Summer Accommodations: A Novel (35 page)

When I returned to our room Harlan was lying on his cot and smoking. He must have been waiting for me because it was not his usual practice to just lie around smoking in the early morning hours. Late as it was Ron was still out. Stripping off my sweater I said “Hi,” affecting a calm demeanor while fulminating inside.

“Did you and Sarah have a good time tonight?” he asked in a matter of fact way.

“Yeah, terrific.” My legs began to quaver and I had to sit down on Ron's bunk.

“You look a little pale, are you sure you're okay?” He was so cool it was as though nothing had taken place, no change, no betrayal. “I have to tell you some bad news,” he said, throwing his legs off the bed and dropping his cigarette in the soda can he was using as an ashtray. He held up a pack of Luckys, offered them to me and when I shook my head he pulled one out and lit it for himself. My heart was pounding and the muscles in my chest were tight enough to choke the air out of me but I sat there silently, seething. “While I was waiting for Heidi to get dressed tonight I was talking to Sarah, the way I usually do.” He sighed and mopped at some imaginary perspiration on his brow. Then he took a long drag on his cigarette. I knew where he was heading. “Sarah came up to me all of a sudden and took my hand. She said, ‘You know, Harlan, you and I could be better friends.' I said that I thought we were terrific friends already.” He came to sit next to me on the bunk bed. “I really hate having to tell you this, Jack, but you're my friend and I have to do what's right for you. She put her mouth right next to my ear and whispered, ‘Come on, Harlan, you know what I mean, we never get to be alone just the two of us. Mel and Heidi don't have to know anything about what we do if we keep it to ourselves. I'm not Cinderella, after midnight would work just fine for me.' I was shocked, but before I could say a word she put her hand over my mouth and said, ‘Midnight at your car. If you say one word to Mel I'll tell him it was your idea.' Heidi came back into the room just then and …”

“Bullshit!”

“Hey, I know this is hard for you to take but …”

“Liar! You're lying Harlan. Stop pretending it was Sarah. It's both of you.” I was shaking.

“Jack, why would I make this up? Ohhh, I know, she already told you her story. She put it all off on me. Why would I do such a thing to you, Jack, why? You know Heidi and I are …”

“Heidi, and your tennis partner, and the woman who wanted you to teach her son to dive and any skirt on the fucking planet so why not Sarah too?”

“You flatter me Jack …”

“And stop calling me Jack. My name is Mel. Melvin. Like it or not that's my name. God I was so fucking stupid to listen to you. How ridiculous I must have looked to everybody.”

“You're upset. Don't take it out on me because your girlfriend made a play for me. You know I wouldn't do anything to hurt you, you know that.” He slammed the soda can down on the floor and got up from the bed indignantly. He folded his arms across his chest and walked to the window keeping his back to me. For a moment, insanely, I almost felt drawn back to him. “This is insulting. After all that I've tried to do to help you with girls, after letting you in on a serious family secret, you just go and…”

“It's just not going to work, Harlan, don't waste your breath, it's not going to work. I saw you tonight. I saw you and Sarah in the parking lot so stop lying to me.” I was gaining control as we volleyed our retorts. “You know, I should probably take a swing at you and try to knock you out. I don't know if I would hit you or just set myself up for you to beat the shit out of me, either way it wouldn't change anything. Sarah and I are done and you and I are done and that's it. As Sammy would say, end of story.” He turned around and slowly unfolded his arms extending them out from his sides like a choral director gathering in the attention of his singers.

“Do you honestly believe that was Sarah in my car? Haven't you ever noticed how much Heidi and Sarah look alike? It's this Hank thing that has you unstrung, Jack, that's what's really going on. I should be upset with you, if you think about it, creeping around the parking lot and spying on me and then accusing me of screwing around with your girlfriend.” He was smiling. God damn him, he was smiling. Had my pain and outrage amused him, or was he just misapplying the Hawthorne charm he used as a balm on the wounds he inflicted so selfishly.

“The fact is I caught you by accident and … there you go trying to blame me and make me feel guilty for something bad when it's you who's been the lying cheat.”

“Watch yourself, Melvin, or you may get that drubbing you were talking about.”

