So Much for That by Lionel Shriver

Author:Lionel Shriver
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2010-09-28T16:00:00+00:00

Shep was pleased to catch Zach in the kitchen, whether or not his son was pleased to be caught. The boy was so intent on disappearing himself that for a moment he froze with no acknowledgment of his parents’ entrance, as if they might walk right through him. His posture had further deteriorated. But Shep was relieved to come home and for once not start abjuring the boy that if he couldn’t chip in by doing his laundry he could at least match his own socks, or chiding the kid to please turn down the music because his mother wasn’t feeling well. (“What else is new?”) Shep couldn’t remember the last time he’d been able to deliver glad tidings, and the overpriced Mountain Dew at dinner had juiced his mood.

“Yo, I’m glad you’re underfoot, sport,” said Shep. Zach received the companionable clap on his shoulder grimly, as if withstanding a hard right punch. “We got some terrific news about your mother at Columbia-Presbyterian tonight.”

Zach flinched. He didn’t look like a boy about to receive good news. And he protected his Turkey sandwich as if they’d caught him at something naughty. The boy was scrawny and still growing; why would he act guilty about a sandwich? “So what’s up?” he asked glumly.

Shep detailed the CAT scan results, describing the diminutions of the two cowering patches of foulness; since he omitted mention of the “stubborn” biphasic presentation altogether, he might rightly have been accused of the very rounding up he had feared from Philip Goldman. But there was nothing wrong with emphasizing the positive, especially with a sixteen-year-old kid who’d had to weather plenty dire turns of the wheel with little help from his distracted, harried father.

“Uh-huh.”

Shep kept waiting for the boy to have a reaction, until he resigned himself that this slumping, passive, unaltered will to vanish was his son’s reaction. “Maybe you don’t understand the full implications of this. It means your mother’s getting better. That the chemo is working. That we’re beating this thing.”

“Uh-huh.” Zach raised his gaze from his favorite middle distance and looked his father in the eye. Sorrowful and pitying, the boy’s soft brown unbroken stare made Shep feel suddenly the younger of the two. Their son rotated toward Glynis, who was sitting at the table, and put a hand on his mother’s shoulder to give it a squeeze; his motions were jagged and halting, as if he were operating his arm by remote control. “That’s great, Mom,” he said leadenly. “I’m real glad things are looking up.” The gesture seemed to cost him, and he trailed exhaustedly upstairs.

Shep was about to mumble, “What was that about?” when the phone rang. It was late for a call. He had a queer premonition that he should let it go to voice mail. He and Glynis had not had such a fine night on the town together for the last year or more, and the interruption was unwelcome. He couldn’t think of anyone to whom he wanted to

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