Ark by Julian Tepper Read Free Book Online

one hundred and fifty thousand, and then, come August, two hundred and fifty thousand, and then four hundred thousand by September, and now six hundred thousand with the start of autumn. Ben screamed at his lawyers—what was going on! When would this stop? They told Ben that for all intents and purposes things were going briskly. His daughter was relentless. She was doing everything to protract the suit, to drain him of his financial resources and his energy. And what could they do about that?
    On the late November morning that the legal bill hit eight hundred and forty thousand dollars, Ben received a call from the superintendent at his warehouse in Jersey City. The artist and his assistant were parked in the Cadillac, waiting for Eliza to finish up at the hairdresser on Mott Street. The superintendent began explaining how a week of rain had flooded the room where Ben’s art was stored. He couldn’t be specific about the damage to any work. He hadn’t been inside to look. What he knew for sure was that there was water. And perhaps lots of it.
    Jerome rushed from the car into the hairdresser’s. Seeing the artist’s wife seated in a black salon chair, a white barber’s apron cinched at the neck, her short red hair marked with thin pieces of tinfoil, and with Violet standing at her side, Jerome, visibly breathless and shaking, explained what had happened.
    â€œOh,” Eliza replied. There was a Band-Aid above her eyebrow. She had fallen off the bed yesterday and hit her head on the floor. Still, she looked pleased. She said, “I hope it’s all washed away. It’s garbage which has to be gotten rid of by someone at some point anyway.”
    Her position on Ben’s art had long ceased to offend Jerome. But he said, “Another crisis might kill him.”
    â€œI don’t see any change in my husband of late.” Looking up into the mirror, Eliza said, “Do you, Violet?”
    Amenable, subdued, Violet said, “No, Ms. Arkin.”
    â€œPerhaps you’re not aware of how much Ben spends on that warehouse. It’s three thousand and five hundred dollars a month. Running around scraping together money to pay these lawyers, and here he is wasting so much. Now he can finally get rid of the place.”
    â€œEliza, this might kill him.”
    â€œWell, then I’ll finally get to winter in Miami. You’ll come with me, Violet, won’t you?”
    To be heard above a hair dryer, Violet leaned into the old woman’s ear. She said, “Ms. Arkin, I go where you go.”
    â€œWe can go anywhere. We’ll have to go somewhere. I must get out of that loft. I can’t live there another day. It’s simply a terrible place. The moths have taken over. There’s no light. I think Southampton in the summer, and Miami in the winter. What do you say, Violet?”
    â€œMs. Arkin, I say yes.”
    â€œMy husband is not well. He should be put away and given extensive psychiatric treatment.”
    Jerome said, “Please, Eliza, just listen to me for a second.”
    â€œHe’s a danger to society, don’t you think, Violet?”
    â€œHe is different,” the nurse replied.
    â€œYou’re just being nice now,” Eliza said.
    Jerome’s dark eyes flashed a severe look. He didn’t have time for this conversation. He told Eliza and Violet to take a taxi home. “I don’t know when we’ll be back. Maybe by six or seven o’clock.”
    â€œTake all the time in the world,” Eliza told him. “We won’t be waiting for you.”
    Fifteen minutes later, the artist and his assistant were driving through the Holland Tunnel. Neither person spoke. When Jerome couldn’t endure the silence another moment, he gave Ben’s knee a pat, and told him not to worry. He said, “I think you could save a lot of money putting more miles between the warehouse and the city. We should consider a