They sat at the bar. This wasn’t the Ritz or the Carlton, the few guys standing at the counter left them alone, but Nath, watching Marlene squirm on her stool, immediately recognized the neurotic, edgy, semi-adrift girl she’d had for a sister and had lugged around like a millstone all childhood long.
Cut that out, she hissed. Everything’s fine.
Marlene let out a small apologetic giggle and tried to sit still.
You should get new glasses, Nath advised her. Seriously.
GLASSES
Dan didn’t know much about that. He didn’t have an opinion. Seriously. Instead, he was concerned about the two women’s plan to drop in on Mona unannounced, which they wouldn’t let go of. They’d had a drink or two before he joined them and their eyes shone a little too bright. I just can’t wait to see her, Marlene repeated for the nth time.
He grimaced. He got up to fetch some beers—might as well, at this point. He was tempted to just take off and let them fend for themselves.
Who’s that girl with Nath, asked a veteran at the bar. Her sister.
Huh, whaddya know, didn’t know she had a sister. Dan nodded, gathered up the beers, and returned to their table.
I don’t want a war, stated Nath. She’s an adult now, after all.
I don’t have any advice to offer. I’m not going to come between the two of you.
I’m sure it’ll work out, Marlene announced. We can all make a fresh start.
They stared at her without saying a word. Outside the bay windows, a cold moon was rising in the sky. Guys in fatigues and regulation haircuts were horsing around and laughing in the parking lot. Cars were finding spots. Did I say something wrong, asked Marlene.
Dan, on his motorcycle, arrived a few minutes before the two women, with a worried face but a fresh complexion, intent on warning Mona that she was in for a surprise—if that could soften the blow.
Lights were on in the living room and kitchen windows. He scowled. He hoped everything would soon return to normal.
She was taking a bath. Hence that candy smell that had indelibly permeated the place for the last few days and put him ill at ease. He announced the two women’s visit through the door. No response. He heard the tap running.
At that same instant, a huge crash froze his blood and took his breath away. It came from outside. He faltered, seized by one of those flashes of panic that sometimes grabbed hold of him. He flattened against the wall, jaw trembling.
Still, just as he was about to lose it, he recognized Marlene’s voice exclaiming oh my god, oh Jesus, oh shit. He opened his eyes, swallowed. He gave himself a moment, bit into his fist, and mopped his damp brow. Then he went outside, legs still shaky, to see what the ruckus was about.
Marlene had driven into his motorcycle. She hadn’t just hit it, she’d sent it flying against the garage door, which had suffered its own damage. She had an explanation for all this, it seemed, but he wasn’t listening and walked over to pick up his bike.
I’m so sorry, I’m so so sorry, she wailed at his back. He grimaced, and at the same time realized Nath was nowhere to be seen.
Oh, she changed her mind at the last minute, Marlene said. I dropped her off at her place. If only I’d known.
She seemed truly sorry. Sozzled, but sorry.
Where was my brain, she went on.
He gave her a dark look, then turned back to his mauled vehicle and the garage door that ballooned inward like a reverse paunch. Costly as it was, at least there wouldn’t be a huge blowout between mother and daughter. Not tonight, at any rate. Not here. Who knew what might have happened.
He looked up at the black sky, noted the artificial calm hovering over everything. Marlene was carefully inspecting the car’s bumper, hunting for scratches. He asked where her glasses were.
This’ll make you laugh, she said.
But he wasn’t to have that pleasure, for she stopped short when Mona appeared in the doorway.
REARVIEW
On the way back, Marlene, slightly tipsy and sans glasses, wore a vague smile about her lips. She hadn’t been able to see her niece grow up, but she was still feeling the rush of hugging her tight. A real temperament, and a real beauty; a smart girl, though visibly suffering the rigidity of adolescence—especially when it came to her mother.
Stopped at a light, in the center of town where things were hopping around bars with flashing neons, she tapped her fingers on the wheel and glanced at herself in the rearview mirror. She thought about Dan, what an odd duck he was. Then she concentrated on her driving and didn’t give him another thought.
To spare herself an unpleasant comment from her sister, she made no mention of the unfortunate little incident that had occurred as she was pulling up to Dan’s house and instead put the accent on the wonderful time the three of them had had.
Nath scowled and said she was going to bed.
She made an about-face when Marlene announced point-blank that she was pregnant. I’d like to talk to you about it, she added.
CREEPS
It didn’t show. It didn’t show yet. Observing Marlene from behind, in the bathroom mirror, all the while brushing her teeth with unusual ardor as her sister straddled the edge of the tan thermoformed acrylic bathtub, Nath pondered whether she shouldn’t take advantage of the situation and drown her once and for all.
Don’t be too long, she told her. We’ve got a lot to do.
It was beautiful out, a bright March sky in absolute, strident blue. In front of the kitchen window, pensive, Nath put cream on her face. The Italian coffeepot belched. Richard was under lock and key, Mona had slammed the door on her way out, Marlene had dropped into her lap like a bag of cement, and as for the rest, as for her love and sex life, the Lord had not exactly provided. The only thing missing was crummy weather.
The world was full of creeps. Nath had been all about finding some guys to teach the bastard who’d tossed Marlene out on the street when she got pregnant a lesson. At least, make it so he’d never do it again. But Marlene had gone all timid, Miss Above-It-All, and flatly rejected any sort of punishment. Nath had shaken her head. Christ almighty, I really don’t understand you. Her sister was no picnic, but that hardly justified it.
They stopped at the bowling alley to retrieve her glasses, after a morose, silent ride, each lost in her thoughts—so close in space, but so far apart in reality.
The woman who’d found them had sat on them and broken one of the temples—a major tragedy, to hear Marlene tell it, as she tried in vain to adjust them on her nose, whining that she didn’t have the resources just now to take on the cost of repairing them, nor in fact to take on any expense at all.
Don’t tell me you’re broke, Nath sighed, looking for a place to sit.