“You were the only boyfriend-type guy in the shoebox.”
“Look,” Micah said. “I didn’t even know she got pregnant. She’s who you should be asking.”
Brink was still glaring at Micah. “I’ve asked a million times,” he said. “She just says all that counts is Dad was the one who helped raise me.”
“She’s got a point,” Micah said.
“But what about my genetic makeup? What if I need to know about some medical condition that runs in that side of the family?”
“Well, if it’s any comfort, there are no medical conditions in my family that I know of,” Micah said.
He’d meant to lighten the atmosphere, but from the expression on Brink’s face he saw he’d made a mistake. “Only kidding,” he said. “Can I top off your coffee?”
Brink shook his head.
On the kitchen counter, Micah’s cell phone rang. He stood up and went over to peer at the screen. It was an unfamiliar number. He unplugged the phone from its charger and answered it. “Tech Hermit,” he said.
“Is this Micah Mortimer?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, thank God. You’re a difficult man to track down. You probably don’t remember me; my name’s Keith Wayne, and you helped me out some years ago when you were with Computer-Master. Well, I’ve stopped using Computer-Master; they don’t know beans, I’ve learned…”
He paused, perhaps to let Micah chime in and agree with him. Micah actually did not agree; Computer-Master was the first place he’d been hired, and he’d learned a lot there. But he’d left because the boss was a jerk—the type who began his sentences with “Listen here” and “Look, buddy”—so he stayed silent, and eventually Mr. Wayne picked up where he had trailed off. “And now I find myself in an emergency situation,” he said. “I’ve lost every single thing on my computer. Documents, tax files—everything.”
“Was it backed up?”
“Well, see, I know I should have backed up…”
Micah sighed and reached for the notepad beside the toaster. “Okay,” he said, “where you located?”
The man lived in Rodgers Forge. Micah told him he’d be there by eleven. Secretly, he was glad to have an excuse to get moving. After he hung up he told Brink, “Looks like I’ll need to see to this.”
Brink nodded and rose to his feet, not meeting Micah’s eyes. He didn’t seem angry anymore, just dejected. As he headed for the door, he said, “Well, anyhow, thanks for the coffee.”
“Try asking your mom again, hear?” Micah called after him.
Brink just lifted one hand and let it flop as he walked out the door.
“And tell her I said hello!” Micah added, like an idiot. But the door was already closing again with a quiet, conclusive click.
Micah stood motionless for maybe a full minute before he gave his shoulders a shake and went off to take his shower.
* * *
—
Mr. Wayne’s lost files were merely in hiding, it turned out. Micah located them in no time, and Mr. Wayne was abjectly grateful. “However…” Micah said sternly, and Mr. Wayne raised both palms and said, “I know! I know! I’ve learned my lesson: from now on I’m backing up.”
Micah should have asked him how he planned to do that. Chances were he had no notion how. Then Micah could have explained the options and maybe set something up for him, which would have added significantly to the minimum fee he’d just earned. But his heart wasn’t in it, somehow. He seemed to be experiencing a nagging sense of something left undone, or done poorly, and so he just said, “Well, you’ve got my number if you need me,” and made his escape.
It was the boy, he thought as he drove down Charles Street. That boy Brink was still tugging at his mind. Clearly he’d been going through a crisis of some kind, and yet Micah had more or less thrown him out. In hindsight he felt guilty about that, partly for Brink’s sake and partly for Lorna’s, because even after all these years he still thought of Lorna fondly. Or once again thought of her fondly, was more like it. (Their breakup had been an angry one; he’d caught her kissing another guy.) But she was his first real love, after all. He had never had much experience with girls. He’d been considered sort of a loner.
When they met he was a junior and she was a brand-new freshman, eating on her own in the cafeteria while the other girls sat in squealing, giggling groups at nearby tables. Her veil of dark hair and her thin face, completely bare of makeup; her pale blouse and faded skirt with their overlaundered look—everything spoke of a certain set-apartness. Yet there was nothing shy or humble about her. She seemed eerily self-contained. He set his tray on her table and asked, “Okay if I sit here?” and she said, “It’s fine,” without a trace of a smile. He’d liked how she hadn’t amped herself up at the sight of him. No sudden flash of teeth or zippy tone of voice. She was who she was. A purist, was how she had struck him. He was intrigued.
In view of her fundamentalist upbringing, it was no surprise now to hear she hadn’t ended her pregnancy. The surprise was that she’d gotten pregnant in the first place. Lorna Bartell, so very, very sure of her principles! He never would have believed it.
The panel truck just ahead sped straight through an amber light, but Micah was prepared and came to a gradual, elegant stop. (“Did you see that?” Traffic God marveled. “Not even the tiniest jolt.”)
The thing about old girlfriends, Micah reflected, is that each one subtracts something from you. You say goodbye to your first great romance and move on to the next, but you find you have less to give to the next. A little chip of you has gone missing; you’re not quite so wholly there in the new relationship. And less there in the one after that, and even less in the one after that one. After Lorna, he’d dated Zara—exotic and dramatic, given to kente-cloth headdresses. And after Zara left him for a fellow dancer, he had taken up with Adele, who’d turned out to be consumed by a passion for animal conservation. One day she had announced that she was heading off to work with gray wolves in the wilds of Montana. Or maybe it was Wyoming. Oh, Micah had not had a very good history with women. It just seemed they kept losing interest in him; he couldn’t say exactly why. Now there was Cass, of course, but things certainly weren’t the way they had been in the old days with Lorna. With Cass things were more…muted. Lower-key. Calmer. And certainly there was no talk of marriage. If Micah had learned anything from all those previous girlfriends, it was that living with someone full-time was just too messy.
He cut over to York Road to pick up a wall switch at Ace Hardware. Also, while he was at it, a set of grab bars for the bathroom in 3B. Then he stopped by the Giant to get the ingredients for his chili.