The Time of Her Life by Robb Forman Dew

Author:Robb Forman Dew [DEW, ROBB FORMAN]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780316090360
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Published: 2009-10-31T04:00:00+00:00

In the evenings Jane and her mother cooked exotic meals together as an adventure, and Claudia came in to watch Magnum and Malt Houston and Jane’s favorite, Remington Steele, on TV and then persuaded Jane to stay up and watch the reruns of Hawaii Five-O, which, she argued, was much more professionally produced than any of her daughter’s favorites.

“And, Jane, you can tell when you’re watching that show that Jack Lord really does believe that he’s the head of a police force! Oh, it’s great! I hope they show the one where he’s running around in a rain forest wearing a sort of safari outfit and a planter’s hat. He can do it. I mean, he can carry it off with a straight face. I bet his camera crew hated him. Well, just wait! Wait till you see what I mean!”

They sat up late at night in front of the color set, and Claudia played a game that was much more entertaining to Jane than watching the show. More often than not, Claudia could anticipate the lines and say them with the characters on Hawaii Five-O. Jane and her mother would sit on the couch with their feet tucked up under them and a bowl of popcorn between them, and Claudia would follow the show and stiffen her torso and cock her head precisely at the moment Jack Lord did the same thing on the screen. She would say with him, “Okay, what’ve we got, Chin?” A few moments later she would swivel straight-backed toward Jane and synchronize her lines with the TV once more. “Patch me through to the governor’s office, Danno!” And her face would take on the same ludicrous expression of absolute conviction with which Jack Lord played Steve McGarrett. At the end of the show she would watch very carefully and turn her head in perfect imitation of the hero’s resigned disdain. “Book ‘em, Danno!” she would say as justice inevitably prevailed.

Claudia was a quick study. She could walk with a swivel, like C.J. on Matt Houston, or feign Sue Ellen’s bewilderment on Dallas. “Oh, J.R., I’m so confused!” Claudia could become anyone she wanted to, and she utterly charmed her daughter as they sat together watching television in the empty house.

For the moment her mother had collected all the diverse and free-floating aspects of her personality into one bright stream of energy, and it flowed around Jane and assured and cosseted her. It was the most gratifying thing in the world to be the object toward which her mother directed every element of her piqued and newly delighted regard. Jane thought that she and her mother were having a wonderful time.

And these days, too, her violin finally did begin to feel like an extension of herself, as Miss Jessup had predicted it would. Jane did not have to collect words and speak them; she only had to balance the bow on a slight angle and with delicacy, and the music came as it should. The sound she made satisfied her, and she learned all the tricks of this particular instrument.

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