Literature Fiction critique<\/p>\n
John Pickett<\/p>\n
11 unread reply.11 reply.<\/p>\n
For your Fiction Critique, choose from one of the stories in this section that you’ve read and ONE of the topics below:<\/p>\n
Interpretation of Fiction Question Prompts<\/p>\n
Evaluation of Fiction Question Prompts<\/p>\n
The link below is the story I read and which is to be analyzed.<\/p>\n
Drinking gin and talking about love<\/p>\n
(This is a draft of Carver\u2019s story \u201cWhat We Talk About When We Talk About Love\u201d without Gordon Lish\u2019s edits.)<\/p>\n
By Raymond Carver<\/p>\n
MY friend Herb McGinnis, a cardiologist, was talking. The four of us were sitting around his kitchen table drinking gin. It was Saturday afternoon. Sunlight filled the kitchen from the big window behind the sink. There were Herb and I and his second wife, Teresa\u2014Terri, we called her\u2014and my wife, Laura. We lived in Albuquerque, but we were all from somewhere else. There was an ice bucket on the table. The gin and the tonic water kept going around, and we somehow got on the subject of love. Herb thought real love was nothing less than spiritual love. When he was young he\u2019d spent five years in a seminary before quitting to go to medical school. He\u2019d left the Church at the same time, but he said he still looked back to those years in the seminary as the most important in his life.<\/p>\n
Terri said the man she lived with before she lived with Herb loved her so much he tried to kill her. Herb laughed after she said this. He made a face. Terri looked at him. Then she said, \u201cHe beat me up one night, the last night we lived together. He dragged me around the living room by my ankles, all the while saying, \u2018I love you, don\u2019t you see? I love you, you bitch.\u2019 He went on dragging me around the living room, my head knocking on things.\u201d She looked around the table at us and then looked at her hands on her glass. \u201cWhat do you do with love like that?\u201d she said. She was a bone-thin woman with a pretty face, dark eyes, and brown hair that hung down her back. She liked necklaces made of turquoise, and long pendant earrings. She was fifteen years younger than Herb, had suffered periods of anorexia, and during the late sixties, before she\u2019d gone to nursing school, had been a dropout, a \u201cstreet person,\u201d as she put it. Herb sometimes called her, affectionately, his hippie.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy God, don\u2019t be silly. That\u2019s not love, and you know it,\u201d Herb said. \u201cI don\u2019t know what you\u2019d call it\u2014madness is what I\u2019d call it\u2014but it\u2019s sure as hell not love.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSay what you want to, but I know he loved me,\u201d Terri said. \u201cI know he did. It may sound crazy to you, but it\u2019s true just the same. People are different, Herb. Sure, sometimes he may have acted crazy. O.K. But he loved me. In his own way, maybe, but he loved me. There was love there, Herb. Don\u2019t deny me that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Herb let out breath. He held his glass and turned to Laura and me. \u201cHe threatened to kill me, too.\u201d He finished his drink and reached for the gin bottle. \u201cTerri\u2019s a romantic. Terri\u2019s of the \u2018Kick-me-so-I\u2019ll-know-you-love-me\u2019 school. Terri, hon, don\u2019t look that way.\u201d He reached across the table and touched her cheek with his fingers. He grinned at her.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow he wants to make up,\u201d Terri said. \u201cAfter he tries to dump on me.\u201d She wasn\u2019t smiling.<\/p>\n
\u201cMake up what?\u201d Herb said. \u201cWhat is there to make up? I know what I know, and that\u2019s all.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat would you call it then?\u201d Terri said. \u201cHow\u2019d we get started on this subject anyway?\u201d She raised her glass and drank. \u201cHerb always has love on his mind,\u201d she said. \u201cDon\u2019t you, honey?\u201d She smiled now, and I thought that was the last of it.<\/p>\n
VIDEO FROM THE NEW YORKER<\/p>\n
Lies and Truth in the Era of Trump<\/p>\n
\u201cI just wouldn\u2019t call Carl\u2019s behavior love, that\u2019s all I\u2019m saying, honey,\u201d Herb said. \u201cWhat about you guys?\u201d he said to Laura and me. \u201cDoes that sound like love to you?\u201d<\/p>\n
I shrugged. \u201cI\u2019m the wrong person to ask. I didn\u2019t even know the man. I\u2019ve only heard his name mentioned in passing. Carl. I wouldn\u2019t know. You\u2019d have to know all the particulars. Not in my book it isn\u2019t, but who\u2019s to say? There\u2019re lots of different ways of behaving and showing affection. That way doesn\u2019t happen to be mine. But what you\u2019re saying, Herb, is that love is an absolute?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe kind of love I\u2019m talking about is,\u201d Herb said. \u201cThe kind of love I\u2019m talking about, you don\u2019t try to kill people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Laura, my sweet, big Laura, said evenly, \u201cI don\u2019t know anything about Carl, or anything about the situation. Who can judge anyone else\u2019s situation? But, Terri, I didn\u2019t know about the violence.\u201d<\/p>\n
I touched the back of Laura\u2019s hand. She gave me a quick smile, then turned her gaze back to Terri. I picked up Laura\u2019s hand. The hand was warm to the touch, the nails polished, perfectly manicured. I encircled the broad wrist with my fingers, like a bracelet, and held her.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I left he drank rat poison,\u201d Terri said. She clasped her arms with her hands. \u201cThey took him to the hospital in Santa Fe where we lived then and they saved his life, and his gums separated. I mean they pulled away from his teeth. After that his teeth stood out like fangs. My God,\u201d she said. She waited a minute, then let go of her arms and picked up her glass.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat people won\u2019t do!\u201d Laura said. \u201cI\u2019m sorry for him and I don\u2019t even think I like him. Where is he now?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s out of the action,\u201d Herb said. \u201cHe\u2019s dead.\u201d He handed me the saucer of limes. I took a section of lime, squeezed it over my drink, and stirred the ice cubes with my finger.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt gets worse,\u201d Terri said. \u201cHe shot himself in the mouth, but he bungled that, too. Poor Carl,\u201d she said. She shook her head.<\/p>\n
