Ask the Right Question Read Online Free PDF Page B

client. How serious you believe it is and how likely to turn sour.
    Eloise Crystal arrived at my office ten minutes before four o’clock. By doing so she gave me a time measure of the hesitation which preceded her arrival at 4:25 the day before.
    But the difference was more than one of time. Confidence declared itself in her walk, in the efficiency with which she took the chair. Today the chair was her own. The net impression was the inverse of her last visit. Today she dressed younger—skirt, blouse, sandals, no shades—but she radiated more maturity. An assured young woman. My fifteen-year-old chamelion.
    â€œWell,” she said. “How are we doing? Found his name yet?”
    She was joking, but I also suspected that she knew little of the tedium and irresolution of the world. Today’s joke might be a serious inquiry next week and I could easily have just as little to tell her.
    â€œI did do a little work today, as a matter of fact. But we still haven’t settled whether I’m going to work for you or not.”
    She dropped her head a little, and said, “I know. But I’ve been thinking about it, and I’m really glad that I decided to come yesterday. It’s a load off my mind somehow. That I’ve finally taken a positive step to get it all solved.”
    â€œI thought you only found out about those blood types in the last couple of weeks.”
    She nodded. “But I’ve always known something was wrong. Before I just didn’t know what.”
    â€œWrong with you?”
    â€œYeah. Something about me that made it bad between them. Like, I used to think I was an orphan.”
    Almost everybody does. “And what do you think now?”
    She paused and tried to get it right, the way she felt it. “I think, well, that Leander knows that I’m not his and that he’s sort of repressed my mother for it.”
    Repressed? “Don’t they get along?”
    â€œThey don’t really not get along. But they don’t do anything together. They don’t smile at each other. He goes off to work in the morning and sometimes doesn’t come back till late. Mummy worries a lot that she’s sick. And they don’t have any friends.”
    She resented it. Parents should have friends.
    My cuckoo sounded off four times.
    I leaned back in my chair and put my foot up on the bottom desk drawer edge. It’s one of my favorite thinking positions. “Eloise,” I said. It was the first time I had said her name.
    â€œI’m listening,” she said. She wasn’t happy.
    â€œYou see, I’m in a difficult position. Basically that is because the particular problem you want me to solve is one which I can’t be sure I can solve. I could work for weeks and not have any information that would help you. And that runs into money, pretty big money.”
    â€œI understand that. I have money. I have a trust fund that my grandfather made for me.”
    â€œThe problem is that you might be spending a lot for nothing.”
    â€œI don’t care. I don’t have anything else I want that I can spend it on.”
    Which seemed fair enough, as a matter of fact.
    â€œAnother thing is that you might be better off with one of the big agencies. I’m just one man.”
    â€œI tried one of them,” she said. “One with a big ad in the yellow pages.”
    â€œWhat did they tell you?”
    â€œThey wouldn’t take me seriously. They weren’t rude or anything, but they just said they couldn’t help me and that I should go to my parents and ask them.”
    â€œThat might not be bad advice.”
    â€œOh, I just couldn’t do that.” She shuddered. “The man at the agency just thought I was crazy.” She gave me a smile. “At least that’s some progress I’m making. You don’t think I’m crazy, do you?”
    â€œNo, I don’t,” I said honestly. “But I will have