“What will that solve? You've already ruined everything for me, do you think a black eye will make that much difference?”

“I won't give you a black eye, it may affect your tips and I'm not out to cost you any money.”

“Oh no, just to pick my pockets for your father's imaginary heart condition.”

“Imaginary? You saw him yourself, was that imagi …”

“Cut it out! Enough of your bullshit! I spoke with him, he told me all about you. He's not dying.”

Harlan approached me with sadness in his face. He shook his head, rubbed his cheek, and the next thing I knew I was on the floor struggling for air. He had hit me so hard and so fast I still can't remember seeing the punch come.

“You shouldn't have bothered my family. You had no right to go there without me. You are never to do that again.” He rubbed the knuckles of his right hand. “And that's also for your brother Steve who went where he shouldn't have. I was just repaying you in kind with Sarah for what he did to me a couple of years ago.” I was too breathless to speak but my face registered my surprise. “I know, I know, I've never worked here before, the noble Whites only work here at Braverman's, but you're so provincial you can't wander off the site. Steve is a much sharper guy than you'll ever be. He found his way to my turf a few years ago and lured away a girl I was pretty serious with.” His expression hardened and his tone expressed his bitterness. “I loved that girl.”

“Sorry,” I said reflexively. “No, not sorry. In fact I don't believe you.”

“I don't give a damn what you believe and don't believe and if I were you, with your face at the level of my shoes, I'd keep the smart ass comments to myself.”

But there was to be no turning back; I had gone too far for that. “If it's true, good I'm glad Steve did it, but I can't listen to your bullshit anymore, Harlan, nothing you say can be trusted.”

“Ask your brother about Shelley, Rochelle at the Pines. Ask him.”

“Harlan you are not listening to me. I don't believe you. You could tell me the sky is blue on a bright sunny day and if I didn't see it for myself I wouldn't believe you.” I raised myself from the floor and sat on Ron's bed. “I will not talk to Steve about Shelley because I will not make a fool out of myself because of you ever again. In fact, I am going to do you a favor by way of doing myself a favor.” Harlan came over and sat down next to me. I winced.

“Don't worry I won't hit you again. What kind of favor can you do for me, kiddo?” Even in a sitting position his body seemed to swagger. He reached into his shirt and pulled out his cigarettes again but this time didn't offer one to me. “Just what kind of favor can a pathetic little boy do?”

“What can I do? I can save your ass from the roughing up Ben B. has in store for you, and from the Sullivan County State troopers waiting for their turn afterward.” Harlan angled his body towards mine and for the first time since knowing him he seemed nervous.

“Now
you're
bluffing. Why would Ben want to hurt me? He knows his daughter loves me and I may not be the boyfriend of his choice, but roughing me up? You'll have to come up with something better than that.”

“It's only a little bit about Heidi. It's a lot about theft, stealing, burglary—you choose the word that fits best for what you do.”

“That's a lot of crap, I mean that's nonsense.” If only for an instant his tension had cracked open the veneer of poise revealing the street kid hidden behind, and he knew it. “What makes me the thief? Why would I take that kind of risk, Jack? My father's privacy is my most important priority and doing anything as chancy as stealing would be crazy.”

“I'm telling you what I know. I'm not going to stick up for you, I don't care. It's your ass and you can put it anywhere you like. I just think you'd be doing yourself a favor to pack up and get the hell out of here.”

“If you're so angry and fed up with me why would you give me this break? Why don't you let someone who actually might be able to rough me up do it? See what I mean? Why should I believe
you?
Or are you trying to get Sarah back without me around.” He was cool and in control again.

“I'm doing this because it's how I came to understand things growing up, don't rat out a friend. Like you or not, if I let Ben or the police get to you when I can prevent it, I've violated some kind of code.”

“Rat out a friend? I thought you just said you don't trust me and don't believe anything I say so how are we friends?”

“I know, it doesn't make sense, but it feels like the right thing to do. I can't explain it any better than that.” But I tried to anyway. “It has to do with honor, do you know what that is? Yes, of course you do because you play people for believing in things like that. Oh, just get out.” Letting the smoke drift out of his open mouth he studied me, his head tilted back, and then he exhaled a cloud of gray.

