“Millie.”
“Right. And before that . . . and when I’m not doing that . . . I like to read. I read a lot. Nonfiction, mostly. I read books about political leaders, and wars, and uprisings, and . . . well, history. But not only history. I like to read about the world. Learn more about it. But it can be the world the way it is now. You know. More like social studies. Like, for example, I’m not really religious, exactly, but I read about different religions. Because that helps you learn more about the way things are. The way people are. And why.”
He took another bite of breakfast. It was cooling off fast. But she had been nice enough to serve it to him. If she wanted him to talk, it seemed like the least he could do. He dug into the asparagus. He wasn’t fond of asparagus as a rule. But covered in that rich sauce . . . Raymond figured she could pour that sauce on a pile of cardboard, and he’d happily wolf it down.
“I’m Catholic,” she said.
“I figured.”
“How did you know?”
“Because you crossed yourself when you found out Millie wasn’t some woman your husband had been seeing.”
“Oh. Right.”
They ate in silence for a minute or two.
“You have a girlfriend?” she asked.
“No, ma’am.”
“Boyfriend?”
“No. I’m not gay.”
“I didn’t mean any offense.”
“I didn’t take offense.”
“So you just don’t have a girlfriend now. But you will. The high school years are awkward. It’ll happen for you.”
Raymond opened his mouth to answer. But he had no idea what the answer should be. He felt he likely would not have a girlfriend later, but he was in no way prepared to tell this relative stranger why he thought so. So why even begin?
He was saved by the bell. Literally.
Her cell phone rang. It was sitting on the table beside her plate. She grabbed it up. Listened for a long moment. Then she spoke into it.
“Oh. Oh no. That’s too bad. Yeah, I know how you hate that. I’m sorry, hon. See you in a minute, then.”
She clicked off the call and set the phone down.
“Luis will be right up. He’s just stepping into the elevator. His client was a no-show. He always turns off his phone when he’s about to be with a client, and he forgot to turn it back on until he was just getting out of his car. You know, down in the garage just now. He hates no-shows, so he might not be in the best mood. But don’t worry. He doesn’t bite.”
Raymond finished his food quickly. And silently.
Just as he was swallowing the last bite, he heard the apartment door open. Heard the dogs whimpering in their excitement. Heard Luis Velez greet them with “Hey, boys,” and “Good boys.”
The man stepped into the kitchen, the dogs winding around his legs in their joy, and looked at Raymond with a withering gaze. As if Raymond should be nowhere on the premises. He turned his gaze onto his wife.
“You just open the door for people you don’t know?” he asked her.
Raymond’s heart jumped up into his throat.
“The dogs’ll take care of me,” she said.
“That’s true, I guess.”
He pulled out a chair and sat close to Raymond, leaning forward on his knees. Inserting himself deeply into Raymond’s personal space. Raymond resisted the temptation to push his chair back.
He was a handsome man in his late forties, slight of build. He wore his black hair slicked back along his head. His three-piece suit was clearly expensive, dark material with a very fine pinstripe. He wore a solid-red tie over a silvery-gray dress shirt.
“Now tell me what this is all about,” he said. “I didn’t even hear the whole message. I mean, I was in the building. So I just came up.”
“Okay,” Raymond said. His voice sounded steadier than he felt. “I’m looking for a man named Luis Velez who used to come over to the west side to help this older woman who lives alone. She can’t go out on the street by herself. She’s afraid to. She’s over ninety, I think, and almost completely blind. So he used to come over and walk her to the bank and the store.”
Luis Velez shook his head. “Sorry,” he said. “Not me.”
“Oh,” Raymond said.
He had known and he hadn’t known. But now there was just the one kind of knowing. The final kind. And it was a long fall down to that knowing.
“And how do you fit into all this?” Luis Velez asked him.
“How do I fit in?”
“Why are you over here asking if I’m him?”
“Well. She can’t. And she’s really worried about him. They were friends. I mean, she saw him three times a week for more than four years. She’s really broken up about the way he just sort of . . . disappeared. She thinks something terrible happened to him. I’m just trying to help.”
The man slid his chair back. Raymond breathed a muffled sigh of relief.
“I see,” he said. “You’re doing your part. That’s good. Especially for a young kid like you. You’re just the polar opposite of what everybody expects. Everybody’ll tell you the world is going to hell in a handbasket, because they think kids your age don’t give a damn about anything, but here you are. Defying expectations. Sorry we couldn’t be more helpful. But at least you got a good breakfast out of it, I see.”
His wife rose and cleared away the dishes. She stood with her back to them, rinsing off the china plates and loading them into the dishwasher.
“I do my part,” Luis Velez continued. “But not like that. I’m a professional. My time is very valuable. So I wouldn’t do that sort of thing—walking to the store with an elderly woman. But I do what I can. I give spontaneously. I don’t ask for anything in return. Just giving back. Just dropping a little something on anybody I think deserves more than what they’re getting. I’m blessed that I can afford to do that.”
“Luis is a very successful attorney,” his wife said over her shoulder. “One of the three best-known civil litigation attorneys in New York. You’ve probably seen him on the news.”
“I don’t watch the news,” Raymond said. “I’m sorry.”