Ted looked around the conference room again, his left eye closed, trying to make out the blurry shapes. The edges of the picture frames on the walls were wavy, too. From his right eye, his lawyer’s head was the image reflected in a funhouse mirror. No one else spoke while he tried to see them.
“It’s like everything is behind a greasy lens. Fuck,” he said.
Chet turned aside and put his arm on Ted’s shoulder. “Maybe we should stop the meeting here. You need to see a doctor about this,” he said, cocking his head to the side, wondering what was really happening to his client. In his twenty-two years of practice, he had witnessed one fatal heart attack （a wife, not a husband, surprisingly, and because they were not yet divorced, the husband ended up with a bundle on her life insurance policy, and her family naturally tried to sue）， thirty, give or take, physical altercations, and one unloaded pistol-waving incident. Yelling and cursing were par for the course. A client becoming nearly blinded in one eye—this was new. In a perfectly calm voice, he asked, “May we phone your eye doctor for you, Ted?”
“What’s his name?” Kimberly asked, nimbly picking up her pen so she could look up his number.
Ted didn’t reply, but made a face. He exhaled loudly.
“My father,” Ella said. “It’s my father. He’s Ted’s eye doctor.”
Kimberly and Chet nodded as though this were not unusual.
Ronald smiled and looked away.
“Do you want me to call him?” Ella asked. Ted had never appeared as flummoxed as he was now. He actually looked terrified. She would take him to the hospital immediately.
“I could go to the emergency room. Maybe I should do that. Yeah,” he said coolly, accepting that her father was no longer an option. He’d hardly spoken to Dr. Shim since he left Ella.
Ella furrowed her eyebrows, indignant. “Don’t be stupid, Ted. My father will see you. He’s a doctor.”
She phoned her office and explained that she’d be late. Her boss was a saint, as usual. Then she phoned her father’s office, and Sharlene said her dad was in and would love to see her. Ella didn’t mention that she was bringing Ted. The meeting broke up after Ella’s call, and the lawyers shrugged and said all the polite things. Everyone would be in touch.
In the taxi, Ted kept trying to test his vision, but he couldn’t make out anything from his right eye except for blurry colors and soft shapes. The light in the taxi was dim.
“I’m sorry, Ella. I’m messing up your day.”
“You’re messing up my life,” she replied.
They were both surprised that she’d said this.
“Right,” he said, closing both his eyes. “I’m sorry about that, too.”
When the taxi got to Ella’s dad’s offices, Ted tried to pay the driver, but he couldn’t make out the denomination of the money without blinking. Frustrated, he handed his wallet to Ella. “Just take what you need.”
It was the black alligator wallet that she’d bought for him from T. Anthony when he’d graduated from HBS. On the left-hand side of the wallet were his initials, stamped in gold leaf. Much of the gold had been rubbed away.
“I gave that to you,” she remarked softly.
“I know,” he said, his eyes still closed. “I’m sorry, Ella. I am so sorry about everything.”
Ella couldn’t touch the wallet that he held out in his hands. She opened her handbag and pulled out her change purse, where she kept her ones and fives.
“Do you want the wallet back?” Was he supposed to return all her gifts?
“How could you be so unfeeling?” Ella wiped her eyes.
“I’m sorry, Ella,” he said, his left eye open, his right eye shut. She was crying again, and they were about to see her father.
“I gave that to you. I gave you everything you wanted. I did everything you said. But you want to take Irene away—” She sniffled.
The driver was aware of the crying woman and the man with his eyes closed. He shut off the meter, wanting to do something nice for them.
“We have to get out of here.” Ella paid the driver and gave him a three-dollar tip. “C’mon.” She let him take her arm.
Douglas Shim was reviewing the revised list of residents when Sharlene said his daughter and Ted were here. Ella walked into his office, smiling weakly. Her eye makeup was smudged around the eyes, her lipstick faded. Ted stood next to her, his right eye closed.
“Are you okay?” he asked his daughter, ignoring Ted.