uniform started walking towards him.

"Oh, how kind of you, he's in there, and he is too heavy for me to get him in there, he broke his ankle and he is in shock."

"You don't look so good yourself, man!"

"Well, he broke his ankle in the woods, I had to drag him and I haven't had anything to eat and I had to drive..."

"Okay, could you get back in your car, please. Do you have credit cards with you?"

Yes, all of them."

"Just give me one."

Angus nearly fell against the car to get his wallet out. The woman in white took one of the cards, and then she gave it back to him.

"You get right back in the car, and help is coming for both of you."

Angus got back in the car and he finally remembered how to turn on the air conditioning, then he leaned over and kissed Bobby's forehead, as Bobby said, "I climbed a tree, Angus, to take a photograph of the river, and the tree limb broke, and I fell onto rocks."

"It's all right, my darling, we are taking care of everything." Keep talking, Angus said to himself, "A very nice woman who is a nurse is taking us into the hospital."

"I am so sorry," Bobby began again, "I do love you but I was afraid you'd think I was after your money, and I am not."

"Of course, you silly thing, you aren't after my money. Everybody needs love, and I am here to take care of you, now rest, please."

The word 'love' was a word that Angus did not toss around lightly, and he certainly did not believe it this time.

Bobby said, "But I must have fallen asleep, I don't remember."

"Go back to sleep. Don't you ever listen when somebody tells you something? I have everything under control."

Angus leaned back in his own seat in the car and wished he believed he had control of everything.

Bobby asked, "Angus, what is the river called?"

"The river near the cabin? Oh, it's called the Delaware Water Gap."

"What a strange name for a river."

"Well, Bobby, it is a spill off from the Delaware River. That's why it is not so terribly big. How are you? Feel better after your nap? We are at the hospital. Bobby."

"Yes, you told me."

"Oh. They will have some pain killers, I didn't have any in the cabin."

"Do you know where the camera is?"

"Yes, it's still around your neck. I can laugh about it now, but it kept swinging back and forth, as I helped you back to the cabin, I thought it was better to leave it on you, than to put it around my neck."

"Oh, thanks, there it is."

Angus realized that the nurse in white was not doing anything, which meant that Angus had to go into the hospital.

"Bobby, I have lived in this area from childhood, I know some of the people, I'll be right back and they will come and take you into the emergency waiting room. So, wait right here, I'll be right back."

Angus leaned over and kissed Bobby on the cheek and squeezed his hand.

"Thanks, Angus," Bobby said.

Angus got out. A car behind him honked. Angus nodded and got back in the car and moved his car up past the emergency entrances and exits. Then he got out again, and went into the emergency entrance. It was a fairly long hall before he reached the desk.

Angus could not believe it; at the desk, the nurse was Emily Evans, a woman he had once painted as a figure in the Public Library mural.

"Nurse Emily. I mean, Nurse Evans, it's me."

Looking up with a frown and glaring over the top of her half-glasses, the woman stared and then her face lighted up. "Angus Salter. Oh, as I live and breathe." Emily got disentangled from her computer and her clipboard and her desk and chair, and came around the counter and threw her arms around Angus. "Oh, Angus Salter, it seems like yesterday."

Angus kissed her on the lips and put his hand on top of her head and studied her face. "Emily, I can't talk now for I have an injured friend. He can not walk, so I need a gurney, for I think he has broken his ankle. He fell out of a tree."

"He fell out of a tree? What was he doing up a tree?"

"I'll explain all of it later, I have my health plan card, but his wallet is with him, I don't know what sort of coverage he has."

"Don't you think about a thing, I will take care of it all. You go right around the counter and sit down in my chair, you look white as a sheet, there is a nice cup of coffee I made for myself, you be a good boy and drink it. I'll get right on the phone."

Angus did what he was told and it was then the tears started coming. He sipped the coffee and then began drinking it. Nurse Emily Evans hurried off. The phone rang. Angus picked it up, he said automatically, "Stroudsburg Emergency Ward? How can I help you?" He listened and picked up a pen and wrote down the names, "Yes, come in at once, to the emergency entrance. You're welcome."

He jumped to his feet and blew his nose and wiped his eyes as he saw them bring in a gurney with Bobby Burns on it. Bobby waved weakly as the gurney passed. Angus explained to Emily about the call and then he said, "I'll go sit outside. Hospitals depress me, dear Emily. I'd rather sit out in front, and I'd better move my car."

"You're going to wait?"

"Oh, yes, until I hear about the x-rays."

"Okay, sit right in front, under the oak tree, and I'll bring you a sandwich and some tea, promise?"

"I promise."

"Because I have something to show you."

Angus embraced her again. "Thank you so much, for helping me, but thank you so much for being you and being here. It was so wonderful to see a friendly face. I'll move the car and then sit under the oak tree."

Angus went out the way he had come in. He circled the parking lot and parked this time in an inconspicuous spot. At that moment, he wished he had not made the promise about the oak tree, he would have loved to stretch out on the seat and take a nap in the car.

Getting Bobby out of the woods and into the car had really tired him, him and his nervous system. He got out and locked the car and in finding the oak tree, he sat down on the bench, which was right up against the tree, and the minute he leaned his head back against the bark of the tree trunk, he closed his eyes and went soundly asleep.

When he awoke, a bag, on a tray was on the bench next to him, and a squirrel was trying to tear the bag open; it must have been the tearing sound that had awakened him. Shooing the squirrel away, he opened the bag, realizing he was so hungry. Oh, wasn't Nurse Emily wonderful, it was egg salad; now he could have breakfast, and tea. Angus dived into his 'breakfast', it did not take long to eat. Then with the tray, he went in through the front doors of the hospital to the reception desk.

Nurse Emily was not there, another woman was there. "I know about it all, and she left a note, she had to go, she is a part-timer. There are four of us nurses that share a room, could you come with me."

"But I have not heard how the x-rays turned out."

"Oh, everything will be fine. In time, in time, in time. No matter what is wrong, they will have to put a cast on him. Then you can take him home. But please come in, Nurse Emily was specific about that. Could you come?"

"Yes, of course."

They only walked two doors down. The other nurse said, "My name is Margaret, and Emily and I have worked together for years, and we hung this watercolor of yours together, she had it framed and with glass over it. Can I talk?"

"Yes, sure." Angus was in a very small room. He ran into a chair as he stood back, for the light was reflecting on the glass over the watercolor.

But the nurse went on talking, "You see we don't get paid much, but Emily told me that she is broke, she is having a hard time with the mortgage on the small house she has. Do you, as a smart guy know if you can sell it? If you can sell it, it might help her out."

Angus said, "Take it off the wall. I will sell it for her. But because of my friend breaking a bone in his foot, it will take me time to get it to my gallery. I will write a check for two thousand dollars now. Do you have a pen and a blank check book?"

"No, and she is not begging!"

Angus took a breath, "Listen to me. Emily is one of my favorite people, she was a model for the mural I did for the Public Library. And she has been a kind friend today. Because my friend has been injured, I have to drive him back into New York, so I will take the painting with me and it may take a while to have it sold, but please tell Emily that I will send her whatever money comes from the sale."

The woman turned and looked at the watercolor and said, "You mean that thing is worth two thousand dollars?"

Angus walked to her and reached out and took her hand, "It is just a watercolor, that is why it is worth two thousand dollars. My oils now sell for far more. But I paint so slowly now, in oils, that poor Emily would not get the money for a year. Take the painting off the wall, and I will put it in my car, and when I drive my injured friend back into Manhattan, I will take the painting to the gallery and have it sold. Oh, could you give me her home address, so I can send the check to her?"

"Oh...oh, yes, sure, it is on the computer."

The woman hurried over to the wall and she jerked and jerked at the painting to get it off the nail in the wall. Angus was used to this kind of thing, but still Angus turned away and looked out the window. It was still a beautiful day, but then he realized he had not learned about the x-rays.

The woman said, "Here is the painting, I will go to the computer and write down Emily's home address."

Thank you." He held the painting, and because of the weight of the frame and glass he realized how tired he was. And he had to take that long drive back to the cabin. He went back to the desk. The woman was searching the computer.

A doctor arrived at the desk. "Are you Angus Salter?"

"Yes?"

"Mr. Burns is asking for you."

"Oh, but it is you that I want to speak to. What did the x-rays show?"

"Oh, it is not a broken ankle, it is a broken bone in his foot. The cast is all in place. He is a tall man, so we will rent him a couple of crutches, he will have to practice on them to learn how to use them. They are aluminum crutches, not heavy at all. You can take him with you. Are you all right?"

A sort of gray haze had come over Angus' eyes, and he felt the doctor take the painting out of his arms.

Angus said, "I have to put the painting into my car. I will move my car to the emergency entrance. Could you bring Mr. Burns out to the car. It's a long drive to my cabin. I know, it seems ridiculous, since he is the patient, but I need to drive there, home, and then sleep."

The nurse passed Emily's address to the doctor and the doctor shoved the piece of paper into Angus' pants pocket. The doctor said, "That is not ridiculous at all. I will carry the painting with you to your car, I need a breath of fresh air, myself."

The doctor turned to the nurse, "I want an ambulance at once, and I want a driver to take this man's car back with the ambulance to his house. And I want it now!"

"Yes, doctor."

"And I want the patient to be brought out to the ambulance at once on a gurney."

"Yes, doctor."

Then the doctor turned to Angus," What is your address?"

"My what?"

"Where your cabin is?"

"Oh...oh..." and Angus' hand went to his face, as the tears came, "I can't remember."

"Give me your wallet." Angus did. In his wallet was his address, because of an electric bill that had been sent to him that he had to pay.

"Nurse, write this address down."

"Yes, doctor." The doctor put Angus' wallet back into his pocket, and taking him by the arm he guided him to the parking lot entrance.

The doctor said, "Oh, it is such a beautiful day, and the air is so fresh, Mr. Salter, I will need the keys to the car and I will need you to show me where your car is."

Angus gave him the keys, and pointed to the car.

Then Angus heard all of these sirens. The doctor guided Angus into the ambulance, and there was Bobby waving to him, and it was as if it were a dream.

"Bobby."

"Yeah."

A man was there, a stranger, as the doors closed, and Angus was eased out of his shoes, and was laid down on something spongy and he went at once to sleep. The sirens went away and the dream went away, and he slept.

When the stranger eased him up and out onto the pine needles of his cabin yard, he could not believe how much better he felt. And truly, for just about the first time in his life, he felt he had come home. Angus never ever thought that the cabin would be his home. It certainly was at that moment. Yes, he had been often identified in the gallery catalogues as a 'Poconos Painter'.

The identification seemed to work, for most of his works were with trees and light and the human figure, merging with trees and light and sky. For some reason, the studio, in New York, he worked in was gone from his mind, for the time being, the cabin seemed a haven.

The driver came over to him, as Angus was getting back into his shoes and as Bobby with his new crutches was being helped into the cabin, said, "Here are the keys to your car, sir. I looked through the car to see if there was anything forgotten, and there is a painting lying on the back seat."

"Oh, yes, thank you. That belongs to one of the nurses, I am going to sell it for her."

The man stared at him, he was a black man, wearing a white uniform.

"You are gonna sell a painting for one of the nurses?"

"Yes. Oh, thank you again for driving back my car, I have to drive the injured man back to Manhattan in that car, and I am very grateful."

"Oh, sure, but what I want to ask about is selling a painting for one of the nurses."

"It is one of my paintings I had given her, and it turns out she is short of cash, so I am going to take it to my gallery in New York and sell it for her and send her a check."

The man shook his head, and he said, "What a lucky guy you are, to be able to do that for a friend."

