When he opened his eyes after the door snap he watched Patty trot across the parking lot and into the bowling alley. He drove toward home with an inexpressibly heavy heart, stopping again at Dick’s for two double shots. The bartender asked him with an air of ennui what he thought about the Tigers’ chances. “Nil,” he said cryptically. “They never should have traded George Kell.”

Diana sat on the couch with red eyes in a mauve, flower-printed bathrobe. She was reading Corbin’s classic on Sufism in Avicenna. She was not given to magazines and light reading. He knelt down and she wordlessly caressed his head. She smelled like violets and creeks in May. He kissed her knee and thought, this is Diana’s knee—she is not me, nor I her.

“I’ve been a fool. I’m sorry.”

“I love you, Johnny. I was trying to help.”

“I’ll fix your door.”

“What door?”

He felt a rippling of nausea, distinctly remembering kicking down her door. His foot still hurt.

“I know it. I was just teasing,” she laughed. “Do me with all your clothes on.” She took off her robe and nightgown.

He worked away, sweating jubilantly in his wool shirt and overcoat, staring into her closed eyes. Something new.

Chapter 12

He dressed quickly in a lightweight vicuña shirt, cavalry twill trousers, cordovon brogans, an English cut suede jacket—all, he felt, subtly understated and appropriate for the Unemployment Office, then on to the Jaws of Life barbecue where he would meet Diana who was one of the hostesses for the fundraising event. With effort he waved away a stroke of tedium. Life in the great north wasn’t all beer and skittles and appearances were important.

Not to indicate that he was simpleminded: his “negative” selling point centered in his weaving and dipping, his nonconcentric explosions. Contrary to his dialogue with Diana which would lead one to slap his face for stupidity, Lundgren-Warlock could talk like the late Adlai Stevenson when called upon to do so. Diana preferred him to be down to earth and he teased her with commonplace idiocies, as frequently bored, childless couples will play word games.