Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 125117 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 626(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125117 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 626(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
“So, it’s my friend Greta. We were roommates before I transferred to Tulane. She’s great. Terrible boundaries. Wackadoodle family. But a total gem. She just had a fight with her family and wants to leave town. But she has tons of plants. They’re, like, her babies. And they need to be tended to. You go to her place in Maine and mist her plants or whatever. And she can come to your place and take care of Horse. It’s perfect!”
She sat back, arms spread, clearly quite pleased with herself.
“I can’t,” Truman said automatically.
She wrinkled her nose. “Why?”
“Because…because I…I just…”
“Exactly. You can. You have money, you’re not afraid of flying, and you don’t like hanging out with your family for the holidays. But you’re gonna choose not to because it feels scary and hard. But you know what’s also scary and hard, Truman?”
“Lemme guess. Being a miserable, pathetic dope alone at the holidays?”
“Well, I was going to say waking up an old man and realizing that you never took any chances in your life and chose ease over adventure, capitulation over intention, and others over yourself, but yours works too.”
Truman laughed despite himself.
“I’ll just be miserable and alone in Maine if I go,” he warned. “It won’t be some cute holiday fantasy.”
“Speaking of fantasy,” she drawled casually, “isn’t the author of that batshit book you’re so obsessed with from there?”
Truman cleared his throat, preparing to say that he wasn’t obsessed. But it had been his first thought when Ramona mentioned Maine. Agatha Tark was from Maine. It was one of the only biographical facts known about her, aside from her insistence on complete removal from public life and her fondness for cats.
The Dead of Zagørjič was a fantasy series Truman had been a fan of since he was a child.
Okay, he’d been obsessed with it.
Fine, he still was.
The Dead of Zagørjič had been the comfort world he’d escaped into any time something bad had happened to him.
Maybe this was meant to be? Maybe he should pack some sweaters and his beloved paperbacks and his journals and his computer, get the hell out of New Orleans, and hole up in Maine like Tark had done.
He was eyeing the wrapped package he’d meant to drop off for Guy. It was a Montblanc Meisterstück Solitaire Blue Hour LeGrand Rollerball pen, and it had set him back nearly $1,700.
“If I sell Guy’s present, I could buy a plane ticket.”
Ramona looked like the information of how much he’d spent on the gift caused her physical pain, but she just nodded.
“This,” she told him with a knowing grin, “is going to be perfect.”
***
Ramona gave Truman Greta’s phone number with the strict instruction to text, not call.
“She hates talking on the phone,” Ramona said.
“Well, yeah, I’m not a monster,” Truman said, shuddering at the thought of a phone call with a stranger.
“You’re actually gonna text her, though?”
“Here, look.”
Truman tapped in Greta’s number and wrote Hi, I’m Truman, Ramona’s friend. I hear we have a problem in common?
He held the phone up and pressed Send where Ramona could see.
“Okay, good,” she sighed, smiling with relief. “What would you two do without me?”
Truman, assuming that was a rhetorical question, took the opportunity to gather his errant gift and his pride and wave goodbye to Ramona.
Greta texted back as he turned the corner.
yeah, sounds like we do. are you…into this? i have a LOT of plants you’d have to take care of. A LOT.
No problem! I’m very responsible. Responsible to a fault, as Ramona would say.
of course ramona thinks responsibility is a fault lol, Greta replied, proving that they actually were friends.
I’d need you to take care of my dog. He needs to be walked three times a day. Would that be a problem?
nope, i love to walk and i love animals.
Truman felt his mood lift. Could they actually do this? Could he actually get away from the town where everything reminded him of Guy and of his own foolishness? And, in the back of his mind, the whisper: Agatha Tark, Agatha Tark, Agatha Tark.
Sooooo should we do this?
i think we should, came Greta’s immediate reply. i’ve gotta get out of town and away from my family or i’ll say shit i regret. well. more shit i regret.
Yeah, me too. Or, not the say things I regret part bc I actually didn’t say anything.
He cringed, remembering his quiet, unobtrusive slink away from Guy’s window.
what happened?
Turns out my boyfriend of a year has, like, a whole other life? A husband or partner and a kid. And I’m such a fool I didn’t even notice.
The words came easily to a stranger, and Truman found himself telling Greta what he couldn’t say to Ramona.
I was totally in love with him. But I guess I didn’t know him at all, really. What a chump, huh?
Greta’s response didn’t come for a minute, and Truman’s stomach churned as he watched her ellipsis.