Forsaking All Others by Emilie Loring

Author:Emilie Loring [Loring, Emilie]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Lume Books
Published: 2019-06-06T00:00:00+00:00

ii

Sarah looked up to smile when Jenny came in. Ricky, who had been dragging a pull toy around the room, ran to her.

“Been a good boy?” Jenny asked him.

He nodded emphatically. “Good,” he assured her.

Sarah laughed. “He’s been a little demon. He’s been into everything he could get his hands on and when I was getting him some milk and a cookie after he woke up from his nap he got hold of the flour canister and turned it upside down. There was flour everywhere, walls, floor, stove, cabinets. You wouldn’t believe two pounds of flour could scatter so far. I think I got all of it, though.”

“Not what landed in your hair. Very becoming. Like an eighteenth-century French marquise.”

Sarah looked at herself in the mirror. “Heavens, what a mess!”

“Look here, Sarah,” Jenny began, “talking of—wait a minute!” She ran into her bedroom and came out with a framed picture. “This was Ricky’s mother, my sister Louise.”

Sarah looked at her in astonishment. “But I thought he was your son.”

“She died after she learned that her husband was missing in action in Vietnam. She gave him to me. No one knows but you—”

“It’s safe with me.” Sarah looked at the photograph. “How lovely she was. He’s like her, isn’t he?”

Jenny nodded. “So are you. That’s about the first thing I noticed. Except that you don’t care. You don’t look after yourself or do your hair the right way or buy the right clothes or—or exert yourself!”

Sarah looked once more at the picture and then put it down gently on the table. “What’s the use?” she asked at last. “A woman doesn’t dress for herself, she dresses for the man she loves. And the man I loved married another girl.”

“I heard about that. You walked out on him, didn’t you?”

“Walked out!” Sarah protested. “I had to go with my mother, didn’t I?”

“Did you? In that case, you deserved what you got. But, Sarah, there are other men and you are young and if you would exert yourself you could have a real life and maybe a son of your own. Sometimes I could shake you. You aren’t really fooled by all your mother’s symptoms. You know she wants to keep you around because she needs someone to boss. If you don’t go to Pasadena and get your hair done—and pick a really good hairdresser even if it costs a fortune—and buy a new dress, I’ll—I won’t let you see Ricky again.”

The two girls laughed and then Sarah said, “I might do it, at that. Someday. I have a little money in my savings account.”

“Spend it.”

“Perhaps. You look hot and tired. I’m in no hurry. I love being with Richard. You go ahead and get a shower before I leave.”

When Jenny had taken a cool shower she slipped into shorts and a sleeveless shirt and sandals, and tied back her hair with a yellow ribbon. When she came out Sarah said, “I think you have the loveliest hair I’ve ever seen.”

“It makes me so hot I’m thinking of having it cut short.

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