The PaPerhanger

rhat they were lightly downed with fine golden hair. she studied these arms bemusedly while she formulated her thoughts'

The Paperhanger

You tell me so much a roll, she said. The doctor's wife was fiom Pakistan and her speech was still heavily accented. I do not know single-bolt rolls and double-bolt rolls. You tell me doublebolt price but you are installing single-bolt rolls. My friend has told me. It is cost me perhaps twice as much. The paperhanger, still on his knees, turned. He smiled up at
her. He had pale blue eyes. You bought the rolls.

I did tell you

so much a

roll, he said'

The child, not yet vanished, was watching the paperhanger's cyes. She was a scaled-down clone of the mother, the mother

HE VANISHTNC of the doctor's

wife's child in broad daylight was an evenr so cataclysmic that it forever divided time into the then and the now, the before and the
after.

viewed through the wrong end of a telescope, and the paperhanger suspected that as she grew neither her features nor her expression

would alter, she would just grow latger, like something being
aired up

In later

years, fortified

with

a pitcher of silica-dry vodka

martinis, she had cause to replay the events preceding the disappearance. They were tawdry and banal but in retrospect freighted

with a hand PumP. And you are leave lumps, the doctor's wife said, gesturing at

the wall.

with menace, a foreshadowing of what was ro come, like a footman or a fool preceding a king into a room. with the paperhanger. Her four-year old daughtey Zeineb, was standing directly behind the paperhanger where he knelt smoothing air bubbles out with a wide plastic trowel. Zeineb had her fingers in the paperhanger's hair.
The paperhanger's hair was shoulder length and the color of flax and the child was delighted with it. The paperhanger was accustomed to her doing this and he did nor even turn around. He just went on with his work. His arms were smooth and brown ancl corded with muscle and in the light that fell ulron tlre l)al)crhanger
She had been quarreling

I do not leave lumps, the paperhanger

said. You've seen my

work before. These are not lumps. The paper is wet' The paste is wet. Everything will shrink down and flatten out' He smiled
itgain. He had clean even teeth. And besides, he said' I gave you my special cockteaser rate. I don't know what you're complaining irbout.

Her mouth worked convulsively. She looked for a moment as if he'cl slapped her. \When words did come they came in a fine
spriry of spit. You are trash, she said. You are scum'

I lanrls on knees, he was pushing erect, the girl's dark fingers tririling our of l-ris hair. Don'r call me trash, he said, as if it were
1x,rf i,c.r

thro'gh

stainccl-glirss

1r"cls rhc cl.c:r.r's wifi,r.rLrlcl st,c.

ly all right ro c0ll lrim scr.rm, br-rt he was already talking to

7T

Wrr.r.trrtr
her back' she hacr w'irrccr

(inl
wcrr rwisring her hips
as

'I'ltt I',tltcrhungcr

through an arched doorway jnr, rrrc carhccrralecr living room. The paperhanger looked down at the strange constrained glee, as if
some secret the rest of the world hadn,t caught on to yet.

'rr

rrc'r rrt,t,rs irrrrr

if the girl might

.

be

hiding somewhere. 'fhere was

lr<lwhe'te' ttt

hide

chilci. Her face glowed with a she and rhe paperhanger shared

\Where is my child? she asked the builder. The electriciarr climbed down from the ladder. The paperhanger came out of thc bathroom with his tools. The builder was looking all arouncl. I lis

In the living room the builder was supervising the insta'ation ofa chandelier that depended from the vaulted ceiling
obsequiously.

golden chain' The builder was a short bearded man dancing abour, showing her the features of the chandelieq smiling

by a long

elfin features were touched with chagrin, as if this missing chiltl were just something else he was going to be held accountablc firr. Likely she's hiding in a closet, the paperhanger said. Pltyirrg
n

him a flat angry look. She waved a dismissive hand toward the ceiling. SThatever, she said.
She gave

trick on you.
Zeineb does not play tricks, the doctor's wife said. Hcr crycs kt'1rt

She went

makeshifr walkway of two_by_tens into the front yard where her caf was parked' The car was a sirver-gray
had given her for their anniversary.

out the front door onto the porch and down a

Mercedes her husband

darting about the huge room, the shadows that lurkecl in t'orltcrs, There was already an undercurrent of panic in her voicc att<l irll lrcr'
poise and self-confidence seemed to have vanished

$'hen

its idle was scarcely perceptible.

