again a four-sided
form. Now, though, there is Eva. Again, a fifth.
6
The week that Caro, Adam, Omar, and Eva spend with Larry and Betty proceeds with surprising
ease. Larry has purchased a month’s membership to the local country club. Each morning,
he leaves with Eva and Omar to spend the day teaching them the rudiments of golf and
tennis, buying them lunch at the clubhouse, goofing around with them on the shuffleboard
court. Around noon, Adam disappears into his room with the door closed, at work on
his rewrite of The Searchers , and Betty heads out to go shopping for what she calls antiques—napkin rings, a ceramic
spoon rest, a wooden duck—leaving the pool area deliciously free for Caro to read
and swim.
Every day, over breakfast, Larry and Adam debate the merits of various Westerns in
preparation for the choice of the evening’s viewing. Caro had forgotten that Adam’s
love of these movies came from her father, who now sees them as a ratification of
his decision to move to Arizona. For Adam, it is as though his expertise about Westerns
compensates for his being unable to do any of the things the men in these stories
routinely do: ride a horse, shoot a gun, woo a woman, punch a man. With Eva’s reaction
to The Searchers , Caro at first worries about her watching the other movies Adam and her father choose,
but whatever bothered Eva in The Searchers does not seem to do so with The Magnificent Seven , The Naked Spur , Stagecoach , Shane.
On Wednesday afternoon, the phone rings while Caro is at the pool. When Adam fails
to pick up, Caro races down the steps.
“Hey,” Rachida says.
“Is everything okay?”
“Yeah. Only I have to cancel coming up. I’m on call.”
Caro can hear the tension in Rachida’s voice. “I’ll find Adam.”
“Just tell him, okay? I’ll talk to him when Omar calls before bed. I’ve got to get
to rounds.”
“Sure.” Caro looks at her watch. It is two o’clock. From what she remembers with her
father, rounds are usually first thing in the morning and then at the end of the day.
Annoyed that Adam didn’t answer the phone, she knocks on his door. She knocks again
and then, in the way of family members, turns the knob.
The door is locked. “One minute,” Adam calls out. She waits, wondering what the hell
she is waiting for.
When Adam opens the door, he looks disheveled. The blinds are shut and the bed is
unmade. There’s a musky smell in the room. Her stomach turns.
“Did I wake you?”
“Just a little snooze.”
“That was Rachida. She can’t come this weekend. She’s on call.”
Adam knits his brows. “How can she be on call? She was on call last weekend.”
Caro examines her brother. Everything needs to be trimmed: hair, beard, fingernails.
She hates feeling caught between him and Rachida. “That’s what she said. She said
she’d talk to you about it tonight.”
7
It is past midnight when Myra hears Rachida come in. Unable to fall back asleep, she
sits in her office with a blanket over her knees, looking out at a milky moon hovering
over a treetop. She tries to read, her concentration pierced by memories of the Willow
house, where her children now are, and the early years of her marriage, before the call , before everything halted, when she’d spent so much time there herself.
The call . For years, it had felt as though it had taken up permanent residence in her consciousness,
that she was locked in its confines, in the supra-intensity of those moments. Now,
though, it has been years since she has thought about it at all.
Still, it’s all there : Caro in the kitchen doing her third-grade homework; Adam in the tub, blowing bubbles
through a wand, just old enough to be left alone in the water, with firm instructions
not to stand up while Myra went to answer the phone in her bedroom.
“Is he home?”
It was a woman’s voice, loud and demanding, so that Myra, with her mind still on Adam
form. Now, though, there is Eva. Again, a fifth.
6
The week that Caro, Adam, Omar, and Eva spend with Larry and Betty proceeds with surprising
ease. Larry has purchased a month’s membership to the local country club. Each morning,
he leaves with Eva and Omar to spend the day teaching them the rudiments of golf and
tennis, buying them lunch at the clubhouse, goofing around with them on the shuffleboard
court. Around noon, Adam disappears into his room with the door closed, at work on
his rewrite of The Searchers , and Betty heads out to go shopping for what she calls antiques—napkin rings, a ceramic
spoon rest, a wooden duck—leaving the pool area deliciously free for Caro to read
and swim.
Every day, over breakfast, Larry and Adam debate the merits of various Westerns in
preparation for the choice of the evening’s viewing. Caro had forgotten that Adam’s
love of these movies came from her father, who now sees them as a ratification of
his decision to move to Arizona. For Adam, it is as though his expertise about Westerns
compensates for his being unable to do any of the things the men in these stories
routinely do: ride a horse, shoot a gun, woo a woman, punch a man. With Eva’s reaction
to The Searchers , Caro at first worries about her watching the other movies Adam and her father choose,
but whatever bothered Eva in The Searchers does not seem to do so with The Magnificent Seven , The Naked Spur , Stagecoach , Shane.
On Wednesday afternoon, the phone rings while Caro is at the pool. When Adam fails
to pick up, Caro races down the steps.
“Hey,” Rachida says.
“Is everything okay?”
“Yeah. Only I have to cancel coming up. I’m on call.”
Caro can hear the tension in Rachida’s voice. “I’ll find Adam.”
“Just tell him, okay? I’ll talk to him when Omar calls before bed. I’ve got to get
to rounds.”
“Sure.” Caro looks at her watch. It is two o’clock. From what she remembers with her
father, rounds are usually first thing in the morning and then at the end of the day.
Annoyed that Adam didn’t answer the phone, she knocks on his door. She knocks again
and then, in the way of family members, turns the knob.
The door is locked. “One minute,” Adam calls out. She waits, wondering what the hell
she is waiting for.
When Adam opens the door, he looks disheveled. The blinds are shut and the bed is
unmade. There’s a musky smell in the room. Her stomach turns.
“Did I wake you?”
“Just a little snooze.”
“That was Rachida. She can’t come this weekend. She’s on call.”
Adam knits his brows. “How can she be on call? She was on call last weekend.”
Caro examines her brother. Everything needs to be trimmed: hair, beard, fingernails.
She hates feeling caught between him and Rachida. “That’s what she said. She said
she’d talk to you about it tonight.”
7
It is past midnight when Myra hears Rachida come in. Unable to fall back asleep, she
sits in her office with a blanket over her knees, looking out at a milky moon hovering
over a treetop. She tries to read, her concentration pierced by memories of the Willow
house, where her children now are, and the early years of her marriage, before the call , before everything halted, when she’d spent so much time there herself.
The call . For years, it had felt as though it had taken up permanent residence in her consciousness,
that she was locked in its confines, in the supra-intensity of those moments. Now,
though, it has been years since she has thought about it at all.
Still, it’s all there : Caro in the kitchen doing her third-grade homework; Adam in the tub, blowing bubbles
through a wand, just old enough to be left alone in the water, with firm instructions
not to stand up while Myra went to answer the phone in her bedroom.
“Is he home?”
It was a woman’s voice, loud and demanding, so that Myra, with her mind still on Adam
Similar Books
