12 Hours In Paradise (13 page)

“So will you? Follow his rules?”

“Most likely. Because, as you say, it’s easier to live life on your own terms
with
money than without. I still have my ways to rebel.”

“Like tonight?”

“No, not like tonight. Tonight isn’t about rebellion. Tonight’s because I want to be with you.”

“We’d better keep going with the questions. What’s question number…fifteen, is it?”

“Sixteen. ‘What do you value most in a friendship?’”

“I can answer this. I probably would have had to think about it a long time if you’d asked me yesterday, but after tonight something really became clear to me.”

“Which is?”

“What I value most is being willing to lose the friendship in order to save the friend. I think Sharene was that friend. She was willing to lose my friendship by turning me in for stealing the test. She didn’t want me to become the wrong kind of person.”

“But what if it was Talia who turned you in? What if it wasn’t Sharene after all?”

“I don’t know. But I don’t think it was Talia. After telling you the story, I’m almost sure it was Sharene. And you know what? I feel really good about that. I feel closer to her than I ever have in my life. Anyway…I hope I’m right, and I think I am.”

“If you think you are, then I trust that you are. And in any case, it doesn’t matter. What matters most is what you’ve just told me. What you’ve discovered about yourself tonight. You have a foundation to judge all future friendships. And if one doesn’t measure up, you’ll know it isn’t worth your time and commitment.”

“And what about you?”

“I’d like to say the same thing because you’ve made an excellent point. But maybe I’d add something, which is what I learned from Benjamin. You have to be able to be the mirror that reflects back the best attributes of your friend. But the mirror must also reveal any ugliness that can lead to a person’s downfall.”

“Exactly! Like the magic mirror in Snow White. Every day it tells the queen she’s the most beautiful. But eventually it tells her that Snow White is more beautiful. And I take that to mean not beauty in the superficial sense, but the fact that the queen was conceited and selfish. And eventually she needed to hear that Snow White, who had such a good heart, was the one who was truly beautiful. And if the queen couldn’t change, her wickedness would destroy her. Or at least that’s the way I see it now.”

“There’s a lot of wisdom in those old German fairy tales. And some very dark lessons too.”

There was a change in the type of person walking the streets at that time of night. More people looked like they were just getting off work or maybe even going to work in one of the hotels. Fewer tourists. More homeless. It’s like someone turned the city upside down and shook out all the visitors.

“What happened to our adventure? It’s gotten so serious.”

“I told you, the adventure is us.”

“And we’re the adventure.”

“Correct. So we’re the ones who made it serious. Do you wish it wasn’t so? Then we change it. But is it a bad thing to be serious?”

“No, not at all. It’s just so different than when we first started. Our matching outfits. The treasure map.
Opala
. It seemed silly back then, but now…I don’t know.”

“Now, we’re getting to know each other. For me it’s better.”

He put his arm around my shoulders, then lifted his hand to tuck my hair behind my ear. He slid his fingers down the side of my neck, and I shivered even though it was still in the seventies.

“For me too.” I looked up at him. “I love knowing you better. I’ve told you things tonight I’ve never told anyone else before.”

At the beginning of the night, I’d been so focused on taking him in with my eyes. The jolt I got every time we brushed up against each other. The thought of kissing him, which still hadn’t happened. Holding hands. Now I just wanted to listen to him talk. For hours. For days. Forever.

And I wanted to tell him things about me.

Everything.

“Do you know what time it is?”

Arash clicked his phone screen. “It’s three ten.”

“When do you think it gets light?”

“I’m not sure. Six?”

“Then I’d better be back by five. Do you think we have enough time to finish the questions? We still have about twenty left.”

“If we keep at it. Let’s turn left here or we’ll be walking right by my hotel, which probably isn’t a good idea.”

The sidewalks were as empty as they probably ever got. A street-sweeping truck came slowly and purposefully from behind us, moving almost at walking speed. An occasional taxi passed by. A police car, cruising for middle-of-the-night troublemakers.

“You know how people call the police five-oh? Do you know where that comes from?” I asked.

“Is that what I’m supposed to call the police?”

“It’s not what you’re
supposed
to call them. Oh my gosh.” I giggled. “It’s like you’re from another planet sometimes. Anyway, it’s from that TV show
Hawaii Five-0
. Not the new one. The old one my parents used to watch.”

“I don’t watch much television. Is it a good show?”

“Oh, I don’t know. I just think it’s an interesting fact.”

“It is. And you know what?”

“What?”

“I already knew.”

“No, you did not.”

“Did so.”

“Did not.” I put my hand up his shirt and tickled his ribs.

“Did…so!” He stumbled away from me, trying to suppress a giggle.

“Hey, look. It’s the Russian couple from the beach.”

They were about a half block ahead of us, walking in the same direction. The woman was wearing her shoes, once again towering over her companion. She teetered on the cobblestone sidewalks, and I wondered in awe how she’d made it all night in those heels.

“Where do you think they’re going?” I asked.

“Same place we’re going. Wherever that is.”

“Hey.” I brightened. “I have an idea. Let’s follow them. Go wherever they go. It could be part of our adventure. Get us back on track.”

“Okay, and while we’re following them, let’s finish our questions. I don’t know about you, but I’m really excited to get to the ‘staring into each other’s eyes part.’” He smiled at his phone screen. “‘What is your most terrible memory?’ No, strike that. ‘What is your most treasured memory?’ I got ahead of myself. Do you suppose the Russians are answering these same questions?”

“Wait. So the terrible memory and the treasured memory come one after the other? Let’s just answer them both and save time. Who first?”

