The Better Mousetrap (46 page)

Frank nodded. ‘Thanks, Dad.’

‘That’s all right. Sorry about the Doors.’

‘Forget it. Bye, Dad.’

‘Bye, Frank,’ the boy said; then he too walked three paces forward and disappeared. Behind her, Emily heard the sizzle of an egg landing in hot oil. She looked at Frank, who shook his head slowly.

‘My parents,’ he said. ‘Sorry about that.’

‘It’s all right, I understand, I know you must be feeling really upset right now but later we’ll talk about it and maybe it won’t seem so bad,’ was what Emily fully intended to say. But there was some sort of glitch in the translation, and what actually came out of her mouth was, ‘Forty million doll—’

‘Yup,’ Frank said, then added, ‘Better than a kick in the head, I guess.’ Then, quite suddenly, he smiled broadly. ‘Considerably better than a kick in the head, actually.’

‘No Door, though,’ Emily pointed out.

‘True.’ Frank was grinning so broadly, it was a wonder that his head didn’t fall off. ‘But what the hell. Emily.’

‘Yes?’

‘What would you do if you suddenly came into forty million dollars?’

Emily thought for a moment. ‘I think I’d find a dragon who had eighty million dollars and challenge it to a game of gin rummy,’ she said. ‘And then I’d find another dragon with two hundred and forty million and see if it fancied playing whist. And then I’d find two more dragons worth a total of four hundred and eighty million and-you do know how to play bridge, don’t you?’

Frank smiled at her. With or without a Door he had only one life, and without a purpose, existence is meaningless. But with a purpose—

‘No,’ he said. ‘But I’m sure you can teach me.’