A Stillness in Bethlehem(22)

She came to a stop at Gregor’s side, shoved a hand into the great black cloud of her hair and looked down at Gregor’s book. It was dog-eared into twice its original thickness and stuffed full of small scraps of paper. Through the space created by Gregor’s finger, Gregor knew she could see a fresh infusion of written-in-the-margins comments. Gregor had had this book for less than a week, and it was a total mess.

“For God’s sake,” Bennis said. “If I’d known the trouble that was going to cause, I’d never have bought it for you.”

“I’m glad you bought it for me,” Gregor told her. “This sort of thing is dangerous. It’s crazy. You can’t let something like this—”

“It’s a book, Gregor. It’s not an atom bomb.”

“I know it’s a book. It could have been a medieval book. It’s a demonology. It’s very dangerous to overestimate the capacities of psychopaths, Bennis; it produces mass paranoia.”

“Right,” Bennis said.

“If J. Edgar Hoover had the kind of power this man wants us to believe he had, then J. Edgar Hoover would have taken over the country and declared himself king. I knew J. Edgar Hoover.”

“Right,” Bennis said again.

“Don’t patronize me,” Gregor told her. “I put up with that fool for ten years and I know what he was like. Tell me what’s going on with the room. Tell me what’s going on with Tibor. Tell me what I’m supposed to be doing here.”

Bennis looked down at the book again, doubtful, but then she turned and looked back at Tibor in his chair. He looked settled and happy enough to Gregor, but Gregor was beginning to wonder if he knew enough about Tibor to make a judgment like that. They weren’t in Vermont because Gregor wanted to be there. They weren’t there because Bennis wanted to be there, either. They were there because after months of dealing with wandering Armenian refugees from the newly formed Armenian republic and points across the collapsing Soviet union  , Tibor had collapsed himself. What worried Gregor was that he hadn’t guessed that anything like that might be close to happening, and that he had been the only person who hadn’t guessed. He could still hear the sound of Lida Arkmanian’s voice coming over the phone to him at two o’clock in the morning, telling him that she’d called the doctor in and the doctor kept saying that everything was going to be fine, but that Tibor looked dead.

“Do you think he’s happy?” Gregor asked, feeling suddenly worried all over again. “Do you think he looks relaxed? This is what he wanted, right?”

“I think he looks happy as a clam,” Bennis said. “And this is definitely what he wanted. Five days of a Nativity play in Bethlehem, Vermont. You know what he told me? He told me he’d read about this thing in a newspaper in Bethlehem, Israel, when he was waiting around for his visas to come through so he could come to the United States. Do you suppose that’s true?”

“I don’t know,” Gregor said. “I’ve never been in Israel. Have you?”

“I’ve been in the Tel Aviv airport. And in Kabul once.”

“I don’t think that counts.”

“I don’t think that counts, either,” Bennis said. “I suppose we ought to go upstairs,” she said. “I had hell’s own time with that woman at the desk. She kept saying we were here early and we couldn’t go up until noon, but I finally dragged it out of her that there wasn’t anyone actually in those rooms, she just didn’t have the cleaning done. I promised her we’d stash our bags and wash up and then go out for breakfast. Or brunch. Or something. I don’t know if he looks relaxed, Gregor. Do you think he does?”

“I asked you first.”

“God, we’re awful. We should have brought Lida or Donna or Hannah or somebody just to make sure we had a grown-up. What are we going to do if he collapses again?”

“He’s not going to collapse again,” Gregor said stoutly. “You know what Dr. Evanian told Lida. It’s all that running around that did it to him, and not eating so he’d have food to feed his refugees.”

“I’m still furious about the food for the refugees,” Bennis said. “I mean, I’m rich, Gregor. Tibor didn’t have to starve himself to feed a lot of refugees.”

“I think you got that across to him in the long run, Bennis.”

“I should have been able to get it across to him in the short run. Oh, never mind. I’m just as worried as you are, and I don’t know what to do about it, either. He looks so pale.”