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“Of course. Of course,” he says, leading me to the door. “But now you must go and I must look for answers.”
At the door I say, “I got some of the milk on your table. I might have wrecked it. I’ll pay for a new one.”
“Perhaps you did and perhaps you didn’t. In any case, I’m the thief, not you. If I need a new table, I will get one like that,” he says, snapping his fingers.
“I at least owe you a drink for killing your breakfast.”
“That I will accept.”
He opens the door and I go out into the hall. I start to leave when something bothers me.
“Seriously, what’s the trick to living two hundred years? How do you do it?”
“It’s easy,” he says. “I’m not two hundred. I no longer believe in the past. Each morning when I awake, I’m newly born. From now until the sun burns out, I will never be more than one day old.”
“I’ll call you about the drink,” I say, and go down to the car, not sure if what Vidocq said was the smartest or saddest thing I’ve ever heard.
“I’M SORRY TO call you in like this,” says Abbot. “But the whole thing fell together quickly.”
“What is it? Some kind o
f emergency meeting?”
Abbot hesitates.
“More of a cocktail party.”
“Seriously?”
“I’m afraid so.”
“I used to be the Devil, you know. I didn’t have to put up with this kind of shit.”
“Maybe you should have kept that job, then.”
“Nah. I look lousy with horns.”
“Is that really what he looks like?”
“No. He looks more like, well, you.”
“Should I be flattered?”
“Very.”
“Then I’ll take the compliment.”
Abbot ushers me into the living room area on the boat. I was here once before, when I first met him. The room is impeccably decorated—a Southern California manor house—swaying gently on the Pacific. I have a hard time picturing the boat ever moving much, even in a tsunami. Nature wouldn’t dare spill the augur’s coffee over something as silly as a volcano.
“No problem. Chihiro is learning to play ‘Pipeline,’ so I’m all on my lonesome.”
“Playing pipeline. Is that slang for something I should know about?”
I put my hands in my pockets, not wanting to touch anything, afraid I’m going to taint his Beach Boys Taj Mahal with my grubby paws.
“Candy is getting guitar lessons is all. And I’m here when I could be curled up with a good western.”
He points a finger at me.
