House of the Rising Sun (Hackberry Holland 4)

“The one where you’re going to work and make a great deal of money. Arnold wants to meet you. Tomorrow he’ll be off to Galveston and Juárez. When you’re better, you and I can go to Mexico with him. You can buy handmade lace and jewelry for the change in your pocket.”

“I need to talk to my mother, Maggie. I don’t know why she didn’t come back to the hospital. You left a message?”

“I told you that. I told the hospital administrators how to reach us, too. I called her union in Santa Fe.”

“I thought it was in Albuquerque.”

“Maybe she’s working in both places. Ishmael, your mother is probably under great stress right now. The U.S. Attorney’s Office is arresting radicals all over the country. You know, because of the Italians putting bombs in people’s mailboxes. I think somebody should drop a bomb on Ellis Island.”

He stood up from the chair, waiting for the momentary discomfort and pain to leave. “I want to walk today. I don’t care where we go.”

“You’re not ready. You need to sit down.”

“I’m tired of sitting. I’m tired of lying in bed. Tell me about Arnold Beckman again. I can’t keep some of these things stra

ight in my head.”

“You’re still recovering. You were almost blown apart.”

“The ones who were blown apart are still in France. Why does Beckman want me? I don’t have much work experience outside the military.”

“People love a hero.”

“I’m not heroic.”

“I’ve seen your medals.”

“Most of them are French. Nobody cares about French medals,” he said.

“It doesn’t matter. People want appearances. I was a schoolteacher. Think anybody is interested in the history of a schoolteacher? But a reformed whore who still has her looks? Tell me men aren’t interested. Women, too, if they’re honest.”

Ishmael picked up both his canes and walked to his bed and sat down heavily. He rolled down his pajamas over his bandages and peeled them free of his ankles and pulled on his trousers. He walked to the dresser without the canes and took a fresh shirt from a drawer and put it on and tucked it in and tightened his belt. He straightened his back, smiling. “Not bad, huh?”

“We have to be back by four.”

“I thought we might eat in a restaurant.”

“No, we have to come home for your medication. We have to keep the regimen,” she said. “You need the right kind of food. Have you ever worked in a restaurant? If you saw the people who wash the dishes and prepare the food, you’d never eat out again.”

“I think I’ve got too many punctures in me. I just want to go outside. I want to be in the sunshine again.”

“I haven’t done bad by you, have I?”

“You were swell. In every way.”

“You used the past tense. There is no past tense between us.”

“That went by me.”

“Don’t worry about all these little things. Let little people worry about little things. That’s their job.” She kissed him on the cheek. “That’s a preview for when we come back. I want to give you the life you didn’t have.”

“My life has been fine.”

She rested her head on his shoulder and placed the flat of her hand on his heart. “I’ll make it finer. I’ll be your mother and your lover and your sister and all things to you.”

“Some might call you an unusual lady, Maggie.”

“You’re my big boy. Big all over. My big, lovely, delectable boy.” She unbuttoned the top of his shirt and kissed his chest. “Precious thing.”