She powered

she cranked the engine

with thc cltiltl, The paperhanger set down his toolbox and went throttglt tlte house, opening and closing doors. It was a huge housc alttl tltcrt'
were a lot of closets. There was no child in any of them.

him.

bloodred behind this tableau and man and tractor looked flat and dimensionless as somerhing decorative stamped from tin. She blew the horn. The man turned, raised an armas if she,d
signaled Zeineb, she called again.

razed earth of the unlandscaped yard. aman in a grease_stained T_ shirt was booming down the chains securing a backhoe to a low_ boy hooked to a gravel truck. The sun was low in the west and

down the window Zeineb,she called. Across the

The electrician was searching upstairs. The builder hncl gonc through the French doors that opened onto the unfinished veralt<ltt
and was peering into the backyard. The backyard was a maa:. ol

convoluted ditch excavated for the septic tank field line and beyond that there was just woods. She's playing in that ditch, tlrc

builder said, going down the flagstone steps. though. She wasn't anywhere. They searched tlrc: house and grounds. They moved with jerky haste. They kept glancing toward the woods where the day was waning first. 'fhc'
She wasn't,

got out of the car and started impatiently up the walkway. Behind her the graver truck started, and truck and backhoe pulred out of the drive and down toward the road.
She

builder kept shaking his head. It's

here.

She's

got tobe

sontewhere,

he salcl.

Call someone, the doctor's wife said. Call the police.

a

The paperhanger was stowing away his T square and trowels in his wooden toolbox. \ilzhere is zeineb? the doctor's wife asked. She followed you out, the paperhanger told her. He glanced abour,
74

little early for the police, the builder said.

She's goc

to bc

Yorr call them anyway.

lrr-rsbancl.

I have a phone in my car. I will call my

75

F
Wr r,l.rn,ra Cnv
The Paperhanger
.rlce-k

$'hile

ued to search' They had looked everywhere and were forced to search places they'd already looked. If this ain't

she called, the paperhanger and the electrician contin_

black Lexus. He berated his wife. \7hy weren't yotr wittclt

thing I errer saw, the electrician said. The doctor's wife got out of the Mercedes and slammed the door. Suddenly she stopped and clasped a hand to her forehead. She screamed. The man with the tractor, she cried. Somehow my child is gone with the rracror man.
here.

the goddamnedesr

Unlike his wife's, the doctor's specch wirs irrr 1'r'ccable. She covered her face with her palms ancl wt'pt,'l'lrc r loctor still wore his green surgeon's smock and it was llt'cl<t', I w rl lr lrright dots of blood as a butcher's smock might be. I need to feed a few cows, the paperhanger saicl. l'll lt'r'tl rrry
rrrg her? he asked. srock pretty quick and come back and help hunt.

Oh Jesus, the builder said. rVhat have we got ourselves int<l

You don't mind if I look in your truck, do yoLri

Do what?

If that little girl clon'r t urt) ul) r lirnln ,lrrick this is going to be over my head. TBI, I-tlll, ttctwot'li rtt'tvs,
I've got to cover my ass. THE HIGH SHERIFF thatyeatwas a ruminarive man named Bell_ wether. He stood beside the county cruiser talking to the paper_ hanger while deputies ranged the grounds. other men were insicle
I'vc got to eliminate everything.

Eliminate away, the paperhanger said.

The sheriff searched the floorboard of the paperlrirngt'ds lrit lirrl' tlrrck. FIe shined his huge flashlight under the seat art(l le'lt lrt'ltrr, I rt w:ith his hands.

the woods, where dark was gathering and seeping like a stain.

looking in places that had ayeady been searched numberless times. Bellwether had been in the woods and he was picking cockleburs off his khakis and out of his socks. He was watching

I had to look, he said apologetically. Of course you did, the paperhanger said.

".rrs i. i.,
tr I I

woods.

I've got to ger men out here, Bellwether said. A lot of men and a lot of lights. S'e,re going to have ro search every inch of these

Lt. DARK HAD FALLEN before he returned. I-le hacl fl'cl his crrt -

You'll play hell doing it, the paperhanger said. These woocls stretch all the way ro Lawrence County. This is the edge of the Harrikin' Down in there's where ail those old mines used to be. Allens Creek. don't give a shit if they stretch all the way to Fairbanks, Alaska, Bellwether said. They,ve gor ro be searrchccl. It'll just ral<c a lot of men.
'['lrr: r.w cirrrh ylrrrr wus Irril .f'c'irrs. r)r..f rrrrrrrrrr 'ircr

