The Man Without a Shadow (40 page)

Even if Eli is in remission he will have to have periodic examinations by an oncologist—blood work, PET scans. She will find the very best oncologist in Albany and she will pay for his treatment herself—Margot Sharpe has plenty of money.

Margot has noticed that there is no notebook in sight here in Eli's room, and there is no sketchbook. She has no idea what this means. She tells him excitedly of her plans: she intends to curate an exhibit of Elihu Hoopes's pencil and charcoal drawings. She will approach the Philadelphia Museum of Art, whose director will surely be interested—for not only are Eli Hoopes's drawings significant works of art, but the Hoopes family has long been one of the museum's prominent benefactors. There are hundreds—thousands—of these remarkable drawings, which Margot assumes are in storage somewhere. Of these, many are of unusual interest. She has already spoken to his sister Rosalyn who is “very supportive.” (This is true though Rosalyn seemed unsure of the exact location of the sketchbooks.) She will begin work as
soon as she can. Perhaps she can bring some of the major drawings with them to Lake George where she will write a preface to the exhibit brochure—“The Art of Recollection in Amnesia
.
”

“Yes. As soon as I am feeling a little better. The doctor has told me next week sometime, probably I will be discharged.”

“Really!”—Margot knows that this can't be true.

“I will have to have therapy. ‘Physical therapy.'”

“Of course. I can drive you to the clinic, if you need transportation.”

“
I
can drive. But thank you, dear.”

Margot wonders what it means that Eli does not ask her more questions about this exhibit, or about his “thousands of remarkable drawings.”

They lie together in Eli's bed, awkwardly but companionably. As Margot talks, Eli sleepily concurs.
Yes, yes!
Margot has never felt so suffused with happiness. There is a faint odor of something acidulous, chemical in poor Eli's breath. In his thin, scant hair. Yet she kisses him, she tells herself she does not mind.

After some time, however, she must disengage herself from her husband, to use a restroom at the end of the corridor. She moves as carefully as she can, not to wake him. She shuts the door when she leaves. And when she returns she is struck anew by the powerful scent of the gardenias—almost, the smell is too strong. It is as if the beautiful white flowers are sucking the oxygen from the room. In Margot's absence Eli has dragged a pillow up behind him and taken up the newspaper again, and the pencil, and is squinting at the crossword puzzle which is only half-completed. This is a good sign, is it?—Eli is restless enough to be doing the puzzle, and not sleep? Except the lighting is poor, why doesn't he simply turn on an overhead light? There is a switch beside his bed which he surely knows how to use.

As Margot approaches the bed Eli glances up at her in surprise and bewilderment—no doubt he expected one of the nursing staff since he can see that this is a hospital setting. What is painfully clear is that he has never seen Margot Sharpe before in his life.

Eli lowers the newspaper and tosses the pencil aside. At once his expression is eager, hopeful. His bloodshot eyes seem to lighten. It is the identical expression (Margot is certain) she saw in his face on the first morning they met long ago in 1965.

If the amnesiac notices that his visitor—(a slender, attractive silver-haired woman with a pale, lined face, alarmed eyes)—is crying he is too gentlemanly to acknowledge what he sees.

“Hello? Hel-
lo?
”

Among the numerous valuable books and articles which have been useful in the preparation of this novel the most significant is Suzanne Corkin's
Permanent Present Tense: The Unforgettable Life of the Amnesiac Patient, H.M.
(2013). Also consulted were materials by Brenda Milner, Larry Squire, and Nicholas Turk-Browne.

Thanks also to Clare Tascio for reading this manuscript with particular thoroughness as Hertog Research Fellow at Hunter College, and thanks as well to Greg Johnson for his continued and cherished friendship, sharp eye and ear, and impeccable literary judgment.

And I am grateful as always to my “first reader”—my neuroscientist-husband Charlie Gross—whose close scrutiny of this novel from start to finish, and whose enthusiasm, support, and sympathy throughout, have been inestimable.

JOYCE CAROL OATES
is a recipient of the National Medal of Humanities, the National Book Critics Circle Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award, the National Book Award, and the PEN/ Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction. She has written some of the most enduring fiction of our time, including
We Were the Mulvaneys; Blonde,
which was nominated for the National Book Award; and the
New York Times
bestseller
The Accursed
. She is the Roger S. Berlind Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Princeton University and has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters since 1978.

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.

With Shuddering Fall
(1964)

A Garden of Earthly Delights
(1967)

Expensive People
(1968)

them
(1969)

Wonderland
(1971)

Do with Me What You Will
(1973)

The Assassins
(1975)

Childwold
(1976)

Son of the Morning
(1978)

Unholy Loves
(1979)

Bellefleur
(1980)

Angel of Light
(1981)

A Bloodsmoor Romance
(1982)

Mysteries of Winterthurn
(1984)

Solstice
(1985)

Marya: A Life
(1986)

You Must Remember This
(1987)

American Appetites
(1989)

Because It Is Bitter, and Because It Is My Heart
(1990)

Black Water
(1992)

Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang
(1993)

What I Lived For
(1994)

Zombie
(1995)

We Were the Mulvaneys
(1996)

Man Crazy
(1997)

My Heart Laid Bare
(1998)

Broke Heart Blues
(1999)

Blonde
(2000)

Middle Age: A Romance
(2001)

I'll Take You There
(2002)

The Tattooed Girl
(2003)

The Falls
(2004)

Missing Mom
(2005)

Black Girl / White Girl
(2006)

The Gravedigger's Daughter
(2007)

My Sister, My Love
(2008)

Little Bird of Heaven
(2009)

Mudwoman
(2012)

The Accursed
(2013)

Carthage
(2014)

The Sacrifice
(2015)

COVER DESIGN BY SARA WOOD

COVER PHOTOGRAPH © THINKSTOCK IMAGES/GETTY IMAGES

This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author's imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

THE MAN WITHOUT A SHADOW
. Copyright © 2016 by The Ontario Review, Inc. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

FIRST EDITION

EPub Edition January 2016 ISBN 9780062416117

ISBN 978-0-06-241609-4

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