Читаем Fall and Rise полностью

Helene’s looking at the window now. I wave and smile, then take my glasses off and wave them at her and smile. She shakes the umbrella in my direction, didn’t and doesn’t smile, walks on.

I close the window, rub the lenses of my glasses against my sleeve till they’re clear and dry, put the glasses away and stare outside. Give what you did time to subside before you turn around, but why’d you do it? Little high, feeling good, really am quite stupid, meeting a new desirable woman who also might be a potential mate could have had something to do with it. I want to ruin all good things from the start? Yes, yes, no, maybe, absolutely not. I’ll phone her later next week. Don’t see why by then I shouldn’t be able to explain it. If her number’s not in the book it could mean she never intended to speak to me again, which might have stopped me before but now I’ve this other reason to call. “Something came over me. Was so unlike me. I needed some air, threw open the window, saw you and thought what the heck. Oh hell, it was just an expression of joy.”

I turn around. “Opening the window so high really was a foolish thing to do, wasn’t it?” I say to one of the women who complained.

“It’s over.”

“Actually, though, contrary to what a lot of people might think, an open window, even if the air is cold, is a much better way of preventing colds and other virus-caused illnesses in a crowded room than a closed window. The viruses thrive in the warmth and some other reasons I read in the Times Science Section one of these previous Tuesdays. Keeps the viruses circulating, the cold air does, and breezier the better, and also more engaged in staying warm and alive than attaching themselves to us.”

“If that is the case,” a man says, “then I’d think a shivering tired virus would want to hide inside someone’s warm suit or up a sultry orifice than just faint to the floor with a death of a cold and nobody inclined to help it.”

“That could be true. It was the lead article and long and I tend not to finish them in that section. And I do apologize for making you so cold,” and I look around for Diana. She’s across the room, stacking used plates and laughing to herself. “Diana.”

“Was it wise opening the window that far?”

“Sorry. Got carried away though have since made my apologies to the respective parts, but that’s not what I wanted to talk to you about.”

“You want to know more about Helene.”

“I’ve known you for nearly five months. I speak to you on the phone about fifteen minutes every other week. We’ve had four to five cheap Chinese and Greek restaurant dinners since we’ve been back and ate at the same table upstate every evening for a month and we’ve almost always talked about a lot more than what’s new, who’s who, movies are phoo and whew, and the rising price of cottage cheese and beef, so how come you never told me about Helene?”

“I never told her about you either and I’ve known her for years and speak to her about twice the times and double the durations as I do you, even if I at the last moment at the door lost my head and said I’d introduce you. You’re not suited for one another, that’s what I thought. Or I didn’t think it though do now. But I’m busy. There’s ice to untray, trayed food to unrefrigerate, glasses and plates to wash or throw away and replace, more bells to answer, opened windows to tell people to shut, and everyone wants to talk. If you do while you’re helping me, be my guest.”