Holy Water (49 page)

Henry pours them each a glass of wine.
“
Have you heard about the king?
”

She accepts the
ara
,
sips it, and squints one eye.
“
How did you find out?
”

“
Shug.
”

“
I don
’
t even think they
’
ve officially announced it. Some say they never will. At one time this is exactly what the prince wanted, but with the way things are now . . .
”

“
What do you think is gonna happen?
”

Maya thinks about this, takes another drink of wine, then steps forward and leans against him. She rests her head against his neck and whispers,
“
I don
’
t know.
”
Then she steps back, takes his hand, and begins to pull him toward the stairs.
“
Let
’
s just go to bed, okay?
”

~ * ~

This time the sex is different. More velocity and aggression. Less cuddling and tentative exploration. This time everything is physical and nothing is spoken. Whenever it feels as if he is taking charge, claiming more of the moment, she pushes him into a different place, and then another, her eyes fierce and distant, her body telling his what it
’
s doing right and wrong until he reasserts himself and the struggle becomes the thing, until the smashup of their conflicted spirits becomes everything. At times he is convinced that they
’
re
fused as one, but then seconds later they are strangers off in separate, self-made worlds, grasping for the unattainable and running from the unavoidable.

This time there is no joy, only the fatalistic thrum in the loins that comes from a shared sense of urgency and desperation, a ticking detonator clock, and the solitary knowledge of a thing that if revealed would destroy the spirit of the other.

For Henry, the last proves too much. The secret. Not a lie, but an avoidance of the truth. When they started, it was the last thing on his mind, but as he goes along, it is all that he can think of.

When she is done he rolls to the side and stares at the wall, sweat-covered and panting, playing out the part. She doesn
’
t ask him when he turns over to face her, but he can see the question in her eyes. Did you? He touches her face, pushes wet hair away from her eyes, and kisses her.

Of course he didn
’
t.

He couldn
’
t.

He did what he swore he
’
d never do again.

He faked. To cover up a secret.

Only this time he doesn
’
t feel as if he
’
s gotten away with anything.

~ * ~

Bullet Points

“
Pat won
’
t be joining us.
”

Henry smiles at Jules, who is Pat and Audrey
’
s same-sex-marriage counselor and personal assistant, and says,
“
I see. What about Audrey?
”

“
Audrey should be here,
”
Jules explains. They are sitting at a table on the garden veranda at Ayurved Djong and Spa, sipping jasmine tea: Henry, Jules, and Maya. It is 10 minutes after their nine o
’
clock Pat and Audrey breakfast was to start and 110 minutes before the ceremony at the call center.
“
But,
”
Jules continues,
“
go ahead and order if we have a schedule. The way things have been going, I can
’
t guarantee anything.
”

Maya puts down her menu.
“
Will Pat be joining us at the call center, or the conference, or the hospitality cruise?
”

Jules laughs.
“
I. Have. No. Idea.
”
And then, changing her tone, sitting up and smiling brightly,
“
Well, well.
”
Maya and Henry turn. Pat is coming after all.

Pat ignores Henry and Maya and speaks directly to Jules.
“
Where
’
s Fatso?
”

Jules looks down at her menu.
“
Audrey should be here. Won
’
t you join us?
”

Henry stands and introduces himself and Maya, but Pat, a tall, athletic, handsome woman, doesn
’
t acknowledge his extended hand or say a word. She gives them each a curt nod. He wonders if he
’
s already broken one of the rules of engagement regarding Pat and
Audrey—thou shalt not
shaketh
the executive hand—but then remembers that it doesn
’
t matter because they no longer matter and he no longer gives a shit.

“
No,
”
Pat answers.
“
I will not be joining you. Just let me know when we
’
re leaving for whatever the fuck we
’
re doing here. I
’
ll be in the garden talking to my new best friend, Lacy.
”

A minute later Audrey materializes. Demure, contrite, apologetic, Audrey, looking considerably larger than she had in the creation myth video. Her face is swollen from crying. Her mascara is already smudged in a raccoon oval around her watery brown eyes. After an introduction that actually includes eye contact and the shaking of hands, she looks around and asks,
“
Where . . . where
’
s Pat?
”

Jules goes out of her way to look into Audrey
’
s eyes before saying, as if addressing a child,
“
Audrey, Pat won
’
t be joining us for breakfast this morning, okay?
”

Audrey nods and sits. From a basket in the center of the table she takes a banana walnut muffin, a blueberry scone. Jules looks at her plate disapprovingly, but Audrey doesn
’
t care. She takes a bite of the muffin and doesn
’
t stop to speak until it and the scone have disappeared. Maya attempts to take Audrey through the agenda for the day and the deck she and Henry have prepared, but when she sees how distracted Audrey is, she
distills
it to the three most salient bullet points:

• 
Thank the prince or whatever dignitaries happen to be in attendance.

