This Is My Life by Meg Wolitzer

Author:Meg Wolitzer
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2014-03-25T04:00:00+00:00

Twelve

When Jordan left the hospital, he refused to take his identification bracelet off. Erica was reminded of those girls in her high school who had worn POW and MIA bracelets even when it became apparent that no one was ever coming home. There had been something dramatic about it, the way the girls had compared wrists in study hall, reciting unfamiliar names as though they were the names of lovers. Now Jordan lay in the loft, his long arm dangling over the edge as he slept. Erica walked by and saw the strip of plastic, his own name typed in faint purple ink. He had been wearing the bracelet for weeks now.

Jordan hadn’t been able to find any more work through the back of the Village Voice, and so he began to spend the days at home. Erica had no trouble finding surveys of overweight women; these seemed boundless. Between the two of them, though, they had very little money, and Jordan was down to cashing the last of his bar mitzvah savings bonds. He decided, at the end of December, that he would try to sell drugs—nothing serious or scary, he said, just a small-fry operation—and so he got several names from his brother, a chemist who used to supply everyone at MIT.

Erica objected at first; she stood over him in the kitchen as he sat at the table, sifting and separating. “It’s dangerous,” she said. “You could get arrested. I could get arrested.” Jordan didn’t respond; he just kept working. Finally she gave in and watched; there was something gradually mesmerizing about the quick movements of his hands. He folded pages out of magazines into little origami packages that held half-grams of cocaine. Erica watched as he measured out the powder and poured it onto a color photograph of Miss Clairol, and she understood then how a pioneer wife must have felt watching her husband clean and load a gun.

Jordan’s first customers would be coming over in half an hour. Erica found herself walking about the apartment before they arrived, taking little swipes at the furniture with a cloth; this was the closest thing to company they had ever had. When the downstairs buzzer rang, she flew down to open the outside door. Two teenage girls stood on the stoop bundled up in bright ski parkas. “We’re looking for Jordan,” one said.

Erica stared, then let them in. She flattened herself against the wall and let them go up ahead of her. The girls were about sixteen, she guessed. They smelled of snow and shampoo, and they took the stairs two at a time. “Cute apartment,” one said when they were inside. They opened their jackets and shook their long dark hair free.

Jordan came out of the kitchen then, holding a large mirror as though it were a tray of hors d’oeuvres. “You’re Mandy and Parker?” he said, and they nodded. “Want to try some of the sniff before you go?”

Erica cringed. As usual, Jordan had his terminology wrong, but the girls didn’t know.

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.