\u201cPoor Carl nothing,\u201d Herb said. \u201cHe was dangerous.\u201d Herb was forty-five years old. He was tall and rangy with wavy, graying hair. His face and arms were brown from the tennis he played. When he was sober, his gestures, all his movements, were precise and careful.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe did love me, though, Herb, grant me that,\u201d Terri said. \u201cThat\u2019s all I\u2019m asking. He didn\u2019t love me the way you love me, I\u2019m not saying that. But he loved me. You can grant me that, can\u2019t you? That\u2019s not much to ask.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat do you mean, \u2018He bungled it\u2019?\u201d I asked. Laura leaned forward with her glass. She put her elbows on the table and held her glass in both hands. She glanced from Herb to Terri and waited with a look of bewilderment on her open face, as if amazed that such things happened to people you knew. Herb finished his drink. \u201cHow\u2019d he bungle it when he killed himself?\u201d I said again.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll tell you what happened,\u201d Herb said. \u201cHe took this .22 pistol he\u2019d bought to threaten Terri and me with\u2014oh, I\u2019m serious, he wanted to use it. You should have seen the way we lived in those days. Like fugitives. I even bought a gun myself, and I thought I was a nonviolent sort. But I bought a gun for self-defense and carried it in the glove compartment. Sometimes I\u2019d have to leave the apartment in the middle of the night, you know, to go to the hospital. Terri and I weren\u2019t married then and my first wife had the house and kids, the dog, everything, and Terri and I were living in this apartment. Sometimes, as I say, I\u2019d get a call in the middle of the night and have to go in to the hospital at two or three in the morning. It\u2019d be dark out there in the parking lot and I\u2019d break into a sweat before I could even get to my car. I never knew if he was going to come up out of the shrubbery or from behind a car and start shooting. I mean, he was crazy. He was capable of wiring a bomb to my car, anything. He used to call my answering service at all hours and say he needed to talk to the doctor, and when I\u2019d return the call he\u2019d say, \u2018Son of a bitch, your days are numbered.\u2019 Little things like that. It was scary, I\u2019m telling you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI still feel sorry for him,\u201d Terri said. She sipped her drink and gazed at Herb. Herb stared back.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt sounds like a nightmare,\u201d Laura said. \u201cBut what exactly happened after he shot himself?\u201d Laura is a legal secretary. We\u2019d met in a professional capacity, lots of other people around, but we\u2019d talked and I\u2019d asked her to have dinner with me. Before we knew it, it was a courtship. She\u2019s thirty-five, three years younger than I am. In addition to being in love, we like each other and enjoy one another\u2019s company. She\u2019s easy to be with. \u201cWhat happened?\u201d Laura asked again.<\/p>\n
Herb waited a minute and turned the glass in his hand. Then he said, \u201cHe shot himself in the mouth in his room. Someone heard the shot and told the manager. They came in with a passkey, saw what had happened, and called an ambulance. I happened to be there when they brought him in to the emergency room. I was there on another case. He was still alive, but beyond anything anyone could do for him. Still, he lived for three days. I\u2019m serious, though, his head swelled up to twice the size of a normal head. I\u2019d never seen anything like it, and I hope I never do again. Terri wanted to go in and sit with him when she found out about it. We had a fight over it. I didn\u2019t think she\u2019d want to see him like that. I didn\u2019t think she should see him, and I still don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWho won the fight?\u201d Laura said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was in the room with him when he died,\u201d Terri said. \u201cHe never regained consciousness, and there was no hope for him, but I sat with him. He didn\u2019t have anyone else.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was dangerous,\u201d Herb said. \u201cIf you call that love, you can have it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was love,\u201d Terri said. \u201cSure it was abnormal in most people\u2019s eyes, but he was willing to die for it. He did die for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI sure as hell wouldn\u2019t call it love,\u201d Herb said. \u201cYou don\u2019t know what he died for. I\u2019ve seen a lot of suicides, and I couldn\u2019t say anyone close to them ever knew for sure. And when they claimed to be the cause, well I don\u2019t know.\u201d He put his hands behind his neck and leaned on the back legs of his chair. \u201cI\u2019m not interested in that kind of love. If that\u2019s love, you can have it.\u201d<\/p>\n
After a minute, Terri said, \u201cWe were afraid. Herb even made a will out and wrote to his brother in California who used to be a Green Beret. He told him who to look for if something happened to him mysteriously. Or not so mysteriously!\u201d She shook her head and laughed at it now. She drank from her glass. She went on. \u201cBut we did live a little like fugitives. We were afraid of him, no question. I even called the police at one point, but they were no help. They said they couldn\u2019t do anything to him, they couldn\u2019t arrest him or do anything unless he actually did something to Herb. Isn\u2019t that a laugh?\u201d Terri said. She poured the last of the gin into her glass and wagged the bottle. Herb got up from the table and went to the cupboard. He took down another bottle of gin.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, Nick and I are in love,\u201d Laura said. \u201cAren\u2019t we, Nick?\u201d She bumped my knee with her knee. \u201cYou\u2019re supposed to say something now,\u201d she said, and turned a large smile on me. \u201cWe get along really well, I think. We like doing things together, and neither of us has beaten up on the other yet, thank God. Knock on wood. I\u2019d say we\u2019re pretty happy. I guess we should count our blessings.\u201d<\/p>\n
For answer, I took her hand and raised it to my lips with a flourish. I made a production out of kissing her hand. Everyone was amused. \u201cWe\u2019re lucky,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou guys,\u201d Terri said. \u201cStop that now. You\u2019re making me sick! You\u2019re still on a honeymoon, that\u2019s why you can act like this. You\u2019re still gaga over each other yet. Just wait. How long have you been together now? How long has it been? A year? Longer than a year.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGoing on a year and a half,\u201d Laura said, still flushed and smiling.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re still on the honeymoon,\u201d Terri said again. \u201cWait a while.\u201d She held her drink and gazed at Laura. \u201cI\u2019m only kidding,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Herb had opened the gin and gone around the table with the bottle. \u201cTerri, Jesus, you shouldn\u2019t talk like that, even if you\u2019re not serious, even if you are kidding. It\u2019s bad luck. Here, you guys. Let\u2019s have a toast. I want to propose a toast. A toast to love. True love,\u201d Herb said. We touched glasses.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo love,\u201d we said.<\/p>\n
