Chapter 7 – Bride & Seek

In the elevator Verne requested: 

“Game face only.” I was bemused.

Which game is that?

“Bride and Seek” – the ancient

Party game – requires someone 

Getting locked in an airtight trunk

Does not end well, as I recall.

We decanted on the penthouse floor.

Battle of the Rich Men, I thought,

Who knew that’s how my

Weekend would devolve?

 But this man’s apartment seemed really his

As opposed to Verne’s

Antiseptic rented rooms – 

Each gaudy piece carefully curated, 

Trucked in from God knows where

 Art deco friezes,

Naked ebony statues –

Bows & arrows –

Lots of brass and torchieres.

And that’s just the hall.

 Leather paneled, copper nailed door 

Opened before we even rang the bell and 

A handsome, shorter, older man

Stood before us in bathrobe and slippers.

Mirabel with this guy?

What is the use of beauty

If this is all it gets you

Verne’s at least good-looking. 

“Why, Verne,” he said in a voice even I

Recognized as jovially false: 

“What brings you at this hour?

Please come in.” Bizarre foreign accent

I couldn’t place.

He took my hand, mauling it like many

An unbalanced teacher at my Special School

for Introducing Adolescents to Adult Subjects

Long Before They’re Ready.

I am practiced at closing my mind

Against these guys

Even as they woo me.

 “You can only be Mirabel’s lost sister.”

“That’s just it,” I said, “It’s Mirabel who’s lost, not me.”

“I’m Ravi Kruptupian,” said the man, 

Refusing to let go.

Subtle power struggle – your manners make no

Purchase here –

My first flicker of

Actual fear – alone in the world

With two strange men who wore

Compulsive need like ad logos.

I can’t fault Mirabel for deciding 

 Better disappear than marry amongst this ilk but

Where does that leave ME?

 “Welcome to my enchanted forest,”

Said the man in the bathrobe.

“Please leave your shoes by the door.”

He slid the bolt as

We came through.

 “I know it’s late,” Verne began,

Ravi said, “Never care about the time. Drink?

Pot of coffee?”

Kruptupian’s inner rooms did not reassure.

Dark, hand-carved, certainly fake

Tree branches projected from the walls

Displaying riots of glittering glass objects.

Coffee appeared from

A wall recess. Why not? 

Spiked mine with hot milk and brown lump sugar.

“Where exactly did Mirabel SAY she was going?”

Asked this man as if he and Mirabel’d never met.

“Aren’t you supposed to be

Honeymooning?”

Was that a tinge of glee I heard?

I’m sure Verne heard it too.

He might go off on any moment –

I didn’t think he was coping well –

Game face was NOT in evidence.

We sat in an upholstered leather booth

Highbacked –

Plundered from some café.

“She didn’t say,” said Verne.

 “She was joining us for dinner,”

I told this strange new man.

“I just arrived on the six o’clock train.”

“Sisters can be difficult,” said Ravi.

“Or so I’ve heard.

Your relationship was good?”

Wow! Mirabel wasn’t great at telling folks

The basic facts about her family.

Was he implying

Mirabel left because of ME?

Two Marshott girls never breathe at once?

I decided not to get into it.

“She seemed fine when we tried on clothes together,”

I began to feel hopped up on coffee.

Quit that stuff

Before the shaking hands. I

Banged my mug upon his shiny table.

“I heard you knew her well.”

Let him think she’d squealed –

I smiled in a way that forecloses

Further questions and

He blinked indulgently.

“I haven’t heard a word 

Since her going away party.”

Ripple of surprise from Verne.

 “Going-away party” unknown to groom?

Ravi kept smiling. 

He had a lot of teeth.

“Maybe she needs a honeymoon alone

I heartily recommend 

Fall in love with your SELF first.”

We did not believe him for a minute –

He was needling Verne.

This bad conversation somehow seemed

To be endlessly getting worse.

“She certainly had the means –

 I gave her a generous parting gift

Then found out she helped herself to more.”

His face hardened, steely-eyed.

“I didn’t know until she tried to fence my stones.”

“Mirabel stole from you?”  spluttered Verne.

“Who knows what went through her mind,” 

Ravi spread his hands in apology.

“She may have been confused about my gift.

