Sylvia by Leonard Michaels
Author:Leonard Michaels
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: Literary, American Literature, Fiction
ISBN: 9780374271077
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Published: 2007-05-28T23:00:00+00:00
Only about twenty days before the wedding and we had a fight. Not worse than other fights but, the wedding so close, it felt more bitter, more wrong. I tried to get Sylvia out of bed at 8 a.m., when the alarm went off. She shrieked, slapped the blanket, demanded to be let alone. I cuddled and rocked her, trying very gently to get her out of bed. It was important to meâsince we are getting marriedâthat we begin trying to live in a normal, regular way. She knew what I thought, took it as a criticism. Refused to get up. Around noon she got up and said she wanted to buy some bras and a wedding dress. She wanted me to go with her. She insisted I go with her. I said I needed a shave; didnât want to walk into a womanâs clothing store looking the way I did. The truth is I didnât want to go. She said it didnât matter how I looked. I shaved. We went. It was very windy and burning cold. She said that if sheâd known how cold it was, she wouldnât have insisted that I go with her. In a store on Eighth Street, she tried on two dresses. The first was red with a flat neck. It set off her complexion, eyes, and hair. She looked nice, but a red dress didnât look right for a wedding. I donât know why she bothered putting it on. Maybe she thought this dress would be an exception, as if there were a kind of red that a bride might wear. She did look good in it. The second dress was yellow and had a flared skirt. It made her look rather wide, and it brought out yellowish tones in her skin. Later, she said that my face had been ugly with disapproval in the clothing store. âYou know Iâm a pig, and I know Iâm a pig,â she said. In the apartment again, she sat on the bed in her coat. Nothing had been accomplished. She hadnât bought bras or a wedding dress. I said, âLetâs clean up this place.â She said, âYes.â Her answer raised my spirits and I began to move about, picking things up. She noticed my show of energy, my optimism. She collapsed onto the bed, still in her coat, and she closed her eyes and started to go to sleep. I think I knew, before she collapsed, that Iâd made a big mistake. My bustling about wouldnât inspire Sylvia to do the same. But I couldnât stop myself. It was my way of being insensitive, pretending not really to know her feelings, my way of not loving her. Seeing her lie there, in her coat, I quit trying to clean up. It was all very depressing, my stupid bustling and her collapse. I was more conscious than ever before of the havoc in our apartment, and in my heart. She keeps telling me that I think she is a pig.
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