Audrey Hepburn's Pearls: Part I

Chapter 77.3: 1968, Georgina

"Yeah, I took it."

"Oh, okay..." He paused immediately, then looked back at me, perplexed. "How did you get the water for that?" 

My hands gripped my skirt too hard, thinking about it. I remembered it clearly, that pain. But I'd gotten through it. It hadn't seemed as much as before, though just marginally. It was impossible to me, but it was so. "Um...I stood up and got it."

Paulie stared at me, his eyes wide, his mouth slightly open. But then his face collapsed into a  kind-hearted grin. "That's my girl!" He said, the warmest words ever, so proud, so full of relief. "You feeling better?" My heart bloomed a little at this, missing this.

"A little."

"I'm so glad to hear it. Really. We were talking about you at dinner. Sasha was so worried."

Sasha. What we'd been discussing when he left. Of course he was worried. We'd been talking about Miracle all day, nonstop. He'd been getting more bothered by the minute it seemed, and by the time he'd left he'd been convinced that Eddie or Antony or both were going to burst through that door. The look of anguish on his face. How he'd hugged me close, my head on his chest and him cradling my head like he'd never see me again. He'd been utterly convinced. 

But wait. Sasha. He'd told me, so... Paulie was so happy...

"Did Sasha tell you?" I asked, feeling a weight in these words, making me sorely uncomfortable in my chest.

"Tell me what? Oh wait, did Sasha know you were feeling better? He didn't tell me?!" Paulie looked delighted.

Oh god, Paulie's grin. How long had it been since he'd smiled like this? Could smile like this? It made me uneasy. God his smile. I couldn't...

What would his reaction be if I told him Antony Caselotti was out of jail? Miracle had been Paulie's friend, too. He never spoke of her, but I knew they'd known each other really well. In fact, that night when we were at the club, Miracle had asked for him. It seemed like they knew each other really well. She'd asked for him and wanted...

Wait a minute. 

Paulie was looking through a cabinet now, grinning. "I'll give you the best plate I have. No chips! You deserve it. This is cause for celebration, isn't it? You're getting better! I feel like my baby stood for the first time!" He was positively chirping like a bird. 

My eyes narrowed. Ganya's voice flashed in my head, from so long ago it seemed. The darkness of my apartment, my urine stained nightgown and that acidic smell. Sasha's warm sweater as I'd buried my head in it. Ganya's booming voice, telling him no. What had he been saying? "If I don't interrogate her now, other people will!" What had they been talking about? About Miracle... About... Heroin...

My hands let my skirt loose, my mouth opened. 

Miracle had been on heroin. Ganya saying if they could find out that the Caselottis were dealing her that heroin, then they could throw the book at them and this would all be over.

Was that what he'd said? I couldn't remember. 

But now I'd remembered something else. 

Paulie was beaming like a Disney Princess, like he could start dancing and singing like Aurora from Sleeping Beauty with woodland animals at any second. He was that happy. In the light, I studied him, knowing what I knew now. My entire perspective hadn't changed, he was still the same Paulie. But what I knew now.

His skin looked so clear. It had color back. He looked younger, healthier. Transformed. He seemed so healthy now. I could tell for sure he wasn't on drugs, wasn't drinking. Wasn't smoking, even. This was all such a huge change for him. He'd been smoking since he was fourteen, drinking since he was fifteen. I knew that. He'd told me he'd been on drugs since he was nineteen. Nineteen! And he was thirty-three now. To be off all that, trying so hard. He'd told me how hard he'd been trying when I was in the hospital, how he admired me that I could stop drinking and smoking like I did. How that gave him strength, knowing that.