The Lonely Hearts Hotel(105)

When Pierrot got to the Honeymoon Hotel, he didn’t find Rose in their room. He looked in the dining room, but she wasn’t seated at any of the tables. He searched in the lobby, as there were always members from the Extravaganza there. He saw Fabio taking up a gold love seat. He was looking at his untied shoelace, clearly making plans with himself to tie it sometime that afternoon.

“Do you know where Rose is?” Pierrot asked Fabio.

“I do. She’s gambling across the alley.”

Pierrot knew the place Fabio was talking about. He went around to the back of the hotel. Across the alley was another doorway that led to the back of an old community center that had been turned into a gambling den. There was a man guarding the door who let Pierrot in without asking any questions. As soon as the doors opened he heard the sound of boisterous men talking over one another. They were congregated around a ring made out of wooden boards painted red and blue and hinged together in a circle. And there squeezed among them was Rose. It was easy to pick her out in the crowd because she was the only woman. Rose had started gambling again since they arrived in New York City. She worked so hard that she liked to throw herself into the randomness of the universe. She wore a hat with a veil on it and a new black coat. Her cheeks were flushed. He found her more beautiful than any other woman. He had been looking at that face his whole life. It had gone through so many different stages of beauty.

Pierrot pushed his way to the side of the ring, opposite to where Rose was standing. There were two dogs, one on either side of the enclosure. One was a boxer, which looked as if it were squeezing its face out of a turtleneck sweater. The other was, to Pierrot’s surprise, a poodle. The poodle had a mass of gray curls in its face, like a girl who had just been woken from her sleep.

He waved at Rose. She opened her mouth happily when she saw him. “Pierrot!”

She disappeared into the jungle of men. And then reappeared at his side. He was about to kiss her, but she turned to hand a pile of bills to the bookie.

“What sort of matchup is this?”

“I’ve put all my money on the poodle. The odds are entirely against her. You have no idea how much of a pot I’ll get if she wins. It’s about having faith, I think.”

“What does she go by?”

“Treacherous Storm Cloud.”

“You’re making that up.”

“No, it’s true.”

They both laughed. The poodle stood up on its hind legs and began swatting its paws in the air as though it were looking for a fight. It looked absurd.

“The poor thing looks as though she doesn’t even know what’s about to happen,” Pierrot protested.

“Don’t you believe it!” Rose said. “She knows what’s going to happen. Isn’t that wonderful? I’m going to give the sweetheart her own act! She ought to be onstage! I’ve never seen anything like it!”

The toy poodle ran around barking, almost as if it were laughing.

“Oh, Rose. Look at that lunatic! Your poodle doesn’t stand a chance.”

“Darling! You can do it!”

“Even if she survives it, she’ll be completely mad from this experience.”

“Pierrot! Why don’t we pray! We never pray anymore. And we spent so many years living with nuns. Let’s ask for a miracle! We’ll pack her up and bring her with us next week to Montreal.”

Pierrot stopped laughing and looked pale when he heard the word Montreal.

“What is it?” Rose asked.

“Well, it’s just that, see, I went to the children’s hospital. You should have come, Rose. It wasn’t sad, it was full of so much hope and life. It reminded me of the orphanage in a funny way. We could perform at some for free when we’re on tour. I thought about it, and I do not think that we should return to Montreal. Nothing but a life of debauchery and violence and iniquity awaits us there.”

“We can’t go back on tour,” Rose said. “We’re returning to Montreal at the end of the run.”

“I’m not trying to be cruel. I just need to know what is going through your head. Why would you want to go back to a place where we were treated horribly our whole lives?”

“I’m homesick.”

“Do you miss the cold? You’re forgetting the way it is there, the way it feels like your clothes are made out of paper. Do you miss waking up and seeing your breath in little clouds above your head?”

She put her arms around herself and hugged tightly. She was feeling the cold as he was describing it. She pulled Pierrot away from the ring so that she could speak to him.

“Do you miss the horny sailors harassing you as you go about your business?” Pierrot continued. “Do you miss all the cockroaches and the mice? They have those here too. Do you miss all the dirty looks from priests as you walk down the streets?”

A bell suddenly rang. The dogs were let loose. All the men began to scream and yell at once, encouraging the dogs to rip each other apart. Rose and Pierrot hardly noticed. They had to finish this conversation.

“Things will be so different,” Rose said. “I’m going to fix up the buildings that I got the deeds for. Do you remember the Ingenue Hotel? That place is falling apart and is so decrepit. But every time I walk by it, I always think it could be turned into something wonderful. There’s the empty ballroom near Saint Dominique that could be turned into a cabaret. The checkered floors in there, under all the trash, are so great. I would hire a band too, a wonderful quirky band, a new sound. You could play with them! I was thinking that we could name the club after you, and you could headline there whenever you like. There’s going to be a lot of money to be made in the city in the next decade. We’ll never get this sort of opportunity again.”