The Dependents by Katharine Dion

Author:Katharine Dion
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Published: 2018-06-18T16:00:00+00:00

11.

AT THE DONNELLYS’, before the meal, Ed insisted on showing Gene the new gas fireplace that had been installed since he’d last been there, as if it wasn’t right for there to be any changes to the house without Gene knowing about them. The fireplace was bigger than its predecessor, and Gene remarked on this, complimenting the installation. But it wasn’t enough that he was admiring. Ed made him flick the switch that produced the pumpkin flames that flickered over the pile of artificial logs.

After some talk of the fireplace (the models the Donnellys could have gotten but didn’t and why this one was paramount), Gene and Ed went into the kitchen to find some wine. Gayle filled their glasses and then informed them they had to get out of the kitchen because they would only be in her way. It was a pretense—Ed was a skilled cook—but years ago the Donnellys had decided this would be one of their standard performances in the presence of guests: Ed playing the role of the barbarous, untrained husband and Gayle playing the savior of the civilized party. The roles had been this way for so long that Gene sometimes found himself believing them. It was almost as if his retreat to the study with Ed was a thoughtful escape to make Gayle’s life easier.

Gene remembered when the study had been Brian’s bedroom and Ed’s designated personal area just a long folding table in the basement. Then Brian had grown up and an interior designer was brought in to advise the Donnellys on converting the bedroom to a study. As this room was resettled other rooms became ripe for renewal, and eventually it would be this room’s turn to be refreshed once more. The funny thing was that there was hardly any need for any of these improvements. The Donnellys had thought of everything already: recessed lighting, dimmer switches, a laundry station, built-ins for shoes, cookbooks, spices, and jewelry. If there was a junk drawer in the house Gene had never found it. The only misstep he had spied was a toilet in the guest bathroom that flushed by pulling the handle up instead of pressing it down, and it made him secretly happy every time he discovered it again.

In the study, a new model of an older type of wood ladder provided access to the heights of the bookshelves, which contained a treasury of literature and history: novels, poetry, dramas, natural histories, biographies, political treatises. Interleaved here and there among the books were souvenirs of the Donnellys’ travels: African wood nesting bowls, a small jade Buddha, a bamboo ladle. For one of Ed’s birthdays Gayle had framed photographs he had taken over the years at Fisher Lake—a picnic table strewn with spent lobster claws and discarded lemon halves; strange clumps of wet laundry clinging to the line; the back of Gayle’s head against a blurry white sky. It was a room that felt like the culmination of a life, and Gene alternated between finding it repugnant and desirable.

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.