“I gave him hell. Fucking Kraut.”
“Aren’t you German on your mother’s side?”
“He’s still a fucking Kraut.”
Todd was sitting in the back of Maxine’s Mercedes, with Nurse Karyn — who had been thoroughly investigated by Maxine and judged reliable — at his side. The nurse was a woman of few words: but those she chose to utter usually carried some punch.
“I don’t see why y’all give a damn. I mean, what does it matter if somebody gets wind of it? He just got a chemical peel and a few nips and tucks. What’s the big deal?”
“It’s not something Todd’s fans need to know about,” Maxine replied. “They’ve got a certain idea of who Todd is.”
“So they’d think it wasn’t too masculine?” Nurse Karyn said.
“Shall we just move on from this?” Maxine said, catching Nurse Karyn’s gaze in the driving mirror, and shaking her head to indicate that the conversation — or at least this portion of it — was at an end. Todd, of course, saw none of this. He was still bandaged blind. “How are you doing, Todd?” Maxine said.
“Wondering how soon — ”
“Soon,” Maxine said. “Soon. Oh, by the way, I had a word with Jerry Brahms, and told him exactly what we needed. Two hours later he came back to me, said he had the perfect house for you. I’m going to see it with him tomorrow”
“Did he tell you where it was?”
“Somewhere up in the hills. Apparently, it was a place he used to go and play when he was a kid. I guess this is in the forties. He says it’s completely secluded. Nobody’s going to come bothering you.”
“He’s full of shit. They have fucking bus tours up in the hills. Every other house has somebody famous living in it.”
“That’s what I told him. But he swore this house was ideal. Nobody even knows about the canyon it’s in. That’s what he said. So we’ll see. If it isn’t any good for you, I’ll keep looking.”
Later that afternoon, Burrows came out to the beach-house to change Todd’s dressings. It was a surreal ritual for all concerned: Todd semi-recumbent on the deco sofa in the large window overlooking the beach, Maxine sitting at a distance, nursing an early vodka stinger, Burrows — his confidence tentatively back in place after the prickly exchanges of the previous day — chatting about the rain and the mud-slides while he delicately removed the bandages.
“Now the area around your eyes is going to be a little gummed up,” he warned Todd, “so don’t try and open your eyes until I’ve done some cleaning.”
Todd said nothing. He was just listening to the boom of his heart in his head, and outside, the boom of the storm-stirred waves. They were out of step with one another.
“I wonder,” Burrows said to Maxine, “if you’d mind closing the blinds a little way? I don’t want it to be too bright in here when I uncover Todd’s eyes.”
Todd heard Maxine crossing to the window; then the mechanical hum of the electric blinds as they were lowered.
“I think that’ll be far enough,” Burrows said. A click, and the hum stopped. “Now, let’s see how things look Hold very still, Todd, please.”
Todd held his breath as the dressing which the bandages had kept in place was gently teased away from his face. It felt as though a layer of his skin was coming away along with the gauze. He heard a little intake of breath from Maxine. “What?” he murmured.
“It’s okay,” Burrows said softly. “Please hold still. This is a very delicate procedure. By the way, when I put the new dressing on, I’ll be leaving holes for your eyes, so you’ll be able to … very still, please … good, good … so you’ll be able to see.”
“Maxine … ?”
“Please, Todd. Don’t move a muscle.”
“I want her to tell me what it looks like.”
“She can’t see yet, Todd.”
Burrows said something to his nurse, half under his breath. Todd didn’t catch the words. But he heard the gauze, which had now been stripped from his face completely, dropped with a wet plop into a receptacle. He imagined it soaked with his blood, shreds of his skin stuck to it. His stomach turned.