"Yes. I know what you mean. You'd think that I could go into the cabin and paint ten canvases or watercolors and sell them to help all of my friends, but art is not that way. I just can not pump it out like pancakes. For me, as a painter, that does not work."

"Oh, I'm kind of glad you said that, so earning money is hard for you, too?"

Angus wanted to throw his arms around him, but instead he smiled. "Oh, yes, that is exactly what I mean."

Angus realized tears were coming, and the young man said, "Oh, don't cry, all I meant is that we are all in the same boat."

"Yes, yes, we are all in the same boat."

"Bless you, man, bless you. I gotta get back into the ambulance and get back."

He trotted towards the ambulance, as the men who had helped Bobby get into the cabin came out and went to the ambulance, too, and the siren started and the ambulance backed up, turned, causing much dust and drove away.

Angus felt as if he should say something to the sky, or the dust, or the trees, but he could not think of a thing to say, for nature, for Angus, was sort of his god. Instead, he just sat down on the porch, in the old rocking chair. A blue jay came and made a lot of racket with its territorial chatter. Angus, after sleeping on the ambulance, felt strong again - and after the sandwich and the tea - and now he felt like a swim in the river. What an enormous change in his physical nature, that the people at the hospital had taken care of the car and brought him and Bobby back in the ambulance.

Getting up, he went quietly into the house, and looking in and seeing that Bobby was sleeping, he gently closed the bedroom door, and going into the kitchen, he put two steaks out to thaw for dinner.

His bathing suit was out on the clothesline, and bringing it in with a dry towel to the utility porch, and closing the screened door, as always, he took off his clothes and put on his suit, and then put his navy blue canvas shoes back on without socks. Going into the kitchen he put his wallet and watch and ring into a kitchen drawer, then he started down the back porch steps to the sloping hill that led to the river.

Dusk was gathering in the woods. He hoped the steaks would thaw in time; perhaps he should have put them in a plastic bag and immersed it into a pot of water to speed the thawing up. By that time he was at the river bank. As usual, he took off his suit and left it with the towel on a rock and dived into the cool dark waters and started swimming slowly across. After all it was the Delaware Gap, so the water hardly moved, it was more like swimming in a lake.

Angus never liked getting out on the other side of the river; it was very wild and rugged, and one had to climb up onto craggy rocks. Angus had tried it once, and Angus had become very sensitive about hurting his hands, because of his painting. After all, Angus knew that though he was a success, he had to keep painting to make more money.

So, when he saw the other side of the river ahead, he rolled over onto his back, and kicking his feet, he paddled back to his own shore.

Getting out, he sat on the rock and dried himself, then slipped on his canvas shoes and his bathing suit and walked slowly back to the house, feeling so much cleaner and fresher after all that confusion and all that traveling.

Angus took off his suit, and hanging the suit and his towel back on the line, he went and put his clothes back on. He got his wallet and watch and ring out of the kitchen drawer and put his watch and ring on and the wallet back into his pocket. The steaks were still like rocks, so he got a zip-lock bag and put the steaks in it and put them, then, into a pot of cold water. Sighing, he walked quietly through the house and out onto the front porch. Eventually, Bobby had to wake up to go to the toilet. Oh, he thought, maybe I should look in on him. What if he wet the bed? Just then, a car drove off the road and around the curve of the drive and parked behind his car.

"My God, who is that?" Angus said aloud. It was a very expensive car. He was sure he had seen it somewhere before.

Helen Gates got out of the car, slamming the door, and pulled off her dark glasses as she hurried towards him.

"Helen," he gasped, "what are you doing here? Has something happened?"

Helen tripped several times in her spike heels getting through the weeds.

"No, my darling, nothing has happened. But I've been trying to get you on the phone all day! I'm giving a sudden salon party tomorrow night. Of course, I want you to be there, Angus, but I was really calling you about the fact that I can not find Bobby Burns. And I really want him to be at my salon tomorrow night. Oh, thank you, I guess I will sit down. Though I've been driving for hours."

Angus did not know what to say, this was a development, and he saw all the possibilities mounting in front of him.

Helen went on, "Angus, I know you are a painter, and so you don't think about things like love. But I think I have a pash on Bobby Burns. At one of my salons, six months ago, I don't know who brought Bobby, I have forgotten, you know me being the hostess with the mostest, but that is when you met him, too. Suddenly I put two and two together, and- using my wonderful female intuition - since I could not reach either of you by phone, I wondered if possibly he could be with you. Is he?"

Angus just very slowly nodded his head, taking all of this in.

"Well, is he? If so I want to speak to him."

Finally, Angus found his voice, "I have to ask you a question first, before I answer your question. Are you staying for dinner, if so I have to thaw another steak."

"Of course, I'm staying to dinner, and I am staying the night, do you think I am going to drive all the way back tonight? And then at once tomorrow morning I have to get back, of course the salon party is being catered and my staff will take care of that, but I have to leave early."

"Thank you. Now to answer your question, Bobby Burns fell out of a tree and broke a bone in his foot and we have been at the hospital all day, and they have given him a drug so he will sleep, and so you should not wake him, I have been tip-toeing around and I just had a swim in the river. Why don't I thaw the third steak, and did you bring a swimming suit?"

"No."

"Well, then, wear the bottom part of one of mine, and swim half-naked, I always swim completely naked, and perhaps by that time Bobby will wake up."

"Oh, the poor darling is injured? And such a sensitive young man. I know what you are thinking, you are thinking that I am not still young, but I am!"

"I don't know how young you are."

"And you never will. What was he doing up in a tree?"

"He was taking a picture of the river, when the limb he was standing on broke."

"Oh, of course, well, he is very big. And such a talented young man, to take a picture of the river. All right, I will go swimming before it gets dark. And you thaw the other steak. And we'll let him sleep. Will you go swimming with me? I don't like scary places alone."

"Yes, if you don't mind me swimming nude."

"Angus, you are one of those men I do not think of in the nude, unlike the ones that I do think of in the nude, no it will not bother me."

In the kitchen, Angus put another frozen steak in the zip-lock bag and changed the water in the pot. When they went out to the clothesline, Helen asked, "What else are we having for dinner?"

"Oh, I stocked up when I thought Bobby was staying the weekend, we are having baked potatoes and a green salad, with blue cheese dressing."

"Oh, yummy, you are such a considerate friend, and we shall be friends forever. Let's go swimming. Oh, it is getting dark."

"No, just dim."

They walked to the river. Helen undressed and shuddered as she put on Angus' wet bathing suit. "I think I'll go naked, too."

And Angus pushed her in, and then dived in laughing after her.

"Why did you do that, I can hardly get my breath!"

"I am here to save you, my princess."

"Don't be stupid, I know how to swim." And they both did, and they swam quietly and it was very peaceful, and when they got out, the moon was rising, and they sat in silence on the rock, both naked, holding hands, like children.

They dressed, Helen leaving off her panty hose and carrying her shoes because she wanted to walk barefoot in the earth.

Helen said, as they walked hand-in-hand, "You have the best earth in the world. You know, Angus, I think I want to marry Bobby, and you can be the best man."

"You seem very sure of yourself."

"Humm, yes. Well, you see, when I am alone at night getting ready to go to bed, I am very unsure of myself. But when I am with you, I feel sure of myself. We will always be friends, won't we?"

"I thought that was understood."

"Good, it is understood."

With wet dirty feet, holding hands, they approached the cabin. All the lights had been left on.

Helen pulled Angus back by the hand and stopped him. "Oh, Angus, I suddenly felt just like we were Hansel and Gretel in the woods when I saw the lights on in the house."

Angus put his arm around her. "That is so peculiar, the image of the opera by Humperdinck flashed before me the minute I saw the house all lighted."

"What opera?"

"Hansel und Gretel."

"Oh, my God." And she clung closely to him.

And then they heard Bobby call, "Angus! Angus! Help me!"

Angus pulled himself away and walked steadily to the porch steps. There Bobby was in the kitchen door. "Oh, Angus, I'm having trouble with the crutches. I fell. I have to go to the bathroom. I don't seem to be able to do it alone. I have to sit on the toilet."

"Of course, I will help you," and Angus hurried up the steps and closed the screen door behind him and took the teetering man in his arms. "Sit down here first, and I'll take your trousers off, carefully over the cast."

"Okay, okay, okay. Who is that with you? I saw someone in the moonlight."

"It's Helen Gates, she has come to join us for dinner tonight and she is staying over night."

"Helen Gates? She hardly seems like the rugged type."

Angus unbuckled Bobby's trousers and gently eased them off the leg with the cast, and then he quickly pulled the other pant leg off over his shoe, then he took the shoe and sock off. He felt Bobby could walk better with his one good foot bare, better than with a shoe, at least right now.

As he did this he said, "Oh, she is a very good swimmer."

Outside on the porch steps, Helen was getting her panty hose on and her shoes after hanging the damp swimming suit and the towels up on the line. Then, hopping up the steps she opened the screened door and slammed it shut. "Hey, you guys, I'm starving. Let's get the baked potatoes in the oven and I'll make the green salad."

When she joined them Angus was getting Bobby to his feet. Helen could not help herself; she started to laugh. "Sorry, Bobby, but you look so funny in your underpants and cast and your jacket and shirt on. I think I will always remember this picture in my head. It is so human. I mean so real. I seem to have always seen everybody at their best, at those parties of mine, and this is the way life truly is. People helping each other."

"He has to go to the bathroom," Angus explained as he guided the staggering Bobby to the bathroom door.

"Okay, where are the baked potatoes?" she yelled.

Angus yelled back, "Under the sink!"

Helen chose the three largest potatoes and turning the oven on she put them in on the rack. Then going into the living room she found where she had put down her purse, and taking out her cigarettes and a lighter, she went out onto the front porch. Every light was on in the house. Bobby, in groping around must have found every light switch trying to find Angus. The mosquitoes attacked her at once, and she used the smoke of her lighted cigarette to fight them off, it worked for a while, but eventually she was driven back indoors, and she flopped in a chair. There was a radio. Turning it on to a classical station there was a Mozart Symphony, it was the Prague. And she leaned back and finished her cigarette and put it out in the ashtray and she listened to the music, and she thought, "I could live here forever with the two of them, Angus with his genius and Bobby as the love of my life, just the three of us, here in the woods and with the river."

Tears came to Helen's eyes, for she knew that was impossible, oh, she had enough money, after all, she was a supporter of the arts, giving away so much of the money her father had earned to keep the world of art going. Oh, yes, she had helped launch Angus. And now she sat there alone as if she were on a threshold, a threshold she could not turn back upon, there was only forward.

Turning off the radio, Helen suddenly remembered what she had yelled after Angus, as he took Bobby into the bathroom: "I will make the green salad," she had said.

Putting her cigarettes and her lighter back in her bag, she went to the refrigerator and opened it.

"God, he's got a vegetable market in here."

At that moment, she heard Angus come out of the bathroom.

"Oh, Angus, what kind of salad do you...?"

"Please, Helen, I don't remember what is in the closets here, I have to find a bathrobe, I think I have a terry cloth for Bobby. I will come right out and help you get the dinner done."

"I put the baked potatoes in...."

But he had gone into the bedroom, then Angus appeared again with a white terry cloth robe, and he vanished into the bathroom.

Helen grabbed some lettuce, two tomatoes and a cucumber and started to work, she would worry about the salad dressing later. But at that moment Angus came out of the bathroom with Bobby, with one crutch, and Angus got Bobby into a chair.