Outside, in the back yard, one of the dogs began to bark. The leaves of the aspen tree that leaned past the window flickered in the breeze. The afternoon sunlight was like a presence in the room. There was suddenly a feeling of ease and generosity around the table, of friendship and comfort. We could have been anywhere. We raised our glasses again and grinned at each other like children who had agreed on something for once.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll tell you what real love is,\u201d Herb said finally, breaking the spell. \u201cI mean I\u2019ll give you a good example of it, and then you can draw your own conclusions.\u201d He poured a little more gin into his glass. He added an ice cube and a piece of lime. We waited and sipped our drinks. Laura and I touched knees again. I put a hand on her warm thigh and left it there.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat do any of us really know about love?\u201d Herb said. \u201cI kind of mean what I\u2019m saying, too, if you\u2019ll pardon me for saying it. But it seems to me we\u2019re just rank beginners at love. We say we love each other and we do, I don\u2019t doubt it. We love each other and we love hard, all of us. I love Terri and Terri loves me, and you guys love each other. You know the kind of love I\u2019m talking about now. Sexual love, that attraction to the other person, the partner, as well as just the plain everyday kind of love, love of the other person\u2019s being, the loving to be with the other, the little things that make up everyday love. Carnal love, then and, well, call it sentimental love, the day-to-day caring about the other. But sometimes I have a hard time accounting for the fact that I must have loved my first wife, too. But I did, I know I did. So I guess before you can say anything, Iam like Terri in that regard. Terri and Carl.\u201d He thought about it a minute and then went on, \u201cBut at one time I thought I loved my first wife more than life itself, and we had the kids together. But now I hate her guts. I do. How do you figure that? What happened to that love? Did that love just get erased from the big board, as if it was never up there, as if it never happened? What happened to it is what I\u2019d like to know. I wish someone could tell me. Then there\u2019s Carl. O.K., we\u2019re back to Carl. He loved Terri so much he tries to kill her and winds up killing himself.\u201d He stopped talking and shook his head. \u201cYou guys have been together eighteen months and you love each other, it shows all over you, you simply glow with it, but you\u2019ve loved other people, too, before you met each other. You\u2019ve both been married before, just like us. And you probably loved other people before that. Terri and I have been together five years, been married for four. And the terrible thing, the terrible thing is, but the good thing, too, the saving grace, you might say, is that if something happened to one of us\u2014excuseme for saying this\u2014but if something happened to one of us tomorrow, I think the other one, the other partner, would mourn for a while, you know, but then the surviving party would go out and love again, have someone else soon enough and all this, all of this love\u2014Jesus, how can you figure it?\u2014it would just be memory. Maybe not even memory. Maybe that\u2019s the way it\u2019s supposed to be. But am I wrong? Am I way off base? I know that\u2019s what would happen with us, with Terri and me, as much as we may love each other. With any one of us for that matter. I\u2019ll stick my neck out that much. We\u2019ve all proved it anyhow. I just don\u2019t understand. Set me straight if you think I\u2019m wrong. I want to know. I don\u2019t know anything, and I\u2019m the first to admit it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHerb, for God\u2019s sake,\u201d Terri said. \u201cThis is depressing stuff. This could get very depressing. Even if you think it\u2019s true,\u201d she said, \u201cit\u2019s still depressing.\u201d She reached out to him and took hold of his forearm near the wrist. \u201cAre you getting drunk, Herb? Honey, are you drunk?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHoney, I\u2019m just talking, all right,\u201d Herb said. \u201cI don\u2019t have to be drunk to say what\u2019s on my mind, do I? I\u2019m not drunk. We\u2019re just talking, right?\u201d Herb said. Then his voice changed. \u201cBut if I want to get drunk I will, God damn it. I can do anything I want today.\u201d He fixed his eyes on her.<\/p>\n
\u201cHoney, I\u2019m not criticizing,\u201d she said. She picked up her glass.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not on call today,\u201d Herb said. \u201cI can do anything I want today. I\u2019m just tired, that\u2019s all.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHerb, we love you,\u201d Laura said.<\/p>\n
Herb looked at Laura. It was as if he couldn\u2019t place her for a minute. She kept looking at him, holding her smile. Her cheeks were flushed and the sun was hitting her in the eyes, so she squinted to see him. His features relaxed. \u201cLove you, too, Laura. And you, Nick. I\u2019ll tell you, you\u2019re our pals,\u201d Herb said. He picked up his glass. \u201cWell, what was I saying? Yeah. I wanted to tell you about something that happened a while back. I think I wanted to prove a point, and I will if I can just tell this thing the way it happened. This happened a few months ago, but it\u2019s still going on right now. You might say that, yeah. But it ought to make us all feel ashamed when we talk like we know what we were talking about, when we talk about love.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHerb, come on now,\u201d Terri said. \u201cYou are too drunk. Don\u2019t talk like this. Don\u2019t talk like you\u2019re drunk if you\u2019re not drunk.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cJust shut up for a minute, will you?\u201d Herb said. \u201cLet me tell this. It\u2019s been on my mind. Just shut up for a minute. I told you a little about it when it first happened. That old couple who got into an accident out on the interstate? A kid hit them, and they were all battered up and not given much chance to pull through. Let me tell this, Terri. Now just shut up for a minute. O.K.?\u201d<\/p>\n
Terri looked at us and then looked back at Herb. She seemed anxious, that\u2019s the only word for it. Herb handed the bottle around the table.<\/p>\n
\u201cSurprise me, Herb,\u201d Terri said. \u201cSurprise me beyond all thought and reason.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe I will,\u201d Herb said. \u201cMaybe so. I\u2019m constantly surprised with things myself. Everything in my life surprises me.\u201d He stared at her for a minute. Then he began talking.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was on call that night. It was in May or June. Terri and I had just sat down to dinner, when the hospital called. There\u2019d been an accident out on the interstate. A drunk kid, a teen-ager, had plowed his dad\u2019s pickup into a camper with this old couple in it. They were up in their mid-seventies. The kid, he was eighteen or nineteen, he was D.O.A. when they brought him in. He\u2019d taken the steering wheel through his sternum and must have died instantly. But the old couple, they were still alive, but just barely. They had multiple fractures and contusions, lacerations, the works, and they each had themselves a concussion. They were in a bad way, believe me. And, of course, their age was against them. She was even a little worse off than he was. She had a ruptured spleen and along with everything else, both kneecaps were broken. But they\u2019d been wearing their seat belts and, God knows, that\u2019s the only thing that saved them.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFolks, this is an advertisement for the National Safety Council,\u201d Terri said. \u201cThis is your spokesman, Dr. Herb McGinnis, talking. Listen up now,\u201d Terri said and laughed, then lowered her voice. \u201cHerb, you\u2019re just too much sometimes. I love you, honey.\u201d<\/p>\n