“Who told you about this plan?”

“Ben. And some guy named Joe.” Harlan seemed to startle.

“Joe? Tough guy, salt and pepper crew cut, blue eyes?”

“Yeah, that Joe, you know him?”

“What exactly did he say?”

“Harlan, do you think you have time for this? They are very serious and they expected me to send you out there about now, have you go to the Bravermans' storm cellar where they'd grab you. So if you don't show up they'll come here looking for you. And me.” I added, realizing that if Harlan didn't leave I'd have no excuse for not following Ben Braverman's instructions. Codes of camaraderie wouldn't hold any value with Ben. My loyalty was expected to be to him alone.

“Joe is an ex-cop. A city tough guy who was as much a crook as he was a cop. So Ben has him on his payroll now.” He got up from the bed and went directly to the dresser we all shared. Just as he opened his drawer Ron came in.

“Make sure you're in the right drawer, Mr. Harvard. Why is everyone up so early?” Ron had suddenly realized that preparing for work was not why Harlan and I were awake and still dressed in the clothes we'd worn the night before. I wished he hadn't come back then. It would have been so much easier if Harlan had just packed up and left.

“You'd better get going, Harlan.”

“Going where, what's going on?”

Harlan nodded, pulled his suitcase out from under his bed, opened the latches and spread the case across his bed, its compartments empty but for a leather toiletry kit that was tightly strapped to the bottom half of the case that had rested on the floor.

“Harlan has to get out of here for a family emergency.” I said to Ron without looking at him.

While Harlan gathered his clothes from his dresser drawer, Ron walked to Harlan's bed and looked down at the leather kit.

“What's that, your stash? Is that where you hide the cash and the jewels?”

“Actually, Ron, the only thing in there is the Hope Diamond. It takes up all the space,” and with that Harlan dropped his clothes on top of the kit, threw in a pair of shoes and then closed the suitcase. “Have a miserable life, Ron. Thank you, Jack.” He was out the door before Ron or I could speak.

“All right, now the truth, what just happened?”

“You saw what happened, Harlan left. He quit. Isn't that what you've wanted all summer long?”

“Don't insult me Melvin, I know there's more than you're telling me and I want to hear it, the truth!” The truth was the last thing I wanted him or anyone else to hear.

“It's what I told you, he quit. It's too late to argue.” I climbed up to my bunk and kicked off my shoes. “I'm going to grab some sleep. We have to be up in an hour.” I turned towards the wall as the tears began to flow.

“You're not getting any sleep until you tell me what just happened here,” Ron said, pulling my sheets from me and grabbing at my leg. “C'mon the truth.” The truth was still too raw to tell.

“Harlan was stealing, that's why he's beating it. Ben B wanted me to help trap him and I told Harlan about that so he's gone. Okay? Enough?”

“Help trap him how, what could you do to help trap him, c'mon tell me.” He was gleeful, rubbing his palms together as briskly as Solly Schwartz.

“Oh for God's sake give up, Ron, there's nothing else to tell. Ben had the idea Harlan was the thief he's been looking for and wanted me to send him someplace on the grounds where he'd get caught. I don't know why he'd be caught, what he'd be guilty of, I was just supposed to tell him to go there.”

“Go where?” Ron would be Ron no matter how I tried to ward him off. He wanted the details.

“Why don't you ask your buddy Ben? It was his idea.”

“But I'm asking my buddy Mel. I have a hunch Jack also left with Harlan, am I right?” If I wasn't so tired and distraught I might have acknowledged his prescience.

“Ron, Sarah and I broke up tonight. I'll tell you about it tomorrow, but PLEASE!! I need to go to sleep now.” I rolled over to face the wall and again began to cry.

Ron placed his hand gently on my hip, squeezed and said, “You and Sarah broke up? Really? I'm sorry Melvin. When you're ready you can tell me what happened.” I felt him sit on his bunk below me. I heard his shoes drop on the floor, felt him struggle out of his clothes and drop them as well, and then snuggle into his bedclothes. So, finally, the night ends, I thought.