The Bannerman Solution (The Bannerman Series) (91 page)

She'd asked him to call. Even to come over. Maybe
she meant it. Except she was all drugged up at the time.
She probably doesn't even remember.

And let me ask you something else ”
Katz said glee
fully.
“How come you dream about her and she's real
but when you dream about me I'm not real?”

“Because when I get up to punch your face in, you're
going to be gone, that's why.”

“You think that doesn't come in handy?”

Lesko let his body sag.
“Look, David. . . .``

“You missed me, didn't you?''
Ka
t
z
said more softly.

“N
o.”

“Because I'm all you got
.
”

“Bullshit.”

“You know sooner or later Susan's going back with
Bannerman. And you know nothings ever going to
happen with Elena, because you're
such a schmuck with
women. I'm all you got.”

“I'd kill myself
.
”

“Hey, yeah,”
Katz brightened.
“Then you and me
could
…
”

“
I changed my mind
.”

“Lesko?”

“What?”

“What's so bad about this?''
The
voice became small
again.
“Talking to yourself is better?”

“What's bad is it's crazy, David. It makes me worry
if I'm crazy, too.”

“For a while there you were talking to me like al
ways. Asking me what I thought about things. ”

“See what I mean?”
Lesko drew up his knees.
“David, I'm getting up now.”

“I got prune Danish today.”
The voice was
more distant.
“You like them, right?”

“Now I'm pulling back the covers.”

“I'm not mad at Elena anymore.”
It was fading.

“Good.”

Good.

Lesko sat on the edge of his bed in the dark. And the
chill. And the quiet. No sound but the hum of trucks on Queens Boulevard. A loneliness settled over him like a wet fog.

Maybe Katz was right. Maybe he was better than
nothing. And he was probably right about Susan and
Bannerman. And Elena. Goddamned David. If he's go
ing to hang around he could at least be a little encourag
ing sometimes.

Elena.

Yeah. Sure he's right.

The closest he'll ever come to being in bed with her
already came. In her hospital room. Sitting on the edge.
All the while holding this dumb Christmas plant. Which
he gives her in January. Very suave, Lesko.

“Such a rough man,”
she said then.
“Such a tender
man. Come to Switzerland, Lesko. There are no ghosts
here. ”

He didn't make that up. She said it. Even if she
forgot, he cou
l
d always call her up and say, listen
,
I was
in the neighborhood because your uncle asked me to
visit and I wondered maybe we could
grab a schnitzel or something.

Who's he kidding?

“Lesko. ”
Katz's voice. Yelling from the kitchen.
“For
Christ's sake. Go for it, already. Pick up the damned
phone and call her. ”

“Yeah. She'd love that, you jerk. Hearing my voice at
four o'clock in the morning.”

“Schmuck! What time is it there?”

“Oh yeah.” Lesko looked at the clock. Ten after four
here. Ten after ten there. Maybe four in the morning
has its
benefits.

“Go on. I have to dial it for you?”

“Hey. What's with you a
ll
of a sudden?”

“
I hate it when you mope. It's boring. Besides, this I
gotta hear. ”

No ghosts there, she said.

Who says she's wrong?

Lesko reached for the phone.

END