Unspeakable Things: A Novel by Kathleen Spivack

Author:Kathleen Spivack
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Literary, Cultural Heritage, Historical, Fiction
ISBN: 9780385353960
Publisher: Knopf
Published: 2016-01-26T05:00:00+00:00

“I have every right,” he said. Her eyes flashed and a bit of life came into her skin. “It’s selfish of you to keep on like this,” he continued.

“How dare you say this to me, David,” she retorted, proving that she had recognized him all along. “You! David! After everything that’s happened.”

“Especially after everything!” David responded. “Exactly.” He was impatient with her, did not approve of her, had never approved of her, he realized in an instant. He was too practical, disliked her airs and aspirations. It was Michael who had been close to her, the girlish one, the artistic hope of the family. Michael had loved dressing up in Adeline’s lace things, had loved the smell of perfume and flowers. Michael had Adeline’s nervous, delicate temperament, her love of music. David, the practical one of the family, was Herbert’s son. In that moment, David saw and accepted this. Darkness fell away from him; his old jealousies over his younger brother’s relationship with Adeline slid off him. They fell to the floor and his shoulders straightened, lightened.

“Let it go, brother,” Michael breathed from the dead space beneath the bed. “This is good.” Deftly, Michael scooped up the dark, useless pieces of David’s discarded weight, and with a thin, bony hand, he carefully piled them alongside the heaps of dust he had collected.

As if sensing this, Adeline’s mood suddenly changed, and she sat up in her bed. “David,” she said, addressing him directly and patting his hand, “I am so happy to see you.” She spoke to him now as one lucid person to another. “Sit down. I have something to tell you.” David sat tentatively again, and she looked into her remaining son’s eyes as if seeing him for the first time. “It is so good of you to come.” David waited. “You have always been so good, my dear David,” said Adeline directly to him. “To all of us.”

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