page_108 < previous page page_108 next page > Page 108 whole week prior to that Saturday, returning, with good luck, on Monday." He winked at her. "Don't be jealous." She made a face at him. "You know I'm a wanderer. Trips reconstitute my creative juices. Besides, I've got to use up my hundred days of freedom." He glanced at her now, evidently trying to gauge her reaction. She forced herself to smile broadly. "I'd try to use up all my hundred days." A week. It seemed like a long time to spend in the Balloonist's house without him. A long time with Roberta. He took her hand and patted it lightly. "You'll survive. Perhaps by the time I return, you will be the uncontested Queen of the Mountain." "I don't want to be the queen. All I want is to find myself still standing." "And you shall!" The Balloonist released her hand. The phone rang on the small table next to Trutor, out of reach for the Balloonist. People called so seldom that the sound frightened her at first. "Would you like me to get it?" she asked. "Most certainly!" She picked up the receiver. "Hello, Whartons' residence." Whoever was on the other end of the line waited, not speaking but breathing lightly across the lines. Trutor gripped the plastic until it hurt the heel of her hand. "Hello?" she asked again. When no one responded immediately, she quickly hung up. "Wrong number, I guess," she said as lightly as possible. Her knees were so weak that she had to sit down. The Balloonist cleared his throat, and she found herself doing the same: a shared gesture between two people who knew exactly what had happened but who did not want to admit it out loud. "So," the Balloonist said in an uncharacteristic struggle for words, "what's this about Istanbul?" "Not Istanbul exactly. Constantinople. Does that mean anything to you at all?" And she sat back to listen to his verbal wanderings, knowing full well that with her inexact phrasing she had set him spinning for a good, uninterrupted fifteen minutes. Over the next week, Trutor spent most of her time poring over Caroline's diaries, though she found little to hold her interest, mostly lengthy and  < previous page page_108 next page >