more time. I got a job
at Tulane Medical School and waited for Rhoda to return from Okinawa.
Once again, the book shop became a
focal point of my life. Soon, though, Mary and her daughter Consuelo
and Rhoda Norman decided to do some traveling.They hit the road,
driving first to Florida, up the East Coast, across the country,
eventually to arrive where I'd just returned from, California. While
they were gone, they left the management of the shop to a young
man named Ricky Coxe, who I could tell was in love with Mary.
We didn't know at the time that Mary,
Rhoda Norman and Consuelo would never return. Shortly after Rhoda
Faust got back from Okinawa, she got a call from Mary asking her
if she wanted the book shop, and telling her that if she didn't,
then she was going to sell it. It didn't take Rhoda long to decide;
|
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she told Mary
yes and called me to see if I would quit my job at the medical school
and come help her. I gave notice that day.
We could see that Ricky Coxe was
hard hit by all this news, first that Mary wasn't coming back, and
second that Rhoda was going to take over the shop. He gave us a
half-hearted tour of the stock and the paperwork, but I had trouble
staying tuned in because Rhoda had told me that Ricky had a bubble
of air trapped in his brain from a deep sea diving accident and
he could die at any moment.
Ricky stayed in New Orleans for a
while but ended up in New York. It wasn't long before we heard he
died there, sad and terrible news. I never forgot Ricky, though,
and 18 years later when I wrote The Emerald Lizard, I gave
a character Ricky's ailment. |
