Not Exactly a Brahmin Read Online Free Page B

I had been headed for ice cream an hour and a half ago.
    “In a way, I’m not surprised,” she said slowly, “about the accident, I mean. It was such a shame. All those years with his first wife so sickly. He had his health but he couldn’t go anywhere. And then in the last six months his own eyesight started to go. He’s hardly driven at all in the last two months. He didn’t want to endanger people.”
    “But he did drive today.”
    “Today he almost hit Billy.” The words seemed to burst out, as if Palmerston’s prior thoughtfulness made this offense that much worse.
    “Billy’s your son?”
    “What? Oh, yes.”
    “Is he here?”
    “He’s in his room.”
    “Can I talk to him?”
    She nodded and opened a door to a staircase. “Billy,” she called. “Put your robe on and come down. There’s a police officer here who wants to talk to you about Mr. Palmerston.” To me, she added, “He’s in bed, trying to avoid catching pneumonia.”
    But when Billy ambled down the stairs, he was wearing jeans and a sweater. He was a long-blond-haired adolescent who clearly had had a large spurt of growth and had not filled out to match it yet. He looked like a vision in a tall, thin mirror.
    “You weren’t in bed, were you?” his mother demanded.
    “Aw, Ma …”
    To me, she said, “He rode his bike to school this morning. Of course it was pouring when school was out. I went to pick him up. We could have put the bike in the back of the wagon. We’ve done it plenty of times before, right, Billy?” she demanded, turning to him.
    “Aw, Ma …”
    “But no, when I got to school he was gone. He had to ride his bike to the top of the hills so he could see the storm better. Can you believe that?”
    “She doesn’t look so dry herself,” Billy put in.
    “Billy!”
    “Your mother says you saw Mr. Palmerston today,” I said to him.
    “He nearly creamed me! Jeez, he came this close.” He held his hands inches apart.
    “How close?”
    “Well, maybe this far.” Now it was a foot. “But it was close. He didn’t even see me.”
    “Where were you?”
    “In the street. I was just making my cut for the driveway. See, if you stay on the other side of the street till you’re right across from the driveway, there’s this bump. You can hit it and bounce and then the edge of the driveway gives you another bounce.”
    Billy’s mother sighed. “Two thousand dollars on orthodontia …”
    “Where were you and where was he?”
    “I was making my cut. He was up the street, driving real slow like he always did. He’s old. But then he started to turn for his garage and he speeded up. He barely missed me.”
    “When was that?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “I know, exactly,” Mrs. Kershon said. “It was one fifty-three. Billy got out of school early today. There was a teacher’s meeting. I’d been watching for him since one-thirty. I was sure he’d been hit by lightning. Instead, he was off seeing how wet he could get.”
    Before Billy could get out his “Aw, Ma,” I said, “You said Mr. Palmerston hadn’t driven in two months, but today he picked up his car from the repair shop and went out with it this afternoon. Do you have any idea where he was going?”
    “No,” she said slowly. “When they go out, his new wife drives him. They take her car. I’m surprised his needed to be serviced, he used it so rarely.”
    Billy opened his mouth and then let it close.
    “Do you have any idea where Mrs. Palmerston is now?”
    “No. She doesn’t go out all that much without him.”
    Billy squirmed forward on his chair.
    “Sit still,” his mother snapped. To me, she said, “They never leave the lights out. We’ve had burglaries. You must know that. Ralph has always been very careful. He has some lovely pieces and it would be a pity to have them stolen.”
    I nodded, recalling my similar reaction to their darkened windows. “Mrs. Kershon, I understand that Mr. Palmerston used to be very active in charity work,