The Forgotten Life of Eva Gordon by Linda MacKillop

Author:Linda MacKillop
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kregel Publications
Published: 2022-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

Ten

AMBER PLAYED AT HER FEET while Eva sat in the shade of Breezy’s back yard in an Adirondack chair, a glass of iced tea dripping condensation down her wrist. Next door, the neighbor girls played a make-believe cooking game with a kitchen set on their porch, making roasts and potatoes to offer each other. Sarah loved pretend cooking. She made hanburgers and hot dogs on her own kitchen set when she was four years old. While Sarah ran back and forth from the kitchen to her bedroom, giving updates on the assembly, punctuating each announcement with a little leap in the air, Eva wrestled a turkey in the grown-up kitchen sink, pulling its legs apart to insert the homemade stuffing made from crackers, celery, and onions. “Don’t ever try to cook a turkey.” Eva pressed a large spoonful of stuffing inside the carcass. “Too much of an ordeal.”

Eva always sounded so crabby in her memories.

Breezy came outside, keys jangling in her hand. “You ready to go, Gram?” She waited for her grandmother to respond and bent low to examine her grandmother’s face. “You okay, Gram? You look sad.”

Eva looked into her granddaughter’s inviting eyes, opened her mouth to speak, and then closed it again. How could she express her apprehension about the day’s appointment—the second doctor’s appointment to talk about her memory? After seeing Eva’s general practitioner, the doctor recommended seeing someone who worked with the brain. A neurologist.

“You know it’s for the best, Gram. We need to know what’s going on with you.”

“I told you, I’ll try harder to remember things. Write more things down.” Her voice sounded like a child’s pleading. When Breezy didn’t budge, Eva stood up from the chair. “Okay. Let’s get this over with.”

As they drove through the crowded streets to the appointment, Eva tried to remember a few other things, like how Wallace had proposed. Was it at her father’s house, on the dock where they used to meet, or in a park? Then she tried to remember Sarah’s and Rob’s first words, and why she was so stinking angry every day of their lives. Desired memories wouldn’t come, yet unwanted memories stormed her thoughts.

In the doctor’s examining room, the nurse finished taking Eva’s blood pressure and spoke a few words to Breezy while Eva listened to the sound of a car door slamming, like when Wallace had decided to leave.

When he slipped behind the wheel, she’d stood silent and ramrod straight. Please stay, Wallace. What about the kids? But she remained mute. How could she make things right when she didn’t know how they’d broken?

Sitting in the car, he hesitated for one brief instant, watching his wife with his deep blue eyes expectant and pleading, his hand still on the door as if he’d open it in a flash if she just said the word. Finally, with a shake of his head, Wallace put the car in gear and backed out of the driveway with all his possessions—his favorite record albums, the picture taken with his dad at Fenway Park, his childhood book collection.

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