The Tutor and the Senator's Widow novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: Page 41

We started Wednesday at ten at night and did not stop until the clock in the hall struck two.

Eleanor sat in her husband's leather chair, and I pulled a wooden stool up beside her so we could share the lamp.

The report lay open between us.

"Start with the first line," I said. "Tell me what you see."

"A number."

"What does it say next to the number?"

She put her finger under the words.

"Total plan assets. Sixty-four point two million dollars."

"Good. That's what the plan says it has."

"Is that a lot?"

"For two hundred and twelve retirees, it's supposed to be enough." I turned the page. "Now we go find where the sixty-four million actually is."

It was slow work, and it was the best slow work of my life.

I showed her how to read a table from the bottom up.

I made her add each column with a pencil, because a calculator hides things.

She sucked her teeth when she was concentrating, and she chewed the end of her glasses chain, and every few minutes her hair slipped down and she pushed it back with an inky hand.

At half past midnight her shoulder was against mine.

At one o'clock her knee was against my knee.

I did not move away, and she did not either.

"Page forty-one," she said at last, and her voice had gone small.

"Okay. You read the list. I'll tell you if it adds up."

"Cash and equivalents, four million one hundred thousand. Government bonds, nineteen million. Stocks and funds, twenty-two million four hundred thousand." She drew a breath. "Loans to affiliated companies, twelve million seven hundred thousand."

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