Free Memories of Midnight by Sidney Sheldon

heart, miss, of course not. See this safety valve here? Well, if the boiler should ever get too hot, the safety valve releases all the excess steam, and Bob's your uncle. No problem.'
    After the work day was over, there was London. London .. a cornucopia of wonderful theatre, ballet and music concerts There were interesting old bookstores like Hatchards, and Foyles and dozens of museums, and little antique shops, and restaurants Catherine visited the lithograph shops in Cecil Court and shopped at Harrods, Fortnum & Mason, and Marks & Spencer and had Sunday tea at the Savoy From time to time, unbidden thoughts came into Catherine's mind. There were so many things to remind her of Larry. A voice ... a phrase ... a cologne ... a song. No. The past is finished. The future is what's important. And each day she became stronger.
    Catherine and Evelyn Kaye became friends and occasionally went out together. One Sunday they visited the open-air art exhibition on the Thames embankment. There were dozens of artists there, young and old, displaying their paintings, and they all had one thing in common: they were failures who had been unable to have their works exhibited in any gallery. The paintings were terrible. Catherine bought one out of sympathy 'Where are you going to put it?' Evelyn asked 'In the boiler room,' Catherine said.
    As they walked along the London streets, they came across the pavement artists, men who used colored chalks to paint on the stone of the pavement. Some of their work was amazing. Passersby would stop to admire them and then toss a few coins to the artists. One afternoon on her way back from lunch, Catherine stopped to watch an elderly man working on a beautiful landscape in chalk. As he was finishing it, it began to rain and the old man stood there watching his work being washed away. That's a lot like my past life, Catherine thought.
    Evelyn took Catherine to Shepherd Market. 'This is an interesting area,' Evelyn promised It was certainly colorful. There was a three-hundredyear-old restaurant called Tiddy Dols, a magazine stand, a market, a beauty parlor, a bakery, antique shops and several two-and three-story residences The name plates on the mailboxes were odd. One read 'Helen' and below it 'French lessons'. Another read 'Rosie' and, below that, 'Greek taught here'
    'Is this an educational area?' Catherine asked Evelyn laughed aloud. 'In a way I guess it is. Only the kind of education these girls give can't be taught in school.' Evelyn laughed even louder when Catherine blushed.
    Catherine was alone most of the time, but she kept herself too busy to be lonely. She plunged into her days as though trying to make up for the precious moments of her life that had been stolen from her. She refused to worry about the past or the future. She visited Windsor Castle, and Canterbury with its beautiful cathedral, and Hampton Court. On weekends, she went into the country and stayed at quaint little inns and took long walks through the countryside I'm alive, she thought. No one is born happy. Everyone has to make his own happiness. I'm a survivor. I'm young and I'm healthy and wonderful things are going to happen On Monday she would go back to work. Back to Evelyn and the girls and Wim Vandeen Wim Vandeen was an enigma Catherine had never met anyone like him. There were twenty employees in the office, and without even bothering to use a calculator, Wim Vandeen remembered every employee's salary, national insurance number and deductions. Although all of this was on file, he kept all the company records in his head. He knew the monthly cash flow from each division and how it compared with the previous months, going back five years when he had started with the company.
    Wim Vandeen remembered everything he had ever seen or heard or read. The range of his knowledge was incredible. The simplest questions on any subject would trigger a stream of information, yet he was antisocial Catherine discussed him with Evelyn. 'I don't