Helen went into the dining room. "Angus, to satisfy my curiosity, you had your steaks frozen. You drove up here this morning. You would have had to turn on your refrigerator, then. How did you get your steaks to freeze that quickly, it takes time to get a freezer that cold."

"Oh, I brought the steaks in a Styrofoam chest-thing, with dry ice in it. And once the freezer started getting cold, I transferred the steaks."

"God, you are so clever. Why don't I marry you?"

"Because you can't."

"It is as simple as that, is it."

"Just as simple as that. Now, let's all have a drink. I know you want a margarita, Helen. Bobby, I don't think I've ever seen you drink."

Bobby said, in a grumpy tone, "I'll have what you have."

"Good, two vodka tonics and one margarita, coming up, then I'll go in and continue with dinner."

Bobby asked, showing a little more interest suddenly in life around him, "Angus, do you

always keep so much liquor up here at the cabin?"

Angus laughed. "Bobby, I know you have had a rough day. But this morning you helped me unpack everything from the car. I brought the liquor up with me this morning. And I went across the road to the farmer there, a Mr. Block, and he has a vegetable garden and I bought the vegetables. Now, Helen, you are going to help Bobby learn to walk on his crutches."

"Crutches? What do I know about crutches?"

"You can learn, you can learn. You are a clever young Miss."

"I like being called young, but I do not like to be called Miss."

"Okay, I'll call you Madame."

"Why don't you call me something affectionate, like Sweetheart or Darling?"

"Okay, Sugar-pie, get him practicing, we are all leaving tomorrow morning."

"All of us? Why do you have to drive in? I can drive Bobby back in."

"I have some business to take care of, which I did not have before today. Business at my gallery. Now, most people could do what I have to do by phone. But not me. I never get my way with the two brothers that run that gallery. When I am physically present - and I must be an impressive presence - I always get what I want, or close to what I want." And as Angus served the drinks, he told Helen and Bobby the story about Emily and his watercolor at the hospital.

Angus stopped speaking. "Oh, I have to get that painting out of the back of the car. I'm not that sure about temperatures for watercolors, but the car may be too hot, shut up like that. And I don't want the paper to curl, if I'm going to try to sell it. Emily had it framed, or framed it herself, and I don't know how it was done."

Angus went out the front door.

Bobby said to Helen, "What's all this about getting married, Helen? It seems to me I remember you telling me you had your heart broken twice. You mean you are going to gamble again?"

"Oh, honey, it is just like you broke a bone in your foot. Things like that happen, whether it's a broken bone in your foot or a broken heart. You will eventually have to use your foot again, well, I eventually had to use my heart again."

She sat down and took a sip of her drink. "Umm, that is so good. As to joking with Angus about marriage, it is just that he is so intelligent, meaning he uses his head. The love affair and the marriage I had, the men put on a front of being intelligent, but they turned out, both of them, to be so helpless, they could hardly tie their own shoes. And they didn't do a good job at that, either. In both cases, I knew it was over, when I got tired of hanging up their clothes for them."

Bobby tilted his head and said, "So intelligence is important in a marriage, but if you can't tell truly if there is intelligence there, what is one suppose to do? Besides, you are rich, and you have people take care of things for you. How do you know you are so intelligent?"

"I know, and one of the reasons I know, is because whatever I tell those people I hire to do for me, I know I can do it myself, if I felt like it."

"Oh. Good point."

Angus returned with the painting. "Why aren't you practicing walking with the crutches?"

Helen said, "Because we're practicing drinking."

Angus propped the painting up on the top of the buffet/bar counter.

Helen sighed, "Oh, it's beautiful, what is it?"

"Trees, sky and a bench on grass."

"Oh, I see it now. Maybe I am not so intelligent, if I have to have a painting explained to me."

"Well, it is beautiful because of the color values, not because of the identifying features of the composition."

"Thank you. Come on, Fleetfoot," Helen said to Bobby, "let's get to love crutches. Angus, he only has one crutch."

"The other one is in the bedroom, Sugar-Pie."

"Oh, stop with the Sugar-Pie, how about Stupid-Baby, instead."

"Okay, Stupid-Baby. Oh, that's nice, Stupid-Baby. It sort of fits."

"Fits me?"

"No, fits on the tongue and on the lips, like a name out of Shakespeare."

Helen went in for the other crutch, and seemed to have a hard time getting it out of the small bedroom door.

Angus sat down and sipped his drink, as he watched Helen struggle to get Bobby up out of the chair and balanced with a crutch under each armpit.

Helen said, "The crutches are going to ruin your terry cloth robe, Angus. Why can't he just go naked."

Angus said, "For reasons of modesty, Stupid-Baby. By the way, Helen, I have two large canvases I have to paint, it is a contract, so that is why I have to come back here at once, for they have to be scenic paintings. Perhaps Bobby could stay with you, since you have maid service. Bobby will need help getting food and all of that."

"Of course," Helen said, as they both bumped into an armchair, in the living room.

Angus said, "I've never seen Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire dance so gracefully."

As a crutch clattered to the floor and as Helen stooped to pick it up, she grunted, "Shut-up, Angus, if you have a contract to complete next week, so you can not stay with Bobby in your studio, where are the stretched and primed canvases, on their frames?"

"They are in the guest room where you are going to sleep tonight. I hope you do not mind wall to wall stretched and primed canvases?"

"Sorry, Angus," Helen said. "But where will you sleep?"

"Dear Helen, even when I sleep here alone, I always sleep on the sofa in the living room. I play the radio, the classical station, of course, and I leave the door open, with the screened door tightly closed, so I can hear the breathing of the trees and see the stars, and the hooting of the owl. In other words, tonight, I shall sleep on the sofa."

Helen said, "I said, I was sorry, Angus."

"Oh, Helen, so much has happened today, before you arrived, I am not a writer, not a word person, I could not explain it to you. Someday, I hope that Bobby can explain it to you, but he was asleep most of the time. I'm going into the kitchen, to shove the steaks into the broiler of the hot oven, and toss the salad with dressing. I am literally exhausted. You and Bobby can put yourselves to bed wherever you wish."

Angus went into the kitchen.

Bobby said, "Boy, Helen, what a stuffed shirt he is."

"Uh, Bobby. You are on your own. I'm going to take a shower. Bye-bye."

Helen let go of Bobby and he fell to the floor with a crash. And she walked into the bathroom.

Bobby lay there for a while. No, he felt no pain, except that he had bumped his head. As he laid there he realized for the first time in his life, he was dependent on these two people. He had his apartment, but he could not be there alone, he could not shop, and he did not have enough money to hire some nurse.

Maybe if he called his photography teacher, at the SUNY? But what could he do? It would take money, and he had none. Of course, he was eating other people's food. And now he was dependent on them, such as: which house or apartment is Bobby to go to?

Bobby knew he had broken his body, for the first time in his life, and it made him helpless.

Bobby struggled to his feet. Bobby knew he would go to Helen's apartment with Helen. He knew what that would mean, and he would and could do it. And Angus was cooking steak tonight, and Bobby was hungry. Bobby got himself and the crutches up and got himself to the table, and into a chair.

Helen opened the bathroom door: "Bobby!"

"Yes?"

"Ask Angus if he has another terry cloth robe?"

"Angus!" Bobby yelled. "Do you have another terry cloth robe?"

"Yes, it is in the bedroom in the closet."

Bobby with determination, got up and grabbed the crutches and fortunately the bedroom door had been left open, and putting the robe from the closet over his head like a blanket, he hobbled out and handed the robe to Helen, into the hand that was reaching out of the bathroom door, and then with a sigh Bobby collapsed back into the dining room chair and let the crutches clatter to the floor.

Helen came out with a white towel wrapped around her hair, and she went right to the bar and fixed herself a margarita. As Bobby watched, it seemed a much sloppier job than Angus had done. Bobby wondered if someday, like Angus, he would have to learn how to make drinks.

Angus entered carrying a tray, "Dinner is served. Helen, will you lay the table?"

"With what?"

"All is on shelves below the bar. Here, Bobby, you hold the tray, it is only a bowl of salad, I will get the steaks and baked potatoes, and the butter dish. Helen? I think there is salt and pepper in shakers on one of those shelves."

Helen, with her head in the cupboards below the bar, sounded muffled as she said, "I'm looking!"

Bobby, sitting there holding the tray with the bowl of salad said to himself, "I think there is a lot I have to learn."

Finally the table was laid, and the dinner was served. They did not speak much during dinner. All three were tired.

Bobby said, wolfing it down, "I wish I could go back to see the river before we leave tomorrow morning."

Angus said, carefully slicing his steak, "There were recently rains, and your crutches would get stuck."

As they were taking the dirty dishes into the sink, Helen said, "Bobby, before you fell out of the tree, did you get your photograph of the river?"

"Yes. But it may be blurred, for just as I clicked it, I heard the crack of the limb, and with my eyes still on the lens, I was going down."

After cleaning up, they took turns at the bathroom. Helen and Angus got Bobby into the big bed, and then Angus got the afghan for his sofa and a pillow, and he turned to Helen and said, "Helen, when you go to bed could you turn off the lights."

"Oh, yes, sure. You know, Angus, it is very interesting for me to sleep in a room with wall-to-wall blank canvases, it is like the story of my life."

Angus was not going to say a word, after that statement.

The lights went off and he fell immediately to sleep.

PART THREE

The morning came up like thunder, as they say; it was a shock to Angus, it was pouring rain. And yet that fact of nature helped him. He did not, any longer, mind going into New York. That was one of the things he did not like about staying in the cabin, was when it rained. He could not go out with his easel and canvas or his sketching pad, he was confined. He was glad he was driving into New York, to Manhattan and the gallery.

Helen stumbled out of the door of the guest room in her bathrobe, and all she said was, "Angus, do you have any mousse?"

"Any what?"

"Mousse for my hair. Damn, I forgot to bring any. My hair is all in snarls, it must be the humidity. Get a bowl of hot water and very gently comb out my hair, I will sit here."

Angus brought the bowl of hot water and stood behind her, dipping the comb into the bowl. He asked, "What do hairdressers talk about when they do your hair?"

Angus was not worried about the rain, but there was the complication of getting Bobby in his cast into the car and finding umbrellas. In the distance he heard thunder.

Helen, as he combed her hair, sat thoughtfully. "My God, Angus, you can certainly put your finger right on things. I go to a hair dresser that has as other clients the mega actresses, the mega musicians, the mega singers, the mega execs. And they tell me all about them and what they talk about. So, because of my salons with the rich and the famous and the drop-ins, I have to spill the beans to keep my standing. Yes, Angus, you put the finger right on it. It is through the hair dressers that the grapevine works."

"I think that is fabulous. I mean, truly, sitting there and hearing elevator music would drive me nuts, but hearing all of those stories about the rich and the famous must make the time pass quickly."

"Oh, it does. I love it."

"I bet you could write a book."

"Not based on the facts they tell me, can you imagine the footnotes in such a book: she had sex with he: source my hair dresser."

Angus laugh, and she said 'ow' because he pulled her hair.

Angus finally said, "Madame, if you expect me to do a French knot, I don't know how."

Helen got up. "No, I'll do a pony tail, and then go to a REAL hair dresser before the salon tonight." But she kissed him and turning away, added, "Thanks, Angus. Now to breakfast, I can't drive on an empty stomach."

They went into the kitchen, "One of us," Helen began, "has to wake him."

"I think a beautiful woman with a pony tail is the most wonderful way to wake up in the morning, facing the world."

"Wouldn't you like that, Angus?"

"No. But I think Bobby might."

"Okay. What's for breakfast?"

"Everything."

"Oh, good."

Helen went to the door to the rest of the cabin but she stopped. "Why did you say that?"

