Dreaming of Flight: A Novel by Catherine Ryan Hyde

Author:Catherine Ryan Hyde [Hyde, Catherine Ryan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
Published: 2022-05-02T16:00:00+00:00

She sat in her old room, staring out the window. It was on the second floor. A bird had nested in the branches of the big maple tree outside her window. She could see the little birds moving about inside the bowl of the nest. They were not babies, from the look of them. They looked half-grown. Soon they would fly away. Really fly. With altitude. With real range. Marilyn envied that.

She took a deep breath and picked up the phone on her bedside table. Dialed her daughter’s number by heart. It struck her as odd that her mind, which dropped so many details so regularly, still held on to that. It seemed as though the older memories had a firmer foothold. Many days she remembered with startling clarity the day when one of her children was born—but not why she had gotten up and walked into a new room.

The line rang. And rang. And rang.

Marilyn found herself relieved that Betty wasn’t home. She could leave a message. It would hurt less to talk to her daughter’s voice mail. It felt safer.

Then she was struck with an unpleasant thought: Maybe Betty was home. Maybe she was staring at her caller ID and choosing not to pick up.

The thought was just disturbing enough that, when the outgoing message in her daughter’s familiar voice finished playing, Marilyn didn’t speak. Couldn’t speak.

The beep, and a long, panicky silence ticked by.

“Betty,” she forced herself to say. It came out too sudden and loud, betraying her fear. “I need you to call me. I need you. I’m back at Eastbridge and I need your help. Please call me here.” A pause. Then she added a humiliating second “please.”

She held the phone to her ear in silence for several seconds, then realized her message was still recording. She hung up the phone.

Then, because she was not at all sure Betty would call her back, she made a similar begging, humiliating call to Gerald.

When she was done, she lay back on her bed and watched the little birds. Robins, from the look of them.

She did not go down to the cafeteria for steak night. She didn’t feel the least bit hungry.

She realized she was physically and mentally exhausted from the experience of her terrible day, but she didn’t notice herself falling asleep.

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