Call If You Need Me by Raymond Carver Read Free Book Online Page B

freezer fan inside the locker.
    I unlocked the door to the house. Sarah snapped on the light and went into the bathroom. I turned on the lamp beside the chair in front of the window and sat down with a cigarette. After a little while Sarah came out, still in her coat, and sat on the sofa and touched her forehead.
    “It was a nice evening,” she said. “I won’t forget it. So different from so many of our other departures,” she said. “Imagine, to actually have dinner with your landlord before you move.” She shook her head. “We’ve come a long way, I guess, if you look at it that way. But there’s a long way to go yet. Well, this is the last night we’ll spend in this house, and I’m so tired from that big dinner I can hardly keep my eyes open. I think I’ll go in and go to bed.”
    “I’m going too,” I said. “Just as soon as I finish this.”
    We lay in bed without touching. Then Sarah turned on her side and said, “I’d like you to hold me until I get off to sleep. That’s all, just hold me. I miss Cindy tonight. I hope she’s all right. I pray she’s all right. God help her to find her way. And God help us,” she said.
    After a while her breathing became slow and regular and I turned away from her again. I lay on my back and stared at the dark ceiling. I lay there and listened to the wind. Then, just as I started to close my eyes again, I heard something. Or, rather, something that I had been hearing I didn’t hear anymore. The wind still blew, and I could hear it under the eaves of the house and singing in the wires outside the house, but something was not there any longer, and I didn’t know what it was. I lay there a while longer and listened, and then I got up and went out to the living room and looked out the front window at the restaurant, the edge of moon showing through the fast-moving clouds.
    I stood at the window and tried to figure out what was wrong. I kept looking at the glint of ocean and then back to the darkened restaurant. Then it came to me, what the odd silence was. The generator had gone off over at the restaurant. I stood there a while longer wondering what I should do, if I should call Pete. Maybe it would take care of itself in a little while and switch back on, but for some reason I knew this wouldn’t happen.
    He must have noticed it too, for suddenly I saw a light go on over at Pete’s, and then a figure appeared on the steps with a flashlight. The figure carrying the flashlight went to the back of the restaurant and unlocked the door, and then lights began to go on in the restaurant. After a little while, after I had smoked a cigarette, I went back to bed. I went to sleep immediately.
    The next morning we had instant coffee, and washed the cups and packed them when we were finished. We didn’t talk much. There was an appliance truck behind the restaurant, and I could see Betty and Leslie coming and going from the back door of the restaurant, carrying things in their arms. I didn’t see Pete.
    We loaded the car. We would be able to carry everything into Eureka in one load, after all. I walked over to the restaurant to drop off the keys, but just as I got to the office door, it opened and Pete came out carrying a box.
    “It’s going to rot,” he said. “The salmon thawed out. It was just starting to freeze, then it began to thaw. I’m going to lose all this salmon. I’m going to have to give it away, get rid of it this morning. The fillets and prawns and scallops, too. Everything. The generator burned out, goddamn it.”
    “I’m sorry, Pete,” I said. “We have to go now. I wanted to give you back the keys.”
    “What is it?” he said and looked at me.
    “The house keys,” I said. “We’re leaving now. We’re on our way.”
    “Give them to Leslie in there,” he said. “Leslie takes care of the rentals. Give her your keys.”
    “I will, then. Good-bye, Pete. I’m sorry about this. But thanks again for everything.”
    “Sure,” he said.