At the House in Eken Park
Richard’s phone had rung as he was walking the aisles of the outfitters.
“He’s looking for Tess at Marie’s house,” said Richard. “Listen, I’m going to have Vivian text you both directions to the island.”
“Get to the island with Gatsby the Great as quickly as you can. But before you leave Madison, there’s something I need you to do.”
Marie had been running herself ragged since five a.m. The movers would be here first thing in the morning, and she’d be on a plane to Florida as soon as they finished loading things up.
She had done most of her packing already, but she still had to deal with the last of the things she had decided to leave behind.
Boxes of donations sat on the front porch, bags of trash filled up half the kitchen, and she still had drawers to empty.
David was picking up some snacks at the twenty-four-hour grocery.
He planned to leave at bedtime, driving all night to get a jump on the journey to Marco Island.
She was glad she didn’t have to make that drive, but she dreaded those final hours, alone in the house with more work than she could possibly accomplish.
The last thing she needed now was a stranger on her doorstep calling her by a name she had done her best to forget over the past decade.
“I think you have me confused with someone else,” said Marie. “My name is Marie Tyler.”
“If that’s the case, then I suppose congratulations are in order,” said Montag 5. “I knew you as Marie Maxwell, wife of Harry Maxwell. Though in the halls of the Paradox Club we called you Nova 1.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” said Marie.
“I always thought it fascinating that you chose that name—a primitive woman who is mated to a brilliant man.”
“I’m afraid I don’t have time for—”
“At least I saw the character of Ulysse as brilliant. Maybe not as brilliant as Harry Maxwell, but not many people are.”
“We’re done here,” snapped Marie, pushing the door closed.
But Montag 5 blocked the door with his foot and shoved it back open, stepping into the house and shutting the door behind him.
“Let’s stop playing games, shall we?” said Montag 5, his previous friendliness disappearing. “You and I both know who you are. Just because you haven’t set foot in the club since Harry’s death doesn’t keep you from being Nova 1.”
“What do you want from me?” said Marie, backing away and almost tripping over a pile of suitcases.
“I’m sure you remember Pilgrim 3,” said Montag 5, “and you know that October fourteenth is tomorrow, so it shouldn’t be too hard for you to guess what I want.”
Marie’s hand instinctively went to her chest where she felt the pendant under her blouse, but Montag 5 didn’t seem to notice.
“If you’re looking for Tess,” she said, “I don’t know where she is. I haven’t seen her since she left for college.”
“I doubt that,” said Montag 5. “But with October fourteenth a few hours away, you know as well as I do where she is.”
“Look, my husband will be back any minute.”
“Good,” said Montag 5, pulling his gun out from underneath his jacket. “Maybe if I threaten to kill someone you love, you’ll be a little more cooperative.”
“How I can I cooperate if you won’t tell me what it is you want?”
“I want you to tell me how to get to the island.”
“The island?”
“Don’t play stupid, Mrs. Tyler.”
“Look, I was never any good with maps, and besides Harry said Maxwell’s Island wasn’t even on a map. Even on Google Earth it’s not labeled or anything. You’d have to know exactly where to look.”
“You drove there every summer for years,” said Montag 5. “I’m sure an intelligent woman like you remembers how to get to your husband’s special place.”
“Jesus, haven’t I been through enough? That damn island destroyed my life. I don’t want to be a part of the club anymore, I don’t care what you and Pilgrim 3 are up to or what you do, I just want to be left alone.”
“You don’t want to be caught up in the politics of the Paradox Club,” said Montag 5, his tone softening.
“No, I don’t,” said Marie.
“You should have thought of that before you married Harry Maxwell.”
“You don’t know anything about Harry,” said Marie, squaring her shoulders and taking a step toward Montag 5. “Harry was more of a man than you’ll ever be.”
“I’m not here to discuss Harry.”
“Harry was kind and brilliant and infuriating and loving and stubborn and a goddamn genius.” Marie felt her throat tighten and the tears seeping from her eyes. She hadn’t defended Harry to anyone in years. She had done exactly what Tess had accused her of. She had erased Harry.
“Your husband’s genius got him killed,” said Montag 5. “And you’re going to show me where it happened.”
“And he was a good husband. And the best father,” said Marie, ignoring Montag 5. “The best father in the world.” She clutched the pendant through her blouse and felt the sharp corners digging into her palm.
“As much as I’m enjoying this little trip down memory lane,” said Montag 5, “I didn’t come here so you could reminisce about your dead husband.”
“And why did you come here?” said Marie, anger flashing into her voice. “So you could help Pilgrim 3 do the same thing she accused Harry of doing? You always were her little flying monkey, weren’t you?”
“Pilgrim 3 has no intention of causing any damage.”
