"That's not what I
mean. What *are* you, Adam? Alan? Andrew? I've met people like you
before. There's something not right about you."
Alan didn't know what to say to that. This was bound to come up someday.
"Where are you from?"
"Up north. Near Kapuskasing," he said. "A little town."
"I don't believe you," Krishna said. "Are you an alien? A fairy? What?"
Alan shook his head. "Just about what I seem, I'm afraid. Just a guy."
"Just about, huh?" he said.
"Just about."
"There's a lot of wiggle room in *just about*, Arthur. It's a free
country, but just the same, I don't think I like you very much. Far as
I'm concerned, you could get lost and never come back."
"Sorry you feel that way, Krishna. I hope I'll grow on you as time goes
by."
"I hope that you won't have the chance to," Krishna said, flicking the
dog end of his cigarette toward the sidewalk.
#
Alan didn't like or understand Krishna, but that was okay. He understood
the others just fine, more or less. Natalie had taken to helping him out
after her classes, mudding and taping the drywall, then sanding it down,
priming, and painting it. Her brother Link came home from work sweaty
and grimy with road dust, but he always grabbed a beer for Natalie and
Alan after his shower, and they'd sit on the porch and kibbitz.
Mimi was less hospitable. She sulked in her room while Alan worked on
the soundwall, coming downstairs only to fetch her breakfast and coldly
ignoring him then, despite his cheerful greetings.
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