The Righteous Men (2006) Read Free Page B

of cake. But I mean it. I believe in you.’ Will took her
hand. ‘You know what song I heard today, at work?
    It’s weird because you never hear songs like that on the radio, but it
was so beautiful.’
    ‘What was it?’
    ‘It’s a John Lennon song, I can’t remember the title. But he’s
going through all the things that people believe in, and he says, “I don’t
believe in Jesus, I don’t believe in Bible, I don’t believe in
Buddha”, and all these other things, you know, Hitler and Elvis and
whatever, and then he says, “I don’t believe in Beatles. I just
believe in me, Yoko and me.”
    And it made me stop, right in the waiting area at the hospital.
    Because — you’re going to think this is so sappy — but I
think it was because that’s what I believe in.’
    ‘In Yoko Ono?’
    ‘No, Will. Not Yoko Ono. I believe in us, in you and me.
    That’s what I believe in.’
    Will’s instinct was to deflate moments like this. He was too English
for such overt statements of feeling. He had so little experience of expressed
love, he hardly knew what to do with it when it was handed to him. But now, in
this moment, he resisted the urge to crack a joke or change the subject.
    ‘I love you quite a lot, you know.’
    ‘I know.’ They paused, listening to the sound of Beth scraping
her cheesecake fork against the plate.
    ‘Did something happen at work today to get you—’
    ‘You know that kid I’ve been treating?’
    ‘Child X?’ Will was teasing. Beth stuck diligently to the rules
on doctor-patient confidentiality and only rarely, and in the most coded terms,
discussed her cases outside the hospital. He understood that, of course,
respected it even. But it made it tricky to be as supportive of Beth as she was
of him, to back her career with equal energy. When the office politics at the
hospital had turned nasty, he had become familiar with all the key
personalities, offering advice on which colleagues were to be cultivated as
allies, which were to be avoided. In their first months together, he had
imagined long evenings spent talking over tough cases, Beth seeking his advice on
an enigmatic ‘client’ who refused to open up or a dream that
refused to be interpreted. He saw himself massaging his wife’s shoulders,
modestly coming up with the breakthrough idea which finally persuaded a silent
child to speak.
    But Beth was not quite like that. For one thing, she seemed to need it less
than Will. For him, an event had not happened until he had talked about it with
Beth. She appeared able to motor on all by herself, drawing on her own tank.
    ‘Yes, OK. Child X. You know why I’m seeing him, don’t you?
He’s accused of — actually, he’s very definitely guilty of
— a series of arson attacks. On his school. On his neighbour’s house.
He burned down an adventure playground.
    ‘I’ve been talking to him for months now and I don’t think
he’s shown a hint of remorse. Not even a flicker. I’ve had to go
right down to basics, trying to get him to recognize even the very idea of
right and wrong. Then you know what he does today?’
    Beth was looking away now, towards a table where two waiters were having
their own late-shift supper. ‘Remember Marie, the receptionist? She lost
her husband last month; she’s been distraught, we’ve all been
talking about it.
    Somehow this kid — Child X — must have picked something up,
because guess what he does today? He comes in with a flower and hands it to
Marie. A gorgeous, long-stemmed pink rose. He can’t have just pulled it
off some bush; he must have bought it. Even if he did just take it, it doesn’t
matter. He hands Marie this rose and says, “This is for you, to remember your
husband”.
    ‘Well, Marie is just overwhelmed. She takes the rose and croaks a
thank you and then has to just run to the bathroom, to cry her eyes out. And
everyone who sees this thing, the nurses, the staff, they’re all just
tearing up. I come out and find the whole