"Which?"

"That you thought Bobby might? Want a woman with a pony-tail, etc? I think it is only fair you tell me what you know."

At that point, Angus was taking the bacon and the eggs out of the refrigerator. "I am not used to this kind of thing, Helen, but I will tell you. Bobby said of me that I fall in love with 'my eyeballs' being a painter. And I think he was right. I do tend to fall in love with beauty, but I do not want the commitment."

"Don't we all. Is that all? All you know?"

"No, I did ask him to model for me for sketches, because of that contract I have, but I can go here and find people to model for me, but..."

"Since he was available...?" Helen asked.

"Exactly."

Helen walked back and embraced Angus and rested her head on his shoulder, "That is really what life is about, isn't it, Angus: what is available."

"I am truly afraid so, time and place, heart and face. You see, Helen, I went to a lot of schools to learn to paint, all of them in New York. As I started selling, I had to pay back a lot of debts, painting is an expensive art form. It was only recently that the money started actually to be mine. I am very new to what is happening to me and my sense of freedom. I will not commit myself ever, or for a long time, paying those bills was a long term process I really thought would never end, but the paintings brought big fees. I could not believe it, in fact, I never ever dreamed I would be invited to one of your salons, and ever meet you or Bobby. I am a hick from the sticks with talent, that is what it boils down to."

When Helen raised her eyes, they were filled with tears as, with a choked voice, she said, "I'm not afraid to marry a hick from the sticks."

"I said 'no' Helen."

"I don't mean you, I mean Bobby, he is a hick from the sticks, and that is why you gravitated to him, isn't it?"

"Yes."

Helen put her two hands on either side of his face and she asked, "You were protecting me, weren't you?"

She was gripping his head with her hands, he could only cast his eyes down, as his eyes filled with tears.

"I was protecting you, and I was protecting him, but in the end, I think I was also protecting myself."

Helen threw her arms around him. "Oh, I knew there was a reason I love you, you are an honest man. Finally, I got my ego back. I know now that if I can recognize an honest man when I meet one, there is nothing wrong with me. Make the breakfast, I will be right back to help you. I will wake up Bobby." And this time she went through the door, to take on the task.

Helen entered the bedroom quietly. No, she did not feel like a mother waking a baby, or a nurse waking a sick man. She leaned over and kissed his cheek, because he was lying on his right side.

"Stop playing with your penis, and get up."

"Was I playing with my penis? While I was asleep?"

"No, but you should have been."

"What's that loud sound?"

"Thunder, it goes with lightning."

"Oh, where is Angus?"

"He's making breakfast."

"Go and help him, I'll get up. I'll be all right. I just have to go to the bathroom."

"Of course, you will all right, darling, but I will help you. If you crack that cast, we will be here all day, and I am not going to be here all day. Now, get up and I will help you to the potty."

Helen got him on the toilet, and rather delicately left the room, having put the roll of toilet paper in his hands. Helen went into the kitchen. "Need help?"

"Yes, get the hash-browns into the frying pan, on low, with the bacon fat, and then grate the cheddar and add the cheese only at the end, I am doing the onions."

"I asked you if you needed help, not a life's dedication to cooking!"

But she began: "Fat first, hash-browns next, turn fire down, and... What did you say next?"

"Grate the cheese. Is he up?"

"Yes, he is on the potty. Do we have to pack much?"

"No, he came with very little. Get him to the table. The egg omelet will take very little time. The storm is not going to get less, it is going to get worse, and we have to get on the road."

"I'll get my bag."

"You go get Bobby. I have to get my painting that I have to sell into the car. In fact, Helen, let Bobby get himself to the table. You dish up the hash-browns, and then add the egg mixture, I'll get my painting into the back seat of my car. I'll use a garbage bag to keep the painting from getting wet. I'm off."

Angus went onto the utility porch and came back snapping open and flaying open a big garbage bag, as Helen tried to remember what she was suppose to do. Opening up the cupboards, she found a bowl, it was an old heavy pottery thing, she got the hash-browned potatoes into that and went in and put it on the table.

Going back, and turning the fire even lower, she got the egg mixture into the skillet.

Helen said, to herself, "Don't we need toast?"

And then Bobby arrived. "What will I wear?"

Helen asked, "Bobby, where are your clothes?"

"I don't know, one of you must have hung them up."

"Look in the closet. I'm doing breakfast."

"Okay."

Helen thought, "I wonder if people in the army act this way, after a battle." Helen heard the crutches fall again, after all, it was becoming an identifiable sound. But she just, at that moment, was not up to taking on the problem of Bobby getting on his clothes.

Angus returned, soaking wet. "We'd better get going right after we eat. Now, Helen, let's get this straight. I'll follow you with Bobby in your car. If I were going to my studio, I'd take the turn-off at 42nd Street. But since you live on the upper East Side, and I have to help you get Bobby up into your apartment, we had better take the turn-off to the Washington Bridge, and I don't know how to do that, since I've never done it, coming back through New Jersey, so I'll have to follow you. You'd better get dressed. I'll make toast and get the breakfast on the table, and I'll make coffee."

Helen said, sounding very much like she was in the TV series MASH, "Gotcha." And she went off to dress.

The smell of the coffee perking in the Braun coffee maker seemed to revive Angus. The storm was getting worse, but it didn't seem to matter so much, now.

Bobby hobbled in, gripping the door. "I got the one foot into a sock and shoe. What will I do with the other shoe and sock?"

"You came with a shoulder bag..."

"Yes, but I can't find it."

"I think it's under the bed."

"Good." And Bobby hobbled off as Angus got the milk and sugar and got them on the table, then bringing in the coffee urn. The toast was done, and he got the butter dish and a knife. When Helen arrived, dressed, she got the eggs and bacon on the table. Bobby arrived, and this time they all ate in absolute silence. They all seemed to be starving.

Helen did say, "The one thing this lacked was marmalade."

Digging out what umbrellas he had on hand, Angus gave the two old umbrellas to Helen and Bobby and they went out and got into her car. Then Angus turned off all the lights, leaving the dirty dishes, and he locked up the house and rushed to his car, and got in it. Helen honked her horn and Angus started his car and followed her car out of the drive. Oh, he did not want to leave the cabin, it was as if Angus had found a haven and he was eager to get back to it.

After the first two hours of driving, once they were thoroughly out of the Poconos, the storm died away and the sun came out. And Helen suddenly remembered what she had said to Angus, at the cabin, about taking what was available. Yes, she was hungry again. And she found a diner, and turned off the highway into the diner's parking lot, jumping out to wave Angus in.

Bobby called, "Why are we stopping?"

"Pee-pee and coffee break, Bobby! I'm human, and I assume you and Angus are, too!"

Angus had followed in, and without a question, Angus went directly to the men's room.

Helen, getting Bobby's crutches out of the car, said, "God, that man seems to know everything I'm thinking, when even I don't know what I'm thinking. Come on, Bobby, pee-pee time." Helen got Bobby to the men's room and she went into the women's room and they all three ended up together at a window table in the diner.

Helen, as the coffee was brought, said, "Angus I am so grateful."

"For what?"

"That you helped me get back in time for the salon this evening. Van Cliburn is in town and he is coming and he will play, of course, and I had to have the grand piano tuned. And of course, I have to go to the hairdresser."

Both she and Angus laughed.

Bobby asked, "What are you two laughing about?"

Helen patted his hand and said, "Oh, Bobby, Angus had to comb out my hair this morning so I could get it into a pony tail, I have naturally curly hair, and it really is difficult, and we talked all about my hairdresser pals."

Helen and Bobby had pancakes, and Angus sipped his coffee.

Angus said, "Helen, you are not expecting me to go to the salon tonight, are you? I have to get back to the cabin, after I see the people at the gallery."

"Darling," Helen said with a mouthful of syrup, butter and pancakes, "that is not going to work."

"Why not?"

"Because you have to stay overnight at my apartment, after the salon, so that tomorrow morning - after all, Bobby can't go to work at the magazine with his foot like that - so we will all three drive back to the cabin. You need a male model for one of your canvases and you a need a female model for your other one, just guess what sex Bobby and I are? We fit the bill. And to be honest, I have always wanted to be a model for one of your canvases, I mean, imagine what I can tell my hairdresser about all of that, it will be all over town: Helen Gates modeled nude for one of Angus Salter's paintings. God, we'll all be famous."

Angus was grinning, "Oh, you have taken such a load off my mind, I was constantly worrying about how to get models for those two huge paintings. Oh, Helen, thank you."

"Look, this is boring, me thanking you and now you thanking me."

Bobby sat there absorbing all of this, feeling absolutely wonderful about all of it.

Crossing the George Washington Bridge into Manhattan, out of New Jersey, they got to Helen's apartment - a condo building with its own garages - and got Bobby up into her apartment. Bobby's first words were, "Oh, there are so many beautiful flowers."

Yes, it would seem every vase was filled with flowers. At that moment a very handsome woman, in expensive black silk, with very white hair and a small black hat got up, putting down her cup of coffee. "Helen, oh, at last."

"Mother, what are you doing here?" asked Helen kicking off her shoes.

"Helen, why are you kicking off your shoes?"

"Mother, did you ever help a man on crutches, my feet are killing me."

"A man on crutches, Darling?"

"Oh, I did not introduce my friends. This is Angus Salter, the very successful painter. And this is Bobby Burns, the as yet not successful photographer, but he will be."

"Oh, well, one of them does have a successful look and the other a not yet successful look. Oh, Helen, I've had such a difficult time. The piano tuner you hired got the piano tuned all wrong, and Van would be very upset, because of course, he will want to play something for us tonight, and then Van is bringing a few friends, so I had to call the caterers, and they have run out of black caviar and had to use some red as well, so unattractive. And the flowers were delivered much too early, so I had to call out for extra vases, and fill them all with water and an aspirin in each one, of course. Now I have to rush off to a committee meeting at the Metropolitan Opera. Then I have to have my massage and my hair done. I'm wearing blue tonight, what color are you wearing?"

"White."

"Good, then we won't clash or match, I hate mother and daughter matching outfits."

Helen said, "Well, I have to get Bobby Burns to bed now, he has a broken bone in his foot, and he has to rest. You go on to the committee, and I shall see you here tonight." And Helen guided Bobby down a long hall.

Mrs. Gates gathered her purse and gloves, saying, "Bobby Burns, Bobby Burns, that name has a

familiar ring to it." When she looked up Angus was studying a large canvas over Helen's mantelpiece.

Mrs. Gates said, "Interesting painting, isn't it, I don't remember the name of the artist."

"I painted it, Mrs. Gates."

"Oh, really. Helen is so inventive, isn't she?"

"I have been in your townhouse, Mrs. Gates, and one of my paintings is hanging over your mantelpiece."

"It is? Oh, I always think mirrors belong over mantelpieces, don't you? They reflect the light so nicely. Are you leaving?"

"Yes, I have to go to my gallery."

"Oh, you own a gallery?"

"No, it is the gallery that handles my paintings."

"Oh, how awkward, handling paintings, I once handled a painting of an opera singer, and the paint had not yet dried, though the singer was long dead, and I got paint all over me. And I always liked Melba, on records, of course. Well, I must say good-bye to my daughter, I wonder where she is, nice to have met you."

"I think she is in the bathroom with Bobby Burns."

"In the bathroom?"

"Well, Bobby broke a bone in his foot only yesterday, and he is still is much pain, and he has difficulty getting his pants down, so she is helping him."

"Oh, dear, I hope the servants are all in the kitchen. I'll speak to my daughter later. I'm sure we will just laugh about it all. Bye-bye."

