The Deep End by Joy Fielding

Author:Joy Fielding
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Fiction, Mystery & Detective, General
ISBN: 9781574902624
Publisher: Seal Books
Published: 1981-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

SEVENTEEN

The phone is still ringing as Joanne Hunter picks herself up off the bottom of the deep end of her empty, aborted swimming pool and heads back inside the house. The girls have left for camp. For the first time in her life, she is completely alone. She has the house to herself. She is expecting no one. She glances at the phone. It’s just you and me now, he is telling her.

Ignoring the persistent ringing, Joanne pours herself a large glass of skim milk. She has been drinking a lot of milk lately, ever since Eve told her that women require more calcium than men in order to keep their bones supple and prevent shrinkage in old age. She laughs and some of the milk escapes the sides of her mouth. The image of herself as a slaughtered corpse tossed across the rose-colored flagstone at the side of her pool returns. She won’t have to worry about her old age, she thinks, finishing the last of the milk, catching the reflection of her grandfather in the pearl-gray coating the milk leaves at the bottom of her glass. At least her children will be spared her senility, she thinks, congratulating herself on always being able to see the bright side of any situation. Perhaps she should get an answering service, she thinks, then dismisses the consideration. She has told Paul that the phone calls have stopped. She doesn’t want to arouse his suspicions by hiring a service. Besides, it would make no difference—he has already told her that. The phone stops ringing.

The house is now completely still, as quiet as it has ever felt, although Joanne has been alone in the house before. But that was different, she understands, because that was temporary. A few hours perhaps, never more than a day. There was always someone to answer to, something to answer for. Now there is no one. She has no schedule. She has nothing, she thinks, shuffling into the living room in her bare feet and plopping down on the large, comfortable sofa she and Paul purchased together only four years ago. Her body is immediately surrounded by the warm sunlight that streaks through the thin venetian blinds of the room’s southerly bay windows. She has recently handwashed these slivers of white metal blinds, just as she has cleaned the various floor surfaces until they shine, dusted the wood furniture until her reflection appears, vacuumed the carpets until they look new, and polished the silverware until her hands were sore. Her freezer is stacked with baked goods—in case Paul decides to bring a few people home after her funeral, she laughs sardonically, wondering when she has developed this decidedly black sense of humor.

Karen Palmer has suggested to Joanne that she do some traveling; go to Europe, she has suggested. But Joanne has always dreamed of seeing Europe with Paul, and the idea of going off on her own does not appeal to her. She likes to share, to have

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