Margot: A Novel Read Online Free PDF

Brotherly 11 Love.
12 But Peter is dead.
13 Or he isn’t.
14 I can never be entirely sure what is real and what is not. 15
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Chapter Six 04
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The next morning at work, I sit at my desk and hold 14
tight to the yellow piece of paper on which I wrote down P. Pelt’s 15
information. I stare at it so hard that the letters swim before my 16
eyes, becoming something unreal. I force my eyes away, and 17
then they catch on something else. There, through the glass, 18
working at his desk, is Joshua. He concentrates hard, reading 19
something carefully, so from this angle I can see only the arch 20
of his broad shoulders and the top of his chestnut curls. I won 21
der how late he stayed last night, and if I had stayed too, if he 22
would’ve walked out of his office and invited me for a drink 23
again. But it feels wrong to imagine that now, and I quickly look 24
away. I finger the yellow paper between my hands until it starts 25
to crumble. P could mean a lot of things, I tell myself: Paul, 26
Patrick, Peter. Peter Pelt. 27
Shelby steps off the elevator, and I hastily fold the yellow S28
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    01 paper up into the smallest of squares and tuck it in the bot
02 tom of my satchel before she can ask me about it.
03 But when she reaches her desk, I see her eyes are red and
04 puffy, and she does not seem to notice what I am or am not
05 doing in the least, which is not at all like her.
06 “Everything okay?” I whisper across the desks. She nods,
07 then shakes her head. “Do you want to talk about it?” She
08 opens her mouth, then closes it again, and I guess that what
09 ever happened has something to do with Ron, as he seems to
10 be the only thing that can shake Shelby’s normally happy dis
11 position. It occurs to me that whatever it is, it might have
12 taken her mind off her new favorite topic, the movie, and I
13 feel a little guilty for feeling relieved. Though Shelby some
14 times pesters me, I don’t ever want her to get hurt.
15 “Margie.” Joshua buzzes me through the intercom, and
16 Shelby sits down at her desk and pulls the beige cover off her
17 typewriter.
18 “Yes, Mr. Rosenstein,” I say.
19 “I’m leaving for court in five minutes. Can you get my Zim
20 merman files ready?”
21 “Of course,” I say. I look to Shelby, who shrugs, and then
22 Joshua bursts out of his office, dressed to the nines in a navy
23 blue three-piece suit. His body hums with nervous energy,
24 the way it always seems to before court, and I notice, as he
25 straightens his striped tie and reaches for his hat off the rack,
26 that his hands shake just a little bit.
27 “Good luck,” I say, handing him the stack of files he’d
28S asked for. Zimmerman, I remember, is a man who’d embezzled
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    money from the Franklin, a Jewish social organization where 01
he’d once been treasurer. 02
Joshua nods and smiles at me, a smile tinged with ner 03
vousness, but still, a Joshua smile nonetheless, so I cannot 04
help but smile back, even as I now think guiltily of the yellow 05
square tucked in my satchel. 06
I watch Joshua walk to the elevator, and then I turn back 07
to Shelby. Her face is pale and small, her blond hair a little 08
mussed. She is listening carefully to instructions from Ezra 09
now, through her intercom. 10
“Yes,” she is saying. “Yes, of course. Right away, Mr. Rosen 11
stein.” 12
In a way, I think, looking at her now, thinking about the 13
way her voice sounded last night as she insisted the annex 14
was romantic, Shelby reminds me of my sister. She is alive 15
and stubborn and kind and terribly emotional. If it had been 16
her and Peggy in the annex, I am sure, she would be the one 17
the world is in love with now, while most everyone else 18
wouldn’t even remember that Peggy had ever existed or, for 19
that matter, kept a diary. And Peggy, like me, she