Leave Me by Gayle Forman

Author:Gayle Forman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Published: 2016-08-09T04:00:00+00:00

32

Thanksgiving morning, Maribeth decided to show her gratitude by taking a bath. It had been nearly seven weeks since her surgery, and she remembered from the brochures Dr. Sterling had given her that six weeks post-op was like the twenty-first birthday for the cardiac patient, the date after which many previously forbidden activities—sex, bodily immersion in water, strenuous exercise—were permitted.

As she waited for the tub to fill, Maribeth inspected her naked figure in the mirror. Though she had gained some weight back, she was still thinner than she’d been in years—she could tell by the daylight blinking between her thighs—but it wasn’t an enviable skinny. And even if it had been, there were the scars. She had three of them now: the pucker on her leg, the angry welt up her chest, and the pale white smile of her C-section.

“Scars are just tattoos with better stories.” Again, she was reminded of what Jason had told her when she’d first showed him her crosshatch of stitches after the twins were born. She’d been worried he’d think she looked disfigured (she thought she did). And then he’d said that lovely thing.

Her scars now were worse. Or would be. They didn’t even look like scars yet, more like wounds. If they had stories to tell, they were still being written.

Maribeth eased into the tub, grabbing a couple of the magazines Todd had given her yesterday when she dropped off the Thanksgiving shopping list. She’d promised to help them dress and stuff the bird, but after that, they were on their own. She was skipping Thanksgiving this year.

She was skimming an important piece of reportage about the fashion evolution of Nori Kardashian West when she heard the pounding at her door.

“M.B., are you there?” It was Todd.

“Yeah, hang on.” She heaved herself out of the tub, toweled off, and threw on her dirty clothes.

Todd and Sunita were at the door, staggering under the weight of the most enormous turkey she’d ever seen. It looked like a defrocked poodle.

“I thought you wanted to put it in at noon,” Maribeth said. “Though that thing is huge, so maybe you’ll need more time.”

“A lot more time,” Todd said.

“It’s completely frozen,” Sunita explained.

“Didn’t they have any fresh birds left?”

“It was fresh last night.”

“What happened?”

“It was too big to fit in our fridge so Sunny thought we should leave it on the windowsill,” Todd said.

“We wouldn’t have had to get such a huge bird if Todd had gone shopping earlier in the week when there was more selection, like M.B. said we should,” Sunita said, her tone equally scornful.

Last night it had dropped to the twenties. Maribeth gave the bird a good knock. Yep. Frozen solid.

“What do we do?” Sunita asked.

“Defrost it somehow,” Maribeth said.

“It doesn’t even fit in our sink,” Sunita said.

She thought of her bath tub. “Maybe try the tub.”

“We thought of that. Ours doesn’t have a stopper.”

“Mine does. Better bring it in.”

The bath was still full, the water grimy with gray bubbles. Todd wrinkled his nose. “I don’t mean to be picky, but I think Fred deserves a fresh bath.

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