“Oh my God!”
“A great many people said that exact thing the day after the election.”
“Is he… doing a good job?”
“Opinions vary. If you want mine, he’s doing as well as anyone could expect, given the complexities.”
“On that note, I think I’ll drive back to Jodie.” She laughed distractedly. “In a daze.”
She walked down the ramp, put her case in the cubby that served as her Beetle’s trunk, then blew me a kiss. She started to get in, but I couldn’t let her go like that. I couldn’t run—Dr. Perry said that was still eight months away, maybe even a year—but I limped down the ramp as fast as I could.
“Wait, Sadie, wait a minute!”
Mr. Kenopensky was sitting next door in his wheelchair, bundled up in a jacket and holding his battery-powered Motorola in his lap. On the sidewalk, Norma Whitten was making her slow way down toward the mailbox on the corner, using a pair of wooden sticks more like ski poles than crutches. She turned and waved to us, trying to lift the frozen side of her face into a smile.
Sadie looked at me questioningly in the twilight.
“I just wanted to tell you something,” I said. “I wanted to tell you you’re the best damned thing that ever happened to me.”
She laughed and hugged me. “Ditto, kind sir.”
We kissed a long time, and might have kissed longer but for the dry clapping sound on our right. Mr. Kenopensky was applauding.
Sadie pulled away, but took me by the wrists. “You’ll call me, won’t you? Keep me… what’s that thing you say? In the loop?”
“That’s it, and I will.” I had no intention of keeping her in the loop. Deke or the police, either.
“Because you can’t do this on your own, Jake. You’re too weak.”
“I know that,” I said. Thinking:I better not be.“Call me so I know you got back safe.”
When her Bug turned the corner and disappeared, Mr.Kenopensky said, “Better mind your p’s and q’s, Amberson. That one’s a keeper.”
“I know.” I stayed at the foot of the driveway long enough to make sure Miz Whitten got back from the mailbox without falling down.
She made it.
I went back inside.
2
The first thing I did was to get my key ring off the top of the dresser and pick through the keys, surprised that Sadie had never shown them to me to see if they’d jog my memory… but of course she couldn’t think of everything. There were an even dozen. I had no idea what most of them went to, although I was pretty sure the Schlage opened the front door of my house in… was it Sabattus? I thought that was right, but I wasn’t sure.
There was one small key on the ring. Stamped on it wasFCand775. It was a safe deposit box key, all right, but what was the bank? First Commercial? That sounded bankish, but it wasn’t right.
I closed my eyes and looked into darkness. I waited, almost sure what I wanted would come… and it did. I saw a checkbook in afauxalligator cover. I saw myself flipping it open. This was surprisingly easy. Printed on the top check was not only my Land of Ago name but my last official Land of Ago address.
214 W. Neely St. Apartment 1
Dallas, TX
I thought:That’s where my car got stolen from.
And I thought:Oswald. The assassin’s name is Oswald Rabbit.
No, of course not. He was a man, not a cartoon character. But it was close.
“I’m coming for you, Mr. Rabbit,” I said. “Still coming.”
