Read Online Tolstoy and the Purple Chair by Nina Sankovitch - Free Book Online Page A

come the other way now, as boys and husband worked to make time and space for me and my books. A book a day? For one year? I would need all the time and space—and love—they could give me. And I promised to give back all the happiness I found.

Chapter 5
Rearranging the Rhythms
    The weird world rolls on.
    PAUL AUSTER,
    quoting Rose Hawthorne , Man in the Dark
    THE NEXT EVENING AT DINNER I ANNOUNCED A NEW HOUSEHOLD POLICY . I’d put together a cleanup schedule. The two older boys were on duty cleaning up after dinner, two days on and two days off, and I would clean up on weekends. The younger boys were responsible for setting and clearing the table on alternate days. The boys would also help with laundry, bringing dirty clothes to the laundry room and putting away cleaned clothes.
    â€œYour allowance will go up,” I promised.
    â€œBut you never remember to pay us,” Michael said.
    â€œYou never remember to ask me,” I answered, while making a note in my brain to pay allowance every week, without fail.
    After dinner, George approached me with a book in his hand.
    â€œI really want you to read this book, Mom. I think you would like it.”
    I took the book from him. Watership Down by Richard Adams. I knew it was one of George’s favorites. I opened it up, turned to the last page. The book was almost five hundred pages long. I looked up at George. His face was a mixture of challenge and supplication.
    â€œIf you’re going to read a book a day, you should make sure the books are good ones,” he offered, “and I know this is a good book. I want you to read it.”
    I nodded. “Of course I will.” I placed it down on the kitchen counter, on top of other waiting books. “ That will be one long day of reading,” I said.
    â€œYou’re not going to read it tomorrow?” he asked.
    â€œNo, but soon, I promise.”
    George frowned, and I groaned inside. It would be hard to find a day with enough time in it for such a long book. But how could I say no to one of my boys?
    According to my dry cleaner, I had given birth to four boys because of the dried dates I’d eaten on my wedding night. The conjugal activity I’d engaged in that same night, repeated at regular intervals in the following months and years, played only a minor role, according to Mrs. Kahng. Using photographs from her son’s recent wedding, Mrs. Kahng explained to me an old Korean wedding tradition. In one photo, she is tossing chestnuts and dates at her son and new daughter-in-law, while they struggle to catch the flying foods in a cloth they hold stretched between the two of them. There is pride on Mrs. Kahng’s face, glee on the groom’s face, and determination on the bride’s. The number of chestnuts caught is the number of girls the couple will have, and the number of dates is the number of boys.
    My dry cleaner then showed me another photo, this one of the young couple clutching a colorfully wrapped package.
    â€œThe captured dates and nuts are in there,” Mrs. Kahng explained. “They must eat those goodies on their wedding night, and then . . .” Nudge, nudge, wink, wink. Yes, I understood, even with no photo provided.
    Peter arrived early in the marriage, born just a few months after our first wedding anniversary. Michael came two years later, George three after that, and Martin three years after George. Not exactly boom-boom-boom, but close. If I had continued having children, I am sure I would have had more boys, although I’m not sure how many chopped dates made it onto my wedding-night salad so many years ago. I wanted a big family, having grown up reading about happy times shared by siblings in books like the Bobbsey Twins series (four kids in the family), All-of-a-Kind-Family by Sydney Taylor (five kids), The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright (four kids), and, a much-reread favorite, Cheaper by the Dozen by Frank Gilbreth Jr. and