“You’re welcome, Tori.”
“Really, how can I ever thank you?”
Jerry grinned as he held up the gold watch. “Believe me, Tori. This makes everything more than even.”
***
Jerry admired his new watch and chuckled all the way home.
“No one deserves to be that lucky,” I said.
“It’s a sign.”
“No, it isn’t.”
“A special kind of sign.”
I sighed. I could see “Jerry Fairweather, Super Psychic” in neon flashing from our front window. “No.”
“A sign that says, ‘Justice Rules the Swamp.’”
“It’s not justice. It’s incredible coincidence.”
Jerry grinned. “How about a sign that says, ‘You get only one incredible coincidence in your life. Get out while you can.’”
“Don’t tease me.”
“I mean it. I’m done.”
I wasn’t sure how long this would last. “Well, if you’re serious, that’s great.”
“I can’t have Hortensia picking up my bad habits.”
Dear me, I thought. If he gives up his cons and schemes, he’s going to have more time to think about babies. I have to find another way to divert his attention.
He turned on the CD player. “This calls for a little Hoffmann.”
A joyful duet filled the car. “What are they saying?”
“Hoffmann and Antonia are singing, ‘Happy married couple, the future is ours! Ours!’”
“Antonia. She dies, doesn’t she?”
“It’s opera, Mac. You can’t have everything.”
“I’m just saying they didn’t have much of a future. Doesn’t the portrait of her mother come to life and cause her to sing herself to death?”
“Yes, but that’s not likely to happen to you. And speaking of portraits, are you going to be ready for the show?”
“I have the rest of today and tonight to work. A little more work on Austin and Denisha’s picture, and I’ll be ready.”
“I knew you could do it.”
“Thanks.”
“Just like I knew you could solve this case.”
I thought of sensitive little Tori hiding herself away because she didn’t have all the facts. I thought of the Lever brothers and how they never realized the good their mother could do. I thought of poor spurned Clara trying to convince her daughter she was entitled to a fortune. With this little bit of misinformation, she’d caused Rachel nothing but frustration and grief and the rest of her life in prison. By comparison, what my mother had done to me by hauling me to pageants was just a mild inconvenience. I found myself hoping she’d come to the exhibit, even looking forward to it.
Jerry turned up the volume. “Listen to this part. ‘To love let us be true! May its eternal chains keep our hearts victorious over time itself.’ Not sure I like the eternal chains. That’s a tall order, isn’t it?”
“I think we can do it.”
“Happy married couple, the future is ours, ours?”
We had almost reached our driveway, but I pulled over next to the field full of wildflowers, the field that led up to our house, the one place in the world I knew I really wanted to be. Maybe this was how
Tales of Hoffmann
fit into our lives. “Happy married couple, the future is ours, ours”? I gave Jerry a long, lingering, and relieved kiss.
“Yes,” I said. “Yes.”
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