Michael's Arc

Chapter 5 of 9

The second dark drink was still full when Haydon slid onto the stool beside him. She set her bag on the counter, unwound her scarf, and looked at the creased spine of the book between them. She didn't smile, but her mouth moved the way it did when she was pleased and trying not to show it. "You finished," she said. "I finished." "We'll see." She took a sip of the drink he'd ordered, then set it down and folded her hands. "Chapter three. What does the sister burn?" "The letters. In the stove, not the fireplace. She uses the stove because she doesn't want smoke on the roof." Haydon's eyebrows lifted a quarter inch. She asked another. He answered. She asked about the ending, the part he'd read at two in the morning with his eyes watering, and he got that too. She went at him for forty minutes without a menu, without small talk. He kept up. Twice he made her stop and write something down on a napkin. When she ran out of questions she looked at the napkin, then at him. "You read it," she said. "All of it." "I told you I would." "People say that." She slid the napkin into her bag. "Drinks are on me." He wanted to say something clever. He had rehearsed three things in the car. None of them fit now. The quiz was over. That was the whole reason he was sitting here. He had nothing else lined up. No second book. No plan. In a minute she would pay and stand and the night would end on the sidewalk. She paid. She stood. She wound the scarf back around her neck and looked down at him on the stool. "My place is four blocks," she said. "I have the next book there. If you want it." He felt the stool under him go strange. He had prepared for a handshake. "Now?" he said. "Now. I'm not carrying it to work tomorrow." He picked up the book and followed her out. The street was cold. She walked fast in her boots and he walked beside her with the bag against his leg. Four blocks later she stopped in front of a small house with a green door and green shutters and two lanterns on the porch. Not an apartment. A whole house, tucked between two larger ones, the porch light already on. "You live here," he said. "I live here." She was already up the steps, keys out. "Shoes off inside." She opened the door and went in without waiting. Warm air came out onto the porch. He stood on the top step with the book under his arm and understood that he had passed one test and walked straight into another one he hadn't studied for. He stepped inside and closed the door behind him.