We all laughed. Herb laughed, too. \u201cHoney, I love you. But you know that, don\u2019t you?\u201d He leaned across the table, Terri met him halfway, and they kissed. \u201cTerri\u2019s right, everybody,\u201d Herb said as he settled himself again. \u201cBuckle up for safety. Listen to what Dr. Herb is telling you. But, seriously, they were in bum shape, those old people. By the time I got down there, the intern and nurses were already at work on them. The kid was dead, as I said. He was off in a corner, laid out on a gurney. Someone had already notified the next of kin, and the funeral-home people were on the way. I took one look at the old couple and told the E.R. nurse to get me a neurologist and an orthopedic man down there right away. I\u2019ll try and make a long story short. The other fellows showed up, and we took the old couple up to the operating room and worked on them most of the night. They must have had incredible reserves, those old people, you see that once in a while. We did everything that could be done, and toward morning we were giving them a fifty-fifty chance, maybe less than that, maybe thirty-seventy for the wife. Anna Gates was her name, and she was quite a woman. But they were still alive the next morning, and we moved them into the I.C.U. where we could monitor every breath and keep a twenty-four-hour watch on them. They were in intensive care for nearly two weeks, she a little longer, before their condition improved enough so we could transfer them out and down the hall to their own rooms.\u201d<\/p>\n
Herb stopped talking. \u201cHere,\u201d he said, \u201clet\u2019s drink this gin. Let\u2019s drink it up. Then we\u2019re going to dinner, right? Terri and I know a place. It\u2019s a new place. That\u2019s where we\u2019ll go, this new place we know about. We\u2019ll go when we finish this gin.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s called the Library,\u201d Terri said. \u201cYou haven\u2019t eaten there yet, have you?\u201d she said, and Laura and I shook our heads. \u201cIt\u2019s some place. They say it\u2019s part of a new chain, but it\u2019s not like a chain, if you know what I mean. They actually have bookshelves in there with real books on them. You can browse around after dinner and take a book out and bring it back the next time you come to eat. You won\u2019t believe the food. And Herb\u2019s reading \u2018Ivanhoe\u2019! He took it out when we were there last week. He just signed a card. Like in a real library.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI like \u2018Ivanhoe,\u2019 \u201d Herb said. \u201c \u2018Ivanhoe\u2019 \u2019s great. If I had it to do over again, I\u2019d study literature. Right now I\u2019m having an identity crisis. Right, Terri?\u201d Herb said. He laughed. He twirled the ice in his glass. \u201cI\u2019ve been having an identity crisis for years. Terri knows. Terri can tell you. But let me say this. If I could come back again in a different life, a different time and all, you know what? I\u2019d like to come back as a knight. You were pretty safe wearing all that armor. It was all right being a knight until gunpowder and muskets and .22 pistols came along.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHerb would like to ride a white horse and carry a lance,\u201d Terri said, and laughed.<\/p>\n
\u201cCarry a woman\u2019s garter with you everywhere,\u201d Laura said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOr just a woman,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s right,\u201d Herb said. \u201cThere you go. You know what\u2019s what, don\u2019t you, Nick?\u201d he said. \u201cAlso, you\u2019d carry around their perfumed hankies with you wherever you rode. Did they have perfumed hankies in those days? It doesn\u2019t matter. Some little forget-me-not. A token, that\u2019s what I\u2019m trying to say. You needed some token to carry around with you in those days. Anyway, whatever, it was better in those days being a knight than a serf,\u201d Herb said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always better,\u201d Laura said.<\/p>\n
MORE FROM THIS ISSUE<\/p>\n
December 24, 2007<\/p>\n
Life and Letters<\/p>\n
Rough Crossings<\/p>\n
By Simon Armitage<\/p>\n
Fiction<\/p>\n
Natalie<\/p>\n
By Anne Enright<\/p>\n
The Current Cinema<\/p>\n
Settling Scores<\/p>\n
By Anthony Lane<\/p>\n
Jazz<\/p>\n
Life on Mars<\/p>\n
By David Remnick<\/p>\n
Tables for Two<\/p>\n
Barfry<\/p>\n
By Andrea Thompson<\/p>\n
\u201cThe serfs didn\u2019t have it so good in those days,\u201d Terri said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe serfs have never had it good,\u201d Herb said. \u201cBut I guess even the knights were vessels to someone. Isn\u2019t that the way it worked in those days? But, then, everyone is always a vessel to someone else. Isn\u2019t that right? Terri? But what I liked about knights, besides their ladies, was that they had that suit of armor, you know, and they couldn\u2019t get hurt very easy. No cars in those days, man. No drunk teen-agers to run over you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cVassals,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d Herb said.<\/p>\n
\u201cVassals,\u201d I said. \u201cThey were called vassals, Doc, not vessels.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cVassals,\u201d Herb said. \u201cVassals, vessels, ventricles, vas deferens. Well, you knew what I meant anyway. You\u2019re all better educated in these matters than I am,\u201d Herb said. \u201cI\u2019m not educated. I learned my stuff. I\u2019m a heart surgeon, sure, but really I\u2019m just a mechanic. I just go in and fix things that go wrong with the body. I\u2019m just a mechanic.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cModesty somehow doesn\u2019t become you, Herb,\u201d Laura said, and Herb grinned at her.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s just a humble doctor, folks,\u201d I said. \u201cBut sometimes they suffocated in all that armor, Herb. They\u2019d even have heart attacks if it got too hot and they were too tired and worn out. I read somewhere that they\u2019d fall off their horses and not be able to get up because they were too tired to stand with all that armor on them. They got trampled by their own horses sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s terrible,\u201d Herb said. \u201cThat\u2019s a terrible image, Nicky. I guess they\u2019d just lay there then and wait until someone, the enemy, came along and made a shish kebab out of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSome other vassal,\u201d Terri said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s right, some other vassal,\u201d Herb said. \u201cThere you have it. Some other vassal would come along and spear his fellow-knight in the name of love. Or whatever it was they fought over in those days. Same things we fight over these days, I guess,\u201d Herb said.<\/p>\n
