The Seal Wife by Kathryn Harrison

Author:Kathryn Harrison
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Romance, Anchorage (Alaska), Psychological Fiction, Historical Fiction, Mute Persons, Meteorologists, Design and Construction, Literary, Kites - Design and Construction, Psychological, Historical, Kites, Fiction, Meteorological Stations, Love stories
ISBN: 9780375506291
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2002-05-01T04:00:00+00:00

With his recordings under his arm, Bigelow walks home in the summer light. He changes the flags on his new tree pole. He inscribes readings from his instruments into his log. He sits at his table and decodes information from the day’s wireless message. He stands at his window to take advantage of the late-setting sun, tracing lines onto transparencies, and then, during the brief darkness, he lies on his bed and sleeps a seamless black and dreamless sleep.

The next day, he stops at the telegraph office en route to his vigil, stands on the sidewalk until Getz unlocks his store, then steps back inside and sits on the barrel, opera recordings stacked neatly in his lap.

For two days no customer comments on Bigelow’s presence; but on the third, as if having reached an unspoken, perhaps even an unconscious, consensus, there is not one who does not.

“Who’s this? Your new partner?”

“Looks like Getz has finally got himself a cat.”

“Nice pickle lid.”

One even sings: “When froggy came a courtin’, he did ride. Uh-huh. With a somethin’ somethin’ and a pistol by his side. Uh-huh.”

“Watch out,” another warns, cryptically. “Last of her suitors didn’t make out so good.”

Convulsed with laughter, they fall onto the counter and Getz makes change over their heads; he smiles sourly, he ties twine around tins, he answers questions pertaining to business—no, still no mousetraps, yes, camphor on the back wall and yes, yes, a shipment of nails coming on the next boat; he retrieves items from the high shelves and spreads sawdust over spills. But he won’t acknowledge that a young man sits with a lapful of music, waiting for permission to see his daughter, an invisible daughter whose name he won’t reveal.

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.