“She wants to know where I’ve gone away to! That’s what she wants to know. What country! What territory of the mind! What region of isolation! Women are very social animals. Don’t you know that? This kind of business terrifies them!”

“Well, maybe you could explain it to her then.”

“I can’t explain this to her!” he says, suddenly exploding to his feet and knocking the massive Stallion Register off the corner of his desk. “Are you crazy? How could I explain this to her? How could I possibly explain how each and every name in one of these pedigrees means something to me? How just the sound ‘Nasrullah’ calls something up in me. His savage temperament. His unruly speed!”

“All right, take it easy, Reese. I don’t need a lecture.”

“ ‘Seattle Slew’! ‘Storm Bird’! ‘Native Dancer’! ‘Silver Spoon’! How am I supposed to explain something like that!” He’s charging around in tight circles now like a caged bear with me thrown out of the vortex up against the bookcase. “I can’t explain how when I see ‘Cool Mood’ doubled up in the third generation my spine gets hot and tingly! How ‘Dr. Fager,’ ‘Great Above,’ and ‘Aspidistra’ share a common lock! What in the world am I supposed to do with that? She’s got to know the history! The lineage! The perpetuity of the whole thing! She’s lost without that! Totally lost!” He stops cold, panting for breath, as though suddenly revisiting his body after being absent for a long time. He looks across at me like I’ve just now arrived in his room.

“Well look, Reese—” I say. “What if you just took a little break now and then. You know—went down and talked to her once a day or something. Had coffee. Saw the kids a little.” He stares at me for a while, still trying to get his breath back and squinting his eyes in an effort to decipher my words.

“You talk to her,” he finally says, and returns to the familiarity of his chair. “I’m busy.” He leans over and retrieves the Stallion Register, then thumps it back to its original corner. “Go on down and have a cup of coffee with her yourself. You must have a lot to chat about, you two. You can reminisce or something. Go down memory lane.”

“So there’s nothing you want me to tell her then?”

“Yeah. Yeah, there is. Tell her this—Tell her that some fine day I will reemerge. I will come back into the light of day!”

“All right,” I say as I watch him grab his cigarette and dissolve back into his books. I cross back to the door and grab the handle. “Well look, it’s been good seeing you again, Reese.” I watch his spine straighten up slightly and the back of his head tilts in my direction.