“We didn’t really get to talk about what happened. Weren’t you curious?”
He gave her a light shrug. “Only if you want to tell me. Honestly, it’s none of my business. I was just there for you.”
She knew he’d say that, but she decided she wanted him to know the rest. “He was drinking a ton before it happened. You know, after Joey went missing and all. The night he died, he was wasted, and he drove his car into a building.” She squeezed her eyes shut for a beat. “I hate thinking this, but I feel like he crashed his car on purpose.”
“No! Why would he do that?”
“He had too much on his mind. I don’t think he knew what to do,” she said with a sniff. “After Joey went missing, I think my dad lost control. I went to see him at the house, and I found, like, so many empty booze bottles.”
She considered telling him about the lie she’d lived with her whole life, thinking her father was such a hero, then finding out it hadn’t been him after all. Did she really want to get into that? Another time, she decided.
“Oh, man. Sass, I am so sorry. How’s your brother? Any news on him?”
“Nothing.”
She grabbed a napkin and blew her nose, then she stared at the tabletop until her emotions calmed. Once she felt able to speak again, she offered Davey a cautious smile.
“So there’s some crazy good news, too.”
“Go on.”
“Marion has gone and done the wildest thing.”
Davey’s expression was almost comical when she told him about Marion going to Vietnam. She couldn’t help laughing at him, which was something she sorely needed. She thanked the server when the coffee arrived, then she poured in a teaspoon of sugar.
He shook his head the whole time she stirred it in. “That is far out.”
“I know. She’s amazing.” She deliberated about how much to say about Tom and her feelings for him, then she decided to stick to the point. “When I told my boss, he said he was going to make a donation to the Canadian Red Cross to help her get over there. So then I started thinking how great you are at organizing things with the TADP, you know? Putting things together? And I wondered—”
“Right on! Yeah!” he exclaimed, grinning. “I totally get what you’re gonna say. Let’s have a party and make some money for Marion and the Red Cross. Leave it to me, babe.” He slammed his palm on the table, excited. “Oh, man! I know exactly who to call. I got some singers, that weird poet—remember him? And you—tell me you’ll perform, please. I miss your singing so bad.”
“You are amazing, Davey,” she said, her throat in a knot. “Of course I’ll sing. You figure out when you want to do this, and I’ll use my dad’s mimeograph to print off posters.”
“It’s gonna be righteous, Sass.”
Davey made piles of apologies, saying he had to get back to work, so Sassy wrapped her bright orange scarf around her face and headed out, leaning into the cold wind as she walked home from Chez Monique. Her mind was going a hundred miles an hour, thinking about Marion, then about the plans she and Davey were pulling together, but she was totally stoked. No, a fundraising concert for the Red Cross wasn’t going to bring either Joey or her father back, but the love she was feeling from her friends felt almost overwhelming.
How could she have gotten through the past couple weeks without Marion?
The wind sheared across the street, whipping her scarf loose, but she grabbed it before it took off. Deciding to take a shortcut where the wind might not find her as easily, she turned a corner into an alley, and a patch of ice caught her boot heel. She wheeled her arms, trying to stay upright, but just as she managed to regain control, one of the transients sitting on the sidewalk lunged for her. She drew back with a cry, more afraid of him than of the ice. Then she saw the side of his horribly scarred face, and she walked away so fast it was almost a jog. After half a block, she slowed and glancedback, but he wasn’t following. She saw the vague outline of his body, sunken back onto the sidewalk, curled in on himself to protect his face from the wind. Relieved that she’d escaped unscathed, she faced forward again and cut around another big patch of ice, keen to get home and safe.
There were a lot of people living on sidewalks and in parks now, and she found herself feeling divided every time she saw one. Winter in Toronto was brutal, and more than once she’d wished she could invite some of those men out of the cold so they could warm up in the apartment’s front lobby, but she didn’t. Right now, she was very glad of that, having narrowly avoided the scarred man’s grasp.
She looked back again, wondering about him. Thank goodness she’d paid attention to Marion’s explanation about the institutions shutting down. A few of the patients who were being released, she’d said, could be very dangerous. Better that she avoid any of the transients she saw, she figured.
She crossed the street, concentrating on maintaining her balance as she navigated the ice in her high-heeled boots, so she was unprepared when two arms clamped around her chest from behind. She screamed, squirming in her attacker’s grip, but she couldn’t anchor her boots on the ice. He dragged her backward, and she kept wrestling, but he was so strong she couldn’t move.
“Let me go!” she shrieked. She curled her mittens into claws around his arms, trying to pry them off her, but he barely seemed to notice. “Somebody! Help me!”
Still trudging backward, her attacker clamped one hand over her mouth. “Quiet,” he said, his voice a light singsong. “Let’s go play, pretty kitty.”
“Help!” she screamed against his cold hand, petrified now. “Let me go! Do you want money? I can give you money!”
“Quiet!” he roared, and she burst helplessly into tears.
Her cry was cut off when the man jerked backward and suddenly released her. Sassy dropped to all fours in the snow, wheezing and gasping for air.
“Dung lai!” a man yelled. “Dung lai!”
