Chapter Fifteen
Thursday 30th May
'I need somebody to tell my troubles to, No use denying, I'm close to cryin'
But what good, tell me what good would my crying do?'
"Professor Cunningham, are you there? Pick up please it's Ruby."
Harry woke with a jolt when he heard the answer machine start. For a moment he wasn't entirely sure where he was, his head hurt furiously and his back was stiff. He'd been asleep half on half off his bed and he was still in his clothes. He heard the phone begin to ring again.
"I managed to reschedule your morning class, Harry but Professor Volosin did notice and I know he has a committee meeting with the Dean at lunch, you need to call in if you're not well. Call me back. It's Ruby."
Harry struggled to his feet and looked around his room trying to make sense of the evening before and why he had got so hammered on a Wednesday night. He could see the empty bottle on the nightstand next to the phone.
He sat down heavily on the bed and buried his face in his hands.
Leo.
It didn't seem real. He couldn't believe it. He knew now why Nikki had taken the first flight to Budapest that time. It just couldn't be true. The temptation to sling his belongings in a back pack and head for the airport was almost overwhelming, but there were a few more weeks of term left and a number of events including graduation that attendance was mandatory at.
Gradually more of the evening came back to him. His mother had called him back after Nikki had gone to bed.
"That was a good idea of yours; making her come here," she had said.
"Oh Mum, I'm sorry to put you out. I just didn't know what to do. It didn't seem right for her to be on her own."
"You were right Harry, it's fine. I've got quite fond of her myself. I wouldn't want her to be on her own through this. But Harry, I think there's a lot more that went on out there than she is able to talk about. She looks haunted almost."
Harry's stomach lurched in an old and once familiar way. "Try and help her rest Mum, she'll need to sleep." He'd seen it before, seen Nikki struggle and almost lose the battle to keep her head above water. Not that he'd been much help that time, but he was there when it really mattered. Her words 'You're the best,' fluttered through his consciousness, she always had been an appalling judge of men and he was no exception to her trail of losers and sorry bastards.
"Listen Harry, I need to go," he heard his mother say. Despite a transatlantic connection and Nikki being in a different room Harry could quite plainly hear Nikki screaming, "No!" presumably in her sleep.
"I'm sorry Mum,"
"I'm sorry too darling, I'll do what I can. But who will look after you?"
"Don't worry about me Mum, I'll be ok. Just do what you can with Nikki. Thanks Mum. Bye."
"I ought to go Harry. Bye."
He picked up the phone to call Ruby.
"Hi Ruby, sorry to worry you."
"Harry. Where have you been? Everything's kicking off round here and you might think people don't notice you sitting in that back corner, but I tell you they notice when you're not there."
"Aren't we allowed personal days?" Harry asked.
"Only if they're prearranged and cleared by the department."
"Oh," Harry replied. "In that case I'm sick."
"Harry, you have to call in, you know how it goes three no show no calls and your job is in danger!"
"That's not true of the professors though…that's for…for…" he broke off.
"No Harry, that might be how your class system works in England, but here a no call no show goes on your record."
"But I did call, I called you."
"It doesn't count! You have to call your supervisor."
There was silence for a while until Ruby asked more gently. "Has something happened?"
"A good friend of mine has been killed, an old colleague." Harry said simply. He'd dealt with death professionally every day of his adult life, he'd experienced the death of his father personally as a young boy; it wouldn't be unreasonable to assume after thirty years that he had come to grips with the topic but he was as much at sea as a cabin boy.
He heard Ruby gasp. "Not the lovely girl that came here once?"
"No not Nikki, but she was there when it happened. They were working in Afghanistan. It was my old boss. He was killed by a suicide bomber. He… he… he was leading the bomber away from a group of people, away from Nikki when the bomb was detonated remotely."
"Oh Harry, I can see why you haven't come in. Do you have to go back for the funeral?"
"The funeral?" Harry exclaimed. He'd not even considered the funeral. She'd have to give a eulogy. She'd have to organise it all. No! He would have to organise it all. He was one of Leo's executors; he'd have to sort out the will, the house. What was he going to do?
