Read Online Margot: A Novel by [email protected] - Free Book Online Page A

Chapter Twelve 04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
At lunchtime, Shelby and I take the elevator down 14
to the lobby, where she purchases a ham sandwich from the 15
cart, and then I follow her out to the sidewalk, where she sits 16
on the bench and pulls a box of Kent cigarettes from her 17
satchel. Shelby has told me this is her favorite brand because 18
it is also the brand Marilyn Monroe smokes. The sun is shin 19
ing, and the feel of it on my face is still, even now, like bril 20
liance. 21
“Here.” Shelby hands a cigarette to me, and I roll it around 22
in my fingers. Another time, another place, one that I do not 23
like to go back to. 24
I hand the cigarette back to her. She shrugs, lights her 25
own, takes a puff, and leans back against the bench and 26
closes her eyes as if she is dreaming. “You know what I don’t 27
get,” she says to me, holding her pale freckled arm out with S28
N29
    01 the cigarette dangling loosely from her fingers, as if wishing
02 to catch the rays of late-April sunlight and smoke them.
03 “What’s that?” I ask.
04 “Joshua and Ezra.”
05 “What’s not to get?” I say.
06 She shrugs. “I mean, I would never work for my father if
07 he treated me like that. Why doesn’t Joshua just go work at
08 some other law firm?”
09 “I don’t know,” I say, but I am thinking that it is not as easy
10 as Shelby thinks, that Shelby’s missing sense of duty to her
11 father might not be an American thing, but a Gentile one.
12 “Who can you trust if you can’t trust your own father?” I swal
13 low the words as I say them, worried they might choke me.
14 She shrugs. “Did I tell you I’m missing a glove?” she asks.
15 And there she goes, with the attention span the size of a
16 pinhead.
17 “A glove?” I murmur.
18 But I am thinking about the way Ezra yelled at Joshua, not
19 so dissimilar to the way my mother and sister used to yell at
20 each other. You have to love someone to yell at them so
21 intensely; you have to care so unbelievably much that your
22 anger explodes and burns across the sky like the Soviet’s
23 Sputnik I’ve read so much about. My sister always thought
24 they fought because Mother hated her, but I knew better.
25 “I think Ron took the glove,” Shelby is saying now.
26 “What?” I shake my head. “Why would he do that? To give
27 to his hussy?”
28S She laughs. “No. To find my ring size, silly.” She holds the
29N cigarette in her left hand, out in the sunlight, as if admiring
a diamond. “And besides that. What you said about trusting 01
one’s father, it reminded me.” I’m surprised that she has 02
brought the conversation back full circle—I have misjudged 03
her attention span after all. 04
“Reminded you of what?” I ask. 05
“My father is acting funny. I think he knows something. I 06
think Ron has already asked him if he can marry me.” 07
“But what about his hussy?” I ask her. 08
She shrugs. “I’m sure it was just all a big mistake.” She 09
smiles and takes a drag on her cigarette, but I wonder, how 10
can she be so sure? She seems so excited about her missing 11
glove, and I do not want to burst her delicate bubble, so I do 12
not press her further. Instead I find myself thinking again 13
about the woman’s voice on the phone last night, and in the 14
sunlight, now, I wonder if she might be a mistake as well. Did 15
I simply dial wrong? 16
Shelby crushes her cigarette with her foot and grabs on to 17
my hand. “Can you imagine it?” she asks me. “Me as some 18
body’s wife?” 19
“No,” I say. “I cannot.” I smile at her, so she will know I am 20
teasing. Because in truth, I can see Shelby as someone’s wife. 21
I believe Shelby would be much like that Donna Reed, who 22
Ilsa had me watch on TV with her one evening when I was 23
there at her house for dinner, bright and charming and hos 24
pitable and capable of running a busy household.