"I can go down in the elevator with you."

"My dear young man, I know perfectly well how to run an elevator." And Mrs. Gates swanned out of the apartment, with Angus following her, so that they both stood waiting for the elevator together.

Mrs. Gates looked over at him and said, "Odd weather we have been having."

"Yes, it was raining in the Poconos, quite a storm, actually. That is where Helen has been."

"I didn't know Helen had been to a foreign country, she does get about so."

The elevator came and they both got into it.

"No, Mrs. Gates, the Poconos are in Pennsylvania."

"I'm sure they belong there."

"Are we going down to the garage?" Angus asked.

"Why would I go down to the garage?"

"That is where our cars are."

"Oh, dear no, I ask George, the doorman, to have my car brought around." When the elevator door opened, George the doorman was waiting.

"George, thank you for having my car brought around. Such rude young men one meets these days in elevators."

As the elevator door closed slowly, Angus grinned. He had seen Helen's mother, but never talked to her. Now he felt he knew Helen much better than he had before.

The Cardova Gallery was on Madison Avenue at the corner of fifty-seventh Street. But he could not find a parking space, so Angus had to drive to park several blocks away. Somehow, talking to Mrs. Gates had cleared his head, and he had put all of the 'fall from the tree' and Helen's desire to 'marry Bobby' out of his mind. Yes, Mrs. Gates was like a strong drink of brandy, that shocks you for a moment into awakening, into the awakening that one has a life to live of one's own.

The Cardova Gallery was a shock of ice cold air conditioning. Angus knew his clothes looked like rags, after all they had been through in the rain and then driving, but he had to get this over with. It was Saturday, and he truly did want to get the money to Nurse Emily Evans, that is what it was about, wasn't it? Of course, that is what it was about, the wealth of Mrs. Gates and the wealth of Helen Gates and the salon parties had confused him, even the hairdresser story had confused him, he was still little Angus Salter, from a small place in Pennsylvania.

A woman stood up and came to him. "Can I help you, sir."

Angus had the garbage bag with the watercolor under his arm. The young woman had that lovely but phony smile on her face, and Angus remembered from the past that he could never get his way by phone, he only got his way if he arrived in person.

Angus said, "I want to see either Carlo or Benito, and if they are not in, I want the phone number where I can phone then, and if so, I am going to use your phone."

And turning he sat down in the chair next to the desk from which she had regally risen.

The phony smile vanished, and she said, "They are both in, sir, and who should I say is asking for them?"

"Angus Salter." Angus had narrowed his eyes when he pronounced his name, like an angry tennis star who knew his worth. It was then he realized he had watched too much tennis on television. The younger woman turned to the inner-office phone connection and mumbled something and then hanging up, and not smiling but blinking, she went into an inner office.

Angus knew the brothers were twins, and they not only looked alike, they dressed alike, even wearing the same ties. After you got used to that, the shocking thing was that they thought alike. It was like an inner circle of likeness that went round and round until you put your big foot down and demanded their attention. Angus sat there as the young woman, from the inner office returned and presented Angus with a cup of coffee in one of the most beautiful oriental porcelain cups he had ever seen.

"Oh, this is delicious," he said, "could you unwrap this painting for me. It is one of my watercolors, and I want either Carlo or Benito to sell it for me. I don't need the money, don't misunderstand me, the painting was given to a friend, and she is in need of money, so I am selling it for her, so she can have some very necessary funds."

The young woman stared at Angus. "Oh, the poor dear, who is she?"

"A part time nurse in a hospital."

"A part time nurse in a hospital?"

"Yes, and she is an older woman, a woman who once modeled for me for one of my murals."

"Oh, my dear. I think I'll get myself a cup of coffee, would you mind?"

"Not at all."

And then there he was, one of them was striding towards him, hand reaching out. Was it Carlo or Benito? Angus had to think fast, he got up and grabbed the painting and put it into the man's hands, whichever one of the Cardova twin's hands it was.

"Angus, dear fellow, what is this?"

"It is a watercolor I gave a friend as a gift, and she needs financial help, now. I mean now! I took all of the trouble to drive in from the Poconos, where I am working on the two-canvases-project for my contract, with the Emerson family for two large canvases for their new home on Martha's Vineyard. This painting, that I've handed to you, is only a watercolor, but I will take..." Suddenly Angus saw something in the other man's eyes, whether it was Carlo or Benito. And Angus stalled. He turned and picked up his coffee cup and he saw the young woman her eyes widely opened, staring at him, listening to all of this over her coffee cup.

Angus put down his coffee cup and he said, "You know how long it takes me to paint an oil canvas, and you are thinking that if I sold an oil canvas I could give this woman so much money. But I am trying to tell you, maybe in the future I can have the time to do that, but at the moment I need to complete the Emerson contract and I do not have the time, and at the moment this woman needs what little money she can get, and I do not really like being put into a position like this, because they may start asking for more, and no, I have never had sex with this woman, she is old enough to be my mother. Any more questions?"

The brother turned to the woman, who choked on her coffee as he turned and looked at her. "Miss Offerhinder, make out a check for five thousand dollars, I will buy this one for myself."

"Yes, sir."

"I mean now, Miss Offerhinder!"

"Oh. Oh, yes, sir, wait till I find my glasses, and..."

The brother Cardova said, "Angus, won't you have lunch with us up in our suite?"

But Angus being an emotional 'dear fellow' threw his arms around the brother and whispered in his ear, "Thank you, thank you, I mean it. I'll take the check. But I must get back to the Poconos. First I have to go to my studio, and see that all is right there. Listen...are you Carlo or are you Benito...?"

"Benito."

"Benito, before I return to the Poconos, I have sketches that I have kept for myself. I will drive by my studio now and give one to you as a gift, as a gift for doing this for me. I'll sign the sketch. You can keep it or sell it. No payment due."

Benito whispered in Angus' ear, "How about two sketches and I'll sell them both and give you half the profits?"

"It's a deal," Angus whispered back. Angus picked up the check, after Benito had signed it.

At the door Angus turned back to the young woman and said, "Thank you for the coffee." Bumping into a woman coming into the gallery, Angus went out to the street, and he wanted to sing, he had five thousand dollars to give to Emily Evans. How could a life change into another life, the way his life had changed?

Getting into his car, Angus realized he had to calm down. He knew he had to go to the bank and cash that check so he could get cash. Someone might suspect some nefarious dealings if Emily had to suddenly deposit that check. It had to be cash, so she could just use it as time went by. Yes, he had to cash the check.

The minute he successfully cashed that check, he realized he could not carry such a large amount of money around with him. Yes, he would go to the studio, get the sketches, drop them off at the gallery and go at once to Helen's apartment, she had a safe in the apartment, where she kept her jewelry. Yes, that is what he would do.

Actually, it was easier than he thought it would be. Signing the sketches in his studio he put them in a folder, and drove to the gallery. There was a security guard outside of the Cardova Gallery waiting for him, and standing inside the window was one of the brothers, and all he had to do was hand the large canvas folder containing the sketches to the guard, and the brother smiled and waved, as Angus got back into his car.

It was shocking to realize in the rush he had the same smelly clothes on. Why had not he changed at the studio, and to drive all the way back downtown to the studio in this traffic would be madness. He would use an excuse. Yes, and he had five thousand dollars on him. He would use some of the money to get new clothes for Bobby and for him, to wear to the salon. After all, there must be a good clothiers in an elegant neighborhood like this. And he did not want to use a credit card. He did not want Bobby to feel indebted to him, and to use cash, it was very aboveboard, which was the truth, he was paid more for the watercolor than he expected. Yes, with Bobby or anybody else, no debts, always aboveboard. He had made a profit and could spend it as he wished. No, Angus did not run, in fact, he never ran, except yesterday in the woods. He walked slowly through the lobby and got into the elevator to Helen's condo. He rang the bell, was let in by a maid, and Bobby was sitting there eating something.

Angus, when he saw Bobby, did run. He ran and embraced him. "Oh, Bobby, it is so wonderful seeing you sitting up, looking perfectly normal, happy, and healthy. Is Helen here?"

"No, Angus, she went out to the beauty parlor."

Angus sat down before Bobby, on the edge of the foot stool that Bobby was resting his leg with the cast on. Picking up the drink from the coffee table, that Bobby had been drinking, which was orange juice, Angus gulped it down.

"Bobby, I've got some extra cash. For the salon tonight, I want to buy us both some new ready-made suits. Where is that maid that let me in?"

"Oh, she must be back in the kitchen, why do you want her?"

"I want to ask her if she knows of a store where we can get ready-made suits, and I want to leave a message for Helen, and I want to ask the maid what time we have to be ready for the salon."

"Oh, well, she must be back in the kitchen. You know everything is being catered, but there are a lot of preparations."

"Where is the kitchen?"

"But, Angus, what kind of suit would I buy?"

Angus got up. "I have no idea. You look just great as you are, but we are going to think of Helen, this time. We, as her friends, are going to give her the confidence she needs. Okay?"

"Oh, sure."

"Now, where is the kitchen?"

"They all go that way, down to the end of that long hall, I've never seen it. They just wait on me."

Angus nodded and started down the hall, and then Angus began to grin, and he said to himself, "I think I can tell, that Mr. Burns rather likes to be waited on."

Angus almost laughed aloud because he, Angus, hated to be waited on by anybody.

When he got to the kitchen, it was a baize door and he pushed it open. And a young man in uniform was mopping the kitchen floor.

Angus had to raise his voice because of the clatter of the pots and pans and plates and the out-lay on metal tables on wheels that were being layered with spotless white cloths.

"I am a guest here, and could you direct me in this neighborhood to a store where I could buy a ready-made suit. I have been traveling, and I need a suit tonight to wear to the salon that you all are giving."

The mop was dumped into the bucket of soapy water. "Come outside, we can talk better there."

They both went out into the hall; the man, a young Hispanic, took out a linen napkin from his hip pocket and mopped his forehead.

"I don't know the name of the store, but you go out the front door, and you keep to our side of the street, and it, I think, is two blocks maybe three. You can't miss it because they have these stupid looking dummies in the window, with no heads, and suits on them, and the dummies have bare feet, because they don't sell shoes. It's good stuff."

Angus got out his wallet and took out a bill. "Thank you."

"Oh, no, there is no need for that kind of thing."

"Please, don't consider it a tip, it is to say thank you. After all, we may never meet again."

The young man squinted as he pocketed the bill. "Odd way to put it, man, but I think I know what you mean."

And he went back through the swinging door, as Angus walked back down the hall repeating: "Our side of the street, two or three blocks, headless dummies in window." He repeated it over and over as if he were creating a map or a painting.

"Bobby, I don't dare take the car, parking is impossible in this neighborhood, we will have to walk only two or three blocks, where are your crutches? How did you get out here without your crutches?"

Angus waved his hands, and then he noticed that all the furniture had been moved for the salon that evening, and the vases of flowers had been moved and some removed.

Bobby struggled up out of the chair, "Oh, Helen and one of the men helped me. My crutches are in my bedroom."

Angus said rather impatiently, "Now, Bobby, you know I don't know which room you are in, in order to find the crutches, since we are going out shopping."

"I don't either, there are a lot of bedrooms, and they all have doors down that hall."

Angus patted his shoulder. "Don't worry, I'll just open doors, where did you put the crutches?"

"Oh, they are on the foot of the bed, I remember the man put them there."

"Okay, I am going door hopping. I hope I don't uncover anything too shocking."

Angus started down the hall and disappeared out of Bobby's view. Angus came back very quickly with the crutches and within a few minutes they were out in the hall.

