“Not a bit.” Daniel studied the empty canvas again, as if it could tell him
he should say no to Abbas, declare this over, and walk away. “I’m going to
have to think about this,” he finally said.
“And you want to discuss it with Zack?”
“Probably.”
Abbas studied Daniel for a moment, as if wanting to talk him out of it. “I
suppose you must.” Then he shrugged and sighed. “I should go now. I must
get back to my class.”
He went to the door, and Daniel followed. Then he twisted around, as if to
kiss Daniel.
Daniel jumped back.
And Abbas laughed. “Ah! You do care. Good! I will leave Sunday open.
Goodbye.” Abbas grinned and strolled away, with the easy, rolling gait of a
man who was confident he’d won.
20
Daniel walked home in a confused stupor of guilt and excitement.
He felt as if he’d done something terrible, but he hadn’t done anything
yet, and it wasn’t like he wanted to do anything new. He simply wanted to do
what he’d been doing all along, only under a different name—maybe a more
honest name than the one they’d been using. Nevertheless, the word love
changed things, didn’t it?
The sky was a dusky enamel blue over the playing field next to PBK Hall.
Daniel crossed the street to Indian Springs Road, where it was night under the
trees, with a spicy smell of woodsmoke in the crisp, cold air. He was walking
down the center of the road—there was no sidewalk—when he saw a pair of
headlights coming toward him. The car did not swerve to one side as most
cars did for pedestrians but continued straight toward him, even as it slowed.
It came to a dead halt. Daniel walked past on the driver’s side. The window
was down and Elena Rohani sat at the wheel.
He was surprised that the Russian woman drove, but why not? It was a
nice car, an old model Saab, maybe secondhand, but it had clearly cost money.
The car gave off a rich, baked aroma of clean laundry. Two baskets of hot,
folded clothes sat in the backseat.
E x i l e s i n A m e r i c a
1 3 7
“Good evening,” Elena said happily. “How are you?”
“Fine. Just fine.” Did that sound sarcastic? Would she think he was lying?
Did she even know about the latest turn in her husband’s emotions? “I see
you got your laundry done.”
“Oh yes. And I wanted to talk to Zack and apologize for Friday. Many
harsh things were said. I wanted to apologize to him. And you.”
No, she didn’t know, did she? Good. Let’s keep it that way, he thought, at
least for tonight.
“No apology necessary,” he assured her. “Beautiful evening, isn’t it? Give
my best to Abbas. Bye.” He strolled into the red glow of the taillights. The
glow pulled away and she was gone.
Daniel followed the curve of the road home. The front of their house was
dark, but inside the kitchen lights were on. The kitchen was empty. Daniel
saw two dirty coffee cups in the sink. Zack and Elena must have drunk coffee
here while the Rohani family clothes tossed in the washer in the basement. He
could hear Zack downstairs now with the evening news. He began to fix din-
ner, a good, practical action to assure himself that life was the same, every-
thing would be fine, nothing had changed. He was frying bacon for spaghetti
carbonara when Zack came up the stairs.
“Hi, love. How was your day?”
“Fine. Just fine.” They kissed each other hello, and Daniel was tempted to
say nothing about Abbas.
“Need any help?”
“No. Go back down and finish watching the news. Dinner won’t be ready
for another ten minutes.”
“Not much happening in the world today,” said Zack. “Thank God.” He
went to the refrigerator, got himself a Diet Coke, and sat at the kitchen table.
He looked so solid and reasonable.
“I ran into Elena outside. She came over to do her laundry?”
“Oh yeah. And she wanted to apologize for Friday. For needling Abbas
and putting him in such a bad temper that he said the things he said. They
were having a messy fight and she was sorry to involve us. But they worked
things out.”
1 3 8
C h r i s t o p h e r B r a m
Daniel could pretend he knew nothing. It would save him from having to
tell the long, involved story of his double-feature afternoon. But he was fixing
dinner, and that made him feel safe.
“Well, I got to hear from their babysitter how they worked things out,” he
began. And he told Zack about Maureen’s visit, giving him the short version
of everything she’d reported.
Zack listened with a look of surprise and growing concern. When Daniel
finished, he was too confused to speak.