\u201cPolitics,\u201d Laura said. \u201cNothing\u2019s changed.\u201d The color was still in Laura\u2019s cheeks. Her eyes were bright. She brought her glass to her lips.<\/p>\n
Herb poured himself another drink. He looked at the label closely, as if studying the little figures of the Beefeater guards. Then he slowly put the bottle down on the table and reached for the tonic water.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat about this old couple, Herb?\u201d Laura said. \u201cYou didn\u2019t finish that story you started.\u201d Laura was having a hard time lighting her cigarette. Her matches kept going out. The light inside the room was different now, changing, getting weaker. The leaves outside the window were still shimmering, and I stared at the fuzzy pattern they made on the pane and the Formica counter under it. There was no sound except for Laura striking her matches.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat about that old couple?\u201d I said after a minute. \u201cThe last we heard they were just getting out of intensive care.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOlder but wiser,\u201d Terri said.<\/p>\n
Herb stared at her.<\/p>\n
\u201cHerb, don\u2019t give me that kind of look,\u201d Terri said. \u201cGo on with your story. I was only kidding. Then what happened? We all want to know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTerri, sometimes,\u201d Herb said.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlease, Herb,\u201d she said. \u201cHoney, don\u2019t always be so serious. Please go on with the story. I was joking, for God\u2019s sake. Can\u2019t you take a joke?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is nothing to joke about,\u201d Herb said. He held his glass and gazed steadily at her.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happened then, Herb?\u201d Laura said. \u201cWe really want to know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Herb fixed his eyes on Laura. Then he broke off and grinned. \u201cLaura, if I didn\u2019t have Terri and love her so much, and Nick wasn\u2019t my friend, I\u2019d fall in love with you. I\u2019d carry you off.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHerb, you shit,\u201d Terri said. \u201cTell your story. If I weren\u2019t in love with you, I damn sure well wouldn\u2019t be here in the first place, you can bet on it. Honey, what do you say? Finish your story. Then we\u2019ll go to the Library. O.K.?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cO.K.,\u201d Herb said. \u201cWhere was I? Where am I? That\u2019s a better question. Maybe I should ask that.\u201d He waited a minute, and then began to talk.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen they were finally out of the woods, we were able to move them out of intensive care, after we could see they were going to make it. I dropped in to see each of them every day, sometimes twice a day if I was up doing other calls anyway. They were both in casts and bandages, head to foot. You know, you\u2019ve seen it in the movies even if you haven\u2019t seen the real thing. But they were bandaged head to foot, man, and I mean head to foot. That\u2019s just the way they looked, just like those phony actors in the movies after some big disaster. But this was the real thing. Their heads were bandaged\u2014they just had eye holes and a place for their mouths and noses. Anna Gates had to have her legs elevated, too. She was worse off than he was, I told you that. Both of them were on intravenous and glucose for a time. Well, Henry Gates was very depressed for the longest while. Even after he found out that his wife was going to pull through and recover, he was still very depressed. Not just about the accident itself, though of course that had gotten to him, as those things will. There you are one minute, you know, everything just dandy, then blam, you\u2019re staring into the abyss. You come back. It\u2019s like a miracle. But it\u2019s left its mark on you. It does that. One day, I was sitting in a chair beside his bed and he described to me, talking slowly, talking through his mouth hole so sometimes I had to get up to his face to hear him, telling me what it looked like to him, what it felt like, when that kid\u2019s car crossed the center line onto his side of the road and kept coming. He said he knew it was all up for them, that was the last look of anything he\u2019d have on this earth. This was it. But he said nothing flew into his mind, his life didn\u2019t pass before his eyes, nothing like that. He said he just felt sorry to not be able to see any more of his Anna, because they\u2019d had this fine life together. That was his only regret. He looked straight ahead, just gripped the wheel and watched the kid\u2019s car coming at them. And there was nothing he could do except say, \u2018Anna! Hold on, Anna!\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt gives me the shivers,\u201d Laura said. \u201cBrrr,\u201d she said, shaking her head.<\/p>\n
Herb nodded. He went on talking, caught up in it now. \u201cI\u2019d sit awhile every day beside the bed. He\u2019d lay there in his bandages staring out the window at the foot of his bed. The window was too high for him to see anything except the tops of trees. That\u2019s all he saw for hours at a stretch. He couldn\u2019t turn his head without assistance, and he was only allowed to do that twice a day. Each morning for a few minutes and every evening, he was allowed to turn his head. But during our visits he had to look at the window when he talked. I\u2019d talk a little, ask a few questions, but mostly I\u2019d listen. He was very depressed. What was most depressing to him, after he was assured his wife was going to be all right, that she was recovering to everyone\u2019s satisfaction, what was most depressing was the fact they couldn\u2019t be physically together. That he couldn\u2019t see her and be with her every day. He told me they\u2019d married in 1927, and since that time they\u2019d only been apart from each other for any time on two occasions. Even when their children were born, they were born there on the ranch and Henry and the missus still saw each other every day and talked and were together around the place. But he said they\u2019d only been away from each other for any real time on two occasions\u2014once when her mother died, in 1940, and Anna had to take a train to St. Louis to settle matters there. And again in 1952, when her sister died in Los Angeles, and she had to go down there to claim the body. I should tell you they had a little ranch seventy-five miles or so outside of Bend, Oregon, and that\u2019s where they\u2019d lived most of their lives. They\u2019d sold the ranch and moved into the city of Bend just a few years ago. When this accident happened, they were on their way down from Denver, where they\u2019d gone to see his sister. They were going on to visit a son and some of their grandchildren in El Paso. But in all of their married life they\u2019d only been apart from each other for any length of time on just those two occasions. Imagine that. But, Jesus, he was lonely for her. I\u2019m telling you he pined for her. I never knew what that word meant before, pined, until I saw it happening to this man. He missed her something fierce. He just longed for her company, that old man did. Of course, he felt better, he\u2019d brighten, when I\u2019d give him my daily report on Anna\u2019s progress\u2014that she was mending, that she was going to be fine, just a question of a little more time. He was out of his casts and bandages now, but he was still extremely lonely. I told him that just as soon as he was able, maybe in a week, I\u2019d put him into a wheelchair and take him visiting, take him down the corridor to see his wife. Meanwhile, I called on him and we\u2019d talk. He told me a little about their lives out there on the ranch in the late nineteen-twenties and during the early thirties.