tlc and stowed away his tools and pickecl u1-> ir six-1;acl< ol'Srrtt MigLrel beer and he sat in the back of the pickLrp trucl< tlrirrl<irrg ir.'l"he paperhanger had been in the Navy anc| stittiortcrl irr tlrt' l)hrlippines and San Migr"rel was thc only bccr ltc corrlrl rlrink, I lc lrircl to go out of towu to brry it, bt.rt hc ligurc'cl it wirs wortlr it. I lt'lrl<ecl tlre exotic lal>els, tlrc rlarl< bittt'r tirstc'ott tltr'Irirt k ol lris ron,rlr.rc, thc way tlrc chillc'cl lrottles fi'lt lrclrl itglitrst lris lirt't'ltt'rrrl. A rlorlc'y cnrwcl <lfi ctrri<lsity sc'cl<crs itttrl sciu'tltcrs tlrrorrglr'rl tlrcyrrt'tl.'l'lrt'rt'witsrrvrlgu('lyli'stivciril. Ilc'wrrtcltt'rl rrll tlriswillr
,r

r.rrrr, irr

ir

tlislrirssionirl('('y(', irs if'ltc wt'rt't'ltittgt'.1 witlr gl'it.littg tltr'lritl't

7"i

ir

Wrr.r.r,rrvr (int. ipants' comparing this with orlrcr s'ecracres he,cr seen. coffee urns had been brought in and ser up on rables, sandwiches preparecl and handed out to the weary ,"ur.h..r. A crane had been hauled in and the sepric tank reclaimed taut cable while men with rights
neath
The paperbanger

from ,h"

sThen he had established his practice he had returned to pakistan to find a wife befitting his station' The woman he had selected had been chosen on the basis of her beauty. In retrospect, perhaps more considera_ tion
shorrJd have bt

ng ii:,t :i into their arms. The doctor was a shorr portly man with a benevolenr expres_ sion. FIe had a moon_shaped face, with light and dark areas of skin that looked swirled, as if the pigment coloring him had not been properly mixed' He had been educated at princeton.

the far dark woods rights crossed and recrossed, darted to and fro rike fireflies. The doctor and the doctor,s wife looking drai ned, s runned, ".frfl' wai ti

it for a child' for the very tface of a child.

"";;;';: r."r;"T;:1;H:3:1fn:
Through

"*-_l'::

.,

;:T:,i:.:

walls with antique white. You filthy ',rt. beast, she saicl. Vrrr irr(, s(,rtr. l<ind of monster' She stormed out of

heat that seemed to radiate off her body- she st.'cr rry hir-rr while he knelt painting baseboards and after an infirrirc, r'._ nrent leaned carefuily the weight of a thigh against his srrorrrtrt,r, You'd better move it, he thought. She didn,r. He larrglrc,tl rrr,l r lrrned his face into her groin. She gave astrangled cry arr< I s lir 11,t,. I him hard' The painrbrush flew away ancl specklecr
J

wir'the

rrrc,<rrrr.rt

the room ancr rrt,r.'rrr,r

her slamming doors behind her. \ilZell, I was looking

rrr;rr.

for a jobwhen

philosophically to himself.

I found this orrt.. I lc srrrilr,rl

tirur b,rt he was

Sl-re seemed co .rrd rose

ro hav,

.J;:;T":".lHTfi ::'_;jli

J*ffi

while rhe docror's m

sance abou, her
She

He studied the doctor,s wife s ravaged face through the deep brue light' The first time he had seen her she had hired him to paint a bedroom in
the hou

dred square feet and she could not find it again. The paperhanger drained his bottle and set it by his foot in the bed of the truck.

"

.",

J,:,il:ff:.:nH ;i :T:: :#*::r:::

he met a rirrt.or'1rit kuJr rrucks with civ'defense tags. Grim-faced men sat ar igrrc,rr irr trrt.ir. beds' Some clutched rifles loosely by their barrers, as if'rrrcy w..rtr lay to waste whatever monster, man or beast, woulcl srratclr U1r it child in its slaverous jaws and vanish, prey ancJ preclaror, irr tlrr, space between two heartbeats.

But he had not been fired. In fact now he ha<l bt.t,rr lritlrl irgirirr. Perhaps rhere was something here to ponder. At midnight he gave up his vigil. Some s.uls r.r.rr. lr;rr.rly rlr;r' his kept up the watch. The earth here was wor) sr)(x)r rr lry rlrr, useless traffic of the searchers. Driving our,

of cjvjhzatjon as rlrcsc fl.ll away. I{e drove into the Harrikin, where he livecr. A w'rlcr s'criLrk rrrrrr fbdorn light itself seemed ar a premir_rm. \Whiprlroorwills
red-eyed up from rhe roadside.
naces swc,;rt

Even more dubious reminders

old

flirted with him, backed away, flirted^again.she would rrerrt him as if he were a stain on the barhroom rug and then sran<J closc by him while he worked until
he

