Boundaries by Elizabeth Nunez

Author:Elizabeth Nunez [Nunez, Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Contemporary
ISBN: 1617750336
Publisher: Akashic Books
Published: 2011-07-15T04:00:00+00:00

ELEVEN

Her father does not spend the night in the hospital. It is not by choice. He would have if his wife had allowed him. He would have stretched out on the armchair near her bed, his legs propped up on the footstool the nurses have given him, and declared he was as comfortable as if he were in his own bed. Indeed, this is what he tells his wife. “I like it here,” he claims.

“Don’t be silly, John,” his wife responds. “Your old legs must be cramped by now. You’re not a young man. And besides, you smell.”

Her husband does not take offense. He kisses her on her forehead. “And you smell like an angel,” he says.

Beatrice grimaces. It’s a pretense, Anna knows. She is pleased by the compliment, the reassurances her husband gives her of his undying love. “Take him away,” Beatrice says to Anna, who has come to fetch him for dinner. “And don’t bring him back until tomorrow morning. Make sure he takes a shower and changes his clothes. He’s worn the same pants for two days now.”

John Sinclair does not give up. “I’ll come back after dinner.”

His wife faces him. Anna is startled by what she sees. Her mother’s eyes are misty; the hand she raises trembles slightly. “I know, I know,” she whispers. Her father grasps her raised hand. No more words pass between them and yet everything they need to say is said. When her mother finally slips her hand out of his and waves toward the door, her father leaves with his shoulders slumped.

It is a moment of intimacy that is too raw for Anna. She walks quickly out of the room.

The next morning Dr. Bishop comes to check on Beatrice. She is sitting up, waiting for him. She is ready to go home, she says. “I feel fine.” The nurses cannot deny she is telling the truth. They are amazed by her rapid recovery. She was walking up and down the corridors of the hospital the day after her surgery, stopping to chat with the other patients.

Paul Bishop says he cannot make promises, but he’ll see what he can do. When he leaves, Beatrice grumbles that all the hospital wants is her money. There is no reason for her to take up a bed that someone else might need.

Anna is surprised to hear her speak of money. Her husband handles all her affairs. He denies her nothing. She asks and she receives. He keeps accounts for her in the best stores on the island. She simply goes there and orders what she wants or needs. He leaves the running of the house to her, and has set up an account for that purpose. Yet she makes him pay the salaries of their housekeeper, the gardener, the boys who mow and weed the lawn, the woman who washes and irons their clothes. On the matter of laundering clothes she is consistent with the philosophy she and her husband share. They believe a person’s privacy is inviolate, to be honored and respected.

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