The Street Sweeper (23 page)

‘If you want to tell me.’

‘I want to tell you if you’re really going to pay attention. No one pays attention; even Dr Washington. Pay attention, otherwise I can have other appointments.’

‘I’m paying attention.’

‘’Cause I’m going to test you, Mr Lamont.’

‘Okay, I’m listening. I’m paying attention.’

‘My father was a butcher in Poland.’

‘You Polish?’

‘I’m a Polish Jew.’

‘My grandma said you might be a Jew.’

‘Your grandma? Is she a Polish Jew?’

Lamont smiled. ‘I was talking to her about you.’

‘Did she think she was in my story? I’m not remembering her.’

‘I’m sorry, Mr Mandelbrot.’

‘Pay good attention. I’ve got cancer. I’m going to test you.’

*

Adam sat alone at his kitchen table poring over a miscellany of take-out menus. None of them inspired him. Nor did the cold chicken in the fridge. The chicken hadn’t inspired him two days earlier, when it was hot, either. He got up to pour himself a Scotch and soda, the soda in a concession to an inner voice whose message he was having trouble making out.

‘You thought he was going to talk more about us, didn’t you? And you’re disappointed. You were waiting for somebody to convince you to contact me and William had been your best bet,’ he heard Diana’s voice say in his head. He took his drink over to the couch and turned on the television.

‘Do you
want
me to contact you?’ he asked her. ‘I don’t have your new number.’

‘You have my work number, my cell and my email address.’

‘You didn’t answer the question. Do you want me to contact you?’

‘What would you be saying?’

‘I don’t know … I bought some raisins today.’

‘Yeah?’

‘The ones you like … from that health food store you like, the one run by successive refugees of successive totalitarian regimes.’

‘Yeah?’

‘I bought too many for the jar.’

‘Really.’

‘Yeah.’

‘What are you going to do?’

‘I don’t know. I thought maybe we could get back together. You could tell me what to do.’

‘With the raisins?’

‘You could start with the raisins.’

‘You’ve got to talk to William’s friend, you know that, the one who liberated Dachau. You know that, don’t you?’

For about an hour Adam had been imagining them talking in this way while he flicked through a stream of television channels without ever focusing on any of them. When the intercom buzzed the transition to a reality outside his head was slow. ‘Is that you?’ he asked Diana.

‘Why don’t you answer it?’

‘What if it’s you?’

‘Do you want it to be me?’ Adam picked up the receiver.

‘Hello?’ ‘Adam?’

‘Who is this?’

‘Is that Adam?’ asked a female voice so young-sounding it might have belonged to a child.

‘Who
is
this?’

‘If you could just say it’s Adam I could tell you.’

‘Okay, it’s Adam. Who
is
this?’

‘Sounds like you but you might just be saying it. Guess I should have thought of that.’

‘Sonia?’

‘Can I come up?’

‘What are you doing here?’

‘Is it bad that I came?’

‘No. Is everything all right? Come on up.’ He let her in and she was soon standing in his apartment.

‘What’s wrong?’

‘Nothing.’

‘Where are your parents?’

‘At home still, I guess.’

‘What are you doing out at this time of night?’

‘It’s not so late. I felt like a walk. I was in the neighbourhood so I thought I’d stop by.’

‘Do your parents know you’re here?’

‘Maybe. Prob’ly not.’

‘Probably not! Where do they think you are?’

‘I don’t know. They prob’ly think I’m in my room … when they get to think about it. I thought I’d hang out here for a while. Is that okay?’

‘It’s okay with me but don’t you think we should tell your parents where you are?’

‘They wouldn’t care.’

‘Now I know
that’s
not true. I’m going to call them and tell them where you are. If they don’t mind you being here I certainly don’t but –’

‘You’ll just be interrupting them.’

‘Sonia, what’s going on?’

‘They’re just fighting … again … and I got sick of it. Do you think maybe I could have a beverage of some kind?’

‘I’m going to call your parents. You help yourself to whatever’s in the fridge. I think I’ve got Coke Zero.’

‘Do you have Diet Coke?’

‘What’s the difference?’

‘Coke Zero’s for guys and Diet Coke’s for girls.’

‘What are you, six?’ Adam picked up the phone to call Sonia’s parents.

‘That’s not what
you’re
drinking,’ Sonia called from the refrigerator. ‘I could smell it. You’re all liquored up.’

