"Mats, listen to me, okay?"
"I listen to hear, mistress-sai, and hear to obey." That gave her a nasty jolt, especially coming out as it did in Mats's cute little Scandihoovian accent.
"Do you have a credit card?"
Mats smiled proudly. "I have many. I have American Express, MasterCard, and Visa. I have the Euro-Gold Card. I have - "
"Good, that's good. I want you to go down to the - " For a moment her mind blanked, and then it came. " - to the Plaza - Park Hotel and rent a room. Rent it for a week. If they ask, tell them it's for a friend of yours, a lady friend." An unpleasant possibility occurred to her. This was New York, thenorth, in the year 1999, and a person liked to believe that things continued to go in the right direction, but it was best to be sure. "Will they make any unpleasantness about me being a Negro?"
"No, of course not." He looked surprised.
"Rent the room in your name and tell the clerk that a woman named Susannah Mia Dean will be using it. Do you understand?"
"Yah, Susannah Mia Dean."
What else? Money, of course. She asked him if he had any. Her new friend removed his wallet and handed it to her. She continued to hold the turtle where he could see it in one hand while she riffled through the wallet, a very nice Lord Buxton, with the other. There was a wad of traveler's checks - no good to her, not with that insanely convoluted signature - and about two hundred dollars in good old American cabbage. She took it and dropped it into the Borders bag which had lately held the pair of shoes. When she looked up she was dismayed to see that a couple of Girl Scouts, maybe fourteen years old and both wearing backpacks, had joined the businessman. They were staring at the turtle with shiny eyes and wet lips. Susannah found herself remembering the girls in the audience on the night Elvis Presley had playedThe Ed Sullivan Show.
"Toocoooool, " one of them said, almost in a sigh.
"Totally awesome," said the other.
"You girls go on about your business," Susannah said.
Their faces tucked in, assuming identical looks of sorrow. They could almost have been twins from the Calla. "Do we have to?" asked the first.
"Yes!"Susannah said.
"Thankee-sai, long days and pleasant nights," said the second. Tears had begun to roll down her cheeks. Her friend was also crying.
"Forget you saw me!" Susannah called as they started away.
She watched them nervously until they reached Second Avenue and headed uptown, then turned her attention back to Mats van Wyck. "You get a wiggle on, too, Mats. Hoss your freight down to that hotel and rent a room. Tell them your friend Susannah will be right along."
"What is this freight-hossing? I do not understand - "
"It means hurry up." She handed back his wallet, minus the cash, wishing she could have gotten a longer look at all those plastic cards, wondering why anyone would need so many. "Once you have the room nailed down, go on to where you were going. Forget you ever saw me."
Now, like the girls in their green uniforms, Mats began to weep. "Must I also forget thesk?ldpadda? "
"Yes." Susannah remembered a hypnotist she'd once seen performing on some TV variety show, maybe evenEd Sullivan. "No turtle, but you're going to feel good the rest of the day, you hear me? You're going to feel like..."A million bucks might not mean that much to him, and for all she knew a million kroner wouldn't buy a haircut. "You're going to feel like the Swedish Ambassador himself. And you'll stop worrying about your wife's fancy-man. To hell with him, right?"
"Yah, to hell witdot guy!" Mats cried, and although he was still weeping, he was now smiling, too. There was something divinely childish in that smile. It made Susannah feel happy and sad at the same time. She wanted to do something else for Mats van Wyck, if she could.
"And your bowels?"
"Yah?"
"Like clockwork for the rest of your life," Susannah said, holding the turtle up. "What's your usual time, Mats?"
"I am going yust after breakfast."
"Then that's when it'll be. For the rest of your life. Unless you're busy. If you're late for an appointment or something like that, just say...um...Maturin,and the urge'll pass until the next day."
"Maturin."
"Correct. Go on, now."
"May I not take thesk?ldpadda ?"
"No, you may not. Go on, now."
He started away, then paused and looked back at her. Although his cheeks were wet, his expression was pixie-ish, a trifle sly. "Perhaps I should take it," he said. "Perhaps it is mine by right."
Like to see you try, honkywas Detta's thought, but Susannah - who felt more and more in charge of this wacky triad, at least for the time being - shushed her. "Why would you say that, my friend? Tell, I beg."
The sly look remained.Don't kid a kidder, it said. That was what it looked like to Susannah, anyway. "Mats, Maturin," he said. "Maturin, Mats. You see?"
Susannah did. She started to tell him it was just a coincidence and then thought:Calla, Callahan.