Worth

Chapter 2 (cont.)

Leo did not spend Christmas at Violet's parents' home. He said Christmas was for families and he wouldn't borrow hers. Violet at first turned down his New Year's Eve invite because she said New Year's was for couples and drunks and she didn't feel like drinking. Could she be talked into it? Well, yes, she could. She knew what it was like to be alone and proud. A dateless New Year's Eve was a particular sparkling pain, a pinching rhinestone bracelet you don't mind wearing but wouldn't cry over if you lost. Violet held onto the hope this wouldn't always be so. She had time to find someone to enjoy life with. Maybe Leo did not. Besides that, he made her laugh. She agreed to join him for the countdown and a televised Three Stooges marathon on the conditions that he explain to her why, like Abbott and Costello, she was supposed to find them funny and that he do the explaining in front of a fire.

Leo was in good spirits when he opened the door, excited even, Violet thought. She just loved his apartment. It was like playing in her father's office when she was young, or hiding under the table while her mother talked with grown-ups. Secret and safe and full of whatever you wanted to be there.

Leo sat in his chair, eager to show Violet his Christmas present from Jimmy. Violet sat cross-legged on the carpet, eager to see it, taking lady-like sips of champagne.

"I'm sorry you didn't get to meet him. He surprised me last week, but I knew you were with your folks."

"I'm sorry too. I 'd like to know how this Confederate sabre made it across the border."

"He bought it here."

"That reminds me, could I have a pen and piece of paper? We're hosting a reunion party for some veterans this spring and I just had an idea I should jot down in my book."

"What about one of those portable computers? The skinny ones. You should get one. Wouldn't that make your life easier?"

"I remember things better if I see myself write it down."

"Come on, I'll take you out for a belated Christmas gift."

"Buy me a Smart Pad? That's very generous of you, but no thanks. Very sweet, but I couldn't. Besides, I don't trust them yet."

"Probably for the best. One day there'll be a global blackout and you'll be the only one left who can tell her head from her backside. What would you like instead?"

"You can buy me lunch. How's that?"

Lunch was postponed. Leo was a little under the weather. At the end of January, Violet invited Leo over for tea. She had made a platter of finger foods they ate pinkies down while they looked at a collection of a soldier's personal photos taken during the liberation of France that Leo's nephew had sent as a gift for no particular occasion. She asked to see pictures of his family, but he said he didn't have any worth showing.

After Easter weekend, which Leo had once again declined to spend with Violet at her sister's, Leo accepted Violet's offer of leftover catered sandwiches for lunch in the park. A really detestable looking man with a dirty trench coat kept leering at Violet while talking on his cell phone the next bench over. Leo began to feed the pigeons by throwing crusts of bread at the man's feet.

For April Fool's Day, Violet was able to bribe deskman Wayne with expensive coffee into letting her into the penthouse while Leo was at a doctor's appointment so she could sprinkle bird seed all over his balcony. Leo called her the next morning with a laughter-filled, "Up yours," and had Chalet Chicken deliver a roast dinner with "Pigeon Special" written on the bag.

In early June, Leo was admitted to the hospital with chest pains and kept a few days for observations. Twice Violet paid a visit and neither time was there any mention or hint of a visit from family save for a sorry bunch of carnations in the garbage pail. Violet didn't bother to ask about where they'd come from. Both visits, Leo pretended to die on her with a sputtering, choking, eye-rolling scene just to get Violet's reactions. The first time she cried and called for the nurse. The second time she said, "I guess you won't be needing this watch now will you?" while wringing it off his wrist.

For her birthday on June twenty-eighth, Violet called on Leo with a piece of birthday cake left over from dinner at Olivia's.

"What kind is it?" Leo asked.

"It's banana bread really," Violet said. After a few moments she added, "With carrots."

"So it's a carrot cake," Leo summed up.

"She was experimenting."

"If there are raisins in here, tell me now. No one like a surprise raisin."

"No, but I think there are walnuts."

"I'll put my good teeth in," he said, laughing at his own old joke. "So how did you do this year? Did you rake in the loot?"

"Olivia and Lee bought me this shirt and some gift cards. My parents bought me a puzzle by an artist I like. He makes these wooden tropical plant sculptures you have to piece together first. Pretty pricey, actually."

"It'll do."

"What did you get me?" Violet teased.

"Walnuts." He had picked them out of his cake and separated them on his plate. "Seriously, what would you like? I won't be outdone. See my wall of collectables?"

"I am not taking your things! They're your treasures."

"You pick out whichever you find most interesting and I'll give you in cash what it's worth."

"Like The Price Is Right?"

"Yes."

"No."

"Make an old man happy."

Violet slapped her legs and stood up to take a look. Weapons, books, weapons, medals –then at last her eyes zeroed in on the very thing she'd hoped for: a penny.

"I'll take this," she declared triumphantly.

Leo scowled. "That's an Indian Head. Very expensive."

"This fellow looks a lot like the Queen."

"Pick something else."

"Nope. It's my birthday. I make the rules."

"Violet, when someone wants to give you something, you should let 'em."

"I have," she said, and pocketed the penny.

Ben called Leo to ask if he had any eggs seeing as his dad was visiting again and his new girlfriend was waiting in the car. Leo didn't pick up the phone. Wayne asked Violet if she'd seen Leo because a package had arrived from his nephew and no one had been able to deliver it yet. Violet told the desk-man that she hadn't spoken to Leo since Jeopardy on Monday night.

"I could try to call him," Violet offered.

"No good, Ms. March. I've been calling for two days. I'll have to go up." Wayne puffed out his cheeks and scratched his head unhappily. He opened a drawer for a ring of duplicate apartment keys. "It would be nice, if it's not asking too much, if I had a witness."

"All right."

On the way up to the penthouse, they exchanged a few positive thoughts, but Violet knew from the moment Wayne had stopped her that Leo was gone. She was relieved it was he, and not Peter or the other shift deskmen, who would find Leo. Wayne did not look burdened. He would not go through Leo's things. He would not be patronizing or falsely sympathetic. As it happened, he said, "That's a shame," and gave Leo his privacy while he calmly and quietly called the authorities.

Leo lay on his living room sofa having died in his sleep with pillows propped under his slowly sinking face. He faced the window. The curtains were tied back. Around his neck was an antique pair of binoculars from World War I; floating in a glass on the floor beside him, his good teeth.

"Oh Leo," Violet sighed, and prayed in silence for his eternal peace and happiness.