Larry & the Dog People by J. Paul Henderson

Author:J. Paul Henderson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-05-19T12:31:16+00:00

7

The Museum Attendant

‘You do realise Kevin’s dead, don’t you?’

This was news to Larry!

It was a Thursday night, early July, and Larry and Laura were sitting in a Mexican restaurant on M St eating burritos. Larry had been telling Laura of his plans to turn Wayne’s life around and had just confided a stumbling block: Kevin didn’t want Wayne to change.

Larry put down his fork and cautiously sipped the margarita Laura had insisted he try.

‘But Wayne speaks of him all the time, Laura – and in the present tense, too – and…’ He winced and a more disturbing thought came to mind. ‘I think the waiter’s brought me a dirty glass: there’s salt on the rim.’

Laura explained that the salt was there for a reason, and that this was the way a margarita was meant to be served.

‘Oh, I didn’t know that…’ Larry said. ‘But are you sure Kevin’s dead? Wayne led me to believe he’d met Tank – right here in Washington – and that he didn’t like him.’

‘Kevin was killed in Iraq, Larry, and only a short time after he arrived there. Wayne accepts this but keeps his memory alive by using him as a sounding board for any decisions he has to make. He bounces ideas off him. What Wayne is telling you is that he doesn’t like Tank and that he doesn’t want to change. It’s the same as another person talking about themselves in the third person: in the third person Wayne becomes Kevin. It’s a harmless coping mechanism, but it’s probably better if you don’t mention this to anyone. I haven’t spoken to Alice about it – you might have noticed she’s not very good at keeping confidences – and I haven’t mentioned it to Delores or Mike, and certainly not to Tank. They’d assume the worst and suppose him dangerous – which he isn’t. Wayne’s a human being with problems and I wish more people would respect this. I’m pleased that you’re making an effort to spend time with him. If more people spent time with him he’d probably have less need for Kevin.’

‘So Kevin’s like his security blanket, then?’

‘Yes, that’s a good way of looking at things,’ Laura replied. ‘Kevin provides him with a form of psychological comfort, and that’s probably no different from me hoping that St Francis will take pity on poor Repo.’ She remained silent for a moment and then asked Larry if he believed in miracles.

Larry chose his words carefully. ‘I don’t know if I believe in miracles per se, Laura, but I do believe that good things can happen when they’re least expected. Take me, for example. After Helen died I didn’t know what to do with myself but then I bumped into you and before I knew it I had Moses in my life. And through you I met Alice, Delores, Mike and Tank – and Wayne, too, for that matter. Unexpectedly my world changed for the better and there’s no reason to believe that Repo’s world will be any different.

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