Indelicacy: A Novel by Amina Cain

Author:Amina Cain [Cain, Amina]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: Literary, Contemporary, Fiction
ISBN: 9780374718732
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Published: 2020-02-11T00:00:00+00:00

AND THAT MEANT something, didn’t it? For indeed I was a part of people’s lives. They were a part of mine. In the middle of the winter, Dana’s family went for a week to visit relatives in the country, but Dana had to stay home for her performances. I stayed with her so she wouldn’t have to be alone and a bedroom was offered to me, but I only kept my clothes there. Every night, Dana and I talked until we fell asleep. Sometimes I drifted off while she was still talking, or else I was the one talking when I realized she was no longer awake. Then I would think for a while until I too was sleeping.

One night that week it began to snow and didn’t stop for two days. Three of Dana’s performances were canceled, so she practiced in the front room of the house. In a different room I did my stretching. Afterward we went out into the snow, into the quiet. It had become a blanket, covering the city, covering something in me. It seemed to affect Dana too. She let go a bit of her seriousness. She was softer, looser in that weather.

I imagined her eating meat. Instead, she ate a bit of snow.

When we came inside, we changed out of our damp clothes and dressed comfortably for the evening. We made popcorn, and read, and sat in front of the parlor windows.

After I had read several chapters of the book I’d brought with me, I set it on my lap. The snow was again falling fast.

“I’ve never really been drunk,” I said, “though once I shared half a drink with someone.”

“Never? Even I have been.”

“I want to be.”

Dana set her book on the sofa. She disappeared from the parlor, then came back with two glasses of something sweet and strong. She handed one of the glasses to me and bowed.

Soon enough, I was walking anywhere in the house I wanted, sitting in every room; sometimes Dana was with me. Only once did I run into the maid, and she was the embarrassed one, even though I was the trespasser. Some of the time Dana and I were dancing; I’m sure the maid saw us then. A waltz, which made me think of Antoinette, then something much more frenzied than a waltz. I was happy when I was frenzied, when I was moving in that way. We danced until we had exhausted ourselves. I fell asleep on the sofa with Dana by my side.

Later I found myself alone again, at the enormous dining table. I didn’t remember waking up. Against the far wall sat a huge cabinet filled with good china and copper candlesticks. How different houses were from each other, yet our cabinet was filled with the same things. But as much as it appeared static, the cabinet was a work in progress—what was in it would change. Some of the china would break. Perhaps some of it would be stolen. Later on

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