Small Mercies by Joyce Eddie

Author:Joyce, Eddie
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2015-03-10T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6

BROTHERS AND SISTERS I HAVE NONE, BUT THIS MAN’S FATHER’S . . .

Michael Amendola still enjoys his sleep. It does not elude him as it does his friends. He listens to the complaints of his friends with a wry smile and stays silent. He can’t imagine a worse way to respond to a complaint than by confessing to its absence. Better to nod agreeably and fake commiseration.

The old men go on and on about how they’re up three, four times a night to take a leak, how they can’t fall back to sleep, about how they lie in bed and close their eyes and try to think about something pleasant, a blonde on a beach or a warm fire or a brunette on a beach, ha ha, because old men are always reminding someone that they’re still virile, but none of these things work and they end up waiting for the first hostile red digit of the alarm clock to add a line and transform from an outrageous five to a more agreeable six so they can stagger out of bed and begin their days.

Michael does not suffer in this way. He falls asleep with little trouble, especially if he’s had a few drinks. His bladder pulls him out of bed to the bathroom in the wee hours more than he’d like, but he drifts back to sleep without much effort. If he thinks about blondes or brunettes or beaches, it’s because he wants to, not because he has to. He wakes when he’s meant to and if neither the world nor his wife is calling him, he is not shy about rolling over and spending an extra half hour in the warm spot Gail has left on the other side of their bed.

It used to trouble him, his lethargy in this manner. He wasn’t lazy in other ways; the opposite in fact. It seemed like a defect of youth, one that he should shed. He imagined that he’d eventually become like his father, an industrious man who woke with a start in the predawn blue and ran headlong into each day. But it never happened. The years went by and there were wailing babies, the demands of the firehouse, his stint in the service, the occasional call in the middle of the night. Each of these demanded his attention—sleepy-eyed, dutiful—but none of them changed the preference.

It used to trouble him but it doesn’t anymore. He’s an old man, that’s what he tells himself, and old men have earned their foibles.

This morning he woke to the sound of Gail in the shower but has been unable to slide back to sleep. He listened while Gail prepared for the day, hoping he would drift off. When she kissed his forehead, he opened his eyes.

“Can’t sleep?” she asked.

“Can’t sleep.”

“I have absolutely no sympathy. How was the party?”

“Same shenanigans as usual. Happy Saint Paddy’s, by the way.”

“Don’t remind me. Just another Thursday.”

“You gonna go to the city, Goodness, watch the parade?”

“Bunch of drunk donkeys painting the streets green with their vomit? No, thanks.

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.