Chapter 23
About the name.
Or, more specifically, the absence of the name. Theo’s last name.
The short answer is that folks just gave up caring about it. Once it became clear Theo wanted to be known by his first and only his first name, most of his new acquaintances capitulated to his wish.
He was a Houdini at evading personal questions and answering only those that were within certain unstated boundaries. The others he sidestepped with the finesse of a river dancer.
It was the same with attempts to learn his last name.
His habitual introduction, “Just call me Theo,” was usually sufficient to circumvent further questions, especially for people who only encountered him once. At the bestowals, for instance.
If someone did ask for a last name, he usually repeated the habitual introduction with such friendly assertiveness that people didn’t ask again. They would have felt impolite doing so.
When pressed, Theo responded with a rambling explanation that confused or exhausted his interrogator into submission.
“I have a strange and difficult Portuguese name that is long and hard to say, so just call me Theo, and I will call you Dan, and that way you won’t have to try to pronounce that hard word because we have some unusual vowels in my country and so, and so…
Dan, what sort of work do you do, and have you lived here in Golden all your life? ”
And then he would be off and running.
Some of the most insistent, like Tony and Shep, pushed hard to get Theo’s elusive surname, but even they finally gave up trying. They hoped he might share an email address or use a credit card someday that might provide a clue as to his full identity.
But Theo didn’t use email or have a presence on social media that they could find.
Likewise, he never used a credit card with his name on it while he was in Golden.
Mr. Ponder, who handled all of Theo’s business, including his mail, finances, and internet accounts, had taken steps to protect his client’s anonymity.
Theo had a single credit card that was in the name of “PH Ltd.” No clues there.
So, eventually, people’s curiosity simply dried up. As they spent more and more time around him, they cared less and less about the second half of his name. If he didn’t want to share it, for whatever reason, well, so be it.
The fact that he was associated with and even lived in the office building of Mr. James Ponder gave him credibility and standing that he might never have earned on his own.
Mr. Ponder’s single statement, “Mr. Theo is a fine gentleman,” was more than enough to assure most Goldenites that Theo was a man above reproach, whether he had one name or three or ten.
The unspoken consensus of the neighborhood was that he would be judged by his fruits, by what could be seen with their own eyes. And soon, by those standards — demeanor, speech, generosity — those who knew him became convinced that, whoever he was, Theo could be trusted.
No last name.
Aside from that quirk, they were certain he was just like them, an average law-abiding citizen, only older and better.
Or so they thought.