may or may not have been opened in a very long time, and a Christmas tree that had stood in the living room, fully decorated, for at least five years.
Artie had confided to CJ that he occasionally hosted poker games up there, telling his wife he was working late, and CJ had been quick to tell him that if he felt the need to organize such an event again, he was more than happy to offer the space, provided he was dealt in.
The first thing he did after walking in today was to make use of the bathroom, and there was something to be said for being able to do so without worrying about the bathroom door. Once finished with that, he and Thoreau took the steep, narrow staircase down so the dog could make nice with a fire hydrant. CJ spent more time outside than he wanted so that Thor could get his fill of fresh air. Tomorrow he would take the dog to the park so he could expend some energy. Or he might take Thor over to Artie’s, where he could explore the hardware store owner’s twenty acres.
Finally, though, when he was able to coax the dog back into the stairwell, all CJ wanted to do was collapse in bed, even to the exclusion of dinner. He’d put in a good day’s work at Artie’s, then some solid hours at the house. Once Julie had left, CJ tried to get out of Dennis what had happened between him and Richard, but his friend had been less than forthcoming, which left CJ having to field only a general feeling of appreciation.
Of course, the thing with Julie required more specific attention. There was a time when he wouldn’t have even given the ethical concerns a thought. While he’d always thought himself a decent sort, he would have considered this situation through the filter of the all’s fair in love and war ethos. Things were different now, but that didn’t make the issue any less complicated. What it did was put things in starker relief; the fact of it was that carrying on with a married woman was wrong. But was that what they were doing? He honestly didn’t know. The church didn’t automatically equip a person with the knowledge and, more importantly, the fortitude to handle all of life’s countless moral puzzles.
At least he was certain of one thing: for the first time in a long while he felt the urge to write something. With him, it always started as a general discontentment, a need to put into words some thought floating around between his ears. That was the way all of his books started, and soon enough he’d be pounding away on the keyboard, expounding on one big question. What was interesting to him now was that he didn’t know what that big question was, only that there was something there that felt like it could work its way into a question. And that was enough for him.
For the first time since returning to Adelia, he found he had a genuine interest in beginning the project that had ostensibly been the reason he’d remained past the funeral, until the arrest warrant provided another equally compelling, more immediate reason. Graham’s visit to the hardware store had ticked him off—made him want to explore this thing that Sal had referred to, this thing that seemed to find its source in the town’s chief industry.
He had a few things planned for tomorrow, once he’d fulfilled his obligation to Artie, and one of those involved research—perhaps even a visit to the library. That thought caused a little shiver to travel up his spine. The last time he’d been in the library, he’d been kicked out for smoking. Ms. Arlene had banned him for life, and CJ had taken the ban seriously. For the rest of his junior year, and then the entirety of his senior year, he hadn’t set foot in the library. In fact, once he got to Vanderbilt, one of the first things he did was to go to the library, just because he could.
He was reasonably confident that Ms. Arlene wouldn’t be there anymore. She’d been ancient when CJ was a boy, and she’d gotten meaner over the years. So she was either dead, or she was a hundred-year-old tinderbox of antipathy.
It was this thought that carried him to sleep.
When CJ walked into Maggie’s the next morning he was greeted with an unusual sight, and that was Dennis visible