Innocence by Louis B. Jones

Author:Louis B. Jones
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781619022065
Publisher: Catapult
Published: 2018-04-27T00:00:00+00:00

THE NEXT DAY

THE NEXT DAY began with the sun, like a complimentary bran muffin, already standing free of the Napa Valley hills as it radiated through the still-open French doors leading to the hot tub on the deck; the Champagne bottle in its bucket of water; our clammy bathing suits lying dead on the carpet; and the arrival of yet another room service cart; and under the sheets a certain amount of teenage teasing and nipping and swapping about and lingering, both of us slightly aware that we were acting in imitation of what normal people have always done easily; and then packing our suitcases to check out, to meet up with our seven developmentally disabled adults on Dr. Auctor’s property in Sonoma County. Every moment in that room had a distinct feeling of being formally staged for the fulfillment of dreams and for the setting of precedents almost contractually. We are both serious people. A seriousness was something we recognized in each other. That she and I had been transformed into husband and wife, via a single night at a fantasy hotel, would provide useful roles for us during the rest of that day, Sunday, when, together in loco parentis, we would face the problem of Francesca’s going into labor, right out on the job site, on the hoed dirt beneath Dr. Auctor’s tall hedges of English laurel: we discovered her hunkered down on her hands and knees—or rather on her knees and one hand—while her other hand dug at her waistband trying to peel down the red sweatpants she wore, with a cartoon image of handlebar-moustachioed Yosemite Sam emblazoned on the butt, aiming his two huge sixguns out at the world. Thalia and I would be the only mature adults on the scene. The Green Thumbs van that morning, containing its crew, had been driven up from San Rafael, by Sandy (who like a good pal was quietly collaborating in the scheme of getting her girlfriend Thalia laid for once, at last). The general plan for the morning was, Thalia and I were to drive over from Napa and meet the Green Thumbs vehicle at the front gate of Dr. Auctor’s country property in Sonoma. Then I was to hand my car over to Sandy, who would drive it back to the San Rafael office. Thalia and I were to spend the afternoon with the Seven Samurai (another of their team names) tending the gardens.

That part of the plan did go smoothly. Sandy stayed in touch with us by cell phone, the whole way up. (On the cell phone connection, George’s voice could be heard coming sharply through, from the rear passenger seat where he made regular announcements about Bosco.) Thalia and I hadn’t waited at the doctor’s front gate for more than five minutes when Sandy showed up to exchange the bus full of clients for my empty German luxury car.

That front gate was going to be the great complicating factor, on this day. It was an impressive barrier, a thick horizontal rod of steel, as fat as a telephone pole.

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