The crowd responds in turn, and as everyone drinks, I move toward her.
In proximity, she’s electric, so sparkling with life that I have to restrain myself from calling out to her. This is Daniela with an energy like the first time we met fifteen years ago, before years of life—the normalcy, the elation, the depression, the compromise—transformed her into the woman who now shares my bed: amazing mother, amazing wife, but fighting always against the whispers of what might have been.
My Daniela carries a weight and a distance in her eyes that scare me sometimes.
This Daniela is an inch off the ground.
I’m now standing less than ten feet away, my heart thumping, wondering if she’ll spot me, and then— Eye contact.
Hers go wide and her mouth opens, and I can’t tell if she’s horrified or delighted or just surprised to see my face.
She pushes through the crowd, throws her arms around my neck, and pulls me in tight with, “Oh my God, I can’t believe you came. Is everything all right? I’d heard you left the country for a while or were missing or something.”
I’m not sure how to respond to that, so I just say, “Well, here I am.”
Daniela hasn’t worn perfume in years, but she’s wearing it tonight, and she smells like Daniela without me, like Daniela before our separate scents merged into us.
I don’t want to let go—I need her touch—but she pulls away.
I ask, “Where’s Charlie?”
“Who?”
“Charlie.”
“Who are you talking about?”
Something torques inside of me.
“Jason?”
She doesn’t know who our son is.
Do we even have a son?
Does Charlie exist?
Of course he exists. I was at his birth. I held him ten seconds after he came writhing and screaming into the world.
“Everything okay?” she asks.
“Yeah. I just came through the labyrinth.”
“What did you think?”
“It almost made me cry.”
“It was all you,” she says.
“What do you mean?”
“That conversation we had a year and a half ago? When you came to see me? You inspired me, Jason. I thought of you every day I was building it. I thought of what you said. Didn’t you see the dedication?”
“No, where was it?”
“At the entrance to the labyrinth. It’s for you. I dedicated it to you, and I’ve been trying to reach you. I wanted you to be my special guest for tonight, but no one could find you.” She smiles. “You’re here now. That’s all that matters.”
My heart is going so fast, the room threatening to spin, and then Ryan Holder is standing next to Daniela with his arm around her. He’s wearing a tweed jacket, his hair is graying, and he’s paler and less fit than the last time I saw him, which was impossibly at Village Tap last night at his celebration for winning the Pavia Prize.
“Well, well,” Ryan says, shaking my hand. “Mr. Pavia. The man himself.”
Daniela says, “Guys, I have to go be polite and mingle, but, Jason, I’m having a secret get-together at my apartment after this. You’ll come?”
“I’d love to.”
As I watch Daniela vanish into the crowd, Ryan says, “Want to get a drink?”
God yes.
The gallery has pulled out all the stops—tuxedoed waiters carrying trays of appetizers and Champagne, and a cash bar on the far side of the room under a triptych of Daniela self-portraits.
As the barkeep pours our whiskies—Macallan 12s—into plastic cups, Ryan says, “I know you’re doing just fine, but I got these.”
It’s so strange—he carries none of the arrogance and swagger of the man I saw holding court last night at my local bar.
We take our Scotches and find a quiet corner away from the mob surrounding Daniela.
As we stand there watching the room fill with more and more people emerging from the labyrinth, I ask, “So what have you been up to? I feel like I lost track of your trajectory.”
“I moved over to U Chicago.”
“Congrats. So you’re teaching?”
“Cellular and molecular neuroscience. I’ve been pursuing some pretty cool research as well, involving the prefrontal cortex.”
“Sounds exciting.”
Ryan leans in close. “All seriousness, the rumor mill has been crazy. The whole community’s talking. People saying”—he lowers his voice—“that you cracked up and lost your mind. That you’re in a rubber room somewhere. That you’re dead.”
“Here I am. Lucid, warm, and breathing.”
“So that compound I built for you…it worked out, I assume?”
I just stare at him, no idea what he’s talking about, and when I don’t provide an immediate answer, he says, “Right, I get it. They’ve got you buried under a mountain of NDAs.”
I sip my drink. I’m still hungry, and the alcohol is traveling too fast to my head. When the next waiter passes within range, I grab three mini-quiches off the silver tray.