It was Wednesday before Cramer saw Mimi again. Just a glimpse, and it wasn’t up at the snye but at the Page place on Riverside Drive.
The Taurus was not a car people noticed. It wasn’t old enough to be antique or rusted enough to be an eyesore. Cramer himself wasn’t sure what color it was: gray, green-he had no idea. The car, as large and ugly as it might be, was invisible. Which was just as well, when Mimi and Jay suddenly pulled out of the driveway in her Mini Cooper. There were high hedges to either side of the entrance, and so Cramer didn’t see them until the last second, even though he was parked pretty well right across the road. He had a map open on the steering wheel as an excuse, a lost traveler. But neither of them so much as glanced his way. They were talking up a storm, oblivious. It wasn’t just his car that was invisible.
A boxy black Honda Element pulled out of the driveway a moment later, a large old desk strapped to the roof rack, its legs sticking up in the air like some dead animal. The back of the Honda looked to be jam-packed with furniture. Dr. Lou was sitting in the passenger seat, the other woman driving. They didn’t notice Cramer, either.
It was 7:00 PM. He was on his way to work. For the last couple days, he had taken the time to drive out of his way past the Page house. He was scoping the place out. He had done it before, after all. And tonight it looked as if he had caught a break. It wasn’t hard to guess where they were all heading. The round-trip to the snye would take them an hour at least and who knows how long to unload all the furniture. Plenty of time. Now all he needed was to talk himself into it.
Cramer looked ahead and behind him. Riverside Drive was deserted in both directions. It was a stretch of road with farmland to the north and large riverside properties to the south, properties that were wooded and landscaped, hedged and fenced. Private. Some of them even had gates. But not the Pages’. A lawn mower was making a racket nearby, but Cramer couldn’t see where. He skipped across the pavement and down the long, shaded drive without anyone seeing him.
ADVANCED ALARM. The little sticker in the corner of the glass-fronted door didn’t come as a complete surprise. Clearly, he wasn’t going to just walk in the door the way he had last fall.
He walked around the side of the house to the floor-length windows of the master bedroom. This was where he had found the emerald necklace. The curtains weren’t fully drawn. Pressing his nose up to the screen, he could dimly make out the dresser where Dr. Lou had kept her jewelry case. He had a penknife, never went anywhere without it; the mesh of the screen would be easy to slit. And then what? Break the glass? He quickly glanced behind him. He was alone. He turned his attention back to the window. It all depended on how the alarm system was activated: motion detector, pressure detector, or metal contacts on the window frames. Yes, there they were. But how long was this going to take? Would the siren be louder than the lawn mower? The alarm company would contact the local cops, but not before they phoned the residence to see if it was a false alarm. He sure didn’t plan on dawdling and he wasn’t greedy. Shit! He hated this-just wanted it to be over!
He looked around for a rock, a stick. Nothing, just lawn. He backed off.
He’d had a plan. He’d seen other stuff when he stole the necklace: pearls, some silver earrings, whatever. Not much, but he was guessing it was good stuff. He didn’t know any fences to get rid of stolen merchandise; that was Waylin Pitney’s territory. But he figured Mavis could help him out. It was for her, after all. So she could dress up in something nice. She could still do that, when she took a mind to it. They would drive into Ottawa, go to a jewelry store or a pawnshop or something. She could pretend she was selling off a few family heirlooms. She could pull it off-he knew she could-if he could convince her. It was a big if, but then it was for her-for her art! And there was something else that might win her over. She hated Louise Page.
The lawn mower drew nearer. Cramer was standing a few yards away from a tall cedar fence. The lawn mower, by the sound of it, was right on the other side. The noise made him nervous. He wouldn’t hear a car arrive over that racket. What if they doubled back? What if they had forgotten something?
He folded up his knife. He pressed his nose up to the screen one last time, trying to make out the shine or glitter of something of value.
But then he saw Mavis in his mind’s eye-saw her face as he tried to explain his plan. He imagined her green eyes shifting away from the jewels he was holding out to her. Think of all the paint, think of all the canvas, he would say, trying not to raise his voice. He imagined her rubbing her hands together nervously, shaking her head. No.
Who was he kidding? He would have to sell the stuff himself, and there was no way he could do that. Stealing it was going to be way hard enough.
He glanced at his watch. He had twenty minutes to get to work, and only if he hightailed it. He took off across the lawn, angry now. He had three jobs: the plant, the store, and keeping his mother happy. It was one job too many.
The night-shift job was contract work. Cramer didn’t get benefits, but the pay was good. Sometimes he’d get laid off without any notice for a week or two, but he’d always get hired back. He was a good worker. Reliable.
Usually, he worked at PDQ Electronics two afternoons a week, but lately business had been booming. He had been an intern there in high school, and Hank Pretty, who owned the place, kept him on as an apprentice. Cramer was good with his hands and was computer savvy, but there had been no thought of going away to school, even though Hank urged him to go. Who’d look after Mavis?
She was on her feet again now, and that made things better. Cramer would get home from the plant around five in the morning, and sometimes she’d be up already, hard at work. The other morning she had even stopped and made him breakfast, sat and had coffee with him. Then he’d gone to bed, and the last thing he’d heard as he fell asleep was her humming along with cheery morning music on the radio as she painted away.
