Matters of Vital Interest by Eric Lerner

Author:Eric Lerner
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Published: 2018-10-15T16:00:00+00:00

Susan and I weren’t picture-takers. Most of our family photos were taken by others who gave us prints. I have one from early 1988, a few months before that hot afternoon. We’re outside on the patio in the backyard in Malibu. Sara is less than six months old. She looks really small on Susan’s lap. I’m sitting in a chair opposite them. Leonard and my dad are behind us. My mother isn’t in the picture. She must be the one who took it.

Leonard was quite fond of my dad, recognizing him as a sympathizer to our cause, a fellow reluctant recruit in the army of the conventional, half in, half out, but not terribly motivated to act out his fantasy of running away to the New Hebrides where, he claimed, he owned property on the island of Espiritu Santo. He told this to everyone he met, embellishing the story with convincing details, including a newspaper clipping he carried in his wallet reporting on the construction of a new power plant on my island. A surprising number of people believed him. Leonard didn’t, but perfectly understood my father’s impulse to fabricate.

Leonard, who never took a bad photo, muscled up for the occasion and poses manfully in his black T-shirt and silver-buckled belt, but you can see—at least I can—what an effort it’s taking for him to smile for the camera.

I rarely take a good picture, but I look great in this one, all smiles. I honestly have no idea where my mind was, because only a few weeks, if not days, later, I would stumble—I thought at first it was the flu—then go down completely.

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