The Wonder Singer by George Rabasa

Author:George Rabasa [Rabasa, George]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Unbridled Books
Published: 2008-08-27T00:00:00+00:00

Wherever his mind wanders during those first hours, Lockwood remembers something Claire always says, or the way she looks in a certain light. He finds himself glancing repeatedly at his watch and wondering what’s keeping her, fearing she might have had an accident, expecting the phone to ring at any moment, not with her voice explaining her whereabouts but with the voices of the police or the hospital. He finds himself imagining that she’s hurt in some strange town and that she will call and he will rush out to help her heal or that he will be too late and she will be dead.

But the phone does not ring. There are no calls from Claire’s friends or her mother or the public library or Planned Parenthood, where she volunteers. The answering machine signals steady unblinking silence. Claire’s disappearance is complete. It’s only when he reads and rereads her note that the sound of her voice comes back and the memory of her personality fills the vacuum. From the moment he discovered the note lying on the floor in front of the front door, he has not dared to read the whole thing from beginning to end. Instead he has scanned through disconnected passages, absorbing the overall meaning from a few odd words and phrases.

I’m not taking this action lightly. . . .

Don’t blame yourself. . . .

The post office will be forwarding my mail. . . .

If anything for me does come, send it on to my parents’ address. . . . You’ll be fine. . . .

It’s a difficult decision. . . . Don’t blame yourself. . . . These things happen in the life of a couple. . . . Nothing is meant to last forever. . . .

Don’t blame yourself. . . . This has been a long time in the making. . . . Don’t blame yourself. . . .

No, he won’t blame himself. He’s the innocent victim of circumstance. His peaceful existence as a contented husband and writer of handy and helpful booklets has been turned on its ear by a rogue muse. He will start by blaming Mercè Casals, for dying unexpectedly and bequeathing to him the one story he’s wanted all his life. He blames the famous writer Alonzo Baylor for deciding to chase the same story, despite the fact that he is already rich and celebrated, and old. He blames Hollywood Hank because he’s fulfilling all his paranoid fantasies. And he blames Perla.

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