Innocence

She opened her mouth to reply—and had no words. For a moment she stared out at the black limbs of the maples as the wind slowly knitted a white lacework across their bark. She said, “I don’t know. I don’t know why I want you to see her. But I know you must. It’s important that you do. I know it’s important.”

I took a deep breath and let it out as if with it I would also exhale my doubt.

She said, “I called them earlier. They know we’re coming. I told them that you have… issues. Serious issues. They understand me, the way I am. They’ll be respectful, Addison.”

“I guess if you aren’t afraid of them, I shouldn’t be, either.”

In spite of what I said, I dreaded going inside, but I got out and closed the passenger door and waited for her to come around the front of the Land Rover.

Snow at once diamonded her black hair, and the skiff on the sidewalk plumed around her silver shoes.

Just then I realized another similarity between her and the marionette, besides the black diamonds of makeup and the eyes. The puppet wore a black tuxedo with a black shirt and a white tie, and Gwyneth was dressed in black but for her shoes.

I almost turned away from the house, but I loved her, and so I followed her through the gate in a spearpoint iron fence.

“His name is Walter,” Gwyneth said. “He’s a widower with two young children. He was a medic in the military, and he’s a physician assistant now.”

She strode more than stepped, and she seemed to skate more than stride, and I thought that this girl would never lose her footing on treacherous ground or slip on ice, so extraordinary was her poise.

Stepping onto the porch, she said, “His sister, Janet, lives here, too. And an older woman, Cora. Janet and Cora are nurses. The patient is never left alone for more than a few minutes.”

“Isn’t this too many people for you?” I asked.

“They understand my problem. They don’t get too close. They make sure there’s never more than two in the same room with me. You’ll be all right.”

“I don’t know.”

“I do,” she said. “You’ll be all right.”

The bell press sounded chimes, which we could hear through the wreathed door, there on the Christmas-lighted porch.

Almost at once the door opened, and a man said, “Gwyn, we’ve missed you coming around.”

I couldn’t see him because I kept my head down, afraid that my ski mask was insufficient disguise, that he would know me by my eyes.

She said, “I’m no less like I’ve always been, Walter, so there aren’t a lot of days I go anywhere. But tonight is… special.”

With considerable apprehension, I followed her into a foyer with a plank floor and a round, flowered rug. A solemn voice issued from a television in a nearby room.

When Walter said, “This must be Addison,” I said, “I’m sorry my shoes are wet,” and Walter said, “It’s nothing, just a little snow.”

I liked his voice. He sounded kind. I wondered about his appearance, but I didn’t raise my head to look.

Gwyneth said, “Remember Addison’s rules like I told you,” and Walter said he remembered, and she said, “Where are the children?”

“In the kitchen. They know to stay there.”

“I’d love to see them, I really would, but this is hard on Addison.”

I wondered how neurotic Walter thought I was. He probably thought I was past neurotic and all the way to crazy.

He said, “Janet’s in the kitchen. She was getting dinner when you called, but she’s putting it on hold.”

“I’m sorry I gave you such short notice.”

“You’re like family, Gwyn. We don’t need any notice at all. I’ll go see if she needs help with the kids or something.”

When just the two of us were in the foyer, Gwyneth said, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah. I’m all right. Are you okay?”

She said, “I’ve been better.”

I raised my head and scoped the foyer. An archway on the right led to the living room. Everything was clean and neat and bright and pretty, a place of harmony, absent of conflict. I thought that those who lived here must feel safe, and I was pleased for them, more than pleased, happy that such a life was possible for them and for so many people.

The voice on the television said that the plague in China had actually begun across the border in North Korea.

A woman entered the hallway from the kitchen, and I lowered my head once more. She greeted Gwyneth and introduced herself to me—she was Janet—and I said that I was pleased to meet her, though I looked at nothing but the round, flowered carpet.

Janet led us to the second floor. We waited at the top of the stairs while she went along the hallway to a room at the end, where Cora, the older nurse, tended to the nameless girl.

Because I felt that someone of bad intent had quietly ascended the stairs behind us, blocking the way out, I turned to look, but no one followed us.

Janet and Cora came out of the patient’s room, went into another directly across the hall, and closed that door.

“This is important,” Gwyneth said.

“I guess it must be.”

“I know now why I brought you here.”

“Why?”