Rapture

"That's good," Jeff said.

"Sean and I used to ask, Where did we get her from? You know? She's so much brighter than either of us, and so adult for her age. We were so ... lucky...."

There were muffled sounds as Georgianne tried to hold on to her composure. Jeff knew the telephone conversation wasn't doing her any good, and he decided to wrap it up briskly but gently. He couldn't bear to hear her this way.

"It'll get better, Georgianne, it will," he promised. "I don't want to give you the usual baloney about life going on and all that jazz. You know that, but it won't mean anything until you get over your loss-and you will, you will."

"I know," she said distantly.

"Listen. I'm going to be in Danbury soon."

"It'll be nice to see you again."

"You're going to be around?"

"My mother wants me to go down to Florida to spend some time with her, but I think I'll wait until Christmas, when Bonnie and I can go together."

"That's a good idea."

"And my brother wants me to go out to Chicago, but I'll think about that next spring or summer. Right now I'm just seeing how I feel a day at a time."

"That's perfectly natural. Anyhow, you will be there for the next few weeks."

"Oh. Yes."

"Okay, good. I'll call you again as soon as I've got my dates worked out. We'll get together, go out for dinner ... and talk."

"I'll look forward to it, Jeff."

"Me too."

When Jeff hung up, he lit another cigarette and paced the living-room floor. He couldn't sit still. He hated to think of Georgianne suffering this way. It was worse than he had expected. He might have to wait another two or three weeks for her to get over it.

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CHAPTER FIFTEEN

It added up. The Los Angeles-New York round trip was about fifty-six hundred miles. The first time was for his father's funeral, but Jeff reckoned the real reason was to find Georgianne. The second trip was exclusively for her, and this one was the third time in less than six months. It came to a little over seventeen thousand miles when you threw in the car trips between Danbury and the airport. It added up to an impressive amount of time, money, and distance, and Jeff wished he could tell Georgianne. A small matter, but another sign of the effort he was willing to invest for her.

And she wasn't even home.

Jeff couldn't believe it. He had checked in at the Ramada Inn and called her immediately. No answer. It was just before seven, Friday evening. Where could she be? He fidgeted over a large glass of Scotch and several cigarettes, and then tried her number again. Still no reply.

Georgianne knew he would be arriving in Danbury that evening. He had phoned her from Santa Susana earlier- in the week to tell her his plans. It had been a short and practical conversation, with neither of them much in a mood to chat. Georgianne had sounded as vague and absent as she had in their previous talk, but she was still glad to hear that she would see him soon. Now where was she?

Jeff showered and shaved, both for the second time that day. He remained confident that he could begin to pull Georgianne together, once he was with her in person. He had plans, ideas. He would take her out day and night. Movies, restaurants, galleries, antique shops. Relaxed, easy drives through the countryside. If all went well, he might even persuade her to spend a few days away-Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont. It was the season for picking apples, drinking fresh cider, and enjoying the autumn colors. If he needed a sweetener, he would dangle the possibility of going by way of Cambridge to see Bonnie, an idea that was as attractive to Jeff as he was sure it would be to Georgianne. He had no doubt that Bonnie was his natural ally.

There were a couple of minor problems, but he thought he would be able to handle them without too much difficulty. Georgianne had not yet renewed her invitation to him to stay at her house. He would remain at the Ramada as long as necessary, for the entire two weeks if it came to that. He didn't want to press her. It was obviously a very sensitive and different situation now, with Sean dead and Bonnie away at college. Even if Georgianne did offer him a room, he might be wiser to turn it down gracefully. But would he be able to resist the temptation?

Then there was the matter of Union Carbide. He had to get out from under that millstone. He had decided to tell Georgianne that the deal had fallen through, but that he had come east anyway for a much-needed vacation. After all, it was pretty much the truth.

Georgianne finally answered the telephone shortly after nine. She sounded breathless, as if she had just come in.

'I've been calling for a couple of hours," Jeff said, simply to let her know.

"Oh. I was next door. Having dinner with the neighbors. They're very nice. I've been saying no to everything since the funeral, but today I just thought, Yeah, I want to walk across the lawn and eat with the neighbors."

"Good for you," Jeff said, taking it as a healthy sign. He was encouraged. "How are you now?"