Casebook: A novel by Mona Simpson

Author:Mona Simpson
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780385351423
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2014-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

* Though not nearly as antipolice as we would get. Then it was just style. The substance(s) came later.

49 • Not Looking

But I didn’t google for Eli’s middle name. I didn’t ask the Mims in what state he filed divorce papers. I tried to forget the whole thing and stay on the lit, apparent side of my life. The rest had been my twisted imagination, I decided. Hector asked me about it a few times, and I blew him off.

All that spring, I strained toward simple pop melodies: I kept my earbuds in, listening to Pet Sounds while my mom and Sare complained in the kitchen. Simon’s dad had enrolled in a pastry-making class, Sare said. Now he baked all the family’s desserts. “That’s the kind of thing I’m talking about.”

These were notes I’d heard all my life.

They lowered their voices to talk about Philip. Marge had gotten him a class to teach through UCLA extension. He was really trying to finish his dissertation now, the Mims said. He’d started running with Marge, but she’d hired a trainer anyway. Philip was offended; he couldn’t believe what the guy charged. “But the trainer gives me little head rubs when he stretches me out!” Marge had told my mom. Sare asked if Kat still had the boyfriend the kids hated. My mom said yes, but she didn’t know why they hated him so much. Even I thought they hated him too hard.

Marge had asked my mom to collaborate with her on a complex system model. The math of crime. My mom had said she’d try it. She’d never worked with someone else like that before. She thought it would be good to talk to someone about the steps, though. It might help her confidence.

I heard them like a chorus.

And tennis started again. On April 1 I poured fake blood in the bathtub and lay head askew. The Mims came to find me because I was late for school and yanked open the shower curtain.

Once, Hector was over when Sare said, “Is it my imagination or is Eli coming less?”

“The cat’s still sick,” the Mims said. “I think it’s dying.”

“Can’t it hurry up?” Sare said.

The Mims didn’t laugh.

I knew Hector’s expressions. Sometimes it was hard to believe what I thought, without him seeping through. I started to sit at the big tables at lunch, so I wouldn’t be alone with him. I invited other guys, too, Friday nights, but in the few years since we’d had the Jocular Rabid Rabbits’ blowouts we’d become less popular. The other guys went to malls now where they met up with girls and they didn’t invite us along.

I found Boop Two curled up on the floor. “What’s up? You okay?” I nudged her with my shoe.

“I finished a book, and they didn’t even notice or get me anything.”

“Well, they probably noticed.”

“You ask Daddy. He couldn’t even guess the name of the book.”

What could I say? She was probably right. “I’ll give you something,” I offered.

“That’s okay,” she said.

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