When Love Was Clean Underwear by Susan Barr-Toman

Author:Susan Barr-Toman
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-89823-267-7
Publisher: New Rivers Press
Published: 2011-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

In Lucy’s old neighborhood, young women pushed umbrella strollers, their wrists laden with multiple plastic bags. Old women pulled upright shopping carts; their solitary paper bags shifted about inside. On stoops and in doorways, men peered under their hat rims and over their folded newspapers to watch the women weave through the crowded sidewalks. Lucy smiled silent greetings at familiar faces. Stores were the same as when she was a child, except for the few that were abandoned, but with their signage still intact as a reminder, not replaced. Working in her old neighborhood was not the same as living there. After her evening shifts, most places were closed. People were at home, having already finished their dinners and settled in front of their televisions for the night.

Lucy had covered Ralph’s morning shift at the funeral home because he was accompanying his wife to an ultrasound appointment. Gertie Hall, mother and wife, was buried. At the viewing, her grandchildren displayed a collage they had made of pictures taken throughout her life. She was one of those women who became prettier with age, like Jessica Tandy. Next to her husband of over sixty years, she’d dreamt and died. Bud and all eight children survived her, but Lucy thought that Bud probably wouldn’t live much longer. Couples like Gertie and Bud were attached by an almost tangible cord that held them together, linked them between lives, and insisted on their prompt reunion.

Lucy decided to walk home through the old neighborhood instead of taking the bus home. Gertie and Bud’s marriage, or Lucy’s idea of it, had inspired her. Perhaps longevity had nothing to do with romance, but Lucy thought it might. Tony was coming over after work for dinner, as he did every evening Lucy was off. He usually stayed over, except when his parents were in Philadelphia. Then they might see each other, but he always went home at the end of the night. He said he didn’t want his folks to think badly of Lucy. Lucy agreed. She was guilty. Already she suffered the snide, slightly muffled comments the Delvecchios volleyed back and forth to each other when they caught her leaving the house. What would the Donatos think? Lucy wasn’t naïve; she watched television and knew the rest of the world was sleeping around. Some parents didn’t care if their children had premarital sex. Some parents were having extramarital sex. In South Philadelphia, however, parents had the option of imagining their children as pure. Their daughters were virgins because, out of respect, they never gave the appearance of anything to the contrary. And still, she hadn’t gone to confession; she wasn’t ready to confess murder and she wasn’t ready to stop having sex with Tony.

In Rose’s card store, the smell of dust, fake flowers, and wax fruit overwhelmed Lucy’s nostrils. Romance as seen on TV required candles. Rose knelt in the aisle, marking prices on figurines of animals dressed in occupational garb. An owl dressed as a teacher, a pig as a butcher.

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