.n*;i.o:;.,:*:lii:;:lffiT ili
*u, d;rrywit' t^c
srrrc,ll .f.lrt.r,

rolled past, grim ancl clark

abancr''ecr ftrLr'clric,s irrrrr rirr-

as fbrsaken

l),wrr

here was an abancronecr graveyarcr, 'ris.rs. if you r<rcw wrrcrc^t.

rr r.irl,qt,

[rrrc.rtrc,s, ir (.i'll(,() lrr<xrc'lr.'l''c [r,lrcs rrc'laid.ur rikt.. c'rrirtr wirrr ir,r,irrkt,rt.y, r'.: rittrgirg tlrt.rrr thc wrry tlrcy wc.rrr irr jrrry*r.iggr,rl

paperhanger clicl' IJc hacr crug Lrp a fcw'f rrrc Jlravcs, c,xirrnirre.tr with cr-rri.sity whert rcmai'rccr, [*rtf'ns, bt,rr

rrl,k.

,r,rrt.

rt,srrrrt,t.ti.rr.

F
$Tlrlleu
Gnv
The Paperhanger

He braked hard on a curve, the truck slewing in rhe gravel. A bobcat had crossed the road, graceful as a wraith, fierce and
lantern-eyed in the headlights, gone
a stage
so

rhink of me is that I could run over a little kid ancl then tlrnrw ir off in the bushes like adead cat or something then I rkrrr'r t,vcrr
want to see youf goddamn face. I want you gone and I wanr yorr lry (iod gone now

swiftly it might have been

prop swung acfoss the road on wires.

Everything had to be considered, the sheriff said.

BELL$TETHER AND A DEpUTy drove to the backhoe operatof,s house. He lived up a gravel road that

Then maybe you need to consider that paperhanger.

\il7hat about him?

wound through a great stand of cedars' He lived in a board-and-batten house with a tin roof rusted to a warm umber. They parked before it and got out, ad_ justing their gun belts.

That paperhanger is one sick puppy.

He was still there when I got there, the sheriff said. Tlrree
rlcsses swofe
t

wit-

nobody ever left, not even for a minute, .rn(l

otrc, ol

Bellwether had Look at

hem was the child's mother.

I searched his truck mysclf

a search warrant

with the ink scarcely dry. The

opefator was outraged.

Then he's a sick puppy with a damn good alibi, fhc opcrrrror
srrid.

it this

way, Bellwether explained patiently. I,ve got to

kids are' Never thinking. \what if she run under the wheels of your truck when you was backing out? \Vhat if quicklike you put the body in your truck ro get rid of somewhere? What if quicklike you ger the hell off my propefty, the opera_ tor said. Everything has to be considered, the sheriff said again. No_ body's accusing anybody ofanything just yet. The operator's wife stood glowering at them. thing to do wirh his hands, the operator began to consrrucr a ciga_ rette. FIe had huge red hands thickly sown with brown freckles. They trembled. I ain't got a thing in this round world to hide, he
said.

cover my ass. Everything has got to be considered. you know how

't'llAT \rAS

,trr.

There was no ransom note, no child that rrrrrrr.tl

ul) two counties over with amnesia. She was apage turnecl, a <l<xrr'
closed, a lost ball in the high weeds. She was a child no largcr tlrirrr ,r cloll,

but the void she left behind her was unreckonabkr. \t,t llrcre was no end to it. No finality. There was no momcnc wlrt:rr

solneone could say, turning from a mounded grave,

lrcc,n unbearable,

\fell,

rlris

has

but you've got to go on with yor-rr lif-e. L,ifl. clitl

To have some_

ilot go on.

At the doctor's wife's insistence an intensive investigariorr wirs

Irx'trsecl on the backhoe operator. Forensic exl)erts from rlrc

lilll

cx-

Bellwether and his men searched everywhere they coulcl rhink of to look. Finally they stood uncertainly in the operator,s yarcl, out ofplace in their neat khakis, rheir polished
leather.

millimeter of tlre gravel truck, paying special ittt('tt* I ion to its wheels. They were examincd with cvcry ruorle rrr t rirnt'-lighting clevicc thc goverrrrme!rt l)ossessecl, irncl Ihc'rt, wls
;unir)ccl every rroi ir lnicrosco;ric particlc <lf tissuc ur bloocl, no tellralc chilr ol lirr-

Now gct tl-re hcll

.fI'r'y

picrrrlil, tro lrrrir ribb<lrt.

rrrlrtr, rlrc or)c'rilror srritr. rf llo

ir,

y.tr

Wolk

ct'irsccl otr rltt'rttirtrsiort. Sornt'srrlrtortfir('t(,rs

wclt.tlis-

Itl