The Falls: A Novel by Joyce Carol Oates

Author:Joyce Carol Oates [Oates, Joyce Carol]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, pdf
Tags: General, Fiction
ISBN: 9780061742811
Google: QUH5PXFu91YC
Amazon: B000FC293E
Publisher: Harper Collins
Published: 2009-10-13T04:00:00+00:00

“It isn’t worthy of your wife, maybe. But it’s worthy of me.”

But Ariah spoke hesitantly, as if she repented her harsh words. She lifted her wine glass another time and drank greedily. Dirk knew he shouldn’t challenge her. It was a mistake to excite her further, at this time. Now she was becoming emotional, he must be cautious. Since her father’s death she’d become less predictable, less stable; though seeming hardly to have mourned the man, and airily dismissing Dirk’s commiseration, yet Ariah had been deeply affected, Dirk knew. And her mother’s widowhood and loneliness must have weighed upon her, too. Dirk knew he should retreat, cautiously. Or stand wordless beside her. As consolation. Whatever a husband was, is. Whatever that mute mysterious bond between them.

Somewhere close by, overhead, a floorboard creaked. Or seemed to creak. Sharply Ariah called out, “Chandler! Go back to bed immediately.”

But there was silence at the top of the stairs. Even the solemn sonorous ticking of a grandfather clock in the hall seemed to pause for a dramatic moment before continuing.

Dirk touched Ariah’s stiff trembling back, and tried to take her in his arms. In a startled reflex she jammed an elbow against him. She broke free of him, breathing quickly. Dirk said, pained, “Ariah, I can’t give up Love Canal. Don’t ask me. I’ve promised so many people. They’re depending upon me. This isn’t ordinary litigation, making rich people richer, this is life. Their lives. If I quit now—”

“The pride of Dirk Burnaby would be hurt? I see.”

“—I’d be letting them down. Betraying them. And our adversaries deserve to be exposed. Punished. The only way that hurts them, by paying out money. I’d love to bankrupt Swann and his associates! Those bastards. And the city, and the county, the Board of Education and the Board of Health, these agencies have been in collusion for years. The D.A., the judges. I’m the only attorney it seems who will take on this case, to the bitter end. I couldn’t live with myself if—”

“Then who will you live with? Her?”

Ariah turned a white, pinched face to Dirk. A face that disconcerted Dirk, it was so contorted by fury.

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