The U Turn 02:11

Back to the table, and the water. The reflections included for Goldy some of the old man's frequent expressions. The well-known included among these that silent waters run deep, but also the more obscure like holding water in one's teeth, to not spill anything, idiomatically.

This was a complete stranger to her. Pleasant, mysterious. She was annoyed. It wasn't his fault and she'd give him a chance, but being treated this way was so nontraditonal. Everyone knows a new person is introduced, meaning vetted, not hoarded to one's self. Goldy huffed out a breath, into the stale un-familial subway air. She knew the old man was the one who weighed in on Silver, and he was dead. And if he wasn't, Silver wouldn't have called her up to say: This is the date. We really do hope you can make it.

Of course she would make it. Curiosity would have eaten her. Besides she still felt some responsibility, having razed her. That's what Silver would have joked. Raised her. And to be sure she'd bring the old lady, because curiosity would have eaten them both for lunch and dinner.

If she was to know anything of this man, this distraught man across the table, she would have to learn on her own. Having cut her trust, Silver had kept her life private. Or if she shared in intimate detail, it was elsewhere. Maybe here in these pages, Stan said she wrote. About what? the binders were big, full. He wasn't sure, what, more than is here, likely. Gold couldn't help but wonder, had she written about the past...

He didn't know at all that a publisher had called. That's wonderful. He felt she deserved the recognition, genuinely. Who was the Agent?