CHAPTER VI
One month later
"Well, Jocko. You've pulled some dumb stuff in your time but this – "
"What the hell are you doing here, Larry?" Jack stared at his friend across the dimly lit motel room.
"I could ask you the same question. What the hell are you doing sitting here halfway across the country from home while your poor wife's going out of her mind with worry?"
Jack looked down glumly. "Listen, Lar... It's complicated. How did you find me, anyway?"
"Just followed the smell! How do you think? First Chrissy couldn't find Janet's card. Then she couldn't find you. I don't know about her but it didn't take me that long to put two and two together."
"And how much did you get?"
"Just the right amount, as it turns out. The poor girl called us yesterday, absolutely hysterical. She said a couple of weeks ago you had mumbled something about urgent business God knows where – you couldn't even be bothered to come up with a half-decent lie, – jumped in your car and took off, and she hasn't heard from you since. I got to admit, I still didn't think you'd be moron enough to schlep all the way up here in chase of a woman who, to all intents and purposes, doesn't exist."
"How do you mean, she doesn't exist? We only saw her – Oh crap! I am not admitting anything!"
"You wanna play this game, you should've at least concocted a convincing lie. Although I can't imagine what could possibly explain this away. Frankly, until right this minute I kept hoping I was wrong about it."
"You are wrong about it! Whatever crazy scenario you've come up with – "
"Aren't you forgetting something? I also have her card. And I already know what you've known ever since you got here. There's no such address. There's no such street number. The street does exist but there's no such building anywhere on it. At this point, anybody with half a brain would turn around, run back to his wife and hope she might forgive him sometime in this century. But no, that's not my friend Jocko. I know how my friend Jocko thinks. Or what he thinks with."
"You've got nerve talking to me this way! Like you are a saint!"
"Shut up, Jocko. I've never said I was a saint, but I've never pulled such a dirty trick on Terri, either. Anyway. I figured you'd be hanging around this area hoping the building would miraculously spring up overnight. So I drove around checking every crappy motel, and here we are."
"I thought it might be a misprint! Like, maybe the street name's right but the number's wrong. And besides, the phone – "
"Yes, the phone. What about the phone?"
"It does exist! I mean, the office does exist, just not at this address! I keep calling this number, a woman picks up, very professional, very polite, "Sorry, Ms. Wood is not available right now. If you leave your number, she will return your call at her earliest convenience, bla-bla-bla." I leave my number, I sit and wait, I call again, and this time she's out of the office today and will be in tomorrow. I call tomorrow, she's gone for the day. I call early the next day, she's out of town at a conference. I call again – "
"Okay, okay, I get the idea!"
"A couple of times I asked her for the address of the office, and every time there was some kind of disturbance or interruption on the line at exactly the same moment. I drove up and down the street several times looking for that building, and there's nothing there remotely like it. I just wish I knew what was going on, Larry. What do you think all this means?"
"It's plain as the nose on your face. Your girl's running some kind of scam. Or at least involved in one."
"What?! Shut up! She'd never – "
"She'd never what? You don't know the first thing about her! Who is she these days? Where has she been all these years? For all you know, she might've been doing time!"
"No way! She told us – "
"Everything she told us was a pack of lies, as you've just found out for yourself. There wasn't a word of truth in what she fed us! That phone sits in somebody's garage or basement, that broad answers it pretending to be a secretary, God only knows for what shady purpose – "
"Hang on, Lar. Why did she give us those cards, then?"
"To get us off her back, that's why. The cards are part of the scam. I could go right now and have cards printed which would say "Larry Dallas, CEO of Such and Such Multi-Million Corporation". We start whining about how we haven't been able to reach her, me included, I'm not proud to say, so she hands out a couple of those to shut us up. Probably never thought you'd be schmuck enough to go off chasing a phantom. Or didn't care one way or another."
"But Larry... Say what you will, it's still our Janet. There's no way she could be involved in something like that."
"Jocko, Jocko, Jocko. When will you grow up? I remember trying to talk some sense into you ages ago, back when we were still living in Santa Monica, and that was as much a waste of breath as this is. Our Janet! Get this through your thick head, that Janet doesn't exist. Never existed in the first place. That perfect, angelic – "
"I never said she was any of that, Larry. She's just – she's – uh – "
"I told you back then what she was. Quicksand. That's all she's ever been. At least, when she did you a big favor and ran out on you with that Dawson fellow you were smart enough to spare Chrissy a glance and finally see the light. Oh God, poor Chrissy. How could you do this to her, Jack? I've got half a mind to punch your lights out, toss you in my trunk and drive you back to your wife like a sack of – "
"Really? Why don't you try, Lar? Go ahead and try! Come on, do your worst!" Jack faced Larry defiantly, assuming a defensive stance.
