Leaving New York

Chapter 32

The following day at breakfast, Chloe asked me, "How was last night?"

"Loud, crowded, young—a gay bar."

"Did you meet anybody?"

"Yeah, a group that wanted to have an orgy and snort coke—like something from the Eighties."

"That's a bummer."

"There were some cute guys, but I'm just not into the scene anymore. I needed earplugs to tone the music down—it was crazy loud."

"We need to find you someone, honey. You are about the best guy I ever met. Everyone thinks so."

"I got a hidden side—my pancake addiction."

She sat down with a second cup of coffee. "Let's do something extra fun today—it's Sunday." Khalil, who'd just climbed up to eat his bowl of cereal in my lap, said, "I like fun." Meerab said, "I wish we could go to the Eiffel Tower."

Khalil said, "Oh, yes, please! Chloe, please!"

Ari, who came in wearing a dirty, greasy T-shirt from putting a new alternator in the Mercedes, said, "It is tres chere to go."

Chloe said, "Well, I'm feeling generous today—I'll pay the entrance fee."

Meerab said, between gulps of chocolate milk, "I heard terrorists want to blow it up--Afghani men who are against the new quotas."

His father said, "Who told you that?"

"Guys at school."

Khalil said, "Which guys?"

"The ones who call us 'Abba Dabba.'"

Chloe said, "Teenage boys are useless. You just keep walking if they call you names, Meer."

"I'll be a teenager soon, Chloe—will I be useless?" The slim blonde tousled Meerab's thick, black hair. "No, silly, you are a fine young man."

Everyone waited for Gar to get back from his breakfast meeting with a potential employer. I read a tattered copy of "Giovanni's Room," a book that vaguely reminded me of my life except for the murder and all the women. About noon, the front door slammed, then Gardner Connally yelled.

"Chloe?"

"Up here, honey."

I heard muffled voices from their bedroom, then nothing. The other adults in the house knew what that meant, so we kept the kids occupied when the Connally's were going at it.

As I flipped another page, the boys ran in, jumping on my bed. "Gar's home--when do we go see the tower?"

Ari walked in, "Little bears, get off the bed." In three months, he'd gained twenty pounds; the worry lines were fading too.

"It's okay, Ari."

"Khalil, get off the bed." His youngest son jumped down. "And you Meerab. We are guests, and we must act as such."

Chloe appeared next to Ari. "You think you are a guest? You are family; you're going to stay with us until you get full asylum."

"Thank you, Chloe."

"Now, I seem to remember someone saying something about the Eiffel Tower?"

The boys jumped up and down, yelling, "Tower! Tower! Tower!"

I said, "It's so pretty; we could walk to the Trocadero for lunch."

Chloe kissed my cheek, "Wonderful."

"What's going on?" Gar embraced his wife in my doorway. I wondered how the meeting went.

Chloe said, "The boys are excited about the Eiffel Tower. I haven't been since Momma got sick."