The Tame Man by Dana Burnell

Author:Dana Burnell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dana Burnell
Published: 2023-07-26T00:00:00+00:00

13

AND SO MARCH SOFTENED INTO April.

Every year the early springtime daffodils had astonished Rubicon with their hardiness, the resolution with which they pushed up through the frozen earth, the tender, almost fluorescently green stems impervious to unwelcoming weather. Sideways they grew at first, buffeted by winds and angling low to stay safe, until the yellow flowers burgeoned and the stems suddenly swerved upright.

Jenn, of course, had never witnessed this before. It was her first spring in London. She drank her morning coffee and gazed out the French doors at the yard outside, toward the elegantly gnarled tree she’d first seen from Simon’s room on the fateful night of Mark’s party. Its roots had seemed strangled by ivy, but now daffodils burst around its base in verdant determination.

As for Simon, he simply settled in and blossomed under Jenn’s ministrations, basking in her certainty. They shared breakfasts of Weetabix after Mark left for the surgery following family conversations as bright and thin as winter sunlight. Mark had begun to leave earlier each day, with a bounce in his step that Simon had never seen before and which Jenn thought was because of her.

Simon’s favorite bit came when he returned from school and he and Jenn broke out the Nutella and toast. Over lashings of hazelnut chocolate spread, the boy taught Jenn about social media. He created a MySpace page for her and assured her she was now part of the wave of the future. He liked to watch her as she bent toward the computer with her thin brows pointed down, her warm round arms brushing against his. They put pictures of the house, of the two of them, on Jenn’s MySpace page, and sometimes Mark was in the pictures too, glowering shyly in the shadows.

Jenn wanted to show Mark the MySpace page, but Simon said he wouldn’t be interested, and, reluctantly, she realized that was true. Mark was working so late, so often, nowadays—the poor guy was tired out. He’d slouch in front of the TV and watch some lousy old comedy about men who sold junk to people. It was depressing how these characters lived—she’d have preferred something flashy with great clothes, like Dynasty back in the day. But she got this Only Fools and Horses stuff. Men like weird TV—everyone knows that—but Mark worked hard, and he’d given her this son, this house, this life. As she watched Mark chortle as Del Boy shouted at Rodney in their messy basement apartment, she thought this is one funny country—but she’d known that going in.

It struck Jenn as surprising, and it made her sad, that she hadn’t found even one woman friend since she’d married Mark. She’d had boatloads of friends back in Pinekill. But here? When she ran into someone she knew, like that Lydia or Caro, all she’d get were the politest brush-offs ever. “Lovely to see you, must rush—byee!”

She assumed that Rubicon would come around eventually. I mean, yeah. It wasn’t great that she’d landed a guy Rubicon

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