Angus said, "It's amazing how quickly you have adapted to using the crutches, Bobby."

"I guess that is what they mean by 'necessity is the mother of invention'."

Once on the street, they turned to the right. As always, on the upper East Side of Manhattan the streets were crowded with people shopping, or simply with people who wanted to be seen by other people who wanted to be seen.

The store was two and a half blocks down the Avenue. When Angus spotted it, he took Bobby's arm and Bobby turned towards him. "Now, Bobby, there are suits in the shop window; we have to make this fast, since we'll need the suits at least by seven tonight. And I want a nap first. So when I help you turn, just choose the first suit in the window you like and tell me."

"Oh. Okay." Angus helped him on the crutches to turn and face the shop window.

"I like the brown, but not double breasted."

"Good, I'll take the blue, let's go."

They entered the shop. Angus got Bobby settled in a chair and then he went in search of a clerk, for the shop was busy. When he found one he explained what he wanted, and he and the clerk went to the window. The clerk said, "Oh, you mean the Sharkskin. Very fine: polyester and worsted wool, absolutely wrinkle proof. And you want the taupe and the midnight blue?"

"Yes, but we have to have them in a few hours, do you have them in stock, for our sizes? We are about the same size."

"Oh, yes, I can get them from the warehouse in an hour, but I have to take your measurements."

"Fine, take my measurements first. The other man has a broken foot and is wearing a cast."

"Oh? Poor thing. Do you want cuffs on the trousers?"

"Yes, and both single breasted."

The clerk wrote quickly on a pad.

"And we will want a white shirt each, not French cuff, and a tie each that matches. We have belts and we do not need socks."

"Fine, wide collar shirts or narrow?"

"Narrow. And could you measure our necks, I'm not sure of his neck size, they shouldn't be too tight or two floppy."

It was awkward taking Bobby's measurements, but finally the man handed Angus the store card with the phone number to phone back to be sure all was ready. "We do deliver."

"No, I'll pick them up."

"Are you paying by credit card?"

"No, cash."

"Cash? The suits are on a special sale, but they are two hundred and thirty dollars each, of course plus the shirts and ties."

"That's all right, I'll pay cash."

"As you wish. Would you like coordinated pocket handkerchiefs?"

"Yes, that would be nice. Not silk, just cotton."

Actually, it took very little time before the two men were back out on the street again. Somehow, the experience had lightened Bobby's mood, and he chatted openly about the fun he often had as a photographer working on the magazine, when the magazine would send him on locations with models for fashion spreads, and they would stay over-night in a bed-and-breakfast, and get up early, while the light was bright and clear to take shots, and then have the rest of the day to swim and lay around, and go out to dinner, so they could finish up shooting the next morning.

When the maid let them into the apartment, Helen came to greet them. She was hardly recognizable as the woman Angus had greeted that morning in the cabin. The back of her hair was in a French twist, and the top was a mass of thick layers that had been sprayed so they glistened in the light from the chandeliers.

"Oh, my darlings, they told me you had gone to buy new suits for tonight. That is so thoughtful of you."

"Helen, I'm hoping they'll have them ready in time for the salon."

Helen's mother joined them, having heard the conversation. "Oh, such handsome men, and new suits for tonight, they don't look very appropriately dressed now, but I suppose that's the latest thing."

Angus began at once: "Helen, I sold the watercolor for much more than I had expected, and I cashed the check. I don't want to carry so much money on me, could I put it in an envelope and put it in the safe?"

An odd thing happened then. Helen turned quickly, pretending to look around the room; her mother was standing directly behind her. "Oh, mother, could you excuse us, we have some business to attend to."

"Oh, of course, darling, you know I have no head for business especially with strangers."

Helen turned back to Angus, "Yes, it's in what we call the study, but it was once father's office."

Helen's mother called, "Helen, if you are opening the safe, do take out my diamond fleur-de-lis brooch, so international, I think: especially with an international pianist as the honored guest."

"Uh, yes, mother."

Angus said, as he and Helen went down the hall, "I didn't think your mother still lived here."

"No, she doesn't, but she leaves some of her jewelry here; the rest is in the bank deposit vault."

Twisting around with the doorknob in her hand, she said: "This is it. I always have to concentrate to remember the combination of the safe, I open the damn thing so rarely."

They entered the office.

Angus asked, "Is there an envelope in the desk? I don't want to put my whole wallet in the safe."

"Oh, yes. Center drawer."

Angus found the envelope and a pen, and he wrote his name on the envelope and getting out his wallet, he left himself some cash, and putting the rest of the money into the envelope, he licked the flap of the envelope and sealed it, then he put his wallet back into his pocket and looked up. Helen was standing there by an open safe in the wall, staring at him, but no, she was not staring at him, she was staring into space.

Angus bumped shut the center desk drawer, and the sound brought Helen back to the room. He went over and handed her the envelope. Helen said, "Not that I'm being nosy, but how much is in there?"

"Oh, four thousand, about that. Helen, I'm exhausted and want to take a nap. I have to pick those suits and shirts and ties up. They delivered, but I didn't even know your apartment number. Could you or Bobby wake me? I got his crutches for him when we went out shopping, so I'll be in his room."

"Okay, sure, of course. Wait, don't go yet. After all, your money is in this safe. I want you to see me lock it. I want you to know where the switch is that closes the wall panel."

"Oh. I saw. But you mustn't worry, it's only four thousand. It won't break me if the house burns down."

Helen tried to laugh. "Have your nap. Want me to tuck you in?"

"No, I think it would be much better if you make Bobby a nice cocktail, and then wake me in an hour, so I can phone the clothing store."

In the room, Angus pulled down the sheets, took off all his clothes, pulled the drapes and turned out the lights, and groping his way to the bed, crawled in and as he closed his eyes he saw a picture, like many people when they close their eyes before going to sleep see pictures, but in his case it was really a picture, it was the watercolor he had given the nurse, and somehow when it was in her hands it had a real meaning for him of having found a home, now the picture was just up for sale and he'd never know its home. He turned over and said to himself, "That's life." And he went to sleep.

PART 4

Angus woke up when the bedroom drapes were pulled and the late afternoon light spilled into the room. Helen, looking out the window with her back to him, slowly turned.

"Oh, you're awake."

Yawning and stretching, he said, "I am now. It was the light."

"I'll go out so you can dress."

Angus smiled but then he frowned. "Helen? Wait. I had a dream, over and over about a French flag." Abruptly, he sat up in bed. "Helen, I got it. Your mother asked you to get a fleur de lis brooch out of the safe. We did not get the brooch out, and it became part of my dreams. Did you remember and go back to get it?"

Helen shook her head and came and sat on the edge of the bed. "No, Angus. There is no fleur de lis brooch. Ever so often she asks me to get it for her and I smile and pretend to go to the office, then she forgets about it."

"Oh, I see."

Helen got up. "See you in a while, or would you rather have a robe, so you can phone now, before you dress. You can use the phone in the office to call the clothing store."

"That's a good idea."

Helen got a plain navy blue robe out of the closet. "This will be too small for you, but it'll do for now. I'll be at the bar fixing you a vodka tonic."

"Could you make it a vodka martini?"

"Whatever the guests want, we aim to please. See you."

Angus put on the robe, went down the hall with his wallet to the office, closed the door and getting the card and receipt out of the wallet, phoned the store. Yes, the suits are ready, the cuffs have just be pressed and all will be boxed when he arrives. Going back to the bedroom he dressed, and went to the living room. A very long table had been set up in front of the windows and balcony, with a sea of white linen covering it. Helen was busy discussing something with a woman, who Angus guessed was one of the caterers, so he picked up the martini from the bar assuming it was his and he sat down on the sofa next to Helen's mother. Mrs. Gates was going through her beautiful leather purse, and she said, "Oh, dear."

"Lose something?"

"Not exactly, I hope, really, I do hope not, but I think I have picked up somebody else's bag. Nothing in this bag looks at all familiar."

Angus sipped his delicious drink; the four olives in the martini were stuffed with anchovies, it was like having an antipasto as well as a drink. Angus felt for Mrs. Gates, after what Helen had said, so he asked, "Could I help you to find your wallet? That way we could be sure whose bag it is."

"Oh, would you, that's a dear."

Angus, setting his drink down on the end table, found the wallet and looking at the credit cards found one with a photograph. It was a picture of the woman who was standing talking to Helen.

Angus got up, "You were right, you see. It is somebody else's bag, it is that woman's bag, the woman talking to your daughter."

"Oh, dear, how embarrassing, you won't tell her will you?"

"No, where did you find it?"

"Here on the sofa, where I had put mine. Do you suppose she has my bag?"

"If she does, she is not carrying it. There is a purse sitting on the piano bench, let me go see if that is yours."

"No, don't do that. I'll go see if it is mine." Getting up rather brusquely, Mrs. Gates went to the piano, grabbed up the purse and clutching it went to Helen and the woman and said something. Angus had put the brown leather bag down on the sofa and sat drinking his martini. The woman that was speaking to Helen came over and picking up her bag went back to Helen. Finishing his drink, Angus left for the clothing store.

As he walked along the Avenue, he put Helen and her mother out of his mind. But he did realize that though, of course, he wished his parents were still alive, that when some people get older, it could truly be a challenge for the son or daughter.

It must have been near closing time, for the store was quite crowded, but finally he collected his purchases.

Leaving the clothing store, with the two large boxes, one in each hand, he felt very cheerful. Yes, it had been a long time since he had been on a shopping spree, and all had gone well, and without realizing it, he walked along humming some old tune. The sun was going down and the light had that dusky look, for in the city with the tall buildings, when the sun goes down the change happens abruptly, unlike at the cabin on the river.

Back in the apartment, he took the boxes into Bobby's bedroom. The bed had been made. He had not seen Bobby in the living room and wondered where he was. They should bathe and shave and start getting ready. Back in the hall, he saw Helen coming out of the kitchen door.

"Where is Bobby, we'd better start bathing and shaving and all?"

"Oh, he's in my room watching television. I'll get him. You'll find shaving things in the bath of Bobby's room - and towels and aftershave, the works, kiddo. Oh, Angus, what was all that about you going through that woman's purse, that she left on the sofa?"

Angus hesitated. "Since you confided in me about the fleur de lis brooch, I do not feel I'm betraying any secrets. Your mother thought it was her purse, but didn't recognize anything in it, so I helped by looking in the wallet and found a picture of that woman; your mother's purse was on the piano bench."

"Oh, my God."

"Helen, this is not going to interfere with you coming to the cabin with Bobby and me tomorrow, is it?"

"No, no. Of course it won't. I'll get Bobby."

Angus strolled back into the living room. Gorgeous vases of orchids were on the long table now, and there was much activity going on, mostly arranging furniture, so he sauntered back to Bobby's room, trying to stay out of the way of people coming from the kitchen to the living room, and vice versa. Helen, with Bobby on his crutches, joined him at the door as they came out of a room across the hall.

"Oh, I'm dying to see the two of you in your new clothes! Isn't that funny? It really will be a surprise for me, to see what you have chosen and how you look in the new clothes, I feel like a kid again, at a birthday party, eager to see what everybody was going to be wearing when they arrived. Speaking of dressing, now it is my turn to vanish. But wait. I have to ask one personal question. Angus? How are you going to give Bobby a bath with that cast on his foot?"

"I'm not," Angus answered. "I've worked it all out. We will hang the foot with the cast over the edge of the tub and the shower curtain, and I will stand in the shower with him, and he can hold onto my shoulders, since he will be balancing on one foot, and with my hands free, I will be able to wash him."

