Close to Hugh by Marina Endicott

Author:Marina Endicott [Endicott, Marina]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-385-67861-2
Publisher: Doubleday Canada
Published: 2015-05-25T16:00:00+00:00

11. NOTHING HUGH CAN DO

Hugh walks the long linoleum hall in the nightlight-yellow glow. Some doors are open. Old people sitting on beds, relatives visiting. Only occasional sobs. At Mimi’s door, he pauses, gathering courage. Relinquishing Ivy’s warmth, preparing to bear his mother’s deathly cold.

He pushes open the door and sees Della, standing by the window like a ghost.

“She’s out. The morphine’s working,” she says. “I came to spell Ruth off. Come talk for a minute?”

He’s downcast. Anticlimactic—sacrifice not required. He goes into the dusk-draped room and stands by the window, close enough for Della to whisper.

But then she doesn’t. “What’s up,” he finally has to ask.

Another minute. “I saw Ken. I saw where he is, out at Sturgeon.”

“I know.”

“No, he’s been there all this time.”

Hugh takes a deeper breath. “I know.”

Della looks at him. “What do you know?”

“I know he went there instead of to the Elora Gorge thing. He told me he was going out to Bobcaygeon, he asked me not to tell you about it.” In the grey night-window light Della’s eyes are painfully large, painfully dark, great shadows around them. Hugh feels worse about this than he even imagined he would. “He said he needed a few days to think things through—I saw him coming out of Conrad’s office, that’s the only reason he told me.”

“Told you—what?” Her unnatural stillness makes him think she might fall over, faint.

“Breathe,” he says.

She obeys, but only barely.

“He told me he was having trouble deciding what to do, that’s all. That he couldn’t go on, he had to make a change, and wasn’t sure how you would take it.”

Della sits on the window ledge, as if her legs won’t hold her.

Hugh touches her shoulder, her arm. “Della, don’t—it’s not the end of the world, it’s just—Listen, he was afraid to tell you. He knows it will mean a huge change in your life, he needed a few days to find his courage. I couldn’t say no.”

She looks away, almost laughs. “You could have.”

He’s surprised she’s taking this so hard. She never wanted Ken to be a lawyer, after all. Wouldn’t she’d rather he teach, or whatever he’s intending to do, consult?

“I know you want his happiness—when he talked to me, I thought it might even be a case of his life.”

She shifts on the ledge. She looks as old as she is. As old as he is too.

“When someone wants so badly not to be—I’m sorry, I’m sorry, Dell. I should have told you anyway.”

“You promised,” she says, looking down into the hands abandoned in her lap. “He might have changed his mind, or something. Better if we

didn’t, if I didn’t know. It won’t make much difference for Elly, she’s leaving anyway.”

“I’m sure he’s figured out the finances, how you can manage.”

“Hugh,” she says. Her face is flat white. “I don’t know what I’ll do.”

He’s beginning to lose patience with her, always crying poor. Everybody’s poor. “Look, if it’s going to mean hardship, I’ll help—we can do more classes, raise the fees.

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