NOTE: If you haven’t been following this from the beginning, and if you want to know the full sequence of events, start with the introduction. Click on Archives on the right.
The sight of a huge Buick station wagon takes me back to the
seventies but it is parked in the Safeway parking lot here
in the twenty-first century. It must belong to Maynard Keyes.
Could there possibly be two huge pink anachronisms burning
extravagant amounts of fuel in this area?
Bel Vionnet waves to me from the shade, as I walk towards the entrance.
“You like that car, huh?”
“Yes, until…”
“I know.”
Donna Intaglio stands next to bel, turned to one side with her phone up to her ear.
“Are you waiting for a ride home?”
“In that thing?”
“It could happen. I know the owner!”
Maynard strolls through the exit door with a yellow canvas shoulder bag
hanging at his side.
“Fred, isn’t it?”
“It is, Maynard. This is, bel Vionnet.”
“How do you do? I must be in the midst of some anamnesis!”
Bel puts down her shopping bags and looks up to his face nearly two feet above hers.
“Okay, do I remind you of some past life?”
“It is your name, bel. My dear old teacher, Vincent Vionnet.”
“Really, I wonder if he is on our family tree?”
“Are you working on one?”
“My husband is. Steve has spent the whole of COVID on both his and mine.”
“Maybe you’ll find him! He introduced me to Shakespeare’s ninety-first Sonnet.
Do you know it?
‘…Thy love is better than high birth to me…,’”
“No Maynard but isn’t it among the ‘fair youth sequence’.”
“So, it is.”
“Well, how about that! Kind of a wild guess, I must admit.”
“You see, I was Vincent’s, ‘fair youth.’”
A low-flying jet crosses above the tree line.
“What brings you back to Fauxmont?”
“What’s that Fred?”
“I asked what brings you back to Fauxmont.”
“That plane seems very low and noisier than the others this morning.”
“Yes, we are on the flight path this morning.”
Maynard scans the tree line for the next aircraft.
“I just dropped Boyd off at his mother’s.”
“Getting along again, are they?”
“Well, I am making lunch for us, Fred.”
Maynard indicates his well-filled bag.
Thunder cracks in our ears, which makes Donna jump as she finishes her call.
“Where did that come from? The sky looks clear!”
Bel steps out into the parking lot to get a better look.
“It is raining over at National Airport.”
Maynard steps out to look, too.
“Yes, you are closer to Calvin Coolidge, here than I thought.”
“We need the rain!”
Bel pulls her two bags back as a woman steps out of a Range Rover SUV in full spandex with minimum coverage.
“There goes the power!”
Donna turns to bel, as the store goes dark, with phone still in hand.
“Did you know, Albrecht is in jail?”
“I didn’t know he had been arrested!”
“They took him in last month, Fred.”
“Welcome back, by the way, Donna.”
“Thanks, I got the first flight I could after hearing about it.”
“How did you find out?”
“Lark Bunlush called us. She found out when she was looking for Boyd.”
“So, he has been in jail for a while.”
“Yeah, weeks. I wanted to see him yesterday right after I got off the plane.”
“You mean you didn’t?”
“No, got caught in traffic and there are complications. I never thought I would enter into such a disaster!”
“What do you mean?”
“Oh, just stuff. I am afraid he is going to get the virus in that place.”
Maynard runs his thumb under the bag strap that crosses his Hawaiian shirt front.
“Why was Albrecht apprehended?”
“You mean you know him, Maynard”?
“I know of him, but we have never met.”
“They accused him of breaking into the Capitol.”
Bel gestures toward Donna.
“Ah, Maynard, this is Albrecht’s Mom, Donna Intaglio.”
“How do you do?”
He puts his long fingers over his heart.
“Maynard.”
Donna looks over at bel.
“Thank you, bel.”
“Does he have benefit of counsel?”
“I am trying to get Sherman Shrowd, but his office says he is out of town.”