“Is that so?” said Marie, shouting for the first time in the conversation. “Well, Harry had no intention of burning himself up on the island. And Vivian had no intention of helping him destroy my life. So, you can tell Pilgrim 3 that her intentions and twenty-five cents won’t buy a cup of coffee.”
“What’s going on here? I heard shouting.” David stepped through the front door and pulled it shut behind him. Marie flashed him a warning with her eyes, but before she spoke, Montag 5 stepped up to David and pressed the barrel of the gun into his side.
“Finally, the leverage arrives,” said Montag 5.
“Who the hell are you?” asked David.
“The last person you’re ever going to see if your wife doesn’t cooperate,” said Montag 5.
“Marie, do you want to tell me what’s going on?” said David.
Marie could see it all in front of her like a projected movie flickering on the wall of the hallway.
Montag 5 would start out by hitting David a few times with the butt of the revolver.
Not enough to knock him unconscious, but enough to cause a lot of pain.
Then he’d break a rib or two, followed by a bullet to the kneecap.
David would writhe on the floor, broken and screaming in pain while Montag 5 calmly explained that none of this needed to happen if Marie would just cooperate, and David would look up at her with those eyes she had never been able to resist, those eyes that had saved her from her despair, and she would break.
She wouldn’t be able to allow the man who had gathered up her shattered pieces and helped her put them back together to suffer any further abuse.
Why wait? she thought. Why wait for her husband to look at her with incomprehension that she would allow these things to happen to him? Why not simply act now?
“Fine,” she said, releasing her grip on the pendant. “Come with me.”
She led the way into the room that had been Harry’s study in another life.
The emptiness of the bookshelves seemed an unnecessarily harsh metaphor to Marie in her current emotional state.
She had given away the exercise equipment and only Harry’s desk remained in the room.
As Montag 5 held the gun on David, Marie opened the center drawer and reached inside, feeling along the top of the opening until she felt a lump.
She pulled away a strip of ancient tape and the emptied-out room echoed the metallic clatter of a key falling into the drawer.
She removed the key, unlocked the bottom left drawer, and pulled it open.
“Nothing,” said Montag 5, looking over her shoulder into the drawer.
“You never had much patience,” said Marie. “I remember that.”
She reached into the back of the drawer and felt a notch in the bottom. Gently, she pulled and the false bottom of the drawer slid out, revealing a yellowing envelope. Marie took the envelope out and handed it to Montag 5.
“Now will you leave us alone?”
“This says Tess,” said Montag 5, looking at the envelope.
“Tess isn’t here,” said Marie. “Aren’t you lucky.”
“Open it,” said Montag 5, handing it back to Marie while keeping his gun firmly pressed into David’s side.
“Sorry,” said Marie. “I forgot you can only do one thing at a time.” She tore open the envelope and removed a sheet of paper, which she unfolded on the top of the desk.
“A map?” said Montag 5.
“I was telling the truth when I said I didn’t know how to get to the island,” said Marie.
“I drove there once—the first time I ever went, when we were in college. Do you remember how to get someplace you drove to one time twenty-five years ago? After that, Harry always drove and I always slept. Tess, too, when she came along. One night on the island, Tess asked Harry how we would get there if something happened to him. And he drew this. And he addressed the envelope to Tess. But he showed us both where it was hidden. Just in case.” Of course, Marie knew perfectly well how to get to the island and so did Vivian, for that matter.
But regardless of her feelings toward Vivian, there was no point in sending Montag 5 and his gun after her.
“I suppose you were right about Harry,” said Montag 5, edging David toward the table in order to lean over and study the map.
“What do you mean?” said Marie.
“He was a good husband. By drawing this map, he saved you and Mr. Tyler here from a very unpleasant experience.” He pocketed his gun and folded up the map. “It was nice to see you again, Nova 1,” he said. And then he was gone.
“What the hell was that?” said David. He took two strides across the room and wrapped Marie in his arms. “Are you all right? Should we call the police?”
“I’m fine,” said Marie, surprised to find that she meant it. The vision of David being brutalized by Montag 5 and her reaction to that vision had proven to her that she had made the right choice in marrying. She returned her husband’s embrace and said, “You don’t need to call anyone.”
“You don’t think he might come back?” asked David.
“He got what he wanted,” said Marie.
“Still, I don’t think I should leave you here by yourself.”
“You’re not going to leave me,” said Marie. “I’m going to leave you.”
“Jesus, Marie, you’re not leaving me because of this. Because I couldn’t protect you?”
“No!” said Marie, laughing in spite of herself.
“God no! You’re the one for me, David. I know that more than I ever have before.
But there’s one more thing I need to do before I can leave Wisconsin forever.
” Once again, Marie gripped the pendant through the fabric of her blouse, but David didn’t even notice.
He had seen her do that a thousand times.