"Harry! Listen up now! You put this phone down to me, then you call Professor Volosin and tell him why you're not in. Tell him a family friend died. Don't just say it was your old boss, because you will never be approved the time off to go back. Are you listening? Tell him you'll be in tomorrow. Then go out for a run, get yourself in the shower have some food and get yourself together. If you fall apart now, you will never have enough personal days to make it over and back for the funeral. Do you understand?"
"Yes, Ruby. Thanks."
Harry looked out of his window, he could see the roofs of the other apartment buildings on the block, the sky was clear; the sun was making patterns on his window sill. He sat and stared out of the window until he looked down at his watch and realised another hour had passed. And then another…
###
Harry was startled by a hammering on his door. He thought carefully back over the afternoon. Much of it he couldn't account for, but he had called his boss, hadn't he? He was sure he'd told someone. Or was that Jorge he'd called?
"Harry! Are you in there? Open up!"
"Beto?" Harry called through the door and squatted slightly to see through the spy hole. He opened the door. Beto stepped into the apartment and shook Harry's hand then pulled him into a warm embrace, kissing him on both cheeks.
"I just got back!" Beto announced. "It's so good to see you!"
"Welcome back," said Harry with as much jollity as he could muster.
"What the hell happened here?" Beto asked looking round at the trashed surroundings. "Who died?" At that moment Beto's mobile rang.
"¡aló!"
"lo que quiero decir, tener cuidado con él?"
"¿Qué hay chistes burro?"
"¿Quieres decir que alguien ha muerto realmente? "
Harry watched as Beto turned to face him during the last question, the smile fading from his face.
"Jorge?" Harry asked. Beto nodded and tipped his head towards his mobile.
"He just told me, I'm sorry Harry. I didn't mean…"
"It's ok Beto," Harry said and tapped him lightly on the upper arm. "You didn't know." He looked around his messy apartment. "It could do with a bit of tidying."
Beto set to work, collecting a glass and empty bottle and returning it to the kitchen. Harry watched as his friend began to straighten up his apartment for him.
"You never told me you were a lawyer."
"You never asked," Beto replied tucking a desk chair back under the oversized desk.
"How's your mother?" Harry remembered to ask, despite the fog in his brain.
"She's on the mend now, has a fistful of tablets everyday but she's doing well. It was good to see her."
"Beto?" Harry asked scratching his head. "Is it true that any job here is subject to the no call, no show disciplinary ruling?"
"Huh?"
"I didn't go to work today."
"But you called in?"
"I can't remember," Harry said honestly. He knew he'd meant to but thinking back now he didn't actually remember speaking to Scott Volosin.
"You've not done it before though have you? Once just goes on the record." The serious look on Beto's face was one that Harry had never seen before, his professional face.
"No," Harry admitted, but I don't know how I'm going to make it back for the funeral. It will take a minimum of two work days to get there and back, maybe longer. I'll only be allowed one day's leave."
"They might give it to you on compassionate grounds…" Beto suggested. "Are you on good terms with your supervisor?"
Harry shifted uneasily.
"What have you done?" Beto questioned, stepping into Harry's personal space.
"She invited me back for coffee the other night, I turned her down. She didn't take it well."
"She can't really use that against you."
"You've not met her!" Harry insisted.
"I would have thought your first year at NYU you would be on a one year contract anyway? They don't usually give out tenure straight way. Are you on a one year contract?"
Harry stared at Beto.
"You do know what contract you signed don't you?"
Harry fumbled through the desk drawer and pulled out some papers. "I was told it was just a formality, that it would be renewed…"
He looked up into his friends eyes.
"Lo sé, soy un burro!" Harry said.
Beto laughed and put his arm around Harry's shoulder and with the other smoothed down his hair.
"That is very true mon amigo, but your Spanish is really improving!" Beto chuckled to himself. "Come on you donkey; Jorge should have finished by now, let's go and get a drink."
Harry turned his head to look into Beto's face.
"Don't worry. We'll just have one. You need to get out of this place for a while. You can tell us both what happened."
"Thanks," Harry said gratefully.
I Need Someone To Lean On: Pomus & Shuman (Elvis)
*Beto: hello
What do you mean go gentle on him?
You mean no donkey jokes?
You're telling me somebody actually died!
Harry: I know, I AM a donkey.