“Give me a minute to think. While I’m thinking, you can come up with a name for our friends. And don’t walk too fast or we’ll catch up with them. We have to keep a safe distance so we won’t be observed.”

“Hmmm…”

We walked in silence for a few minutes.

“Troy and Betsy,” I announced finally. “That’s their names.”

“Troy and Betsy? Sounds very American. Why these particular names for a Russian couple?”

“I don’t know. That’s what they look like to me.”

“Not Boris and Natasha?”

“Nope. Troy and Betsy. And by the way, I used to watch that Boris and Natasha show when I was little.”

“And their last names…or name? Are they married? Do they share a common name?”

“They’re not married, but they decided to hyphenate their names anyway. Their last name is van Pumper-Dodds.”

“The van Pumper-Dodds. Troy and Betsy van Pumper-Dodds. It’s a relief to finally know their names. I wouldn’t want to arbitrarily shadow someone whose name I didn’t even know. Okay, I’m ready to answer both questions. Most treasured and most terrible.”

“Go on.”

We passed a store display window where unisex mannequins in awkward poses stared blankly out at the street. Each one modelled thousands of dollars of high-end-fashion-label garments.

“My most treasured. Playing with my cousin when we were small boys. He’s two years older than me, but he was always extremely kind, never making me feel like a pest. I really looked up to him. Still do, although we don’t see each other often since he lives in New York. But we’d spend hours and hours playing with our stuffed animals. We created an entire world complete with names, a hierarchy…even athletic competitions between the animals.”

Arash’s already-dreamy eyes took on an even dreamier quality as though he could envision the animals right there, engaged in athletic competitions against each other. Perhaps fencing. Or downhill skiing. Those are the things I imagined Arash’s stuffed animals would do.

“Who was your favorite animal?” I smiled at the question.

“Probably God of All the Creatures because he was the coolest and most powerful of all animals. Of course you can tell that by his name. He was a large, mangy-looking, white teddy bear with a missing eye. It gave him a very menacing stare.”

“That’s funny…stare. Like stuffed animals can do anything else but stare.”

“You’d be surprised,” Arash said. “But now for my most terrible. You’d probably think it would be the phone call from my mother telling me about my father’s stroke. Or when they gathered us all together to tell us about Benjamin’s suicide. But those were things I’ve been able to process with the assistance of time. I was old enough to…not to make sense of it, but to know that there was an unfortunate sense to be made in the scheme of life. So my worst memory comes from a time when I was too young to make sense of the more grotesque aspects of life. My parents and I were visiting a small Serbian village, and I witnessed a farmer slaughtering a sheep. I don’t think my parents meant for me to see. I know they didn’t. I just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“Ugh. I’ve never seen anything like that.”

“Not even in the Wild West where you live?”

“Not even there.”

“Do you eat meat?”

“Of course. I
am
from Reno, after all. Everyone eats meat in Reno.”

“I don’t. Strictly vegetarian. If I’m ever tempted, I just remember the sheep. The way he was alive and struggling one minute and then the next…the life literally drained out of him, and he was nothing more than flesh and wool. His spark simply oozed into that bucket of blood.”

“Lovely. And on
that
dark note.”

“It was a dark question. You’ll have your turn. Look, Troy and Betsy are turning right up ahead. Prepare to turn right.”

“My most treasured moment…and you’re probably going to be surprised at this…but it also happened when I was very young. It was the day my dad took me to the hospital to meet Chester for the first time. We went to my mom’s room, and she was lying in bed holding him. My dad told me to sit in the chair right next to my mom, and he lifted Chester and put him in my arms. I’ll never forget it. He was all wrinkly and red, but I thought he was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. I thought he was mine. You probably have trouble believing that, seeing how we fight now.”

“I don’t have any trouble believing it. You still have that same affection and protective feeling toward him. Anyone can see that.”

“I hope so. Anyhow, I have to keep reminding myself that he’s just a kid. And my worst memory was when my grampy collapsed at our house when I was twelve. He was helping my dad in our vegetable garden when it happened. It was so awful that I still can’t think about it without getting emotional. I hope the next question isn’t so depressing. This is really hard.”

Arash sighed deeply and squeezed my hand. “How’s your foot? Are you okay with all this walking?”

“I’m good. But we better pick up our pace or we’re going to lose the van Pumper-Dodds.”

“Speaking of the van Puffer Dolls, looks like trouble in paradise. See…they’re arguing.”

I squinted my eyes because I really am supposed to wear glasses to see far distances, but I refuse. I would wear contacts, but the lady at the eye doctor couldn’t get me to relax enough to try them out. She said she’s never failed at getting a patient comfortable with contacts in five minutes or less. Until she met me. Some people have a really strong gag reflex. I have a really strong blink reflex. But I’m officially okay to drive without corrective lens, so, for now, I go without.

“They do kind of look like they’re mad at each other, don’t they? And it’s not the Puffer Dolls, it’s the van Pumper-Dodds. Wonder what’s wrong. They seemed so happy at the beach.”

The woman’s upper body was turned to face the man. She waved her arms aggressively like a conductor directing a really angry symphony. The guy’s head hung down, forcing his gaze to the ground, but every once in a while he looked up and spat some ugly words in her direction. Or at least that’s the way it seemed to Arash and me. We couldn’t exactly hear them, but their body language was loud and clear.

“What do you think they’re fighting about?”

“Betsy has just admitted to a meaningless one-night stand with the former Mr. Dodds, and Troy isn’t buying it,” Arash said.

“But they have an open relationship.”

“So she claims, but this is the first Troy has heard of it.”