Now, Voyager by Higgins Prouty Olive

Author:Higgins Prouty, Olive [Mayne, Judith]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781558616332
Publisher: The Feminist Press at CUNY

17

A REBEL INDEED

She procured sheets, blankets, and pillowcases from the linen closet. She was stretching the bottom sheet over the yellowed blue and white ticking when she heard a warning creak on the stairs. She stood up straight and faced the door. Her mother opened it, without knocking, as usual.

She wasn’t a tall woman and had always been thin. She looked like an emaciated bird of some exotic species, as she stood there on the threshold, head held high, her eyes flashing beneath the white topknot—a bird that was moulting from the breast down, for the negligee proved to be a bed-jacket. Beneath it she was dressed in her austere underclothes—plain corset-cover and straight white skirt reaching a little below her knees. She wore white stockings and her evening silver slippers with low French heels.

“What are you doing in this room?”

“Getting ready to sleep here.”

“Didn’t you understand I wish someone to sleep on the same floor with me?”

“Yes, I did.”

“And who do you think is going to do it?”

“We’ll ask one of the maids, or get the nurse to come back.”

“We! We! So long as I pay the bills I’m running this house. Please remember you are my guest, Charlotte.”

“Then please treat me like one. Your guest prefers to sleep in this room if you don’t mind.” Her tone was playfully cajoling.

“This is no time for humor! And as it happens I do mind. Where did those come from?” She had spied the red camellias on the white marble mantel.

“From New York.”

“Who sent them?”

“I forget the name of the florist. Here’s the tag.” Charlotte picked up the precious justification for her self-confidence, crossed the room, and offered it to her mother.

Her mother waved it aside. “I’ve seen it. I heard the bell and had the box brought to me first. You know perfectly well what I mean. What person sent you the flowers?”

“There was no card. Perhaps Lisa sent them because she can’t be here herself.”

“In other words, you don’t intend to tell me.”

“Mother, I don’t want to be unkind or disagreeable. I’ve come home to live with you again, here in the same house, but it can’t be in the same way. I’ve been living my own life, making my own decisions for a long while now. It’s impossible to go back to being treated like a child again. I don’t think I shall do anything of importance that will displease you. But, Mother, from now on you must give me complete freedom as to my personal habits, and tastes—where I sleep, what I read, what I wear.”

“I must, must I?” Her mother’s right hand was resting against the door casing, and Charlotte observed the fingers begin a characteristic tapping. To Charlotte the tapping was like the rumble of distant thunder when storm is brewing.

“Mother, please be fair, and meet me halfway.”

“Be fair! Meet you halfway! So this is my reward!”

This phrase was as familiar to Charlotte as a Bible text heard many times before, and she knew well the sermon that would follow.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.