Benediction by Arnold Jim

Author:Arnold, Jim [Arnold, Jim]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: BookSurge
Published: 2009-09-11T06:00:00+00:00

15

It had been six weeks since I’d been to Safe Harbor. I flicked on the cubicle light and saw Kelly had stacked the mail. She hadn’t had the foresight to discriminate between the junk mail, of which there was tons, and things actually worth looking at, which would have been a much smaller but more interesting pile.

Made one want to flee to somewhere like Peet’s, or somewhere like… the Slog, even.

Maybe later.

I’d managed to get through the entire Sydney experience without getting drunk. I did drink, yes, but not to messy excess. Some instincts at self-preservation had remained intact.

There were more unpleasant tasks to face: Paul Sutcliffe and his gambit to take over my department as well as Jason’s possible mutiny from inside the ranks. That—and I’d discovered Glenda had left a succession of voice mails that were in no way related to Hell for the Holidays.

In fact, the editing work being finished on the movie, I didn’t expect to hear from her ever again. She said she wanted to talk to me about “the future.” I thought she was fishing for work on Karen’s and my dream project, the as-yet-unknown feature.

In her second call, she used the words legacy and heir. Someone had told her I’d made sperm donations, information I hadn’t even shared with Jake.

* * *

“It’s Glenda Bourne,” she said, picking up. I could hear a strained soundtrack rewind in the background.

“I got your messages. I can’t imagine what you want.”

There was dead air on the line. I sensed she was turning off her editing system, and the extra noise died away. “I think you know, Ben,” she said.

“You want to wish me a get-well-soon?”

“Karen told me your operation went perfect and so did the Sydney screening. So yes, congrats on that, sport,” she said.

“But,” I said.

“Yes. But—there is more, you’re right. I decided a year or so ago that this was the time for me to finally be a mother. So I’m looking for a sperm donor.”

“Who told—?”

“I know you’ve got your sperm stored.”

“God, Glenda. Can’t you get it somewhere else?”

“I think we have compatible genes. Don’t you want to know about the eventual, the child—?”

“I suppose I should be flattered, but it’s a little early. I have to say no. I mean, I just can’t imagine—”

“Just think about it. I figured you’d say no the first time.”

“And the second time, and the third time…” I said. She’d calculated the whole thing, and this really pissed me off.

“I gotta go,” I said. “There’s six weeks of e-mails waiting.”

* * *

Jason and I had our customary Tuesday ten o’clock still on the schedule. I’d ask about Paul in oblique ways—it was important not to show fear; at least that was what the business books said. Jason, young though he was, could certainly sense blood in the water, and I didn’t want to appear weak or diminished in his eyes.

“You’re back!”

I nearly jumped out of my Aeron. Kelly had crept up silently.

“I am.”

“How are you?” She cocked her

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