12
-12:19
Gia pulled him inside and wrapped her arms around him. Jack eased the backpack onto the floor and returned the hug.
"You said a couple of hours. It's been four!"
He felt terrible about that.
"I know. I'm sorry. Things got complicated."
She looked up at him. "Do I want to know?"
"Most definitely not."
She tugged him down the hall. "Vicky's starving."
A leaden weight sat where his stomach had been.
"I'm not."
"Neither am I. Every few minutes I feel like running to the bathroom and vomiting. But we've got to keep up appearances, don't you think?"
"Definitely."
"I wish you hadn't promised her Amalia's. I'd have liked to make you something."
"My last meal?"
"Don't, Jack. Please don't."
"Okay, okay. It's just… I don't know how to handle this."
"I do." Her lower lip trembled. "I'm going to fall apart."
He held her close a moment, then, "Where's Vicks?"
"In the kitchen."
He pointed to the sitting room. "Then let's make a quick detour."
He retrieved the backpack from the hall and carried it to the sitting room couch. He set it on the end table under the reading lamp.
"I want you to take this."
Gia held back, looking uneasy. "What is it?"
He unzipped the front compartment and spread the edges.
"Take a look."
She stepped forward and took a hesitant peek. She frowned, then her head snapped back.
"Gold coins? Why?"
"They're for you."
"But aren't they your…?"
"Life savings. Yeah."
She backed away. "I don't want it."
Jack had figured she'd react like this.
"Gia, I want you to have them. I need to go away knowing you and Vicky will be taken care of."
She began to fill up. "But giving me your life savings means your life is over. I can't—"
"Hey, don't look at it that way. I just need someone to look after it while I'm gone. You know… till I get back."
She began crying and Jack took her in his arms.
"This can't be happening, Jack. It can't."
"Maybe it's not. Maybe eight A.M. is going to come and go without anything happening and we'll all be sitting around looking at each other and feeling stupid."
"You don't believe that."
Right. He didn't.
At least not intellectually. He'd seen the wonders of the Compendium and knew it was no ordinary book. And so far it had been right about everything: the Stain, how it grew, how to transfer it… everything. So why should it be wrong about when the two ends met?
But a deeper, nonrational part of him refused to believe that he wouldn't be here with Gia and Vicky tomorrow night.
"I can hope, can't I? But just in case it does happen, I want you to have this stuff to dip into whenever you need to… till I come back."
He felt her shoulders quake. He had to snap her out of this. He knew she'd keep up a front for her daughter.
"Let's round up Vicky and get down to Amalia's before she starves."
Gia broke away and wiped her eyes.
"This isn't like me."
"Well, you've never been in this kind of situation before."
"Neither have you."
Not quite true. Jack had been in situations where he hadn't known whether he'd live or die. But those had been different. In those his survival depended on his actions: Make the right move, survive; make the wrong move, gone.
But this… he had no moves, no choices, no decision, no wiggle room. An iron straitjacket.
"Yeah, well… I'm a tough guy, remember?"
Not so tough that he didn't dread dinner with Vicky tonight. Because in the next hour or two he'd have to tell her he was going away.
13
-11:23
Jack was glad he didn't have to describe his feelings as he watched Vicky work on her mussels in garlic and wine sauce. He had no words for them. And he'd never be able to get them past his locked throat anyway.
Amalia's… an unpretentious, eons-old, storefront restaurant in Little Italy with red-and-white-checkered tablecloths over long tables for eating family style. Mama Amalia, older than the restaurant, loved Vicky and had greeted her with the usual fanfare—two-cheek air kisses and loud proclamations of what a beautiful child she was. Gia and Jack were an afterthought as she placed them all at a table near the window. No mystery why this was Vicky's favorite.
And here she was, attacking her favorite dish.
As Jack watched her work through the huge platter, pausing only for a sip of Limonata while she arranged the empty shells into an interlocking daisy chain, he couldn't help thinking of the old Squeeze song.
He sipped a glass of Valpolicella and poked at a bowl of sauteed broccoli rabe and sausage. Gia had ordered a tricolore salad and a Limonata but had touched neither.
A night out at Amalia's had always been a festive occasion for the three of them, with mmmms and aaaahs about the delights of this or that. But for Gia and him tonight, it might have been a funeral.
Funeral… got to be a better word than that.
He opened his mouth, then closed it. He glanced at Gia, saw her watching him. She reached out and squeezed his hand.
Her voice was barely audible as she cocked her head toward Vicky. "Want me to—?"
He shook his head. "I need to."
He took a deep breath.
"Hey, Vicks? I need to talk to you about something."
She didn't look up from working on a mussel that hadn't completely opened.
"Uh-huh?"
"I have to go away for a while."
Now she looked up. "Where?"
"Far away."
"Yeah, but where?"
"It's a place called Shangri-La."
It was the best he could come up with. He knew she'd never seen Lost Horizon, and if and when she did she'd think it was a real place.
"Is that like Tralla-La?"
That threw Jack. "Tralla—?"
"You know—in that Uncle Scrooge comic book."
Didn't she forget anything? He'd given her that over a year ago.
"Something like that."
"Where's this Shalla-La at?"
Jack had to smile. Sounded like a Van Morrison song.
"Shangri-La. It's on the other side of the world. Near China."
"Wow. How come you're going there?"
"I have to visit some people."
She went to work on another mussel.
"When are you leaving?"
Now the hard part: "Tomorrow morning."
Her face tilted up, frowning. "But that's… tomorrow's Christmas Eve. Are you going to miss Christmas?"
He nodded. "I'm afraid so."
Her frown deepened. "Can't you go after?"
"I wish I could." He shook his head. "You don't know how much I wish I could."
"But… how long you gonna be gone, Jack?"
"I'm not sure."
"A long time?"
He nodded. "Maybe."
Gia sniffed and Vicky looked at her. No way she could miss her mother's red, teary eyes. She turned back to Jack with a narrowed gaze.
"Is there another woman?"
Jack let out a guffaw. He couldn't help it. He glanced at Gia and even she was smiling.
"That's why I love you, Vicks. You never fail to surprise me."
"Well, is there?"
"No. There'll never be another woman. Your mommy is it for me. Forever and ever."
She looked at Gia. "Then why're you crying, Mom?"
"Because I'm sad to see Jack go. I don't want him to, but… he has to."
Vicky trapped Jack with her blue gaze. Her lower lip began to tremble.
"You're coming back, aren't you, Jack? You're coming back, right?"
Time to lie.
"Of course I'm coming back."
"When?"
"The absolute soonest I can. I swear on a stack of Bibles."