‘Now I’m
really
calling your parents.’

‘I don’t
mind
that you’re all liquored up,’ Sonia said, taking a can from the fridge.

Michelle took the call. Neither she nor Charles had realised that Sonia hadn’t been in her room and Adam heard their reaction to their ignorance of this as itself either a new source of trouble or an instance of an old one. Michelle explained the call to Charles with her hand obviously but ineffectively over the mouthpiece of the phone. ‘See, that’s what I’m talking about,’ Adam heard her say. ‘This is exactly the kind of thing. She’s out roaming the streets. And you didn’t even know,’ to which Charles responded with slightly less regard to volume, ‘
You
didn’t know!’

‘Is she okay?’ Michelle asked.

‘She’s fine,’ Adam said looking at Sonia on the couch flicking through the television channels.

‘She’s not going to be okay when I’m through with her,’ Adam heard Charles say. Michelle thanked Adam for taking care of Sonia and said one of them would be around soon to pick her up.

‘Do you want to talk about it?’

‘About what?’

‘About your parents arguing.’

‘It’s fairly complicated as these things go.’

‘Really … as these things go?’

‘Nothing to do with me. Hey, where’d all your books go? Oops, sorry!’

‘It’s okay.’

‘You know … I really like Diana. Do you think I can still be friends with her?’

‘Can’t see why not.’

‘Think
you
will be?’

‘I hope so … eventually.’

‘Where’d she move to?’

‘Hell’s Kitchen.’

‘That’s not so far.’

‘No, someone like you could walk there for an evening stroll.’

‘Why’d you guys break up?’

‘It’s fairly complicated … as these things go.’

‘Was it about children? You should have children, you know. Mom said –’

‘Do you mind if we talk about something else?’

‘What do you want to talk about?’

‘Haven’t you got some teenage stuff we can talk about? Haven’t you ever thought of setting fire to your parents’ apartment, taking lots of hard drugs and running away with the worst boy in school?’

‘No! Did
they
say that? All I said was I was thinking of maybe getting a job, part-time, like in a Duane Reade or something.’

‘Sure, I could see that. You already know how to act bored.’

‘Were they mad on the phone?’

‘Little bit.’

‘Who more?’

‘Hard to say.’

‘Was it Dad?’

‘By a nose.’

‘Find out what’s wrong with her,’ Diana whispered. But there wasn’t time to find out much more.

Both Charles and Michelle arrived to pick up Sonia from Adam’s apartment. For a moment Adam thought he saw fear in Sonia’s eyes. He wondered if she were afraid of getting into trouble or of something else. Charles was the first to speak.

‘Sonia McCray, what in God’s name has gotten into you? Are you out of your mind?’

Sonia rushed into her mother’s arms and then buried her face in her mother’s chest. Michelle gestured to Adam to take Charles into another room, which he did.

‘Adam, I’m so sorry you’re getting dragged into our daughter’s prime time adolescent dramas.’ Charles was furious.

‘Charlie,’ Adam whispered, ‘you know how much I love Sonia. But whatever’s going on at your place – and it’s none of my business – I think it upset her to a point where –’

‘What did she say?’

‘Not very much at all.’

‘Really?’

‘Yeah. You should be very proud of her –’

‘Proud!’

‘Yeah, as upset as she was, she was still incredibly discreet. I tried to find out all that goes on behind the closed doors of the McCray household but she really wasn’t giving anything away. If you hadn’t shown up I was going to have to waterboard her.

‘Listen, I know she shouldn’t have run out like that. She does too. You don’t think she didn’t know it even as she was doing it? And I know you’ll need to satisfy yourself of that but while you’re doing that, remember there had to be something going on inside her to make her do something like this. It’s just a cry for attention. She gets upset and what does she do? Does she really run away? Does she do drugs? Does she drink? Does she steal? Is she hanging out with boys? She’s not even smoking cigarettes. She walks a couple of blocks to my place and drinks a Diet Coke. She knows the first thing I’m going to do is see if she’s okay, right after which I’m going to call you. This is not really what anybody would call running off the rails.’

‘You’re a good friend, you know that?’

‘To her or to you?’

‘To her; I was ready to kill her. You saved her from a good whoopin’ that would have made me feel a whole lot better. So you see, you’re no damn good to me.’

‘Charlie, you’ve never hit her in your life.’

