The Ocean House by Mary-Beth Hughes

Author:Mary-Beth Hughes
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grove Atlantic
Published: 2020-12-22T21:24:47+00:00

A day or two more on the doctor’s sofa and Annie was finally able to walk. The doctor’s wife lent her the clothes she needed. Things worn after her own babies were born but they didn’t fit anymore. Between patients, the doctor drove Annie to the bus station three towns away and waited with her until it was time to board.

You need me to get any kind of message out to the farm?

She shook her head.

Well, at least you always have a place to come home to, he said. That’s a blessing for you.

She nodded.

You’ll feel like yourself again soon enough. And she nodded once more, knowing he meant kindness but of a very narrow sort.

On the bus, she found a seat away from the restless eyes of the bus driver in the mirror and the stink of the diesel in the far back. Midway, she sat across from an old lady in a large gray wig with a carton of Lucky Strikes balanced on her lap, carefully, like they were breakable.

Would you like one? she said to Annie in a friendly voice. I’d have to open up the carton.

Don’t you bother, Annie said. But thank you.

Heading someplace nice?

I think I need to sleep now, said Annie. She still slept most of the time and wished she could figure out a way to stay that way for good.

You go to visit the lady in front of the P.O. with the tonic? You look like you’ve had a cure.

Annie kept her eyes closed.

I’ve heard all about her. She’s famous. Ell-son. Ellison.

Just Ell.

Short.

I know, said Annie, feeling the surge of sleep begin behind her eyes and pour into her lungs and her belly. Like the liquid pouring over baby Roger and putting him down. She felt her body sink against the thick upholstery. The doctor’s wife’s big dress loose and itchy. She’d leave it behind next place.

If I had your youth, I’d stay awake. See what’s coming next. The old lady swung the carton around like a lasso that could grab all that good youth away. Not like me, she said and did some fiddling with her wig. You put one good foot in front of the other and just see what you see.

And Annie opened her eyes to stare now. She waited. As if the woman might just take off the disguise. As if her mother might reveal herself fully and explain to her, at long last, the meaning of all that had happened and its place in a plan that a shoulder-holding, blessing-giving God might consider fruitful or even possible in his universe. Her mother would finally explain and Annie waited, eyes open, listening for every word.

But the woman’s eyes blinked wide in return and rolled in a sudden panic. She pounded hard on her own sternum. The carton of cigarettes flew up out of her hands and Annie called out to the bus driver: Pull over!

She took the woman’s hand in her own. Hey now, she said. Hey now. And she felt herself pour right down into the woman’s fingertips and disappear.

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