Part 55

Alexis liked to run in the park when she could, when the weather was fine and she didn't have to be at court at an early hour. The park was a block from her penthouse, and she just ran there from home. This morning, she left Zander there still asleep.

Other runners were abroad at this hour, and she said hello to those who passed, calling them by name if she knew them. Then she passed one she knew but had not seen here before; it was Sergei.

"Hi," she said, "I see you've found the best place for a run." She stopped, and he turned back to go in her direction, just falling in with her.

"Yeah, it's a nice little place," he said. "I know Peter's not going to be here, but I still look out."

"What a situation," Alexis said. "Sad. What of your ex?"

"She don't run, happily. I just see her in the elevator every once in awhile."

"And you both lived?"

"Yeah. I haven't seen her before this, in about 3-4 years, and now she doesn't really piss me off completely. Just a little. I think I can manage if I say nothing to her. She say nothing to me. That's good. Just look and then look away."

"How long were you married for, anyway."

"Let's see. Married 12 years."

"Are you bored staying here?"

"Not too bad. I went down to the speedway and help the guys work on the cars. There's the family Peter was with bringing him down there now and then, so I gotta watch it, though."

"I have an idea," Alexis said.

She ran back to her apartment and ran into the shower.

When she came down, Zander was up. He was wearing his green tie; and he had made the coffee.

"Did you say you worked on cars with your father, or something like that?"

"Sometimes. He took me and Pete to the tracks and went off did did stuff. Every once in awhile he showed me how to do something. He knew how to work on them. Really liked it. It was like a hobby he had."

"He's been going down to the race track here, just for something to do."

"He should stop, or Pete can't go."

"He knows it. He said he watches out for them, but so he can get out of the way."

"He doesn't just not go there when he knows Pete could show up there. Tells you something, doesn't it?"

"If you talk to him, wouldn't that sort of distract him from Pete? Take away his motive. I don't think he's going to do anything drastic. Remember what I was saying when you were still in the hospital? You're less dangerous. If Sergei can talk to you, he's talking to one of his sons. He feels like he's getting somewhere. So don't bother with Pete until its straightened out or Pete just turns 18."

"He could think that talking to one son breaks the ground to talk to the other. That could get him bolder in thinking he can talk to Pete, and he already knows from the hospital Pete is not hostile to him."

"I don't know how this divorce stuff was, but when I've dealt with clients, they worry, you know, that the other parent is filling the kid's head with bad news about them. It's 'He's poisoning the kids against me,' or 'She's poisoning the kids against me.' Pete's not hostile. He saw that. He doesn't have a motive to get Pete away to avoid this poisoning."

"I'm afraid. I don't know what I'll do. What if he tries talking me into helping him get to Pete?"

"You know not to agree!"

"I'm afraid he'll come up with something I never thought of before, that will sound so reasonable, and it will sound so unfair to him if I don't help him."

"Boy," Alexis said, "You've been put through the wringer in the past, I can see that. I'll stay with you every second. As soon as he does anything like that, he's history. I'll tell him that ahead of time."

"You're in favor of me talking to him."

"I guess so. You need your parents. Such as they are. Hard for you to deal with, but you've got to deal with them, one way or another. There're not dead. They'll always be out there ready to plunge."

"Yours are dead," he said.

"I'm not trying to make you feel guilty. Really. I have no way of knowing if mine wouldn't have been just as bad. They were Russians, you know that?"

"No."

"Maybe they were just as bad, if I'd known them."

"Most of the Russians are really affectionate parents. In general. None of my friends in school had these problems. For that matter, Pete and I didn't. Sergei was OK then. Those two could not get along. So it had to be all one or the other."

"When the judges asked you what you wanted, what did you say?"

"I forget. I think what Oksana wanted me to, or what I thought she wanted me to. I don't mean she said, 'Say this or that,' but I knew her attitude. I remember being really mad at him for leaving us. She left him, but we did not see him for so long after that, it seemed like he had been the one to leave."

"Oksana didn't correct that impression."

"No."

"Did she say he didn't care about you, or that if he did care about you, he'd be there?"

"No. She didn't have to, I guess. As long as she didn't correct the impression, that's just how it seemed. Then when I realized that she was the one who made it hard for him to find us, I was mad at her. And I always feel really awful about being mad at her. Like it's a terrible thing to do to her."

"Would you go and talk to a counselor about this? I want you to. It'll help you."

"Anything for you."