examination,â unquote.â
Minaâs face appeared on the screen.
She was in mid-spate. This was evidently an excerpt from a longer interview in Cliftâs defense. They heard her say only, âThey all laughed at Christopher Columbus, remember? Columbus thought the world was round, the idiot.â
She laughed and was faded out. The station announcer reappeared.
âProfessor Clift is unavailable for further comment. That was forty-six-year-old Mina Legrand, close associate and intimate friend of the legendary Joe Bodenland, who once claimed he had gone back in time to shake hands with Frankenstein. Bodenland now heads the multinational Bodenland Enterprises.
âOur sources report that Bodenland himself is missing. Mina Legrand would not comment, beyond stating Bodenland was interested in the amazing new discovery. Meantime, letâs hope all those Utah critters are well and truly extinct â¦â
âOh god â¦â Kylie switched off the power before the commercials popped up, and turned to Larry.
He set down his half-empty glass.
âYou were right all along, sweetie. Something is wrong. My father needs me. Weâre going to have to catch the next plane.â
âOh no, Larry. Your father has to look after himself, just as you say he always made you look after yourself. Youâre only going to lay yourself open to a snub if you interfere now. Heâll be okay. Joeâll be okay. Letâs go back to the beach.â
âJesus!â He waved his hands above his head. âWho just now wanted to get off the beach? WomenâIâll never understand them. Pack, Kylie. Weâre off. Utahâthatâs where Joeâll be. Old John.â
She blocked his way to the bedroom, angry and pugnacious.
âIâm not going back to Old John. Neither are you. Screw Old John. Think, will you? You are married to me. You are no longer going to live under your fatherâs shadow. I love the old boy, but he is going to ruin your life if you are weak. Canât you understand that? Everyone else does.â
âWeak, am I? Weâll see about that.â He grabbed her wrist and twisted her round until she sank to the ground. âBaby, Iâm all action when I get going, and Iâm going right now.â
As he ran into the bedroom, Kylie got to her knees and shouted, âBuster, if you go youâre gone for good, get that? Your parents have already loused up our honeymoon once. Iâm not having it again. Call your mother if youâre so anxious about your father. But if you leave this hotel, you leave it on your own, and our marriage is a dead duck.â
Striding by her with a hastily packed overnight bag, he stared at her bitterly and made a threatening gesture.
ââGoodbye was all he wrote,ââ he said. The suite door slammed behind him.
Kylie walked about the suite for a while. She went into the bedroom and collected all her husbandâs clothes from the closets and elsewhere, stuffing them into his suitcase. When she had cleared the room of his belongings, she took the suitcase to the window and flung it out into the gardens below.
She stripped down until she wore nothing but her crucifix, then took a shower. After that, she sat in her caftan and attempted to read Dracula for a while. But her mind was elsewhere.
When the time came, she put on a cocktail dress in which to go down to dinner. In the Bradfordâs outdoor restaurant, she ate a lobster thermidor and drank half a bottle of a white Australian wine.
Thus fortified, she went into the ballroom, where a blond-haired young man on vacation from Alaska immediately asked her to dance.
She did dance.
4
In the night that enveloped Utah, Larry was half drunk. âThis chopperâs easier to fly ân one of my model planes,â he called to Bodenland.
Neither Bodenland nor Clift made any response, if they heard.
âIâve got a World War II Boeing I
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