Acts of love by Michael Judith

Author:Michael, Judith
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Theater
Publisher: New York : Crown Publishers
Published: 1997-09-09T04:00:00+00:00

190 ~ Judith Michael

ket, and then went through her rooms, following the directions in her will when there were any, otherwise making my own decisions on what to keep and what to give away. She seemed to be everywhere, you know; her fragrance followed me, her voice stayed with me ... it was almost as if I were visiting and soon we'd have a quiet dinner—" His voice caught. As the silence stretched out, he deliberately took a bite of apple pancake, then another and another, and Jessica knew he was warding off ghosts. No, not ghosts, she thought; only the pain of knowing that a phantom is all we have left of someone so deeply loved.

She felt close to Luke now, relaxed and ready to listen. She ate some of her own pancake and, suddenly realizing how hungry she was, finished what was on her plate. Without asking, she served Luke another piece and took one for herself.

"Thank you," Luke said, and she knew he was thanking her mostly for listening. "The box of your letters was in the library, beside her favorite chair. I'd seen it on other visits and thought it was simply decorative, but when I opened it. . . well, I've told you about seeing your letters and reading one or two from curiosity. I read a few more, I think, and then the telephone rang, and it was a woman in New York to whom I'd once been married."

Jessica saw her own surprise mirrored on Luke's face, and she knew he had not expected to say that. But then he gave a small nod, as if acknowledging that this was what he wanted to do, and he settled back in his chair and told her the story of that entire week in Italy and his return to New York. The hum of bees and the sweet trills of birds wove through his deep voice, and Jessica knew that he was responding, as she always did, to the isolation of this small space, seeming entire unto itself as it looked across the open water, leaving the islands and the continent behind.

"I haven't told you about Claudia." Briefly he told her about his marriage and the swath that Claudia still cut through his life. "What I found myself doing was comparing Claudia to you. Not fair to Claudia, of course, but it became so obvious that I couldn't avoid it. She's a woman who is incapable of shaping a life for herself, of finding meaning and purpose in her days. And you'd built a new life, almost from nothing. I didn't understand why you'd had to do it—nothing in your letters said exactly why the train crash forced you to abandon everything—but I knew you'd done it, and evidently without leaning on others. So while Claudia was demanding that

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