OCEAN
23
. . . Hello, sweetheart. How do you feel?"
Daddy's face was white as milk; his eyes were big and red and
bulging, and his brows were raised. Roggie was crying. The sky
was very, very dark. "What time is it?"
"Ten past five."
"I thought it was night."
"That was some mean wave, huh, sweetheart? Thank God :you
had your water wings on."
"Why did you do that, Daddy?" Stephen asked, blinking
his
bloodshot eyes.
"What?"
"Drown me."
"Drown you'! Me? It was the wave, sweetheart. The .wave!
It rolled you-all of us! Roggie, too. It's a lucky thing any of us
are still alive."
"Hello, Stevie," Roggie snivelled. "How do you feel?"
"Hello, Roggie."
"He's all right," Daddy reassured himself and Roggie. "Aren't
you, fellow? Imagine thinking it was
me!"
Stephen reached inside
his
bathing suit. "What's the matter? What is it, darling? Does
something hurt you?" Almost immediately Stephen found what he
was looking for-the emerald I-and he smiled and clutched it in his
fist. "What is that?"
Stephen was not, as yet, convinced that Daddy
hadn't
tried to
drown him, and he didn't feel like revealing his treasure. "Nothing."
"All right, then. Let's go back to the Casino. Mommy'll be
worried. You think you can make it,
kleine?"
"Sure."
Mommy was terribly upset when Stephen reported what had
happened. After thanking God it was the last weekend of the
summer, she asked Daddy a lot of questions about himself and
Bruce, and criticized them both severely. That made Daddy furious,
and he began to shout about Mommy playing Mah Jong all the time
instead of looking after her children, and Mommy shouted back
something about her neurasthenia, and Daddy said he didn't give
a good goddamn, it was her responsibility to keep the
kinder
out
of trouble, and did she know wliat had happened with Mr. Strauss
