The Lover's Children novel Chapter 122

KLEMPNER

Lorelei chews slowly at a thick wedge of cake, measuring the teenager by eye. “So how do you know Larry? You look kinda young to be part of his circle.”

She gushes, “He saved me when I first got to the City. I was at the station. There was a man waiting, watching me…”

Lorelei sucks at her cheeks. “Yeah, we know all about them…”

“… Larry saved me from him. He was very brave…” She swings mindless cows-eyes at me… “… And he got me a job with Mr Haswell. I'm training to be a secretary.”

“That right?” Lorelei swallows, swiping a stray crumb from the corner of her mouth. “’S good cake.”

*****

JAMES

"Let me carry Vicky for you, Mitch."

"Thank you, James." Her forehead wrinkles. "What on Earth's all that noise?"

It's a fair question. From somewhere ahead of us, a cacophony of chatter and yells spills into the corridor.

Mitch, pauses, then forges ahead. "It's coming from Larry's room."

What can I smell?

Chocolate? Lemon?

A nurse marches toward us, raising an outspread hand. "Not now. We need to limit Mr Waterman's visitors. He needs his rest."

In tones that would cut metal, Mitch hisses, "I am his wife and this…" She gestures to Vicky, cradled against me… "... Is his daughter."

The nurse sniffs. "Well, a wife might want to tell her husband to be a bit more choosy about his choice of friends."

?

Mitch blinks, casts me a look, then shoulders past the nurse, shoving the door wide. I trail in her wake as cacophonous noise cascades from inside.

It's chaos.

A half-eaten cake takes centre stage. On a seat pushed into one corner, Will Stanton sits with a delicate china cup and saucer gripped in beefy fingers, wearing an expression flickering between amusement and bemusement. Beside him, Lydia offers him a slice of the cake on a matching china plate.

Lorelei perches on the end of Klempner’s bed. Another six… no seven… women… roost along the sides. I don’t know names, but I recognize some from Charlotte’s ‘Punching out the Drunk’ episode. All the women are talking at once, to each other and Klempner.

A small boy who I recognize from… somewhere… zooms around the room, zig-zagging like a bluebottle on Speed. As we enter, his face lights up. "Hey, you wuz there at Christmas when Grandad K rescued me from the tree."

Christmas?

Oh, yes…

“Hello, Paulie. Yes, I was there.”

One of the hookers swings his way. "What was that?"

"It was brilliant!” The boy’s face lights up like someone just connected the wires. “There wuz this wedding ‘n Mom ‘n Dad took me there…” His face drops…. His shoulders droop… “…That bit wuz a bit boring… But then…” And the face lights up again… “There wuz this giant…” He spreads his arms wide… “…Christmas tree… ‘n it fell on us… Well… not exactly fell on us… Y’see… there wuz this HUGE metal thing outside and it fell in the storm…”

Lorelei drops her chin onto a fist, riveted by the torrent of information…

“… then the tree fell on top of us an' Grandad K grabbed me 'n Cara and he pushed us under the table 'n he saved us ‘n he stopped me getting scared by telling me all about the maggot woman an'..." He seems, finally, to run out of air.

Lorelei swings her head. “I’d quite like to hear that story, in sequence and at normal human speaking speed.”

Beside me, Mitch's face is bland, but she shakes with suppressed laughter. Lorelei's gaze shifts. "You the wife?"

"That's right. I'm Mitch Waterman."

For long seconds, the two women measure each other by eye…

Then, Lorelei’s mouth twitches. "Gotcha." She jerks her chin back at Klempner. "No wonder he was okay with us."

Snatches of conversation…

"He's so brave…"

"He saved me too…"

In the background, Will watches, lips quirking, but with an air of intense concentration.

From bed-level, a groan. "Oh, God…" From the bed, Klempner raises despairing eyes. "I'm in Hell, James. For pity’s sake, get me out of here."

The nurse reappears, her face frozen, passing round the group of street women with a small metal dish. “I'll have those cigarettes, thank you. This is a hospital."

*****

Leaning heavily on his crutch, Klempner turns for the stables, but Mitch snags a hand through his elbow, steering him toward the main house.

“Aren’t we going to your place?”

She angles him toward the front door. “We’ve set you up in one of the bedrooms upstairs. There’s more space there. The nurse is in the room next door and…”

“Nurse? What nurse? I don’t need a nurse…”

Mitch replies in words of steel gloved by velvet. “Yes, you do. At least for now…”

“But…”

“…I have my hands full with Vicky. I can’t be running around after you all day.”

Upstairs, Klempner mutters under his breath as he climbs into bed.

Michael gives him a sunny grin. “No point complaining. The nurse says you have to stay there.”

“Oh?” Klempner arches brows. “And you think some lard-assed nurse is going to…”

Michael's smile shuts down. “And Mitch will enforce it.”

Klempner subsides, then… “Where are my files?”

“Right here.” Charlotte dumps them on the end of the bed. “Anything else you want to complain about?”

*****

HARKNESS

It's a good place to wait. A narrow alleyway separates two streets. Streetlights keep both ends bright, but not the narrow passage between. So they come in with their night vision screwed and they don't see me.

And this one's drunk. The smell of his whiskey arrives before he does.