‘No, I haven’t. Maybe that’s the problem.’

‘Maybe you ought to drink more. You want a beer?’

‘That’s not what you’ve been drinkin’.’

‘You want a Scotch?’

‘I’d love a double but I don’t think we’re goin’ to get the time.’

‘Sure …’ The two men looked at each other in the room Adam used to share with Diana. The bed was unmade. Adam hadn’t expected any company.

‘I caught up with your dad today.’

‘Oh, thanks, Adam. That’s great. I really do owe you. How do you think he’s doing?’

‘About the Supreme Court? Well, he seems more fired up than
depressed or even resigned. I think he thinks the decision might’ve been different if
he’d
been arguing it. He said he wanted to talk to me about … me, my situation.’

‘Well, that’s good I guess, as long as you don’t mind. It means he’s able to think of something besides himself.’

‘I don’t think his feelings about the Supreme Court decision should be characterised as him thinking about himself.’

‘No, you’re right. It was unfair of me to put it that way.’ Charles let out a breath and put his hand on Adam’s shoulder. Looking out in the direction of Michelle and Sonia, he continued, ‘It’s been a long day.’

‘He said he wanted to talk to me about a friend of his. I … gather you talked to him about my tenure situation.’

‘Yeah, Adam, I hope you don’t mind but for all his passion, when it counts he’s discreet and he cares about you very much. I’m sorry if you think I’ve betrayed your confidence. I was worried about you and –’

‘Charlie, I don’t mind. Really. I thought he’d want to talk about me and Diana but –’

‘Didn’t he?’

‘Not so much. He kind of got sidetracked by this friend of his he was telling me about.’ ‘A friend?’

‘He was trying to encourage me professionally. He said he thinks he has something for me to write about. Charlie, don’t look so worried. I know where things stand as far as Columbia’s concerned. I tried to explain to him that it’s over for me there but he was urging me to write my way into another job or to write a book or something. He wants me to write again and he thinks he can help me.’

‘I’m sorry, Adam. I didn’t mean your kindness and his therapy to spill over into your career. You don’t have to humour him any more than you already have.’

‘He wants me to talk to a veteran friend of his.’

‘Not what’s-his-name, the guy from Boston? Is this about the liberation of Dachau?’

‘Yeah, that’s right. I take it he’s talked to you about this.’

‘You got that right.’

‘I’m not getting you. You’re sceptical about this or is it just that he talks about this too often?’

Michelle stuck her head in the door. ‘Sorry to interrupt but I think we need to get little Miss Night Stalker home.’

‘You around late tomorrow afternoon?’ Charles asked. ‘If you want to pick this up we could talk then.’ It was agreed that next time Sonia wanted to visit Adam she would have to both tell her parents and ask Adam beforehand.

‘Sorry I have to go. I’ll come again another time,’ Sonia said.

‘Well, that’s good. I’ll count on it,’ Adam answered.

Leaning on his door, Adam watched the three of them as they walked away. ‘There’s no one else there but him … ever!’ he heard Sonia whispering to her mother as he was closing the door to his apartment.

*

‘I was born 15 December 1922 in the town of Olkusz.’ Lamont Williams sat in a chair and listened. ‘It’s a little town what is near Krakow but when I was four years old we moved to Zabkowice. My father was a butcher and
he
took chances too. He had, with my mother, three other children after me. We didn’t have much money. During the school vacation I took work with any farmers in the area who had work what they needed doing. I also helped out my father with the butchery.

‘The times were very hard in Poland between the wars. People didn’t have money. My father took debt from people instead of money.’

‘You mean like credit?’

‘Yes, credit. People took their meat on credit. They took a long time to pay or else they didn’t pay at all. So my father’s butchery went out of business from this.’

‘Bankrupt?’

‘Yes, bankrupt. Being the eldest in the family I had to do what I could to help out the family. I would go to the train tracks to collect coal from the tracks, anything what I could. A lot of the farmers in the area knew me because when my father would buy cows and other animals from them he sent me to take it from the farmers. I was a strong boy so
I could handle the animals. The farmers knew me and liked me from all the business what we did. I knew them and their farms. I knew the roads there and also the short cuts through the fields where I could take the animals. I looked for places, hidden places where maybe I could take a girl if I could ever be lucky. I found some places, more places than girls. It was not like now. But I had a lot of friends in the area. You know?’