• 
Tell the people of Galado how honored you are to have the Happy Mountain Springs brand represented in their beautiful country.

• 
And talk about Happy Mountain Springs
’
mission statement of providing pure water to the world before handing out the ceremonial check and the first LifeStraw.

When Maya is finished, Audrey turns to Jules.
“
Did Pat say anything about me—about us—before she left?
”

Jules clears her throat and takes a breath. Henry glances at Maya and is relieved when his phone buzzes in his pants pocket.
“
Excuse me,
”
he says, rising, considering the incoming number.
“
I have to take this.
”

He answers as he rounds a corner, stopping next to a meditation fountain.
“
Tuhoe.
”

It
’
s the minister of future commerce.
“
I
’
m calling to inform you that because of pressing affairs of state, the prince will be unable to make it to your ceremony this morning.
”

“
I understand. Does this have anything to do with the passing of the king?
”

This is met with several seconds of silence, then:
“
I do not know what you are alluding to, Mister Tuhoe.
”

As Henry thinks of what to say next, he notices Pat out of the corner of his eye, stroking Lacy
’
s thigh on a granite bench on the other side of the fountain.
“
Okay, then, will anyone from the palace be attending today?
”
Henry asks.

“
This I cannot confirm. But the king hopes that you and your colleagues will still be able to attend the conference-opening hospitality cruise this evening.
”

“
You mean the prince.
”

“
Yes, of course. The prince.
”

After hanging up, Henry walks away from the fountain. He tries not to pay attention to Pat and Lacy, who are snickering at him, while he attempts to make sense of what is going on: The prince will not be attending the ceremony for the opening of a call center for a company that is soon to die, if not already dead, during which an equally doomed humanitarian effort will be launched and celebrated. Afterward, he is to take the leaders of his possibly defunct company on a river cruise to kick off a business conference for a nation on the verge of collapse, hosted by the prince, who refuses to acknowledge his father
’
s death. He leans against a whitewashed wall and closes his eyes. Then he makes a flurry of calls: to Meredith, Madden, Giffler. When he finishes his last message, he sees a text note from Sirajh. He has cashed the check. So at least there
’
s that, he thinks, a year
’
s worth of LifeStraws for a few thousand people.

Maya is alone at the table when he gets back. At the other end of the terrace, Jules is standing with her hands on Audrey
’
s trembling shoulders, trying without success to console her. Placing his hands on the back of Maya
’
s chair, he says,
“
What happened? You made her cry?
”

“
Not funny. Apparently Pat is something of a bullying slut. Audrey, the poor thing, is a mess.
”

Henry looks at Jules and Audrey, then down at Maya.

“
What?
”
Maya says.

He motions for her to get up and follow him. They stop near a bench in a meditation garden. Neither sits.

“
Okay,
”
she demands, squaring off in front of him.
“
What?
”

First, for no apparent reason other than that he thinks it might be best to ease her into it, he tells her about the call he just received from the palace. No one will be attending. Okay, she nods, unfortunate, but under the circumstances that makes sense. Next he decides to tell her about his most recent message, the one about the check from Sirajh.
“
This is significant,
”
he says.

Maya tilts her head to the side. She
’
s not following.

“
Cashing the check,
”
he explains,
“
completes the transaction, and at the very least we have three thousand LifeStraws.
”

“
O-
kaaay
. . . Was there a concern that this might happen? That Happy Mountain Springs would renege?
”

“
Well,
”
he says,
“
originally, no. But now the problem isn
’
t so much about Happy Mountain Springs reneging. It
’
s whether they
’
ll continue to exist by, say, eleven this morning.
”

Maya looks left and right, then closes the gap between them until their chests touch. Her eyes—to Henry, they look like the eyes of a person he
’
s never met.
“
I want you to tell me everything,
”
she whispers, but with a fierce, threatening edge. And he does.