\u201d He looked around the table at us and shook his head at what he was going to say, or just maybe at the impossibility of all this. \u201cHe told me that in the winter it would do nothing but snow, and for maybe months at a time they couldn\u2019t leave the ranch, the road would be closed. Besides, he had to feed cattle every day through those winter months. They would just be there together, the two of them, him and his wife. The kids hadn\u2019t come along yet. They\u2019d come along later. But, month in, month out, they\u2019d be there together, the two of them, the same routine, the same everything, never anyone else to talk to or to visit with during those winter months. But they had each other. That\u2019s all and everything they had, each other. \u2018What would you do for entertainment?\u2019 I asked him. I was serious. I wanted to know. I didn\u2019t see how people could live like that. I don\u2019t think anyone can live like that these days. You think so? It seems impossible to me. You know what he said? Do you want to know what he answered? He lay there and considered the question. He took some time. Then he said, \u2018We\u2019d go to the dances every night.\u2019 \u2018What?\u2019 I said. \u2018Pardon me, Henry,\u2019 I said, and leaned closer, thinking I hadn\u2019t heard right. \u2018We\u2019d go to the dances every night,\u2019 he said again. I wondered what he meant. I didn\u2019t know what he was talking about, but I waited for him to go on. He thought back to that time again, and in a little while he said, \u2018We had a Victrola and some records, Doctor. We\u2019d play the Victrola every night and listen to the records and dance there in the living room. We\u2019d do that every night. Sometimes it\u2019d be snowing outside and the temperature down below zero. The temperature really drops on you up there in January or February. But we\u2019d listen to the records and dance in our stocking feet in the living room until we\u2019d gone through all the records. And then I\u2019d build up the fire and turn out the lights, all but one, and we\u2019d go to bed. Some nights it\u2019d be snowing, and it\u2019d be so still outside you could hear the snow falling. It\u2019s true, Doc,\u2019 he said, \u2018you can do that. Sometimes you can hear the snow falling. If you\u2019re quiet and your mind is clear and you\u2019re at peace with yourself and all things, you can lay in the dark and hear it snow. You try it sometimes,\u2019 he said. \u2018You get snow down here once in a while, don\u2019t you? You try it sometimes. Anyway, we\u2019d go to the dances every night. And then we\u2019d go to bed under a lot of quilts and sleep warm until morning. When you woke up you could see your breath,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen he\u2019d recovered enough to be moved in a wheelchair, his bandages were long gone by then, a nurse and I wheeled him down the corridor to where his wife was. He\u2019d shaved that morning and put on some lotion. He was in his bathrobe and hospital gown, he was still recovering, you know, but he held himself erect in the wheelchair. Still, he was nervous as a cat, you could see that. As we came closer to her room, his color rose and he got this look of anticipation to his face, a look I can\u2019t begin to describe. I pushed his chair, and the nurse walked along beside me. She knew something about the situation, she\u2019d picked up things. Nurses, you know, they\u2019ve seen everything, and not much gets to them after a while, but this one was strung a little tight herself that morning. The door was open and I wheeled Henry right into the room. Mrs. Gates, Anna, she was still immobilized, but she could move her head and her left arm. She had her eyes closed, but they snapped open when we entered the room. She was still in bandages, but only from the pelvic area down. I pushed Henry up to the left side of her bed and said, \u2018You have some company, Anna. Company, dear.\u2019 But I couldn\u2019t say any more than that. She gave a little smile and her face lit up. Out came her hand from under the sheet. It was bluish and bruised-looking. Henry took the hand in his hands. He held it and kissed it. Then he said, \u2018Hello, Anna. How\u2019s my babe? Remember me?\u2019 Tears started down her cheeks. She nodded. \u2018I\u2019ve missed you,\u2019 he said. She kept nodding. The nurse and I got the hell out of there. She began blubbering once we were outside the room, and she\u2019s a tough lot, that nurse. It was an experience, I\u2019m telling you. But after that he was wheeled down there every morning and every afternoon. We arranged it so they could have lunch and dinner together in her room. In between times, they\u2019d just sit and hold hands and talk. They had no end of things to talk about.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou didn\u2019t tell me this before, Herb,\u201d Terri said. \u201cYou just said a little about it when it first happened. You didn\u2019t tell me any of this, damn you. Now you\u2019re telling me this to make me cry. Herb, this story better not have an unhappy ending. It doesn\u2019t, does it? You\u2019re not setting us up, are you? If you are, I don\u2019t want to hear another word. You don\u2019t have to go any farther with it, you can stop right there. Herb?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happened to them, Herb?\u201d Laura said. \u201cFinish the story, for God\u2019s sake. Is there more? But I\u2019m like Terri, I don\u2019t want anything to happen to them. That\u2019s really something.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAre they all right now?\u201d I asked. I was involved in the story, too, but I was getting drunk. It was hard to keep things in focus. The light seemed to be draining out of the room, going back through the window where it had come from in the first place. Yet nobody made a move to get up from the table or to turn on an electric light.<\/p>\n
\u201cSure, they\u2019re all right,\u201d Herb said. \u201cThey were discharged a while later. Just a few weeks ago, in fact. After a time, Henry was able to get around on crutches and then he went to a cane and then he was just all over the place. But his spirits were up now, his spirits were fine, he just improved every day once he got to see his missus again. When she was able to be moved, their son from El Paso and his wife drove up in a station wagon and took them back down there with them. She still had some convalescing to do, but she was coming along real fine. I just had a card from Henry a few days ago. I guess that\u2019s one of the reasons they\u2019re on my mind right now. That, and what we were saying about love earlier.<\/p>\n