“Yes, Shrowd, sounds familiar somehow.”
“He has done a lot of work for this community, for free. He’s known Albrecht ever since he was born.”
“I might be able to help.”
Maynard starts texting with broad fingertips and great dexterity.
Donna’s smile breaks through her misery.
“You are as kind as you are tall!”
“I am a friend of Boyd’s.”
“Oh, but they have split!”
“Yes, unfortunate that, but inevitable. So, I gather from Boyd.”
“I don’t care who it is, I think Albrecht will be better off with a companion.”
“Yes, many of us are. You know, Donna I think my friend, Andante Sforzando, is a partner in Shrowd’s firm.”
“God! I doubt if we can afford him if he is.”
“He might take Albrecht’s case pro bono.”
“He might? Why? I mean we have never even heard of him.”
“I think Albrecht would have his sympathy and Andy is well able to afford it.”
“Is he a Trumper, or something?”
“I don’t know exactly what his politics are these days, conservative certainly.”
“I, I mean, I just don’t get it!”
“It can be difficult for conservatives these days.”
“Yeah, being the mother of one is, too.”
Bel gently rubs Donna’s back.
“Ah, Maynard, is this guy a real courtroom operator?”
“Oh yes, he will argue the case, if it comes to that.”
“You think it might not?”
“Yes, few cases ever get to court, you know.”
Bel frowns looking down at her shopping bags.
“So true!”
“Yes, anyway I shall know more when Andy responds to my text.”
“How well do you know him?”
“We have been well acquainted over the last twenty years or so.”
“I get it.”
“Do you know what the charges are?”
Donna has put her phone away.
“The arrest affidavit shows some vid of him on the terrace
outside the Capital, overlooking the mob. They allege that he followed
a group of others into the building.”
“Is that on the video?”
“Not on what Lark saw.”
“So, you haven’t seen it yourself?”
“No, Lark started researching stuff for an article, after looking for Boyd.”
“Have they posted bail?”
“I think it is $25K. but I need to check.”
Bel puts her arm around Donna’s shoulder as she tries to suppress her sobs.
“Honey, this is going to take a while. There is so much video evidence and over five hundred have been arrested.”
Maynard stoops down in sympathy and covers her hand with his broad palm.
“Yeah, but most of them are released!”
Maynard is shifting his weight from foot to foot.
“I am sure he can be bailed once we know more.”
Bel looks into Donna’s face.
“Is Herman going to join you, honey?”
“No! They had a big fight over the phone. He is through with Albrecht. His only child. It is criminal! All because Albrecht got so wound up supporting a corporate takeover of the government. I mean, how pathetic!”
“Maybe this arrest will bring him over?”
“No! Like I said, he doesn’t care.”
“Oh.”
“Herman says he is staying in Grenoble. They have offered him a permanent job and he is never coming back here.”
“You mean the print-making job?”
“Yeah, he loves it, there.”
“How about you?”
“I kind of miss the States.”
Donna stifles another sob and wipes her eyes.
“What do I do when the two most important people in my life talk as if they hate each other?”
Lightening still flashes through the humid heat.
Maynard steps into the lot to look at the sky again and comes back.
“Excuse me, Donna I am so sorry you are in such difficulty, but I must go.”
“Oh, nice meeting you Maynard.”
“Delighted Donna if you give me your contact info. I will get in touch as soon as I hear from Andy Sforzando.”
Maynard texts Donna and, with a wave, lopes over to his vast pink metal palace.
The store manager comes out to tell us that backup power will come on soon.
Steve Strether draws up to the curb and lowers his window.
“Hi, Fred, who’s that giant?”
Donna steps forward to greet Steve.
“That is Maynard, and he is trying to do me a giant favor!”
Bel gets into the car with her bags.
“You need a ride, Donna?”
Bel reaches over from the seat next to him and shakes his forearm.
“Honey, she is coming for dinner.”
