Critical

"It only takes a half-hour," Angelo said. "It's actually called hydrophilic cement. The guy at the Home Depot recommended it."

Vi

Everyone had a good laugh.

"The problem is, she's passed out," Angelo said, changing the subject. "I wanted her to suffer. Instead, she looks like she's enjoying herself."

"Try to wake her," Vi

Angelo patted Laurie's cheek with the flat of his hand, but there was no response. He tried it harder. Still no response.

Vi

Richie reluctantly climbed the ship's ladder. He didn't want to miss the fun.

"You and me are just going to have to take what we get," Vi

As the boat bore down on the Statue of Liberty, the festivities hit high gear. A second Frank Sinatra CD had been put into the player, and when "My Way" came on, everyone sang. A few minutes later, when they got to the world-famous landmark, Vi

"Hey, it's my turn to join the fun," Richie said. "How about someone else run this hulk!"

Vi

Twenty minutes later, Vi

Vi

"Fine with me," Angelo said, slurring his words.

"Freddie!" Vi

"Hey, everybody," Angelo said. "It looks like the evening air has done her a world of good: She seems to be waking up!"

"Yes, she does," Vi

"Let's give her a little time," Angelo suggested. "I'd like her to know what's going on when we balance her on the stern with her cement boot on."

"Perfect," Vi

A half-hour slipped comfortably by as the men sat around Laurie and watched her slowly revive. There had been a lot of jerky movements over a fifteen-minute period, and finally her eyes had opened halfway.

Although it was obvious to everyone except Angelo that Laurie's lights were on but no one was home as of yet, Angelo insisted on talking with her in an attempt to get her to comprehend exactly what was about to transpire. Finally, he realized his efforts were in vain.

Standing up, Angelo steadied himself with his hand on the stern's gunwale. "Let's do it," he said. He undid the rope around Laurie's torso, which had been holding her upright in the chair.

"I want you to help!" Vi

"That's quite okay," Michael said. "I don't want to horn in on the fun."

"Nonsense," Vi

Michael studied Vi

"All right, everyone!" Angelo said. "First, we stand her up!"

Although the boat was in neutral, the engines still made considerable noise, especially when the exhaust pipes went under the water's surface, a situation that produced loud popping noises reminiscent of gunfire.

Moving Laurie from the chair to the very back of the boat was more difficult than they had expected. She was so flaccid, several people had to keep her upright while the others had to lift the five-gallon bucket of concrete. At that point, they faced the daunting task of lifting Laurie and the concrete up onto the stern gunwale.

"All right on three," Angelo said. Everyone was either grasping the weighty bucket or Laurie's floppy body.

Not everyone was immediately aware of a giant presence that had silently loomed out of the darkness, but certainly became so within seconds of each other. On the other hand, everyone was instantly frozen by the powerful and blinding searchlight beam, and everyone heard the word "freeze" as it was suddenly and loudly projected from a sizable directional speaker mounted on one of the larger vessels of the Harbor Police fleet. A second later, a grappling hook dropped over the yacht's gunwale and the two boats were quickly made fast. A moment later, uniformed police swarmed out of the blinding light and relieved the revelers of the burden of Laurie and her concrete boot.

Epilogue

Detective Lieutenant Lou Soldano quickly stubbed his cigarette out in his car's ashtray when he turned onto 106th Street. Whenever he even got close to Laurie, and even to Jack, for that matter, he always felt guilty about his smoking on account of having promised both of them he was stopping about nine million times. Slowing down, Lou parked in a no-parking access to the neighborhood playground across from Jack and Laurie's. He tossed his NYPD auto identification onto the dashboard and got out of the vehicle.

Although spring often would take a long time to appear in the city, it was doing fine as Lou looked around the neighborhood. A few crocuses had poked their delicate heads out of the ground in a small plot in the playground and even in a few window boxes on Jack and Laurie's side of the street. In the small wedge of Central Park that Lou could see at the end of the street was a patch of lacy yellow forsythia.

Starting across the street, Lou couldn't help but notice how Jack and Laurie's building stood out. They had just renovated it the year before when they had gotten married. Now several other buildings were in the process. The neighborhood was definitely on the upswing.

Before the renovation, Lou could just push in through the outer door, since its lock had been broken some time before the war and never fixed. Jack used to joke that it was the Civil War. Now Lou had to ring the bell, which he did. Jack and Laurie lived on the top two floors. The rest of the building had been divided into rental apartments, but Lou had the suspicion that Jack and Laurie let them for little or no money to deserving families, particularly single-parent families.

Presently, Laurie answered, which made sense, since Jack was still hobbled from his recent operation. Her voice sounded disgruntled. Knowing what they both had been through, he asked if he should come back at another time after identifying himself. Having come directly from court, he'd not phoned ahead.

"Are you joking?" she questioned with exasperation, as if Lou were adding to her woe.

"I was just asking. Maybe I should have called?"

"Lou, for chrissake, get your ass up here!"

Behind him, Lou could hear the door release activated. Quickly, he pushed it open, then held it with an extended foot. "I'm on my way."

"You'd better be."

Lou had no real idea what Laurie's mind-set was. At first she'd sounded purely vexed, but then it had seemingly turned to pique. As he climbed the final flight, suffering from all the cigarettes he'd smoked in his life, he vowed once again to quit tomorrow or maybe the next day.