\u201cListen,\u201d Herb went on. \u201cLet\u2019s finish this gin. There\u2019s about enough left here for one drink all around. Then let\u2019s go eat. Let\u2019s go to the Library. What do you say? I don\u2019t know, the whole thing was really something to see. It just unfolded day after day. Some of those talks I had with him . . . I won\u2019t forget those times. But talking about it now has got me depressed. Jesus, but I feel depressed all of a sudden.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t feel depressed, Herb,\u201d Terri said. \u201cHerb, why don\u2019t you take a pill, honey?\u201d She turned to Laura and me and said, \u201cHerb takes these mood-elevator pills sometimes. It\u2019s no secret, is it, Herb?\u201d<\/p>\n
Herb shook his head. \u201cI\u2019ve taken everything there is to take, at one time or another. No secret.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy first wife took them, too,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid they help her?\u201d Laura said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, she still went around depressed. She cried a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSome people are born depressed, I think,\u201d Terri said. \u201cSome people are born unhappy. And unlucky, too. I\u2019ve known people who were just plain unlucky in everything. Other people\u2014not you, honey, I\u2019m not talking about you, of course\u2014other people just set out to make themselves unhappy and they stay unhappy.\u201d She was rubbing at something on the table with her finger. Then she stopped rubbing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I want to call my kids before we go eat,\u201d Herb said. \u201cIs that all right with everybody? I won\u2019t be long. I\u2019ll take a quick shower to freshen up, then I\u2019ll call my kids. Then let\u2019s go eat.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou might have to talk to Marjorie, Herb, if she answers the phone. That\u2019s Herb\u2019s ex-wife. You guys, you\u2019ve heard us on the subject of Marjorie. You don\u2019t want to talk to her this afternoon, Herb. It\u2019ll make you feel even worse.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, I don\u2019t want to talk to Marjorie,\u201d Herb said. \u201cBut I want to talk to my kids. I miss them real bad, honey. I miss Steve. I was awake last night remembering things from when he was little. I want to talk to him. I want to talk to Kathy, too. I miss them, so I\u2019ll have to take the chance their mother will answer the phone. That bitch of a woman.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere isn\u2019t a day goes by that Herb doesn\u2019t say he wishes she\u2019d get married again, or else die. For one thing,\u201d Terri said, \u201cshe\u2019s bankrupting us. Another is that she has custody of both kids. We get to have the kids down here just for a month during the summer. Herb says it\u2019s just to spite him that she won\u2019t get married again. She has a boyfriend who lives with them, too, and Herb is supporting him as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s allergic to bees,\u201d Herb said. \u201cIf I\u2019m not praying she\u2019ll get married again, I\u2019m praying she\u2019ll go out in the country and get herself stung to death by a swarm of bees.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHerb, that\u2019s awful,\u201d Laura said, and laughed until her eyes welled.<\/p>\n
\u201cAwful funny,\u201d Terri said. We all laughed. We laughed and laughed.<\/p>\n
\u201cBzzzzzz,\u201d Herb said, turning his fingers into bees and buzzing them at Terri\u2019s throat and necklace. Then he let his hands drop and leaned back, suddenly serious again.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s a rotten bitch. It\u2019s true,\u201d Herb said. \u201cShe\u2019s vicious. Sometimes when I get drunk, like I am now, I think I\u2019d like to go up there dressed like a beekeeper\u2014you know, that hat that\u2019s like a helmet with the plate that comes down over your face, the big thick gloves, and the padded coat. I\u2019d like to just knock on the door and release a hive of bees in the house. First I\u2019d make sure the kids were out of the house, of course.\u201d With some difficulty, he crossed one leg over the other. Then he put both feet on the floor and leaned forward, elbows on the table, chin cupped in his hands. \u201cMaybe I won\u2019t call the kids right now after all. Maybe you\u2019re right, Terri. Maybe it isn\u2019t such a hot idea. Maybe I\u2019ll just take a quick shower and change my shirt, and then we\u2019ll go eat. How does that sound, everybody?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSounds fine to me,\u201d I said. \u201cEat or not eat. Or keep drinking. I could head right on into the sunset.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat does that mean, honey?\u201d Laura said, turning a look on me.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just means what I said, honey, nothing else. I mean I could just keep going and going. That\u2019s all I meant. It\u2019s that sunset maybe.\u201d The window had a reddish tint to it now as the sun went down.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could eat something myself,\u201d Laura said. \u201cI just realized I\u2019m hungry. What is there to snack on?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll put out some cheese and crackers,\u201d Terri said, but she just sat there.<\/p>\n
Herb finished his drink. Then he got slowly up from the table and said, \u201cExcuse me. I\u2019ll go shower.\u201d He left the kitchen and walked slowly down the hall to the bathroom. He shut the door behind him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m worried about Herb,\u201d Terri said. She shook her head. \u201cSometimes I worry more than other times, but lately I\u2019m really worried.\u201d She stared at her glass. She didn\u2019t make any move for cheese and crackers. I decided to get up and look in the refrigerator. When Laura says she\u2019s hungry, I know she needs to eat. \u201cHelp yourself to whatever you can find, Nick. Bring out anything that looks good. Cheese in there, and a salami stick, I think. Crackers in that cupboard over the stove. I forgot. We\u2019ll have a snack. I\u2019m not hungry myself, but you guys must be starving. I don\u2019t have an appetite anymore. What was I saying?\u201d She closed her eyes and opened them. \u201cI don\u2019t think we\u2019ve told you this, maybe we have, I can\u2019t remember, but Herb was very suicidal after his first marriage broke up and his wife moved to Denver with the kids. He went to a psychiatrist for a long while, for months. Sometimes he says he thinks he should still be going.\u201d She picked up the empty bottle and turned it upside down over her glass. I was cutting some salami on the counter as carefully as I could. \u201cDead soldier,\u201d Terri said. Then she said, \u201cLately, he\u2019s been talking about suicide again. Especially when he\u2019s been drinking. Sometimes I think he\u2019s too vulnerable. He doesn\u2019t have any defenses. He doesn\u2019t have defenses against anything. Well,\u201d she said, \u201cgin\u2019s gone. Time to cut and run. Time to cut our losses, as my daddy used to say. Time to eat, I guess, though I don\u2019t have any appetite. But you guys must be starving. I\u2019m glad to see you eating something. That\u2019ll keep you until we get to the restaurant. We can get drinks at the restaurant if we want them. Wait\u2019ll you see this place, it\u2019s something else. You can take books out of there along with your doggie bag. I guess I should get ready, too. I\u2019ll just wash my face and put on some lipstick. I\u2019m going just like I am. If they don\u2019t like it, tough. I just want to say this, and that\u2019s all. But I don\u2019t want it to sound negative. I hope and pray that you guys still love each other five, even three years from now the way you do today. Even four years from now, say. That\u2019s the moment of truth, four years. That\u2019s all I have to say on the subject.\u201d She hugged her thin arms and began running her hands up and down them. She closed her eyes.<\/p>\n
