A Theory of Expanded Love by Hicks Caitlin;

Author:Hicks, Caitlin;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: coming of age;family;contemporary women;Roman Catholic;pope;cardinal;guilt;salvation;betrayal;faith;Caitlin HIcks
Publisher: Light Messages Publishing
Published: 2015-06-11T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19

surfin’ usa

Dear Blessed Mother, I’m counting on you. I just made one bad decision: to go with Madcap. The rest of what is going to happen can’t be my fault.

We escaped from the courtyard one at a time, playing Nonchalant. It was a game that Jeannie and I had practiced to perfection when we were posing as twins in the front yard to passing cars during Camp Holy Hill. Cats do it all the time, especially when they’re protecting their territory. Maybe they have a growly fight, their paws flying and scratching, and then one cat just walks away, very stealthily, if you can move and be still at the same time. “Oh, I’ll just sit here and lick my right shoulder,” he says with his body language, just before the bigger cat pounces. “There’s something really engaging about my paw, now that you mention it.” The big cat crouches, but Nonchalant cat pretends he’s not the least bit afraid. That’s the secret of Nonchalant. It takes bravado, but has to look natural.

All three of us stood preening by the gate, somewhat hidden by a big cactus. Madcap said I should go first while she stood on the lookout for nuns. I opened the wooden gate and waited outside. Cars whooshed past me on the neat, one-way street. Neat, meaning it looked like it had been swept the night before by the shoe elves. No oil stains or cigarette butts. The rusty latch lifted behind me and a couple of parents walked out. I stared down at my feet, like the cat suddenly interested in his paws. When the couple was ahead of me, I looked up. The mother held a purse around her with both arms, like she was hugging it. She couldn’t really keep up with her husband, whose strides were very long, while hers were very short. Actually she made me think of a chihuahua, her steps were so short, chasing after a greyhound.

Whenever I see grown-ups in a couple, I always marvel at how the man is an acceptable number of inches taller than the woman. How does it happen that of all the men in the world a woman meets this one man who is an acceptable number of inches taller? They fall in love and then they get married. You look at every couple and the story is exactly the same. He’s 6’ and she’s 5’6”. Or he’s 5’6” and she’s 5’2”. It’s seems extraordinarily coincidental to me. This couple broke that rule, in favor of him being exceptionally taller, like he was on stilts. She was tiny, diminutive, as Mother would say, small bones and short steps in high heels, trying to keep up with him. The top of her head came up to his chest. She looked like a reporter rushing after a basketball player for an interview.

“It’s what she deserves,” he said.

“Maybe God will forgive her,” said the Mother, sounding like she hoped it would really happen. “She’s so young; I hope she survives holding the baby in her arms.

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