Chapter 3

The next morning Annette told her husband that she had gone out for a walk during the night because he had fallen asleep too early “after drinking too much.” Yuri swallowed the reproach. When they knocked at Omar’s door, he did not answer at first and opened only after hearing Annette’s voice. His timidity vanished quickly once the old man realized that Yuri remembered nothing. Strange, because Yuri had unquestionably been lying there with his eyes open...

The three of them went for a walk through Providence. Annette insisted upon it. Tormented by guilt and fear, she needed to keep husband and lover close together.

At first the sky scattered cold salt that stung their cheeks. Then the snow ran out, and without it the wind turned meaner. Even sightseeing was unpleasant in weather like this.

Yuri kept joking:

“Omar certainly enjoyed his birthday. And my secret present.”

Yuri thought this wounded the old man deeply, since he was alluding to Omar’s supposed encounter with the male escort. But Annette was ashamed of her husband. His little jabs made him look pathetic, because instead of the man in a dress, she herself had lain beneath Omar and come several times. Omar kept glancing at her in bewilderment, as though asking how he ought to react. With every joke Yuri made, the old immigrant seemed to rise above him. Yuri was digging his own grave.

Perhaps that was why Omar, who had little interest in the sights, grew bold enough at one point to lay a hand on Annette’s ass, directly beneath Yuri’s arm around his wife’s waist. Annette was saying:

“Omar, you need to find another job. My heart breaks when I see you, at your age...” She faltered as she felt the fat man’s gnarled hand. “ ... still pushing a broom.”