No harm done.

Jacobson returned the stones.”

What did all this mean? Don’t worry about Mirabel,

She’s just a little thief?

Disappearing from humiliation, exposure & shame?

I felt surge of prosecutorial passion:

Was it possible to get to the bottom of this?

Never had “game face” seemed so

Dangerous and unappealing.

“She worked for you?”

I tried to clarify.

 “She was my scout. She brought me – 

Things I might want to buy.”

Verne’s boil burst.

“She never for anything with me!”

He sounded ready for a fight

But defending his money, his charm or

My sister?

Ravi skirted the issue

With old-world politesse.

“Women keep some expenses private.”

That’s true as dirt;

My mother calls it “mad money”.

A hundred dollars tucked inside

Your bra. Verne would never best this man

 Except in hotness and

Eligibility. Someone

Needed to tell him he was “enough”;

Probably that was Mirabel’s job

And she got tired of doing it.

I was not the one to explain to him.

I pursued investigation.

“Did she call you?”

Ravi pulled out his phone. 

Flicked through content. “I don’t see it.”

“She took a car to the wilds of Brooklyn,”

Verne asserted, coming back up

Like a Bobo doll.

“Know anything about that?”

He was overly combative – this

Wouldn’t get us anywhere.

“What address?” At least

Ravi seemed interested.

Luckily Verne recalled it.

Ravi remained impassive.

“I’ve got no information.”

Verne stood up. This felt bad.

“Sure she isn’t hiding here? Using some old key?”

Ravi rose too. 

Short but still impressive.

“She never had a key. She couldn’t enter

 Without my knowing. I’d rather

My house guests weren’t disturbed.”

Verne veered away. Fisticuffs avoided.

Ravi walked us  – miming helpfulness

Towards the door.

“I suggest missing persons.

Get police involved.”

He seemed to know this would insult Verne further

And it did but Verne shook it off, 

A punch-drunk fighter.

“What good are they?”

Ravi pushed his luck.

“Troll the basics – hospitals and morgues.”

Verne’s face melted into gargoyle. 

Turning to me Ravi backtracked –

“Likely bridal nerves?  The engagement was

So sudden.”

“We’ve been together forever!”

Verne barked. I took his arm.

“Sorry if we’ve inconvenienced you.”

Somehow the door got opened.

“No problem. Let me know if she turns up.”

I shoehorned Verne outside.

“You’ll tell us if she calls?”

“If that’s what Mirabel wants.”

I got the door shut before Verne

Attacked him.

“I hate that guy! He’s so disgusting!

How I wish we hadn’t come!”

I thought he might weep.

The elevator opened without a

Summons. This whole place seemed

Intent on ridding itself of us.

But Verne resisted. “I bet she’s in there.”

He looked back longingly.

“I bet she’s not.” I muscled him

Into the elevator.

 “How do you know?”

He looked at me as if I had

Magic powers.

“He accused Mirabel of stealing!”

Verne blew that off.

“Mirabel’s light-fingered.

He steals from the world, she steals from him.”

He didn’t seem to realize 

This philosophy could apply to him.

Why marry someone you can’t trust?

One more thing I still don’t get

About Adult World.

I reassured him.

“She burned that bridge. I could tell.”

Verne taxed me with how I knew –

Sneering, “Woman’s intuition?”

Since he couldn’t trust Mirabel

How could he trust me?

Needing me made him hate me.

I would have to manage him 

Like a parent. Like poor

Mirabel herself. Luckily

He relaxed into the car without more fuss.

I said, humoresque – “I’m psychic.”

I say that to my folks because

They’re just so clueless about

Others’ vital signs –

How else explain the obvious? But

Verne’s whole face changed. He became

Pathetically excited.

“Of course!” he said.

“The sister thing! It creates

A Psychic link. I have no siblings. 

Tell me what you feel?

Where’d she go?”

The driver also needed to know:

Where to?

We put him on pause while

I equivocated. 

 “I haven’t seen her in so long,

The connection’s fogged.”

The only thing I knew for sure was

Mirabel must hate Ravi just like I did.

“I need to get to know her again.”

“Tell me where to go,” said Verne.

Then he invoked the magic words.

“I’ll do anything.”