Arms crossed on his chest, Larry stared him down without speaking or moving a muscle.
Jack crumbled. He sank down on the bed and buried his face in his hands.
"What am I gonna do, Larry? I have no idea how I could ever face Chrissy again! I wish I could just die right this minute!"
Larry sat next to him and put a hand on his shoulder.
"Normally I would say, find the damn woman, give her a good fuck or five to get her out of your system and then crawl back to your wife and pray that she may forgive you someday. But that doesn't apply here for the obvious reason."
"Speaking of Dawson." Jack looked up, his face flushed and tear-stained. "I still had the New York address where they had moved when they were first married. Chrissy told me she'd written her there and gotten no reply. But then I wrote a letter addressed to him, and he responded. He gave me his private number and invited me to call him. And I did."
"Good Lord, man!" Larry looked shocked. "I had no idea – "
"No one did. I never told a soul. He said she had left him after just a few months without a word of explanation. Just up and went off one day and sent him the divorce papers later. He'd never heard from her again and had no clue where she was any more than I did." Jack rubbed his face with both hands. "Larry, the poor sod sounded broken into pieces. He was already living with some other girl, and he was still reeling."
Larry was silent for a while.
"So this is the woman of your dreams, eh, Jack? This is who you want to wreck your marriage for! Ruin Chrissy's life and your own for this, this – "
"Don't say it, Lar." Jack looked up at Larry with haunted eyes. "Whichever word you are thinking right now, please keep it to yourself."
"Okay, Jocko. I won't utter a sound. Just do me a favor, okay? Pick up this phone right now and call your wife to let her know you are alive."
"No way! I can't!"
"You have a long-term plan, pal? Are you gonna sit here in this room for the rest of your life?"
"I wish I could. That might be best for us all. Larry, please. Please call Chrissy and tell her I am dead."
"That's real smart, Jocko! That's brilliant! My offer of a ride in my trunk still stands. You keep this up, I'll make sure you can't refuse it."
"What would you have me do, Lar? What can I possibly say to her? I need to think up a good lie and stick to it, and my mind's a blank. A little help here?"
"Help?! Since when do you need help with lying, Jocko? You used to be an artiste! Could spin a web right on the spot, at a moment's notice."
"True. But even I was never as good as you. You were a virtuoso!"
"Ah, those were the days! But I am way out of practice now. It's been years since… I'm almost embarrassed to admit it but I've never once lied to Terri."
"So what? I haven't lied to Chrissy either in all these years. I'm just as rusty as you are. You have to keep your hand in."
"That's right. Ever consider telling her the truth?"
"The truth?! That's rich! Larry Dallas picks this moment to advocate the truth! Lar,if I had cheated on her – if I had had a fling with some random gal… she would've been hurt as hell but she might've forgiven me in time. But if I tell her this, nothing will convince her I haven't been secretly pining for Janet all these years. There'll be no coming back from this. Ever."
"And have you?"
"Have I what?"
"Been pining for Janet all these years?"
"No! Of course not! Once we had tried to reach her and couldn't, I took it as a blessing in disguise and a sign from above. Since then, I've kept hoping I'd never see her again. Our whole marriage depended upon her staying away and never coming back. But when she showed up that day – Lar, I swear, it all went out the window. All I could think of was... how badly I needed to see her again. I haven't been able to get her out of my head ever since. Poor Chrissy. I couldn't even talk to her for fear I would say the wrong name." Jack drew in a breath sharply. "I did call her sweet girl once. That used to be my special name for Janet."
Larry stared at him with an expression Jack couldn't interpret.
"You schmuck," he said finally. "You idiot. Damn it, this is not how she wanted you to find out. She was planning it as a surprise – "
"Huh? What surprise? You lost me, Lar."
"After you did your little vanishing act, she just couldn't sit on it any longer. She told Terri and made her promise not to tell. And Terri told me and made me promise not to tell."
"So now you are gonna tell me and make me promise not to tell, is that it? What are you getting at?"
"Something you've been dying to hear for years. Your wife is pregnant. Now are you gonna get your ass into your car and come home with me?"
...
