The School on Heart's Content Road by Carolyn Chute

Author:Carolyn Chute
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
Published: 2008-12-26T16:00:00+00:00

September

There’s been some plans to get Jane settled, not just daytimes but nights too.

Maybe with Aurel and Josée, or with the Butlers, or with old Lucienne in her little shady house at the end of the brick path, closest to the shops and the quadrangle of trees and mowed grass. That would make a lot more sense than the present arrangement. Gordon feels uneasy about the farm place, not gated off in any way. Strangers often stop there, either first or after they find the Settlement road blocked. The phone rings and rings. Much confusion since Ivy Morelli’s feature story went to press. And then the “angry white men” photos. Everyone suspects it’s just a matter of time before the DHS SWAT teams come through the door of the farmhouse some night to “rescue” Jane. Tear her out of bed, shove her into a social worker’s car, and off they go. It seems better all the way around if Jane were settled with one family or person instead of the constant shuffle of nighttime sitters here.

But this dusky September evening, Jane is still a resident of the old St. Onge house. She has refused to hear a story or play a game, so Bev and Barbara hang out in the old dining room, looking over some old photo albums that Marian, Gordon’s mother, left when she moved, almost everything in this room the same as when Marian lived here, even a bookcase with her “ceramics”: dogs, deer, horses, Jesus in the manger, Bo Peep and a sheep, some cherubs. Marian St. Onge has a fetish for cherubs. Her cherubs here are painted a blushing pink. Wallpaper is blue. Room cool, usually closed off. Some of Gordon’s papers and books, maps and letters are in cardboard boxes stacked in one corner. A braided rug, the factory-made kind, with blues to match the walls. Some phonograph records: Frank Sinatra, Lawrence Welk. Curtains, white with frills. Not Marian’s curtains, though. These white frilly things were Claire’s touch when she was here as a young wife.

When Gordon comes in, he catches Jane spying on Bev and Barbara: Jane beside the partly open dining room door in the little hall. She is making a picture in one of her small notebooks and wearing her secret all-seeing heart-shaped glasses. Deep concentration. Gordon’s sudden appearance makes her really jump.

Gordon pretends not to notice that he’s caught Jane at something, and Jane pretends that she hasn’t been up to something, and the moment passes.

Now, out in the kitchen, Gordon is running a glass of water for a couple of aspirin. He turns and sees she is now sitting at the table, her glasses on the table, folded. She is glaring at him, her round dark eyes filled with mortal contempt.

“What?” he asks.

“You ugly pig.”

He blinks. He grins. He snorts, like a pig.

She rises most dramatically. She is dressed in a little pink sweater made by one of the mothers. She has such long-limbed ease, more beautiful than any

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.