Chapter 5: The Errand Girl

My father woke at two.

I wheeled him into his office, shut the door, and laid the calendar page on his blotter.

His left hand moved toward it.

Then it stopped and lay flat beside it.

"Papa," I said. "Who said it?"

His mouth worked.

The right side stayed slack.

"Tul...lio."

"In person?"

A small nod.

"What did he say?"

He closed his eyes.

It took him almost a minute to build the sentence, one piece at a time.

"Girl... at my son's... company."

"Me."

"Ac...cidents. Happen. On docks."

I sat down on the floor beside his chair, because my legs had quit.

Twenty-six months.

Every slip he signed, he'd signed for me.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

He lifted his good hand and touched my hair.

"You... were happy."

"I was miserable, Papa."

His face folded up.

I hadn't seen my father cry since my grandmother's funeral.

I took his hand and held it against my cheek until he stopped.

"And the last one?" I asked. "Twelve days ago. You were in the hospital."

His eyes went wide.

He shook his head hard.

His mouth opened, and nothing came out but air.

"Okay," I said. "Okay. Not now."

I wiped his face with my sleeve.

Then I said the thing I'd come in to say.

"I'm freezing the Venturi bond."

He looked at me for a long time.

Then he nodded once, slow and clear.

That was the Keeper's word.

My mother and the tallest teller witnessed it at the door.

I wrote the freeze across the Venturi page in my father's fountain pen, in my own hand, and blotted it twice.

The tellers applauded.

The crossword teller made me sign her crossword too.

At ten to five, the bell over the door rang.

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