Golden Girl(71)

The Chief drives away. He left his card and said if Leo had any thoughts about the shoes or the clothes to call his personal cell phone, not the station.

Leo goes up to his bedroom and closes the door. He imagines Cruz being arrested, arraigned, indicted, sentenced, jailed. He imagines the strong brick foundation that Cruz built to support his future crumbling.

He thinks of Cruz poking him hard in the chest, an imitation of Joe DeSantis when Joe wanted to get a point across. You need to face your truth.

Face my truth? Leo thinks. He’s suddenly so angry that he punches the wall; his fist goes straight through the plaster. His mother would be furious about this—but his mother is dead. There’s no one left to care if he punches holes in the walls.

“Mom!” he cries out. “Mama, where are you?”

He strides over to Carson’s room. The door is wide open—of course, because she’s not sleeping there. She’s sleeping in Vivi’s room. Vivi’s room is at the other end of the hall, door closed tight, because Vivi alone has an air-conditioning unit.

Leo opens the door and goes over to Vivi’s nightstand. He pulls out the drawer and finds what he’s looking for—a sandwich baggie full of pills. He wants Ativan or something stronger; he doesn’t care what. He needs to escape his head.

He shakes four of the pills into his palm. Then a fifth.





Vivi




“I’m using one of my nudges,” Vivi says. “And you can’t stop me.”

Martha purses her lips. She’s wearing a scarf knotted around her neck, the same one she had on the first time they met. Maybe she wears them in rotation. Vivi will ask, but not right now.

“This is where a mother should step in,” Vivi says. “He takes the pills, he associates the pills with feeling better, he seeks out more pills. He becomes addicted. He ends up a functioning addict, or he goes to rehab, or he dies. Is that what’s going to happen? Can you check your clipboard?”

“I didn’t bring my clipboard,” Martha says. She closes her eyes. “I’ll do it this way.” Her eyes fly open. “I’m afraid you’re right.”

“You can see the future?” Vivi asks.

“I have some special skills,” Martha says. “The mind reading, as you know. I can see potential futures, and with extra concentration, I can go back in time and follow the road not taken.”

Whaaaaa? Vivi thinks.

“But let’s not waste time,” Martha says. “Use your nudge. Right now, go ahead.”

“How?” Vivi asks. Leo has stepped into her bathroom and is filling her cup with water.

“Swoop down there and…nudge.”

Vivi gazes down at Leo, her dear, sweet baby boy. The glass of water is full; the pills are in his palm. Focus, Vivi thinks. But she’s distracted by the mess in the bathroom. Carson’s makeup is everywhere and she has left the lid off Vivi’s La Mer soft cream, which costs over three hundred dollars.

“Vivi!” Martha says.

Vivi snaps her attention back to Leo. He’s bringing the pills to his mouth.

Vivi jumps off the ledge of the room. She tries to break through the membrane, but the membrane just stretches like a nylon stocking. Okay, weird. Vivi guides Leo’s hand away from his mouth. Leo stares at his hand as though he realizes he’s being possessed by an external agent. Then his body relaxes and seems to fall into resignation. He dumps out the water and returns the pills to the baggie.

Vivi floats back up to the greenroom, where Martha is waiting. “I should have had him flush them down the toilet,” Vivi says. “Shoot.”

“It’s fine,” Martha says. They both watch as Leo returns the baggie to the nightstand and leaves the room.

Vivi experiences what can only be described as a kind of ecstasy. She used her first nudge! She saved her son from becoming a pill addict! She feels powerful. She feels like a good mother. “I saved him!” Vivi says. “You could see the future. He would have become an addict and spent countless hours drinking coffee in church basements.”

“Let’s not stereotype, please, Vivian,” Martha says. “He would have been okay eventually, but you spared him a struggle. He knows pills aren’t the answer.”

“I nipped it in the bud,” Vivi says. Her self-congratulations have made her forget the other thing that’s bothering her. “Why is he so angry with Cruz? Why does he think Cruz did it? There’s no way Cruz did it.” She pauses. “Is there?”

“I can’t—”

“You can’t tell me, I know.” Vivi sighs. “It breaks my heart that Leo and Cruz are fighting like this.”

“I think you should focus on the good you did your son.”

“What if he needs me again?” Vivi asks.

“Eventually all three of them are going to have to learn to live without you,” Martha says. “All the way without you. The summer is going to end, Vivian. Summer always ends.”

Vivi can’t bear to think about it—but then again, she doesn’t have to yet. It’s only July.





Nantucket




Vivian Howe’s last novel, Golden Girl, enters the world on Tuesday, July 13, and we couldn’t be prouder.