Replay Read Free

straight away and come meet you? I thought you had something romantic in mind, but it was nothing of the sort. You made me carry an old, foul-smelling dog with a broken leg that you’d found on the side of the road all the way to the vet in the middle of the night.”
    “You remember that, Andrew Stilman?”
    “I remember everything we did together, Valerie Ramsay. Now will you tell me a bit more about what happened between that afternoon when I waited in vain for you at the Poughkeepsie movie theater and your reappearance this evening?”
    “I’d received the admission letter from the University of Indianapolis in the mail that morning, so I packed my bag. I left Poughkeepsie that same evening with the money I’d been saving from my summer jobs and babysitting. I was so glad I’d never have to watch my parents arguing again. They didn’t even want to take me to the bus station, can you believe it? But, seeing as you can only devote nine lines to your ex-girlfriend, I’ll spare you the details of my university studies. Anyway, when I moved to New York, I had a string of part-time jobs in various vet surgeries, until one day I answered a police ad and landed a position. I’ve been on the permanent staff for two years.”
    Andrew asked a passing waitress to bring them two more coffees.
    “I like the idea of you being a vet in the police. I’ve written more obituaries and wedding announcements than you could imagine, but I’ve never heard of that particular profession. I wouldn’t even have imagined it existed.”
    “Of course it exists.”
    “I was angry with you, you know.”
    “What about?”
    “About running off without saying goodbye.”
    “You were the only person I confided in about wanting to leave the second I could.”
    “I hadn’t realized your secret was a warning.”
    “Are you still mad at me?” Valerie asked, teasingly.
    “I should be. But hey, it’s ancient history.”
    “And you? You actually became a journalist?”
    “How do you know?”
    “I asked you earlier about what you were doing with your life and you answered, ‘What I always wanted to do.’ And you always wanted to be a journalist.”
    “You remember that?”
    “I remember everything, Andrew Stilman.”
    “So who’s this guy you’re seeing?”
    “It’s late,” Valerie sighed. “I have to get home. Anyway, if I tell you too much you’ll never manage to put it all into nine lines.”
    Andrew smiled mischievously. “Does that mean we’re having dinner at Joe’s Shanghai?”
    “If you win your bet. I’m a woman of my word.”
    They walked through the deserted SoHo streets to Sixth Avenue without saying a word to each other, Andrew holding Valerie’s arm to help her cross the uneven cobblestones.
    He hailed a taxi and held the door open for Valerie as she slid into the back seat.
    “It was a great surprise to see you again, Valerie.”
    “For me too, Ben.”
    “Where can I send you my nine-line masterpiece?”
    Valerie rummaged in her bag, pulled out her eye pencil and asked Andrew to open the palm of his hand. She wrote her phone number on it.
    “If it’s nine lines, you should be able to text them to me. Goodnight.”
    Andrew watched the cab drive off. When he’d lost sight of it, he continued on to his apartment, a fifteen-minute walk away. He needed the fresh air. Although he’d memorized the number on his hand as soon as he’d seen it, he kept his palm open, glancing at the number every few seconds to be sure it hadn’t disappeared, all the way home.
     

2.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    I t had been a long time since Andrew had summed up someone’s life in a few lines. For the past two years, he’d been working on the paper’s foreign desk. He’d always had a strong interest in current events and world affairs.
    Now that computer screens had replaced the banks of Linotype machines and typesetters, the entire editorial staff had access to the articles that would be appearing in the next day’s