No Place Fit For A Child by Wade Bell

Author:Wade Bell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Literature
Publisher: Guernica Editions
Published: 2009-08-29T00:00:00+00:00

Poor Sylvia. I want a love song but get stories of murder and mystical flowers the size of dimes. I get Bach and poker and beer, a man who daydreams about snow and vomits at midnight from nightmares smelling like oil.

Terrace’s fingers are long, thick, work-hardened. Mark’s are long too, though thinner. Tapered. Smooth. My breast fascinates him. Look at me, Mark. Don’t be afraid. We have this in common, that we endure your father’s suffering with the power of our fantasies. I know I’m beautiful in my way. Twenty-seven years old. One day a Ph.D. Maybe one day a book to call my own.

Such a brilliant kid you are, Mark. Eyes avid as your mind. Would that I had a student or two like you this fall.

He reads the books I teach. He paints. He’s writing a novel. He is seventeen years old. Am I envious? Yes, I am.

Now Terrace makes food. The other side of Terrace. Terrace the good providing for us all. Onions fry in butter. Scrambled eggs with onions and mushrooms, salt and half a dozen spices. I would only scramble the eggs, toss them around the pan, dish them out onto toast. No mushrooms, no flavours added.

Does he wonder if he has chosen in me someone who reminded him of his wife in ways he couldn’t explain?

He bends to catch the aroma of his cooking then has trouble standing straight again. Bracing himself against the stove he sings drunkenly, waving the spatula: Food for the mama bear, food for the cub; food for old Terrace, rubbity dub.

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