Between This World and the Next by Praveen Herat

Author:Praveen Herat [Herat, Praveen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

The next morning, Fearless woke alone in the tree house. He found Conrad at the kitchen table, perusing the paper in his dressing gown.

“There’s a plate in the oven for you.”

“Good old Lucy. Where’s she gone?”

Conrad didn’t look up. “Walking the dog,” he said quietly.

Fearless sat down opposite him and started eating his bacon and eggs. His eyes took in the old, familiar tableware: chipped willow pattern plates, the big yellow teapot.

“How is she?” he asked Conrad.

Conrad paused.

“Is she stable?” Fearless asked.

“Well. She can go a week without speaking to me. I guess that renders her sound of mind in your opinion.”

Fearless laid his knife and fork together in the French way: on the right-hand side, just as his mother had taught him. The knife tip pointed to a pair of yolk-smeared swallows: star-crossed lovers that were taking to the skies.

“She sees someone,” said Conrad, “to talk things over. You could do that.”

“Does it sound so crazy, everything I said about Cambodia?”

“I didn’t mean it like that. I just want you to be at peace. I was wrong to react how I did. I’m an old man—you’re right.”

“It was important for me to go there. It’s funny, but I realized that some part of me had never really grasped that he was dead. And I felt close to him in a way I’d never felt before.”

Conrad rested his hand on Fearless’s forearm, and then did something that surprised them both. He reached up and lightly stroked the curls on Fearless’s head, which were now growing out for the first time in years.

“I saw the moment he died. I could picture it clearly. The shock and the struggle and the quickness of them bursting in. I could feel his surprise and his fear and his pain. I hope it was short. It must have been just a moment.” He paused. “As for the rest of what’s happened, I know it sounds preposterous.”

“Not at all. Only fools think they decide what reality can be.”

“So the powerful are fools, then.”

Conrad nodded and laughed through his nose. “Touché,” he said. “But please tell me, Joe—you track down Alyosha and then what happens? What will you do when you come face to face with him?”

“I’ll think of something.” Fearless was aware how childish it sounded.

“What matters most to him? That’s what you need to work out if you’re going to find him.”

“It’s this deal that will allow him to go back to Russia. But then, he’s also in love with Song’s sister Sovanna.”

“Two loves.”

“Which are mixed up. He only has her because he has power over Vasiliev.”

“Okay. So tell me, then. What help can I give you?”

“He has a private plane. I remembered him drunkenly talking about it. A sports team once owned it. The Cardinals, I think.”

“So you might be able to find its registration.”

“And track where it’s been. Even where it might be going.”

“I’ll see what I can do. Make some calls this morning.”

They went to Conrad’s study—a den crammed with papers and hardback volumes, decorated with oppressive Laura Ashley wallpaper.

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