As Lisey spoke, recounting her sister's previous episodes of self-mutilation and semicatatonia and this morning's great leap forward, she heard the soft clitter of computer keys. When Lisey paused, Cassandra said: "I understand your concern, Mrs. Landon, but Greenlawn is very full at the present time."
Lisey's heart sank. She instantly pictured Amanda in a closet-sized room at Stephens Memorial in No Soapa, wearing a foodstained johnnie and looking out a barred window at the blinker-light where Route 117 crossed 19. "Oh. I see. Um...are you sure? This wouldn't be Medicaid or Blue Cross or any of those things - I'd be paying cash, you see..." Grasping at straws. Sounding dumb. When all else fails, chuck money. "If that makes a difference," she finished lamely.
"It really doesn't, Mrs. Landon." She thought she detected a faint frost in Cassandra's voice now, and Lisey's heart sank even farther. "It's a question of space and commitments. You see, we only have - "
Lisey heard a faint bing! then. It was very close to the sound her toaster-oven made when the Pop-Tarts or breakfast burritos were done.
"Mrs. Landon, can I put you on hold?"
"If you need to, of course."
There was a faint click and the Prozac Orchestra returned, this time with what might once have been the theme from Shaft. Lisey listened with a mild sense of unreality, thinking that if Isaac Hayes heard it, he would probably crawl into his bathtub with a plastic bag over his head. The time on hold lengthened until she began to suspect she'd been forgotten - God knew it had happened to her before, especially when trying to buy airline tickets or change rental car arrangements. Darla came downstairs and held her hands out in a What's happening? Give! gesture. Lisey shook her head, indicating both Nothing and I don't know.
At that moment the horrific holdmusic was gone and Cassandra was back. The frost was gone from her voice, and for the first time she sounded to Lisey like a human being. In fact, she sounded familiar, somehow. "Mrs. Landon?"
"Yes?"
"I'm sorry to have kept you waiting so long, but I had a note on my computer to get in touch with Dr. Alberness if either you or your husband called. Dr. Alberness is actually in his office now. May I transfer you?"
"Yes," Lisey told her. Now she knew where she was, exactly where she was. She knew that before he told her anything else, Dr. Alberness would tell her how sorry he was for her loss, as if Scott had died last month or last week. And she would thank him. In fact, if Dr. Alberness promised to take the troublesome Amanda off their hands in spite of Greenlawn's current booked-up state, Lisey would probably be happy to get on her knees and give him a nice juicy hummer. A wild laugh threatened to surge out of her at that, and she had to clamp her lips tightly shut for a few seconds. And she knew why Cassandra had suddenly sounded so familiar: it was how people had sounded when they suddenly recognized Scott, realized they were dealing with someone who'd been on the cover of smucking Newsweek magazine. And if that famous person had his famous arm around someone, why she must be famous, too, if only by association. Or, as Scott himself had once said, by injection.
"Hello?" a pleasantly rough male voice said. "This is Hugh Alberness. Am I speaking to Mrs. Landon?"
"Yes, Doctor," Lisey said, motioning for Darla to sit down and stop pacing circles in front of her. "This is Lisa Landon."
"Mrs. Landon, let me begin by saying how sorry I am for your loss. Your husband signed five of his books for me, and they are among my most treasured possessions."
"Thank you, Dr. Alberness," she said, and to Darla she made an It's-in-the-bag circle with her thumb and forefinger. "That's so very kind of you."
5
When Darla got back from using the Pop's Cafe ladies' room, Lisey said she thought she had better make a visit, as well - it was twenty miles to Castle View, and often the afternoon traffic was slow. For Darla, that would just be the first leg. After packing a bag for Amanda - a chore they'd both forgotten that morning - she'd have to drive back to Greenlawn with it. Once it was delivered, a second return trip to Castle View. She'd be turning into her own driveway for good around eight-thirty, and only that early if luck -
and traffic - was with her.
"I'd take a deep breath and hold your nose while you go," Darla said.
"Bad?"
Darla shrugged, then yawned. "I've been in worse."
So had Lisey, especially during her travels with Scott. She went with her thighs tensed and her bottom hovering over the seat - the well-remembered Book Tour Crouch -
flushed, washed her hands, splashed water on her face, combed her hair, then looked at herself in the mirror. "New woman," she told her reflection. "American Beauty." She bared a great deal of expensive dental work at herself. The eyes above this gator grin, however, looked doubtful.
"Mr. Landon said if I ever met you, I should ask - "
Be quiet about that, leave it be.
"I should ask you about how he fooled the nurse - "
"Only Scott never said fooled, " she told her reflection. Shut up, little Lisey!
" - how he fooled the nurse that time in Nashville."