Read Online Astonish Me by Maggie Shipstead - Free Book Online Page A

that someone who might not do well with traditional academic tasks could still have other aptitudes. Like for music or spatial relations. Or someone might have interpersonal gifts.”
    “That’s you, honey,” Gary puts in, conciliatory.
    “Or someone might be physically gifted—Gardner calls it bodily-kinesthetic intelligence—and be an excellent athlete or a dancer like Joan.” Jacob strokes his wife’s leg under the table, then remembers the children and stops.
    Gary says, “I aced an IQ test when I was a kid. Off the charts, I guess.”
    Jacob nods politely, as though it were possible to “ace” an IQ test. All people want to do is tell him about their IQs, which are either off the charts or, in the case of a certain breed of red-faced men onairplanes, so low they almost put me out with the cattle, but, sure enough, a few years down the road I started my own business, and now you wouldn’t believe what I’m worth, so just goes to show you IQ tests don’t amount to a pile of beans .
    “What I’m afraid of with Chloe,” Gary goes on, “is that she won’t get the support she deserves.”
    “That happened to Gary,” says Sandy. “No one challenged him.”
    “I’m not complaining, but I want Chloe to have every opportunity.” Gary wipes his mouth, drops his napkin back into his lap, shakes his head. “Every opportunity.”
    “In my experience,” Jacob says, hearing and regretting the preachy note in his voice, “the key is to allow children to discover what they’re passionate about.”
    “How old are you?” Gary asks.
    “Twenty-eight.” Before he can stop himself, he adds, “And a half.”
    Gary’s smile is controlled and contemptuous. “Robbing the cradle,” he says to Joan.
    A yipping comes from under the table. “Do I hear a puppy?” Sandy says. “Is there a puppy under this table?”
    The yipping turns to a howl and then trails off.
    Sandy leans to one side and lifts the tablecloth, peering underneath. “What kind of puppy is it?”
    “Two puppies!” Harry announces. “And one’s a bitch!”
    Gary dives under the table like a sea lion after a fish. “Excuse me, young man? What did you say?”
    Jacob feels his son’s small hand on his knee. He bends and peers into the dim space, at the small curled bodies of the children and the large staring faces of Sandy and Gary. “Dad,” whispers Harry. “A bitch is a girl dog. Chloe’s a girl. We’re playing dogs.”
    “You’re right,” Jacob tells him, “but it’s also a bad name people call each other to be mean. Probably you should just avoid saying it.” He sits back up, and the Wheelocks surface too.
    Joan is fighting the giggles and losing. For a long minute sheturns away, shielding her face while the others watch in silence. It’s the tension, Jacob knows. In high school she would laugh when someone got yelled at in class. When she looks up, her eyes are red and watering. “Sorry,” she says to Gary and Sandy, her face crimping with the effort of seriousness. “I didn’t even know he knew that word.”
    “He owes Chloe an apology,” Gary says.
    “As far as he knew, he was being factual,” says Jacob. “If we make a big deal out of it, we only draw attention to it.”
    Joan trembles in her chair, tears rolling down her cheeks. He can’t look at her or he’ll laugh too.
    Gary runs his tongue over his incisors, close mouthed, making a gorilla face. “Thanks for the parenting lesson, but Chloe needs to know she’s respected.”
    “He’s not being a misogynist. They’re playing puppies.”
    “I don’t see what’s funny.”
    Joan plunks her elbows down on the table, making the china rattle, and presses her face into her hands. Jacob feels himself being pulled after her as though by a tether. As he tries not to laugh, he makes an accidental strangled sound, which sends him shooting off the edge. He lists toward her and presses his face into her shoulder. She leans back against him, shaking, and rests one