Read Online Every Day by Elizabeth Richards - Free Book Online Page A

anorexic? Because if you are I know this girl at school who is and she goes to talk to a shrink about it, and now she’sactually gaining weight. Now she only looks like a skeleton. Before she looked like she didn’t even have bones.”
    I burst out laughing. I can’t help it. We have to get through this meal. I stare at Simon, try to find him somewhere in his rage, beg him with my eyes: couldn’t we just try to communicate on this horrific subject, and in the meantime put in an appearance as parents even if one of us stinks as a mother and a wife and a citizen?
    A smile flickers over his square face, then he sets his jaw again.
    “It’s not funny, Mom,” Jane informs me.
    “Yes, it is,” I manage to get out. “It’s funny the way you said it, even if you didn’t mean it to be.”
    “Yes,” Simon admits. “The notion: people without bones.” He glares at me.
    “I’m outta here,” Isaac says, his spaghetti gone. He can’t take tension between me and Simon. He whirls out of our sight until the storm he sees coming has passed over. This time, he hides out in his room. I can hear him above us, deciding on a place to sit.
    I serve myself a healthy portion even though I have no interest in eating, haven’t since I saw Fowler. The others are enjoying theirs; even Simon isn’t having trouble with his appetite.
    I ask Jane to tell us about her first day at camp.
    “Oh God, Mom,” she says, putting down her fork and spoon, wiping her face with a napkin, gearing up. “They have so much stuff to do there. It’s unbelievable. Tracy and Alison are going there too, and they chose tennis and swimming like I did. It was really great, I’m telling you. I’m so tired, though. I’m going to bed early, after I call Tracy and Alison, if that’s okay.”
    “What about our golfing trip?” Simon asks her.
    “Oh, no! Daddy! I completely forgot! Can we go another time? I want to stay home with Mom and Daisy.”
    “You forgot?” Simons asks. “In fifteen minutes you forgot?”
    That she knew I wouldn’t be going along, would not be welcome, astounds me. Simon looks crestfallen, as if Jane’s sudden allegiance to me is the final straw, not my infidelity.
    “That’s okay, baby,” he says. “You do what you want.”
    I take some bites of my dinner, a few sips of wine, this amounting to more than I’ve ingested at a sitting since before Saturday. It’s all I can manage. I gather Daisy, out of the eating phase and into the throwing one, from her chair and take her into the kitchen to clean her up. Before I find a rag I sit her on the counter to behold her messy face, to test my love for her because I trust myself so little.
    “You’re my sweet bird,” I say.
    “Mom-may,” she says.
    I take time with this cleaning effort, wiping her face so gently, as if I might tear skin were I to rub any harder. In the next room, Jane is chatting up her father, coaxing him out of fury for a few seconds. Soon he and I will have to face each other. I cannot leave another hour of this to my children to fix.
    We go back out to an empty dining room, all having fled for the upstairs. I set Daisy down on the living room rug and drag over her bag of oversized Legos. I try to focus on building with Daisy, but it’s no use. I’m waiting, to quote my son, for the shit to hit the fan.
    Simon appears on the landing rattling change and keys and summons Isaac to miniature golf. Isaac appears, having combed his hair down with water.
    “Have fun,” I say.
    I can’t wait for them to leave.
    “Check ya later,” Isaac says, and vanishes.
    Simon comes slowly down the last few stairs, every step an effort. He looks all around him before speaking.
    “I expect to be back by ten o’clock,” he says. “At that time I’d appreciate an explanation, or whatever you think mightpass for one, for Saturday afternoon.” His voice shakes, and I can hear him near tears. “In a million years, Leigh, I never thought I’d be saying these words.”
    He