You learn to be practical. You learn to say, fuck it.
It wasn’t that I needed Silverman. I could have done the job with Angel—I could have done it on my own, if I’d have had to. But another pair of hands would make it quicker, smoother, and I reckoned he took orders well enough.
I almost cut him loose. I thought about it. Then, like I say: fuck it.
There wasn’t going to be a whole lot of precision about this one. First the perimeter, then we’d block off the pond, piece by piece. Normally you’d set up a series of concentric rings, and just sort of chase the little bugger into the flask. But water spread the charge. So we’d have to use that, if we could, and take the place in sections. There’d be no prodding and teasing with the thing, no trying to maneuver it into position. Only bam, bam, bam, shutting off one part of the pond after another. The flask at the far end, ready for the god.
We’d use one of the boats, but the cables would be underwater, and even in the daylight that would have been a problem, trying to get everything in place, not too near, not too far, not crossing over one another. I was wondering—yet again—if it was time to quit the whole idea. Then Silverman said, “Helium balloons.”
“What?”
“You want markers, right? So you tie balloons every few feet. Pond’s maybe four or five feet deep. You won’t see the cables, but you’ll see the balloons.”
I thought about it for a while. It sounded good.
“You trying to make amends?” I asked him.
“No,” he said. “I’m trying to make a movie. You don’t do this, then what’s my movie about?”
We bought helium balloons.
In England, I’d have had no idea where to get such things. Here, there was a whole shop full of them. The guy just sat there, filling them up for us. We bought wedding and happy birthday and get well soon. We bought you’re the greatest! and be mine! and hey you! We bought life is like a balloon and choose life and love life and life is what happens while you’re making other plans. We bought sorry and excuse me, I’m an asshole. We bought whoop, we bought big whoop, we bought whoop. We bought no dancing, no fornicating. We bought Honda Seville. We bought kiss me I’m Armenian. We bought St. Pat’s, Bierkeller, Hawaii 5–0. The shopkeeper raised his brows but mostly he was just counting the bucks. Then we prepared the cables just as Silverman had said and went out to the diner and I kept an eye open for Eddie’s limo but it didn’t show.
Silverman returned to his van. Angel and I went back to our motel bed, staring at the ceiling, holding hands, trying to sleep.
Of course we couldn’t.
Chapter 34
A Gathering of the Faithful
There was just enough moonlight to see by.
If you squinted and looked really hard.
At 2:00 a.m., I drove into the park. We bumped over a curb, onto the grass. I cut the lights and drove across the lawn, then in among the trees. I got close. Then I turned around and backed up till a clump of shrubs got in the way. By then the pond was just a few feet off.
I said, “Whatever happens, focus on the job. Don’t rush it. Do it right, each step. Check it as you go. Then check it after, all right?”
Angel gave me a thumbs-up.
“Your state of mind’s important here. Be quick, but more than that, be accurate. OK?”
I was aware of Silverman, then, in the backseat, and the little red light on the camera, shining in the gloom.
“You,” I said, “do what you’re told. And nothing else. All right?”
The cables gleamed. They pick up light; sometimes they almost seem to glow, all on their own.
We put the flask on the jetty. We set up the control box, about three yards back from it. Then we ran a line around the pond. That was our perimeter. It went well till we reached the tent. The canvas came right to the water. It was anchored with wooden stakes, and the pond was deep enough for wading not to seem a happy option. I doubled back to get one of the boats from the jetty. It was easy enough. There was a locked gate I had to hop across but it was hardly Fort Knox. I rowed, softly, trying to keep the noise down. It was frustrating; I scarcely seemed to move. But I got there. I used the tent fastenings to hold the cable. Meantime, Angel had the other cables out of the car, balloons bobbing like sunflowers on a breezy day.
It was then—before we’d even set up—I realized that we weren’t alone.
I’d ignored a couple of cars that had gone by, and the flash of headlights from between the trees. But now I saw a pickup rumble to a stop across the square. Moments later, another car pulled in beside it. People got out. And down the hill, I saw people walking. All of them heading for the tent.
“Oh, fuck, fuck, fuck.”
I had Silverman and Angel lay low, watching.
“You think they’re going to do the whole bit? The meeting, pull the curtains back, all that?”
“They might.”