Helen's eyes looked as big as the eyes of that child she described at the birthday party, and she said, 'That sounds so dangerous, I mean if one of you slips and falls."

Angus opened the door of the bedroom, "Don't worry, Helen, it will be a short shower. Come on, Bobby."

On his crutches, using the electric razor, standing in front of the basin mirror, which was quite wide, Bobby balanced very well.

The shower went off without a hitch, once they got in, and once they got out.

After the shower, Bobby sat on the toilet, with the seat down, and dried himself, as Angus combed his hair, after drying himself, and he realized the soap that Helen had supplied had such a beautiful scent. Then he applied the underarm deodorant, which was called Stag, and then he applied the after shave lotion.

"Bobby," Angus said, turning from the mirror, "I'm going to go and lay out the clothes on the bed for us to dress. Take your time. Do you want me to come back and help you with the crutches?"

"No, I'll do just great, if great is the right word. Angus...what do I do, like this, at a party?"

"I'll put you into a chair, and you slide the crutches under the chair, and you stay where I put you, let people come to you, but don't try to get up. The cast on your foot will be an announcement enough."

"Thanks, Angus."

Angus walked naked into the bedroom of the suite, and he sat right down on the floor, cross-legged and opened the boxes.

There was tissue paper, it was like it was Christmas. Angus leapt up taking the box with him and putting it on the bed, he unpacked the suit, the man at the store had called 'taupe' it was so beautiful, and then he worked hard to get all the little pins out of the shirt, then he tried to find a wastebasket to put the pins and tissue paper in and the plastic covering for the shirt. He paused for breath and wondered how anybody had time in their lives for this kind of joy. But he was having joy and he took his time. Then he put the tie and the handkerchief on top of the suit and stood back and looked at it, his head going from side to side, as if it were a model for a painting and what colors he would use. But he was forgetting his suit.

That was a different sort of joy, he was quite routine in placing his 'midnight blue' suit and his shirt and his tie and his handkerchief on the other side of the bed, nearest the window. Underwear, underwear, underwear. He found his old clothes, where he had dumped them on a chair, and he pulled on his underpants. Then he went back to the window and stood there looking down at the brightly lighted city, from such a height it looked like a wonderland. Quickly he went back to the bathroom. Bobby was coming towards the door just at that moment on his crutches.

Angus said, "I have to find your shoes and socks, I did not buy socks to match, I forgot."

"I don't care, just let me sit down."

"Where are your underpants, Bobby?"

"God knows."

Angus found them on the floor and Bobby put them on. From there it was the shirt, and then the trousers and then the tie and then the socks and shoes, and then the jacket with the handkerchief in it.

And then Angus dressed himself, and it was as if it were just in time, for a knock came at the door, he expected Helen, but no, it was one of the staff, asking them to come to the living room for the guest of honor had arrived.

"Thank you, we are ready." Angus turned to Bobby, "I need something, something to put in a chair to save it for you, for all the guests are arriving, and I need to hold a chair for you."

Bobby said, pointing, "There. That, that! There on the chair, by the window!"

"What is it?"

"It's my camera case."

"Perfect." Angus went out and the party was gathering and there was much laughter and the food was being laid out by the caterers, and Angus found a chair and put the camera case on it and pulled it way over away from the door, by the other windows, for the living room had windows at two sides and he walked slowly back to the bedroom.

"Bobby, it is all set, let's go."

And you know what happened, Bobby loaded his camera and took the most wonderful photographs of the party that evening from his chair, with his crutches under the chair, and for once in a long time, since going to the beach and photographing beautiful female and male models did he feel he had found his own style.

Van Cliburn was playing Chopin at the beautifully polished and tuned grand Steinway piano. A chef stood behind the long white linen-clothed table, wearing a big white hat and white uniform and Angus went and picked up a plate: amidst the vases of orchids and platters of food, there were little embossed cards to describe each entree: shrimp remoulade, shrimp maison, and crab meat maison. And there was a huge basket of hot garlic French bread, Angus took some of all of that. There were hot plates of prime rib, and another of Southern ham. There were soft shelled crabs with a lemon sauce and a side dish of brabant potatoes with leek, and then Angus spotted what he wanted, lemon sole with fresh lumps of crab meat atop the fillets.

Oh, there was caviar in parsley and of course a green salad and potato and bean, and a platter of cucumber in a tarragon dressing. Angus found his fork and a knife and weaving his way into a corner he listened to Van Cliburn, surrounded by his entourage, bringing that piano and the Chopin to life, what a thrill.

As he slowly ate, savoring each bite, Angus was so glad the cheese fondue period of Helen's salons had passed.

Helen's mother, Mrs. Gates, wore purple velvet with the most beautiful diamond necklace Angus had ever seen. Helen wore only white, a long gown with a curved neck, and absolutely no jewelry, which surprised Angus. But with her dark hair, she was stunning in all white. Angus took his plate to the bar and left it, he had to get some food for Bobby.

"Bobby," he said as he went to Bobby's chair, "what would you like to eat."

"I saw your plate," Bobby said, grinning, "I want exactly what you had."

Angus repeated his own plate and with a fork and knife brought the plate to Bobby, and Bobby put his camera back in his kit and said, "I want a glass of white wine and a glass of water."

Angus said, "Smart boy and comin' right up."

Angus pulled a little end table over beside Bobby's chair and Angus slowly merged with the crowd at the end of the buffet table. It took patience, and he took a few sharp elbows but he got what Bobby wanted. Then asking the chef to pour him a glass of champagne, he managed to get it back, all of it, and put the plate in Bobby's lap and the glass in Bobby's hand, until he transferred ashtrays that had been put on the end table to a window sill, and then put the plate and the glass of champagne finally where they belonged on the end table. Then he went to the bartender and ordered a dry martini and getting it went and sat down at the sofa and watched.

An announcement was made, and since everybody had eaten themselves into oblivion by that time, they all found seats, one woman trying to sit on Bobby's lap.

Van Cliburn was to play selections from Robert Schuman's short piano pieces 'Kinderscenen'.

Angus knew exactly what to do. When there was applause, Angus got up, pulled the crutches out from under Bobby's chair and got Bobby up. Bobby was perfectly cooperative, and since the others did not know that Bobby had a broken foot, they were all so helpful, suddenly, and with Bobby's camera case, Angus got Bobby through the door to the magical hallway where everything behind the scenes seemed to go on. It was over, without a snag, and now to undress Bobby and himself.

Somehow, knowing he was leaving tomorrow for the Poconos, he had saved the boxes for the suits. Taking a deep breath, he stored the shirts and the suits and the ties and even the handkerchiefs in the boxes. Unclothing Bobby, Angus got a very sleepy Bobby into bed, and brushing his own teeth, Angus crawled into the king-sized bed next to Bobby, and they both went to sleep. It was so quiet as they slept, and the night seemed to go on and take care of itself.

The next morning, he heard the rattling of pottery, and Angus noticed as he woke up groggily, that Bobby was still sleeping soundly. The rattling of the pottery was Helen with a tray, her beautiful hairdo was gone and she had the pony-tail again. Helen made sign language to him to come with her. Without shame he got up naked and pulled on the robe he had left on the chair by the windows, and he stepped quietly out into the hall, easing the door closed behind him.

In the hall, he asked, "What is it? You didn't wake me too early, it isn't that, I had a lovely sleep, but you look as if something is wrong?"

"Hmm, Angus, you not only can read my mind, you can read the expressions on my face."

"As to the face, I am a painter, after all."

"Come into the office with me."

"I'm barefoot."

"Are you cold, Angus?"

"No, but I didn't think you wanted a half-naked man walking around with you."

Helen laughed a dry sort of laugh. "Who cares? The servants are in their quarters. Oh, by the way," she said as she closed the office door behind them, "you would be proud of me. I asked the caterers to save an ice chest for me. I am taking all of the leftover food from the party with us to the cabin in the Poconos, today. I had a bit of a thing with the Mexican woman in the kitchen who wanted the ham. No, I did not fight her fist-to-fist, I just said, 'Maria, I have given you all the food after every party, now it is my turn.' You know what she said? 'Oh, you are a saint, I have it all wrapped in foil with the salads and this time I will give it up to you, for I have a family to feed, now they will starve, but, yes, it is your turn.' You know what I said? 'Maria, I will leave you the two dozen eggs and the potatoes and onions.' Maria said, 'Oh, I already took those and thank you, you saint.'"

Helen, smiled, a real smile. "But, Angus, I got all the shrimp and the crab and the lemon sole, all in the ice chest to take with us."

Angus rushed to her and kissed her on the lips. "This, my loved one, is a new life for Bobby, you and me. Now, why did you bring me into the office?"

Helen asked, "Can I say something?"

"You know you can."

"For so many years, I have wanted to be able to tell somebody about this, but there was no one, no, not anybody. Because my mother shared that purse with you, on the sofa, the wrong purse, the right purse, the other woman's purse thing with you, I now know you can understand what I am talking about."

"Oh, Helen, I do trust your mother, she is creating a pattern, but I can figure the pattern out, she is not being crafty, I really believe she thought that the other woman's purse was her purse, but she could not find in that purse what was suppose to be there."

"That is why I can talk to you about it...there on the desk I have made Bloody Mary's, would you pour me one, and one for yourself if you would like one."

Angus looked back and forth from the desk to Helen, as he circled the desk so he could stand behind the tray of drinks, so that he could see Helen. "Helen, something has happened that I don't know about, hasn't it?"

"Yes. I'll take that drink."

Pulling the desk chair over to her, he then brought over the two drinks. In silence they sipped, Helen looking at the wall, Angus looking at Helen's expressions. Helen was suffering.

Angus said, "Helen, you are unhappy, now. Wasn't the party a success?"

"Oh, it isn't that. You see, Angus, I knew. I mean I was afraid of this. I have the combination to that safe, but so does my mother. She was there, yesterday, standing behind me, when you wanted me to put your money in the safe. Yes, at last I can say it. At last. My mother is a kleptomaniac."

"Oh, my darling. That is what it was about the fleur de lis brooch."

"Yes. I was with her that day at Cartiers. After we got home, there it was in her bag and she asked me, how did that get there. They phoned, I returned it to them. But she kept asking me, at certain occasions to get the fleur de lis brooch out of the safe for her. And then when she and I went shopping, because I went shopping with her more and more to protect her. I really love her, you see, and she took care of me all the time after Daddy's death. That is when I discovered that Mama would put her bag down by some other woman's bag, always in an expensive store, and switch bags. I know you are going to say get her to a doctor, but Angus, they want to commit her, to protect society. But we have money, we can pay for it, you see, she only preys on the rich."

"Yes," Angus said, "I do understand. If we take her with us to the cabin, there will be no temptation. We all will build a whole new life there, bring your mother with us, wake her, and get her dressed."

"But wait, altruistic as you are, I was afraid, so I opened the safe and your envelope has been stolen."

Putting down his drink, Angus walked the floor. "Helen, do you have a cigarette? I need one now, though I never smoke."

"Yes, in the canister on the desk, very mild." Helen got up and lit the cigarette for him as he paced. Helen asked, "What are you thinking?"

"Helen, who stayed over here in the apartment after the salon was over?"

"Only, you and Bobby and me and my mother - only two servants sleep over, at times, but they all went home last night."

"Helen, where would your mother put the envelope with my money in it? Did you look in your handbag this morning?"

"Well, no, but...she would not put it in mine, she loves me."

"You know what I think?"

"What?"

"Your mother knows quality. Your bag, her bag, that catering woman's bag, she puts things that are expensive in an expensive bag. Let's go to your room."