I stood up from the table and went behind Laura\u2019s chair. I leaned over her and crossed my arms under her breasts and held her. I brought my face down beside hers. Laura pressed my arms. She pressed harder and wouldn\u2019t let go.<\/p>\n
Terri opened her eyes. She watched us. Then she picked up her glass. \u201cHere\u2019s to you guys,\u201d she said. \u201cHere\u2019s to all of us.\u201d She drained the glass, and the ice clicked against her teeth. \u201cCarl, too,\u201d she said, and put her glass back on the table. \u201cPoor Carl. Herb thought he was a schmuck, but Herb was genuinely afraid of him. Carl wasn\u2019t a schmuck. He loved me, and I loved him. That\u2019s all. I still think of him sometimes. It\u2019s the truth, and I\u2019m not ashamed to say it. Sometimes I think of him, he\u2019ll just pop into my head at any old moment. I\u2019ll tell you something, and I hate how soap opera a life can get, so it\u2019s not even yours anymore, but this is how it was. I was pregnant by him. It was that first time he tried to kill himself, when he took the rat poison. He didn\u2019t know I was pregnant. It gets worse. I decided on an abortion. I didn\u2019t tell him about it, either, naturally. I\u2019m not saying anything Herb doesn\u2019t know. Herb knows all about it. Final installment. Herb gave me the abortion. Small world, isn\u2019t it? But I thought Carl was crazy at the time. I didn\u2019t want his baby. Then he goes and kills himself. But after that, after he\u2019d been gone for a while and there was no Carl anymore to talk to and listen to his side of things and help him when he was afraid, I felt real bad about things. I was sorry about his baby, that I hadn\u2019t had it. I love Carl, and there\u2019s no question of that in my mind. I still love him. But God, I love Herb, too. You can see that, can\u2019t you? I don\u2019t have to tell you that. Oh, isn\u2019t it all too much, all of it?\u201d She put her face in her hands and began to cry. Slowly, she leaned forward and put her head on the table.<\/p>\n
Laura put her food down at once. She got up and said, \u201cTerri. Terri, dear,\u201d and began rubbing Terri\u2019s neck and shoulders. \u201cTerri,\u201d she murmured.<\/p>\n
I was eating a piece of salami. The room had gotten very dark. I finished chewing what I had in my mouth, swallowed the stuff, and moved over to the window. I looked out into the back yard. I looked past the aspen tree and the two black dogs sleeping in amongst the lawn chairs. I looked past the swimming pool to the little corral with its gate open and the old empty horse barn and beyond. There was a field of wild grass, and then a fence and then another field, and then the interstate connecting Albuquerque with El Paso. Cars moved back and forth on the highway. The sun was going down behind the mountains, and the mountains had gotten dark, shadows everywhere. Yet there was light, too, and it seemed to be softening those things I looked at. The sky was gray near the tops of the mountains, as gray as a dark day in winter. But there was a band of blue sky just above the gray, the blue you see in tropical postcards, the blue of the Mediterranean. The water on the surface of the pool rippled and the same breeze caused the aspen leaves to tremble. One of the dogs raised its head as if on signal, listened a minute with its ears up, and then put its head back down between its paws.<\/p>\n
I had the feeling something was going to happen, it was in the slowness of the shadows and the light, and that whatever it was might take me with it. I didn\u2019t want that to happen. I watched the wind move in waves across the grass. I could see the grass in the fields bend in the wind and then straighten again. The second field slanted up to the highway, and the wind moved uphill across it, wave after wave. I stood there and waited and watched the grass bend in the wind. I could feel my heart beating. Somewhere toward the back of the house the shower was running. Terri was still crying. Slowly and with an effort, I turned to look at her. She lay with her head on the table, her face turned toward the stove. Her eyes were open, but now and then she would blink away tears. Laura had pulled her chair over, and sat with an arm around Terri\u2019s shoulders. She murmured still, her lips against Terri\u2019s hair.<\/p>\n
\u201cSure, sure,\u201d Terri said. \u201cTell me about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTerri, sweetheart,\u201d Laura said to her tenderly. \u201cIt\u2019ll be O.K., you\u2019ll see. It\u2019ll be O.K.\u201d<\/p>\n
Laura raised her eyes to mine then. Her look was penetrating, and my heart slowed. She gazed into my eyes for what seemed a long time, and then she nodded. That\u2019s all she did, the only sign she gave, but it was enough. It was as if she were telling me, Don\u2019t worry, we\u2019ll get past this, everything is going to be all right with us, you\u2019ll see. Easy does it. That\u2019s the way I chose to interpret the look anyway, though I could be wrong.<\/p>\n
The shower stopped running. In a minute, I heard whistling as Herb opened the bathroom door. I kept looking at the women at the table. Terri was still crying and Laura was stroking her hair. I turned back to the window. The blue layer of sky had given way now and was turning dark like the rest. But stars had appeared. I recognized Venus and, farther off and to the side, not as bright but unmistakably there on the horizon, Mars. The wind had picked up. I looked at what it was doing to the empty fields. I thought unreasonably that it was too bad the McGinnises no longer kept horses. I wanted to imagine horses rushing through those fields in the near-dark, or even just standing quietly with their heads in opposite directions near the fence. I stood at the window and waited. I knew I had to keep still a while longer, keep my eyes out there, outside the house, as long as there was something left to see. \u2666<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Literature Fiction critique John Pickett 11 unread reply.11 reply. For your Fiction Critique, choose from one of the stories in this section that you’ve read and ONE of the topics below: Interpretation of Fiction Question Prompts Describe a character who Read More …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-426954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426954\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}