Rune said, "I think that's a very mature thing to do."
"Really?"
"I do. Absolutely."
"I'll stay with my mother. She's got a nice house. I can have the upstairs to myself. The only thing that bothers me is I don't know what I could do there exactly."
Rune wasn't sure what Claire could do here in Manhattan either, except hang out and go to clubs, which she could probably do in Boston just as easily and for a lot less money. But she said, "Boston's supposed to be a wonderful place. History, lots of history."
"Yeah, history. But, excuse me, what do you do with history?"
"You don't have to do anything with it. It's just neat." Rune hefted Courtney to the windowsill, propped
her on her hip. "Just look out there, honey, and picture it three hundred years ago. You know who lived there? Indians! The Canarsie Indians. And there were bears and deer and everything."
"Like the zoo," the girl said. "Can we go to the zoo?"
"Sure we can. Maybe tomorrow. And see over there, all those roads? They used to be tobacco fields. They called the place Sapokanikan. It means the tobacco plantation. Then the settlers came up here from New York City--which was all down by the Battery then. They came up here because they had all these terrible plagues or epidemics--and they saw all these fields and farmland and the place got called Green Village--"
Claire interrupted, "And now it's Greenwich Village and it's got bagels and coffeehouses and ATM machines and the Antique Clothes Boutique."
Rune shook her head. "Oh, you're just so sitcom, it's disgusting."
Claire said, "So--Boston ... You mind if I spend some time there?"
Mind? Rune felt as if she'd just gotten a package in a turquoise Tiffany's box. "I'd say: Do it."
"Then I will," Claire said lethargically. She yawned and pulled a vial out of her purse. "You want some coke?"
"Coke," said Courtney.
Rune took Claire by the arm roughly, whispering viciously: "Are you crazy? Look what you're teaching her." She snatched the vial and spoon away from Claire and tossed them back into the purse.
Claire pulled away angrily. "Coke is real. Dragons and goddesses aren't."
"You keep your reality." Rune stood up and took Courtney by the hand and led her up onto the outer deck. "Come on, honey, I'll read you a story."
AN HOUR LATER COURTNEY ASKED, "ONE MORE, PLEASE."
Rune debated, flipping through the book of fairy stories. She glanced down into the galley and saw Claire doing a small line of coke off her compact mirror.
"Okay," Rune said. "One more, then off to bed."
She looked at the story the book had fallen open to and laughed. "The Snow Princess." Which seemed like a good choice since Claire had a nose blizzard going at the moment.
"'Once upon a time--'"
"In a land far away," Courtney yawned and lay down with her head in Rune's lap.
"That's right. '... in a land far away, there lived an old couple who never had any children.'"
"I'm a children."
"'The man and woman loved each other dearly but dreamed about how happy they would be if only they had a daughter to share their life with. Then one winter, as the husband was walking home through the forest, he saw a snowman that some children had built and he had an idea. He went home and together, with his wife, they built a little princess out of snow.'"
"What's snow?"
"Last winter, that white stuff."