When Helen opened her door there was Mrs. Gates going through Helen's bag.

"Mother, what are you doing in my room?"

"Oh, darling! Oh, you have found one of the waiters. I must have mixed my bag up with another woman's bag. And I can't find my bag. So, I thought I might have mixed my bag up with yours."

Helen went to her Gucci bag and unzipped the inside zipper. Pulling the envelope out, she held it up for Angus to see, "Here it is, Angus."

Angus came over, "Give it to me, and it is all over and forgotten. Mrs. Gates, have you ever been to the Poconos?"

"The Poconos, oh, that is that foreign country that Helen visited. Oh, Helen, it has been years since you and I have visited a foreign country together. Would you help me pack my bag?"

Mrs. Gates went to Helen's closet and said, "Oh, dear, I don't remember wearing any of these dresses, and such bland colors."

Helen put her hand on her mother's shoulder and she said, "Mother, come with me to your room, and you stretch out on the bed, and I know where the luggage is out in the storage room. We must hurry."

"Oh, I am good at hurrying, Helen, you know that."

And the two women left. Angus stepped out into the hall and saw them go into the kitchen, then he went into Bobby's room, Bobby was sitting up in bed.

"Angus, I know I ate like a pig last night, but I have to go to the bathroom, and then I would love a cup of coffee."

"Get up, you fool, there is a robe right here. Take your crutches and go to the bathroom, and I noticed that at the bar there is a coffee maker and all the supplies on a lower shelf, in the living room."

"How is Helen?"

"The beautiful and loving Helen is taking care of her mother at the moment. Come on, toss back the covers, and let us get going. You first, because I have to go to the bathroom also, and isn't it boring we have to shave every day!"

Bobby said, "What is that envelope you are carrying?"

"Oh, that is the money I got, much more than I thought, for the watercolor. I know, I'll put it in your camera bag. It is too bulky for me, when I drive today. I have no suitcase. Do you think that is wise? Your camera case?"

"Yes, the camera case has a strap on it, and I will keep it over my shoulder, and...well, right now give me the camera case. There is a side pocket, take the unused film out and leave it here on the table, or put it in the pockets of my suit, and I'll zip the envelope in the camera case pocket."

"Got it." And Angus gave the camera case to Bobby and Bobby unzipped the pocket and took out the unused film and put them on the bed table and reached out for the envelope and Angus handed it to him.

Bobby grinned, "There, I'll put it right around my neck now. Help me get to the toilet!"

With all of the toilet and shaving duties over, no shower that morning, they both got into their old clothes, which for some reason seemed so terribly comfortable, and they went to the living room. You would think after a party of that magnitude, the room would be a mess. There was not even one withered flower in an unwashed vase in the room. The caterers must have worked for hours as they slept. Angus went behind the bar; he had been right, on lower shelves were filters, in a box, and a canister of coffee, and of course a sink with water. And there was the coffee maker, which he had spotted.

Bobby was sitting at the piano, with the camera case on the bench beside him, and having opened the lid over the keyboard, he was plunking away, and making some chords.

Angus found a package of Styrofoam cups and poured the coffee, and there was a jar of non-dairy creamer which he used for milk, stirring it into the coffee, and he took the cups to a table by the piano and sat down and clearing his throat, he said in a stentorian voice, "Bobby, I want to talk to you!"

Bobby looked up at him. Angus almost saw in that look the look of Beethoven when he was in the middle of composing a sonata, the look of fury and shock and frustration.

Bobby relaxed his face, and he tilted his head and he said, "You mean now?"

"Yes, I do mean now."

"Okay."

"Over here, while we sip our coffee. Can you do it on your own, with your crutches?"

"Oh, yeah, I'm good at it. Angus, it is gonna be odd, as I think of it, to learn to walk normally again."

"I'm sure it will. But we have to talk."

Angus sipped his coffee which was delicious, in spite of the lack of real milk, as he watched Bobby struggle to get to the chair and sit down, laying his crutches on the floor, and pick up his coffee cup. Then Bobby asked, "What's up, doc?"

"Bobby, have you called the magazine and arranged with them - I mean it is Sunday, now - that you will be off, because of the broken bone in your foot?"

"Oh, yeah, in Helen's bedroom, while you were out getting the new suits. She has a phone in her bedroom, and yesterday I called in and gave the name of the hospital; the nurse gave me a release notice with the name on it, but it's in my wallet here, if you want to see it."

Angus laughed, and he said, "No, thank you. Anyway, that is not what I want to talk to you about. Do you trust me and Helen?"

"Absolutely, why not?"

"I don't mean with simple things, with big things."

"Such as? Could we have some brandy in this coffee?"

"Great idea." Angus took the cups, spiked them with brandy and returned, and as Bobby sipped and sighed as if in relief. "Oh, that is such good brandy. Now go on and see if I trust you and Helen."

"Helen's mother is coming with us to my cabin in the Poconos."

Bobby choked and spit the coffee and milk and brandy out all over himself. Angus got up and found, behind the bar, a roll of paper towels and brought them back and mopped up Bobby's clothes and then Angus sat down again.

Bobby asked, "Why!? Oh, look what I've done to my clothes!"

"Bobby, you have a broken foot, and clothes do not make the man, and be grateful you did not do that to your new suit."

They both stopped being serious and broke into laughter. "Oh, that suit was so uncomfortable, Angus."

"Mine, too. Bobby, there is no reversing what I said, Mrs. Gates is coming with us, there are reasons for this, which are too complicated now to explain, and in fact, it is Helen's place to explain them. I do not have the right to do that, but...and I mean there is a but...you can stay here, if you do not want to go with the three of us to the cabin, and the staff will be here and take care of you, until you can go back to work again."

Bobby looked with disgust at Angus. "No way, Jose. I'm going with you, and...her mother?"

"Yes."

"Okay, I'm glad you dropped the bomb on me, do I have to be in the car with her?"

"No, Helen is packing her mother's things now. You will drive with Helen in her car, I will drive with Mrs. Gates in my car."

"Oh, thank God."

"You don't like her mother?"

"Angus, you are a painter, I can see it now, you will do a portrait of her." Suddenly Bobby stopped. "Oh, Angus, I did the most wonderful pictures of Van Cliburn at the Steinway, and of the people at the party. I've got to get those mailed to the magazine, and before we leave."

"I'll get you the camera case. The rest is easy."

Angus went to the piano and came back with the camera case. "Bobby, you promised, because of the money, you'd have this hanging around your neck."

"I forgot. I'll keep it with me now, wherever we go. Now, here are the films to be developed."

Angus said, "Leave the rest to me."

Angus found a pad of paper and brought it to Bobby: "Write down the address where the pictures are to be sent, to your magazine. I'm calling the doorman to come up, or to send somebody else up to have it mailed."

"Don't you think Helen should do that?"

"No, she has her hands full. And you see it is Sunday, and the servants have gone. I'll try."

Angus got on the phone and returned to Bobby, "The doorman is sending his son up, who lives in the building, and they will mail it for us and charge it to Helen's account. You go to your room and get everything all ready so we can leave."

"But I am ready."

"I mean, after the coffee and the brandy, go to the bathroom again, it takes you longer than most people."

"You healthy types, okay."

"I'll wait here with the films."

Bobby looped the camera case over his neck and getting on his crutches, he swung more than he walked to the entrance to the hall. Angus sat back with a sigh and sipped his coffee. He would have loved another sip of brandy, but he knew he would have to drive, he should not.

Helen hurried down the hall. "I heard your voices. Can you believe it? I am all packed and so is mother. Now, don't you dare say, it seems like a miracle. You see my mother and me have clothes for all occasions, and I packed one of everything. And anything else we need, I can phone my maid. She can ship it on. After all, we are not going to Afghanistan."

"According to your mother, we are."

"Funny to the end, are you?"

"I see no end in sight."

"And cruel, too. Help me get those suitcases out here to the door. I'll get the doorman to help us."

"Bobby is having his films of the pictures that he took last night sent to his magazine, and the son of the doorman is coming up. Here is the address that Bobby wrote down. Hold the kid or whatever it is, at the door. I'll bring the suitcases here, and maybe he can help us take them down. Where are the suitcases?"

"Directly across the hall from Bobby's room, in the room I call my dressing room, where my mother was...well, going through my purse."

"Okay."

Angus went down the hall. He opened the door. The mound of gorgeous luggage awaiting him made Angus feel as if he were suddenly cast in a movie in which he was Jerry Lewis and told to take all the luggage onto a ship. What a comic scene that would be. Turning back, he went into the kitchen. There was one of those things on wheels the caterers used. He wheeled it out into the hall and to the door and started stacking the luggage on it. One by one, they actually were not heavy. His worry was if they could all get into two cars.

Bobby came out and saw Angus run down the hall to the living room. The doorman's son and Helen came and they wheeled the batch of luggage to the living room. Helen said, "Angus, go down with him to the car. I will wait here. You wait down there. I will send Mother and Bobby down, Mother can help him walk. Then I will lock up and turn all the lights off. Or vice versa."

"Right." And Angus followed the kid to the elevator, helping to balance the luggage on the cart.

When Angus finally had completed the transferring of the luggage to the underground parking area, and giving the film to the kid to be mailed, he realized that Helen is a very good salesperson, but in the parking area, he could not find her car, and anyway, even if he had found her car, she had the keys. He loved Helen, he even admired her, but something was wrong with this plan. Fortunately a man in a light blue smock came out of a door to have a cigarette. Angus went up to him, and he asked, "Excuse me for bothering you, but could you tell me where Miss Gates' car is?"

"Oh, that is a different elevator. It is off the lobby, and it is called 'Tenant's Parking'. It's on the level above. This parking area is for guest parking."

"Well, all of the luggage is down here," Angus struggled to explain.

"Surely, Miss Gates knows to drive down here to pick up the rest of the luggage."

"Oh, of course she does. Is there a phone down here, that I can use to call her apartment?"

"No, I'll go to the lobby and call and explain."

"Thank you, so much."

Angus got as much of the luggage in the small trunk and the back seat of his car as he could.

Then the man reappeared. "Sir, Miss Gates did not seem to understand. She wanted you to drive up there, and I explained to Miss Gates that in the 'Tenant Parking' area all the slots are assigned to various tenants and there is no room for another car up there. So, she agreed she will drive down here."

"Thank you, so much." Angus obviously was learning, learning what? He was not sure, but he did come to one conclusion, that Bobby and Helen were made for each other. They both seem to have the same peculiar slant on how to handle an ordinary situation, that slant being to complicate the situation until it is nearly impossible to handle. Angus got into the front seat of his car, turned on the classical station and listened to music. Helen drove down, the rest of the luggage was packed in her trunk, and the two cars took off.

Finally, all loaded up and with the two cars on the road back to the Poconos, with Mrs. Gates sitting beside him and following Helen's car with Bobby in it, Angus felt fairly secure about getting to the cabin. He tried to think if, when he glimpsed Bobby, if Bobby had that camera case over his shoulder. But it was a beautiful day, for which he was grateful. The sky was bright and clear; of course driving through this part of New Jersey was never an attractive experience, with all the industrial complexes.

Mrs. Gates was saying, "Yes, you are a very unusual chauffeur. Most of my chauffeurs as they drive tell me all about their families and how poor they are and how difficult it is to afford to get their children educated. You have not said a word about your family since we started."

"My parents are dead, they were killed in a canoe accident on the Delaware River."

"I don't mean your parents, I mean your own family."

"I am not married, so I have no family of my own."

"Oh, dear, I don't think I know how to relate to a chauffeur who has no poor family."

"Actually, Mrs. Gates, I am not a chauffeu