The Vanishing Point by Elizabeth Brundage

Author:Elizabeth Brundage [Brundage, Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Published: 2021-05-18T00:00:00+00:00

Julian

He was in the lunchroom with Vera when one of the secretaries came and got him. There’s some guy here to see you.

He was a beefy man in a cheap suit. He handed Julian an official-looking envelope. You’ve been served, he said.

In truth, he never thought she’d go through with it.

I’m tired of living this lie, she’d told him when he’d gotten to the house. I can’t stand to be in the same room with you.

She was in her bathrobe with her hair a mess, and he could smell the wine on her breath. Her face looked a little greasy, and there were circles under her eyes, like inky thumbprints. Why aren’t you dressed? he asked.

I’m taking a sick day.

There were dishes in the sink, crumbs on the counter. The garbage stank.

If he didn’t take his shit, she’d throw it out, she told him.

Cunt, he thought.

So here he was, packing. It occurred to him that he was at odds with the world—an expression that had never quite made sense until now. When he’d called his mother from the car to tell her they were getting divorced, she came to his defense. I never liked that girl, she admitted to him. Let her go back to where she came from. You gave her too much. You spoiled her.

The phone started ringing, and Magda wasn’t getting it. He could smell her cigarette—an increasingly annoying habit—and knew she was out on the back steps.

He picked up the phone. Hello?

It was a girl named Lucia, who said she was Theo’s sometime girlfriend. He’s using, she said.

Excuse me?

Heroin? I thought you should know.

I’m sorry, who is this?

Look, you don’t have to believe me. I’m just doing you a favor.

The girl waited for him to say something, then grew impatient. I have to go now.

Wait—what should we do?

Make him stop, she said. Before he can’t.

He hung up. He went downstairs and opened the door. Magda put out her cigarette like a teenager who’d been caught. There was a call, he said.

Who was it?

A friend of Theo’s.

He told her what the girl said. She made him repeat it several times.

I knew he was doing something, she said, shaking. I mean, I suspected something. At Thanksgiving. I figured he was maybe smoking a lot of pot. I mean, who isn’t smoking pot these days? I figured maybe he was stressed because of all the work he had. Or maybe because of us.

Us?

Yeah, she said with annoyance. Us. As in you and Vera. She looked at him openly with hate. Because we’re splitting up. Because it was the first time—

Yeah, I get it. This is all my fault. Because I wasn’t home for Thanksgiving.

I didn’t say that.

Right. Okay. Of course, you didn’t.

Look, Julian. We have to deal with this.

I know.

I never figured on heroin. Anything but that. I never even imagined—

I know. It’s terrifying.

We have to go up there.

He nodded.

We have to, Julian. Like right now.

I thought you couldn’t stand to be in the same room with me. How are you going to survive being in the same car?

I’m sorry I said that.

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