Florence Adler Swims Forever by Rachel Beanland

Author:Rachel Beanland
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2020-07-06T16:00:00+00:00

* * *

On the ward, several of the nurses greeted Esther by name.

“Good morning, Mrs. Adler.”

“Morning, Mrs. Adler.”

Dorothy, whom Esther had unfortunately come to know quite well, had taken it upon herself to establish more casual terms: “Morning, Mrs. A.”

In Esther’s opinion, Dorothy spent far too much time standing around and gossiping. Even when she was being useful—changing the sheets or giving Fannie a sponge bath—she was always so terribly slow that Esther fought the urge to yank the bedsheet or basin from her hand and do the task herself.

Esther nodded grimly at each of the nurses as she passed and tightened her grip on Gussie’s hand. As they approached Fannie’s room, she leaned down and hissed in Gussie’s ear, “Remember. Not a word about Florence.”

At the door, which was ajar, Esther paused, forced herself to rework her facial muscles into a more pleasant composition. She practiced a smile. Those were always difficult. Grins were more manageable. She might have stood in the corridor all day, putting off the inevitable, had Gussie not broken free and zipped into the room ahead of her. By the time Esther rounded the corner, the girl was already in her mother’s embrace.

Fannie peppered Gussie with kisses, exclaiming how much she’d missed her between each breath.

“I’ve missed you, I’ve missed you, I’ve missed you, I’ve missed you!”

Esther stiffened. Mothers today were so much more demonstrative than those of Esther’s generation had been. She wasn’t sure what it got them, other than whining children.

She watched as Fannie made room for Gussie in the bed, patting the spot beside her. She folded her tall and lanky daughter under her arm like she was no bigger than a kitten.

“Where have you been, my sweet girl?” Fannie cooed. “Having all sorts of adventures without your mother?”

Gussie merely smiled and burrowed her head into Fannie’s chest. Fannie’s stomach had grown rounder, her breasts larger, in the four weeks since Gussie had last seen her mother. Esther wondered what the girl made of it all. Did she remember that Fannie had looked like this once before? It was hard to know what Gussie recalled from her mother’s last pregnancy.

“I brought you something,” said Gussie as she unfolded a piece of blue construction paper she’d tucked away in a pocket. Esther had never seen it before, and her chest tightened as she watched her daughter purr over its unveiling.

“Oh my!” remarked Fannie, in an unusually high voice. Esther walked around the bed to get a look at her granddaughter’s work.

Gussie had made a collage of babies, each one cut out from a magazine or newspaper. There were pictures of the Dionne quintuplets, a few babies that had been clipped from newspaper advertisements, and smack-dab in the middle of the collage was a photograph of the Lindbergh baby.

“Oh, Gussie,” said Esther, unable to hide her disappointment. How had she missed this? Had she been paying so little attention to the girl?

“I love it,” said Fannie. “How did you know I would?” She kissed the top of Gussie’s head and handed Esther the collage.

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