Trajectory by Richard Russo

Author:Richard Russo
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2017-05-01T16:00:00+00:00

Ink

There’s a small wine bar at the far end of the campo that’s open late, which is good, because Nate discovers that, along with his sanity, his appetite has been fully restored. In fact, having eaten nothing since a few forkfuls of risotto at lunch, he’s suddenly famished.

He’d like to confirm his suspicions about his brother, which he could do by calling Evelyn, but it’s quite late. It’s only twenty minutes since he put the two women in the elevator, so he doubts they could be asleep yet, but given what she and Renee have been through with Julian, he’s hesitant to disturb them further. Though he could satisfy his curiosity by calling Brenda, she wouldn’t be happy to hear from him, not twice in one day. Over the years her advice to him has been simple and consistent. To move on. And now the time has come to follow it. So he thinks again of Evelyn, who, unless he’s mistaken, will be pleased to hear his voice, even if it wakes her. And indeed, answering on the first ring, she does seem pleased. It’s hard to tell for sure, however, her barely audible whisper suggesting that Renee has indeed drifted off.

“My brother skipped out on the check, didn’t he?” he says.

“I wasn’t going to say anything, but yeah.”

“I’ll make good on that,” he assures her.

“I’m not worried.”

Which makes him smile. People are like paintings, he thinks; they exist in real time and space, but also in the eye of the beholder. Julian, who’s known him all his life, took one look at him at the airport and saw cause for alarm. Evelyn, who’s known him for all of twenty-four hours, sees an entirely different man and isn’t worried. Is it within his power to prove her right, his brother wrong? He will make it his business to find out.

“Julian’s gone,” he tells her, explaining that he’s taken a water taxi to the airport. “I’m pretty sure he’s broke.” He hopes it’s not true, but the known facts—the denied credit card, Julian’s inability to broach the subject directly, Brenda’s unwillingness to say anything until he did—all suggest that this whole Venice trip is nothing but an elaborate head fake. Brenda had admitted as much. She knew Julian as well as anyone, understanding all too well how hard it would be for him to ask Nate for help. His entire life he’s been the wheeler-dealer, lording his various worldly successes over Nate, relentlessly poking fun at his brother’s poorly paid profession, as well as his financial timidity when offered opportunities for greater reward. Asking for help now would be tantamount to an admission that Nate has come out better in the end. Worse, it would be admitting to an even-more-damaging truth: people had stopped buying Julian.

“What will you do?” Evelyn asks.

“I don’t know,” he tells her. “Whatever I can, I guess.” It will depend on how much help his brother needs. That he needs money is a safe bet, but how much? It’s also possible he needs a place to stay until he can get back on his feet.

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