Love in the Present Tense Read Free Page B

night. Just that night it had happened, and I knew it.
    Now, in the time that passed between then and now I have told that to a few people. They said I am crazy and I am wrong. They said you can’t know that so soon. They said if a woman could know that so soon they wouldn’t sell the little tests you pee on. She would just know. I don’t care what they say. I knew there was a baby in me, and I knew a baby is somebody who would always love me. Forever love, that’s what you get from a baby. He does not look at the clock and say oh shit. I better go home.
    I made up my mind I would love him forever right back. That would be my whole job in the world.
    So, that was my present. After all.
    I went to sleep with my head on Mama’s coat.

MITCH,
age
25 : phone calls from the top
    I was in a singularly bad mood that morning. I was standing in the middle of the goddamn street trying to flag down the FedEx truck, because my faithful so-called employees had forgotten to arrange the pickup. I was standing there waving my arms like a jackass in the middle of the goddamn street. I don’t know if the FedEx guy didn’t see me or just pretended he didn’t. But he swung around the corner and he was gone; one way or the other, I was pissed.
    I was thinking, fire somebody. I have got to fire somebody. This is no way to run a fucking business. I was thinking, this is why you shouldn’t hire your friends. Because you can’t bring yourself to can their asses in a pinch. I was thinking, you start a business out of your home, they forget this is real. Think it’s a game. Not to me it isn’t.
    Then I heard this voice, this funny little voice. “Hello, down there.” I looked around. It was weird. If it was one of my people playing a joke, it wasn’t so goddamn funny. I was in no mood. “Up here,” it said.
    â€œWho is that?” I said.
    â€œIt’s me. Leonard.”
    â€œLeonard who?”
    â€œLeonard up here.”
    I looked up at the second-floor window of the house next door, and there was this little kid waving to me. Like he thought I was waving my arms at him, so he was waving back. I didn’t have the heart to tell him how wrong he was, and all that rage just slipped out of me even though I needed it to stay.
    I walked over until I was standing in the grass under his window. “Hello up there,” I said.
    â€œHello down there,” he said.
    He was kind of Asian looking, somewhat. Kind of melting pot multiracial I guess. He smiled, and his front teeth weren’t all the way grown in. He had this dark, really jet-black hair that was noticeably unruly. It stuck up on his head like a spiky little weed patch. Shiny, like somebody had been trying to slick it down unsuccessfully. I was trying to remember what I’d just been all pissed off about because right at that moment I thought I still wanted it back.
    â€œLeonard what?” I said.
    â€œLeonard Leonard. Just Leonard. That’s all the name there is.”
    I figured he was playing a game with me, but it was an okay game, really, far superior to what waited for me back inside. “That’s the whole name, huh? Just Leonard?”
    â€œYuh,” he said. He was wearing these really thick Coke-bottle glasses with heavy black frames, and the way he was leaning out the window, I was positive they were about to fall into the grass at my feet.
    â€œYou’re going to lose those glasses,” I said.
    â€œNo way. Look.” He turned his head over so he was nearly looking at the sky, and I could see a wide black elastic band holding them in place.
    â€œPretty cool,” I said.
    â€œYuh,” Leonard said. “I know.”

    When I got back inside, Cahill was holding the phone receiver for my private line. “For you, Doc,” he said. With this funny look on his face.
    â€œDon’t tell me, let me guess. It’s a little kid.”
    â€œRight you are,