Read Online A Dangerous Age by Ellen Gilchrist - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Ellen Gilchrist
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without children, without sons and daughters, there was no real love, no real partner or dance, only new ways to be lonely and alone.
“Then let’s hurry up and get that going,” I said. “Because I’m already almost too old to have babies, and I don’t want my children having old people for their parents.”
“Is that so?” he said. He was finishing off his eggs and bacon and moving in without doing anything but changing his eyes, and I got up from the table and started trying not to give in to it, but hell, I love to fuck the man.
“I’ M SORRY I’ M LATE ,” I told the reporters who had been waiting in my office for fifteen minutes when I got there at ten thirty. “The goddamn traffic on Harvard Avenue was so bad I started to get out and walk.”
“You want us to go back to the courthouse and do another piece on the Hardin trial?”
“Yes. You didn’t need to wait on me. Go on over and see if the jury’s coming in, and interview anyone you can grab. This afternoon I need someone to cover the soccer games at two junior high schools. Take a photographer. Jim and Beth are on the rag about circulation again. Jim read something about the growth in population in the county and he thinks we need to make the local news more prominent, and I think he’s right. So what? Are you mad at me for being late? I just moved in with my ex-husband, all right? I’m sorry. I’m human.”
“After all,” Charles Ott said, and he came around to my desk and gave me a kiss and handed me his expense report for staying in the hotel with the jury for three days. “It’s okay, Olivia. We’re cutting you slack. Just don’t let it settle into a habit.”
“It might,” I answered. “What the hell. I’m in love and we’re going to have a blessing ceremony as soon as we can get it going. You’re both invited. It takes two days. You ever been to one?”
“No,” they both answered. “But I guess we’re going to now.”
“You’re going to cover it. One of you is. I’m going to make it page one and the cover of the living section on Sunday. Jim wants local news, I’m giving him local news.”
O NLY IT WASN’T going to be that easy because nothing ever is, and if it were, we wouldn’t want to do it anymorebecause the real enemy of human beings is boredom. Or so I told myself when I started throwing up on Saturday morning, just when I’d arranged to take the weekend off so Bobby and I could go down to Tahlequah and see Granddaddy and get things going for the blessing ceremony.
“I think that’s what happens when you get pregnant,” Bobby said. He was sitting on the edge of the bed, patting my back. I didn’t feel all that bad, just groggy and sleepy and more or less wanting to be left alone.
“Go get one of those pregnancy test kits from the drugstore,” I said. “Buy two kinds and come back as quick as you can. And some Seven-Up. Get me some Seven-Up or a Coke.”
I fell asleep and drifted into a wonderful strange sort of dream about being on the pier at Lake Wedington. Bobby was in the water saving a bunch of babies that had fallen in. He would get one and hand it to me and I’d put it in the basket, and then he’d get another one and hand that one to me. The babies weren’t in danger in the water. They were floating, just waiting for him to swim over and pluck them out and hand them to me. It all happened in slow motion, and the sun was shining and it was warm and we just kept on working, getting out the babies, until he came and sat back on the bed and woke me.
“I wish we could do the test now, if you don’t mind. Do you feel like getting up?”
“Read the directions.”
“I already did. You have to urinate—I mean, pee.”
“I know what
urinate
means.” I turned over and started laughing.
Then I sat up on the edge of the bed and tried to get the blood to go back to my brain. I went into the bathroom and urinated into the container and stuck in the swab and walked back into the
“Then let’s hurry up and get that going,” I said. “Because I’m already almost too old to have babies, and I don’t want my children having old people for their parents.”
“Is that so?” he said. He was finishing off his eggs and bacon and moving in without doing anything but changing his eyes, and I got up from the table and started trying not to give in to it, but hell, I love to fuck the man.
“I’ M SORRY I’ M LATE ,” I told the reporters who had been waiting in my office for fifteen minutes when I got there at ten thirty. “The goddamn traffic on Harvard Avenue was so bad I started to get out and walk.”
“You want us to go back to the courthouse and do another piece on the Hardin trial?”
“Yes. You didn’t need to wait on me. Go on over and see if the jury’s coming in, and interview anyone you can grab. This afternoon I need someone to cover the soccer games at two junior high schools. Take a photographer. Jim and Beth are on the rag about circulation again. Jim read something about the growth in population in the county and he thinks we need to make the local news more prominent, and I think he’s right. So what? Are you mad at me for being late? I just moved in with my ex-husband, all right? I’m sorry. I’m human.”
“After all,” Charles Ott said, and he came around to my desk and gave me a kiss and handed me his expense report for staying in the hotel with the jury for three days. “It’s okay, Olivia. We’re cutting you slack. Just don’t let it settle into a habit.”
“It might,” I answered. “What the hell. I’m in love and we’re going to have a blessing ceremony as soon as we can get it going. You’re both invited. It takes two days. You ever been to one?”
“No,” they both answered. “But I guess we’re going to now.”
“You’re going to cover it. One of you is. I’m going to make it page one and the cover of the living section on Sunday. Jim wants local news, I’m giving him local news.”
O NLY IT WASN’T going to be that easy because nothing ever is, and if it were, we wouldn’t want to do it anymorebecause the real enemy of human beings is boredom. Or so I told myself when I started throwing up on Saturday morning, just when I’d arranged to take the weekend off so Bobby and I could go down to Tahlequah and see Granddaddy and get things going for the blessing ceremony.
“I think that’s what happens when you get pregnant,” Bobby said. He was sitting on the edge of the bed, patting my back. I didn’t feel all that bad, just groggy and sleepy and more or less wanting to be left alone.
“Go get one of those pregnancy test kits from the drugstore,” I said. “Buy two kinds and come back as quick as you can. And some Seven-Up. Get me some Seven-Up or a Coke.”
I fell asleep and drifted into a wonderful strange sort of dream about being on the pier at Lake Wedington. Bobby was in the water saving a bunch of babies that had fallen in. He would get one and hand it to me and I’d put it in the basket, and then he’d get another one and hand that one to me. The babies weren’t in danger in the water. They were floating, just waiting for him to swim over and pluck them out and hand them to me. It all happened in slow motion, and the sun was shining and it was warm and we just kept on working, getting out the babies, until he came and sat back on the bed and woke me.
“I wish we could do the test now, if you don’t mind. Do you feel like getting up?”
“Read the directions.”
“I already did. You have to urinate—I mean, pee.”
“I know what
urinate
means.” I turned over and started laughing.
Then I sat up on the edge of the bed and tried to get the blood to go back to my brain. I went into the bathroom and urinated into the container and stuck in the swab and walked back into the
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