Fin & Lady: A Novel Read Free

he was going, happy, relieved, just walking and walking, and just when he realized he was bitterly cold, he spotted a revival house. He would slip in to warm up. The film: Les Enfants du Paradis . Almost over? Just as well. He couldn’t bear to watch the whole thing. The French … too theatrical in general. He paid no attention to the movie, arty crap, until it was over. Then the screen went black, and three bright white letters appeared.
    FIN.
    “I think Lady is a pretty name,” said Fin’s mother.
    Hugo laughed. “Who are you defending, Lydia? My choice of names? Or that little tart? I can never tell with you.”
    “You don’t need defending.”
    “Does Lady need defending?” Fin asked.
    “You have no idea what we’re talking about,” Hugo said, as if that answered Fin’s question.
    Which was true, of course, he had no idea what they were talking about, except that they were talking about Lady, and that he knew when something was wrong in the house, and something was definitely wrong.
    *   *   *
    A few weeks later, a tall, elegant lady visited. She was introduced to Fin as Mrs. Hadley. He looked up at his mother, alarmed. She laughed, her musical girlish laugh, and said, “Don’t worry, baby. Mommy’s still Mommy. This is another Mrs. Hadley. This is Lady’s mother.”
    Fin shook hands with the other Mrs. Hadley.
    His father came out of the living room and said, “Well, well.”
    Then Fin was told to go and play. Who, he wondered, when they said that, did they think he was going to play with? He went as far as the dining-room door, and from there he watched them settle themselves, the other Mrs. Hadley on a stiff armchair, his mother perched on the edge of the sofa, his father striding back and forth, saying, “I can’t just leave everything and go chasing after her.”
    “I’ve tried,” said the other Mrs. Hadley, who was dabbing at her eyes with a small handkerchief. “I found her in Paris, it wasn’t hard, there she was at the Ritz. A runaway at the Ritz! She can be ridiculous. She said she didn’t want to get married…”
    “She certainly made that clear. At the last possible moment.”
    “But she won’t get married, even though…” The other Mrs. Hadley paused. Then: “She won’t get married, she won’t take care of things. Does she think she’ll wake up one morning and the problem will have solved itself? You have to do something, Hugo.”
    “Poor thing,” from Fin’s mother, a snort from his father, a sigh from the other Mrs. Hadley.
    Then: “Damn it.” Fin’s father.
    “Think about how alone she must feel.” Fin’s mother.
    “I doubt that Lady is alone.” Fin’s father.
    “You haven’t changed a bit, have you?” The other Mrs. Hadley.
    “She’s a disgrace. Let her rot abroad.”
    “You don’t mean that, Hugo,” Fin’s mother said.
    “She’s nothing but trouble, and I do mean that.”
    “Nevertheless,” said the other Mrs. Hadley, “she is your daughter.”
    “She needs you,” Fin’s mother said.
    “She needs to be brought home and spanked.”
    “And so I thought of you,” the other Mrs. Hadley said in an acid tone.
    *   *   *
    “We are going on a trip, Fin,” his mother said the next day. “We’re going to find your sister, Lady. In Paris. Won’t that be fun?”
    “Oh, loads,” said Hugo.
    Fin thought of the newspaper photograph of Lady. “Is Paris on the beach?”
    “We are going to find her and bring her home,” his father said. “Put the fear of God in her.”
    Fin didn’t want to put the fear of anybody in anybody. Neither, it appeared, did his mother.
    “I still don’t see the point of taking Fin and me,” his mother said. “It’s such a long trip. And the whole thing is so awkward…”
    “Awkward? I’ll tell you what’s awkward. Having a daughter who behaves like a common…” He looked at Fin and stopped himself. “It will grease the skids, okay? She likes you, Lydia. She always has.”
    He sounded as if he