Right now she was painting over old canvases. She wasn’t complaining, not much, but he felt in his heart how hard it must be for her.
He was not a thief. He was not going to break into just anybody’s house. The Pages were different, the way he saw it. He had not stolen the emerald necklace; he had recovered it to its rightful owner.
“It was meant to be mine. Just look at it, Cramer, for heaven’s sake.”
And when he had finally held it in his hands, looked at it, up close, he had known that Mavis was right. The jewel was exactly the color of her eyes.
He had staked out the Page place for days before entering the house that crisp October afternoon. He had watched from the water, from the deep shade on the south shore of the Eden. Watched the comings and goings of Dr. Lou and her friend, when the cleaning lady came, the postman. That was when he had learned that Jay was back from out west. He followed him upriver and discovered the little house on McAdam’s Snye.
When he finally brought the necklace home and snapped the clasp of it at the nape of his mother’s neck and saw how happy she was, he ventured to tell her about the house on the snye. She had smiled the saddest smile he had ever seen, and tears had gathered in the corner of her eyes. She didn’t need to tell him why. The little house was where she and Marc Soto used to meet.
He knew the story. A love story. The story of an artist and his young and talented student-the most talented student he had ever come across. Mavis had turned the artist’s life upside down, made him leave his wife. But she had given him the courage, the inspiration to paint as he had never painted before. That’s what the artist had told her and that’s what she told Cramer. The story never changed, every time she told him. Sometimes he wanted to say to her, I’m a little old for fairy tales, but he didn’t dare.
The artist and his brilliant student would move to New York, according to the love story. He would go first and find them a place. She would follow. Except there was a glitch: by then she was pregnant. How proud Marc was, she told Cramer. How happy. But she mustn’t tell anyone who the father was, Marc warned her. It might get back to Louise, and there would be big trouble. Legal trouble. It could ruin everything. Oh, she understood. The last thing Mavis wanted was trouble, when she was this close to a dream come true.
And so she waited.
At first Marc could only find a tiny one-roomed place; the prices in New York were outrageous. It was a wonder he could find anywhere at all. And this place was definitely not big enough for two people, let alone a new baby. But things were going well. He would get a bigger place.
And so she waited.
She didn’t talk-didn’t tell a soul. Grew fat with child. Kept the child’s father her special secret. Not that she was often in Ladybank, anyway. She was living up in Chester’s Corner back then. Didn’t need to go to town hardly at all. Had the baby at the hospital in Smiths Falls. No birth announcement in the Ladybank Expositor, though she was dying to share her joy with the world.
And she waited.
And waited. And he stopped calling. And he never came for her. But still she waited, until the day when she didn’t even know where he lived anymore.
A love story.
Cramer had Googled Soto a few times, back in high school. It had shocked him to find the man. He had half expected the artist was imaginary. But there he was, a big shot, just as Mavis had claimed. Mostly there were pictures of his paintings, articles from newspapers and magazines. But there were a few photographs of the man himself, too, the best one appearing in a profile on his gallery’s website. He was a smooth man with glossy black hair. His eyes were as blue as Cramer’s own eyes. It was eerie. Cramer didn’t like him, didn’t like his chiseled, smug face, his liar’s smile. He wondered whether he should download any of this stuff to show Mavis. They didn’t have a hookup out at the house. He decided not to. She had spent so long a time forgetting the bastard, it would be cruel. Cramer didn’t check up on Marc Soto after that. By then Waylin Pitney had started coming around, and that was more than enough to deal with.
Until he saw Mimi heading out to the snye with Jay, it had been four days since Cramer had seen her; it might be four days before he saw her again. But he thought about her all the time, especially when he was working out. Four sets, fifteen reps. Upright rows, lateral raises, flies and pullovers, curls and squats. Chin-ups to bulk up his lats, bench presses for his pecs, bent-over raises for the deltoids. Lunges, hack squats, triceps curls, wrist curls, reverse wrist curls. He piled on the weight, expanded his circuit. But he wasn’t bulking up for Waylin Pitney anymore.
Cramer woke up. Thursday morning, 11:00 AM. He’d managed five hours sleep after getting back from the plant, but Mr. Pretty expected him at the store by one. Despite the lack of sleep, his mind felt wonderfully clear. He wasn’t angry anymore-didn’t want to be-pushed it aside. For one thing, she was staying. Mimi was obviously moving in. There was a bad side to that-namely, Jay-but at least she was still near. He lay there, his hands folded behind his head. Last night the shift manager had talked about getting him on full-time at the plant. Full-time meant security, and maybe he could parlay that into a loan. He’d talk to Hank Pretty about it. This money-for-Mavis thing would work out fine, without stealing stuff.
He listened. There was no sound downstairs. His mother must have gone out. That was another encouraging sign. She was getting out more, getting some air, going for walks up the road or down to the creek. One day she walked all the way to the old bridge at the very end of the Upper Valentine, or so she said. Quite a hike. But she looked better for it, stronger. He wouldn’t tell her about getting full-time just yet. He’d surprise her.
He listened again. Then he dug the silver-framed picture of Mimi out from under his mattress. She and her friend on a beach somewhere, their arms around each other, their sandy cheeks pressed together, smiling at the camera. “Jamila and Mimi, summer ’06” was written in gold across the bottom of the picture. He groaned softly, closed his eyes, and pressed the picture to his heart.