13
"WHERE IS HE NOW?" Susan said.
We were having
breakfast in the cafe at the Taj hotel, which used to be the Ritz.
Our table was in the small bay that looks out on Newbury Street,
and the spring morning was about perfect.
"He's asleep on my
couch," I said.
"You've taken him
in," Susan said.
"For the moment," I
said.
"Good God," Susan
said.
I smiled
becomingly.
"Sometimes," Susan
said, "I think you are far too kind for your own
good."
I ate a bite of
hash.
"And some other
times?" I said.
"I think you are the
hardest man I've ever seen," she said.
"So to speak," I
said.
"No sexual allusion
intended," Susan said.
She broke off the
end of a croissant, put very little strawberry jam on it, and
popped it in her mouth.
"Do I have to be one
or the other?" I said.
She finished chewing
her croissant, and touched her mouth with her napkin.
"No," she said, "you
don't. And in fact, you are both. But it's an unusual
combination."
"So are we," I
said.
Susan
smiled.
"We surely are," she
said.
"But a good one," I
said.
"Very good," Susan
said. "What are you going to do with him?"
"Try and fix him," I
said. "After all, he might be able to help me with Dawn
Lopata."
"Ah," Susan said. "A
practical purpose."
"Keeps me from being
a do-gooder," I said.
Susan
nodded.
"Successfully," she
said. "I'm sure you can get him in shape and teach him to box and
all, if he sticks with you. Do you think you can get him off the
booze?"
"I don't think he's
an alcoholic," I said.
"Why?"
"Informed guess," I
said. "You ever work with alcoholics?"
"People become
dependent on alcohol for many different reasons," Susan said. "If
the reasons are amenable to psychotherapy, sometimes I can
help."
"Such as?" I
said.
"Reasons?" she said.
"Oh, childhood abuse leading to feelings of low self-worth, maybe.
Whatever it is, for me, it is a process of curing the whole
person."
"Not everyone wants
that," I said. "Some of them just want to stop
drinking."
"And they perhaps go
elsewhere."
"And if they stop
drinking, they're still the same person they were, except they
don't drink," I said.
"Possibly," Susan
said.
"But doesn't what
caused them to drink in the first place remain
undisturbed?"
"Might," Susan
said.
"And maybe work its
way out in another form?" I said.
"Could," Susan
said.
"Try not to be so
dogmatic about this," I said.
She smiled. Which
was like moonlight on the Seine.
"We are both in
uncertain professions," Susan said.
She
shrugged.
"Can't hurt if I
train him," I said.
"Probably can't,"
Susan said. "But you might wish to remind yourself that people
develop a means of coping with stress, and, even after the stress
is gone, the coping mechanism is there and working."
"Which can cause a
lot of trouble," I said.
"A lot," Susan
said.
"On the other hand,"
I said, "you gotta start somewhere."
"Or," Susan said,
"you could tell him to peddle his problems someplace
else."
"I think I'll start
somewhere," I said.
"There's a shock,"
Susan said.