"Okay, Larry, sure. I'm so glad he's feeling better and you guys are finally on your way back. He doesn't have to talk to me if his throat is still sore. And Larry... I simply don't know how to thank you."
For the first time in weeks, Chrissy was able to relax. Poor silly Jack! It was so like him to try to spare her any anxiety! On his way to a meeting with a supplier somewhere out east, he had come down with the flu and had been laid up with a high fever and a sore throat in some motel. Any other guy would've contacted his wife first thing. But not Jack. Instead, he had asked somebody to call his friend. And Larry, the best friend ever, had rushed to join him and take care of him until he was well enough to head home.
Dear, sweet Jack...
Chrissy stopped dead in her tracks. It was so strange that recently she hadn't been able to think of her husband without immediately thinking of Janet.
What was it she had whispered in Chrissy's ear right before she left?
"In every universe, it's you and me forever."
There was also the way she had pronounced it. "In every universe, it's you and me forever." She had definitely stressed the "you".
Weird. First, it was weird because it made no sense.
But it was also weird because part of it had rung a very faint, very distant bell.
Where had she heard it before? If not exactly these words, then something very much like them.
Chrissy frowned and started nibbling on her index finger. It often helped her understand or remember something.
And suddenly, she did.
...She had been out on another lousy date. So lousy, in fact, that she had given the jerk the slip and made her way home by herself. It was pretty early – much earlier than she had expected to return. Both her roommates were probably still out on dates of their own – hopefully, better than hers.
As she passed by Jack's door, Chrissy heard amorous cooing coming from behind it.
She chuckled. Had Jack brought his date home? Good for him. At least somebody seemed to be having a great time tonight.
She wasn't going to get in their way or let them bother her. She would go straight to bed.
Then she heard Jack's voice. She had never before heard him sound so vehement, so intense.
"No, sweet girl. I won't let you go. It's you and me forever, you hear? Jack and Janet forever!"
In response, Janet's voice, with that faerie-like lilt in it, said something Chrissy couldn't make out. Maybe because Janet was laughing as she was speaking. Or crying. Or both.
Chrissy shook her head in mild disapproval. For all her big talk about no romance between roommates!.. But then again, it was their own business.
She tried to slip into her room quietly, unheard by them. But then a loose floorboard creaked under her foot...
She heard movement behind her and whipped around.
Janet, face flushed and glowing, enormous eyes guileless, smile even bigger and more dazzling than usual.
"Chrissy? I'm so glad you are home! See, Jack's window's stuck again. Put your purse down and come help us, honey."
...Chrissy couldn't say whether she missed her friend more than she loved her husband or the other way around. But much as it had hurt, she had come to terms with losing Janet. If she lost Jack – Her mind refused to go there.
All these years she had lived with the two conflicting emotions. And her intuition told her that so had Jack. Both had longed to see Janet. Both had hoped to never see her.
Both had known that the only way their marriage could continue to exist was if she stayed away forever.
"Whatever Janet wants, Janet gets".
Somebody in their gang had hummed that as a joke, mimicking an old song. In fact, it was the literal truth.
Chrissy couldn't remember an instance when Janet had failed to get something she was after. Whether by demanding or cajoling, reasoning or charming, that slip of a girl had possessed an open sesame for every door. People couldn't accommodate her fast enough.
Neither could Chrissy remember an instance when Janet had been after anything for her own selfish ends. It was always something that benefited others – her roommates, her other friends, the Ropers, sometimes even perfect strangers. But that didn't mean she couldn't get whatever she wanted just for herself if she put her mind to it.
If Janet ever came back to pick up something she had left behind, Chrissy had no doubt she wouldn't be leaving without it.
...
"Hello, Chrissy! Here, I got a package for you." Larry made a big show of herding Jack inside by his collar and stepped out, shutting the front door behind him.
For a second, Jack and Chrissy stared at each other across the room. Then both took a step forward.
As she raised her arms to hug her husband, he slid down onto the floor and lay curled up at her feet.
"Sweetheart, what's wrong? Are you still sick?" She knelt next to him.
He buried his face in her lap. "Please don't ask, my love. It's over. I was sick – very sick. But I am all better now. We'll be all right, I swear."
She held him as they both sat in silence.
"Just tell me one thing, Jack," she said at length, using the hem of her skirt to dry the tears streaming down his face. "Did you find her? Did you see her?"
Jack shook his head. "We needn't worry about her ever again, sweetheart. She is – she is nowhere."