CHAPTER FIVE
They drove back to Cincinnati. Raymond sat in the back of the Buick and watched the road go by. He said nothing to Charlie or Susanna, but muttered strange things to himself.
They went to a hotel, and took two rooms. Charlie showed Raymond his room.
‘This is your room, Ray,’ he said.
That was a big mistake.
Raymond looked around the room. ‘This is not my room,’ he said. There was a frightened expression on his face. ‘This is… is not my room.’
‘Just for tonight,’ Charlie said.
‘Until we take you home,’ Susanna said.
But Raymond was very upset now. He was shaking his head from side to side and muttering to himself. ‘Of course, I’m going to be here a long time. A very long time… Of course, they moved my bed.’
‘Sorry, Raymond,’ Charlie said. ‘You like the bed under the window.’ He started pushing the bed into its new place.
But Raymond was still unhappy. He started muttering about books. The only book in the room was a telephone book for Cincinnati.
‘Charlie, let’s take him home,’ Susanna said. She liked Raymond, and she did not like to see him upset.
‘He’s OK,’ Charlie said. ‘Do you like pizza, Ray?’
‘Do you like pizza, Charlie Babbitt?’ Raymond knew the word ‘pizza’ because ‘pizza’ was a Wallbrook word. This calmed him a little.
‘I’ll ask the hotel to send a pizza up to your room,’ Charlie said. ‘We like pizza, don’t we, Ray? We’re brothers.’
‘Charlie, he still doesn’t look happy,’ Susanna said. ‘I don’t understand why you brought him here. I think he wants to go back to Wallbrook.’
‘Ray’s fine,’ Charlie said, ‘all he needs is some TV and some pizza. What’s on TV, Ray?’
Raymond looked at his watch. ‘The Lucky Money Wheel,’ he told the watch.
‘Great. Sit down, and you can watch it.’
Charlie turned on the television. The Lucky Money Wheel came on.
‘You’ve got your TV,’ Charlie said. ‘You’ve got a pizza coming. Aren’t things good, Ray?’
Charlie looked at Raymond and Raymond looked at Charlie, but there was no expression on his face.
‘Do you ever smile, Ray?’ Charlie asked.
‘Do you ever smile?’ Raymond repeated. There was still no expression on his face.
Raymond sat on his bed and watched television. Charlie came in with a pizza.
Ray looked at the pizza and shook his head. ‘What’s the problem, Ray?’ Charlie asked.
Raymond wanted to eat the pizza the way that he ate it at Wallbrook. Charlie cut the pizza into tiny squares for him, and put each square on a toothpick.
Charlie and Susanna went off to their room. Raymond watched a film. A man in the film told his son to turn the television off. Raymond got up and turned his television off.
Raymond continued to look at the television, but now there was nothing to watch. He heard the sound of another television in Charlie and Susanna’s room. Raymond got up and went into their room.
Charlie and Susanna were in bed. They did not see Raymond come into the room. Raymond sat on the end of the bed and watched the television.
Susanna saw him first. ‘Charlie,’ she said, in a quiet voice. ‘Raymond is sitting at the end of the bed.’
Charlie sat up and saw that Raymond was watching TV and eating pizza. ‘Raymond, what are you doing in here?’ he shouted. ‘Get out!’
Raymond got up and went back to his room. Susanna looked at Charlie with an angry expression on her face. ‘Go and talk to him!’ she said.
‘What for?’ Charlie asked.
‘Because he’s frightened,’ Susanna said. ‘He’s never been away from Wallbrook before. You’ve upset him!’
Charlie got angry. ‘Raymond is not going back to Wallbrook,’ he said. ‘He has to learn how to live in the real world.’
Susanna was astonished. ‘What do you mean he’s not going back to Wallbrook?’
Charlie looked away from her and bit his lip. ‘I took Raymond,’ he said quietly, ‘and I’m keeping him until I get my money.’
Susanna’s eyes widened. ‘What money?’ she asked.
‘Dad left Ray some money. A lot of money.’
Money! Now Susanna was beginning to understand. ‘How much money… did… your… father… leave Raymond?’ she asked angrily.
Charlie looked away again. ‘He left him his house and all his money,’ he said. ‘Three million dollars.’
Susanna muttered some angry words in Italian and jumped out of bed. Then, she picked up her suitcase from the floor and threw it open.
‘What are you doing?’ Charlie asked.
‘I’m leaving you, Charlie.’ She was coldly angry.
Now Charlie was astonished. ‘Why?’ he asked.
Susanna pushed her things into the suitcase and pulled on her coat. ‘Because you’ve kidnapped your brother for money,’ she shouted.
‘I have not kidnapped him! I just want my money. What’s wrong with that?’
‘Everything!’ Susanna shouted. She looked at Charlie for a second and shook her head. Then she picked up her suitcase and moved towards the door. When she got to the door, she turned and looked at Charlie again. ‘I did love you, Charlie,’ she said sadly. ‘But you are not the man that I thought you were.’
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