The Third Lesson
WAS THE PIER SO BAD?" THE OLD woman asked.
"It wasn't my choice," Eddie said, sighing. "My mother needed help.
One thing led to another. "Years passed. I never left. I never lived
nowhere else. Never made any real money. "You know how it is—you get
used to something, people rely on you, one day you wake up and you
can't tell Tuesday from Thursday. You're doing the same boring stuff,
you're a 'ride man,' just like.. ."
"Your father?"
Eddie said nothing.
"He was hard on you," the old woman said.
Eddie lowered his eyes. "Yeah. So?"
"Perhaps you were hard on him, too."
"I doubt it. You know the last time he talked to me?"
"The last time he tried to strike you."
Eddie shot her a look.
"And you know the last thing he said to me? 'Get a job.' Some father,
huh?"
The old woman pursed her lips. "You began to work after that. You
picked yourself up."
Eddie felt a rumbling of anger. "Look," he snapped. "You didn't know
the guy."
"That's true." She rose. "But I know something you don't. And it is
time to show you."
RUBY POINTED WITH the tip of her parasol and drew a circle in the
snow. When Eddie looked into the circle, he felt as if his eyes were
falling from their sockets and traveling on their own, down a hole and
into another moment. The images sharpened. It was years ago, in the
old apartment. He could see front and back, above and below.
This is what he saw: