Runner in Red by Tom Murphy

Author:Tom Murphy [Murphy, Tom]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781948338028
Publisher: Encircle Publications
Published: 2018-03-03T19:02:53+00:00

The news that Pop had wanted Bridget shocked both of us.

“I can’t believe it. He won’t tell you any of this stuff?” I said as we got into her car, a Jeep Cherokee, and headed back to Boston along country roads in the early morning light.

“He never talks about me.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t know what motivates Pop, or has embittered him so deeply against me. But it’s always been that way.”

Again I could see why she had wanted so badly to find her mother, whom moments earlier we had learned was dead: she wanted to be released from a bitterness she did not understand.

It’s interesting how a car ride as it goes along can promote conversation. It doesn’t happen immediately, but a winding road such as the one we drove back along through the low mountains of New York creates a monotony that is relaxing. Eventually, like a stone skipping over the flat surface of a glassy pond, talk moves from mundane topics to issues of substance.

“You ever been in love?” Bridget asked me as the slanting light of the new day played along the undulating road.

“I’d like to be. With your daughter.”

“I’m glad you’re chasing Ellen. I hope you catch her.”

“You do?”

“I know what it’s like to want love and find it so elusive.”

“You ever been in love?”

“I loved Steve Roman once. I believed I did anyway, which may be the same thing. I’m not sure. I know I should love Jack more.”

“You don’t love Jack?”

“I do, but I should love him more.”

“Why did you go with Roman?”

“I don’t know, it started in high school and lasted through college.”

“You loved him?”

“Love, now, ah, there’s a word. Steve was everything I dreamed of. A tight butt, of course, but I was attracted to him for his confidence, ambition, self-sufficiency.”

“He seems like an arrogant son-of-a-bitch to me.”

“I thought of it as self-confidence. I was such a young fool. A schoolgirl in love. But when I returned to my dorm room after the Boston Marathon in ’71, after Pop blocked me, he was there waiting for me. He had a gaggle of news reporters lined up outside on the lawn, they all wanted to talk to me, and he had promised them he would set that up. I told him to forget it, I was in no mood to talk, but he said it would help him advance his career. I said forget it, I couldn’t have been more emphatic, but he took my medal, the Boston Marathon medal in my pocketbook. Here, I’ll show you.”

She removed the felt box from her pocketbook where she had placed the medal after Ellen had returned it to her at the news station. She opened the case, showing me the 1951 Boston Marathon gold medal. ‘If you’re not going to go outside and talk to the group for me, then you can go out and get this,’ he said, and he threw the gold medal out the dorm window. I found it in the grass in the rain as media types swarmed all around me.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.