The doorbell rings, and I think the problem will sort itself out for me.
Kirra looks at me when I walk down the hall. “Are you expecting someone?”
I nod. “Ermington.”
She nods once and doesn’t say anything else.
I open the front door and Stanley’s on my porch in a Camden hoodie and sweats, holding two coffees. He brought my mug.
“Linwood.”
“Ermington.” I glance down.
He lifts my mug. “I come bearing offerings.”
“That’s my mug.” I don’t know why, but something wound up in my chest loosens when he hands it over.
“It’s your coffee, too. Fresh.” He releases it. “I’m a giver.”
I take it and don’t look at his face for more than half a second. I turn and go back inside. He follows, nods at Kirra.
Kirra says, “Hey, Stanley.”
He follows me down the hall. My door’s open. I walk in. He comes in behind me. And he stops in the doorway.
He grins when he sees the stick. “Oh, baby,” he says.
I freeze.
“You said you needed to see the confirmation. Sit down and look at the confirmation.”
He is not interested in what I’m saying. He crosses my room in three steps and picks up the hockey stick. He gathers it into both arms, against his chest, like a man lifting a newborn.
“Baby.”
“Ermington?”
“Baby. Baby. It’s been so long.”
What is happening?
“I have missed you so much. Did she feed you? Did she keep you warm? Did she—” He pulls back to look at the stick’s blade, searching its little face. “Linwood. Did you hum to her?”
“I did not hum to your stick.”
“I think you hummed to her.”
“I did not hum to the stick, Stanley.”
“She has a hummed-to quality about her. I can feel it.” He rotates the stick to face me, holding it under what would be its arms if a stick had arms, presenting it like a cat in a movie. “Look at her. Look at the woman who took you. Look how guilty she looks.”
He is so annoying. He pets the top of the blade with one thumb, soothing it.
“It’s all right, baby. She couldn’t help it. You’re a charmer. This happens to you. People take one look, and they fall apart. We knew the risk. We talked about it before you went out there.”
I feel like I’m watching something I shouldn’t be.
“She kept you for ten days,” he tells the stick, mournfully. “She drove you around in the back of an SUV. She leaned you against a wall.”
