Falling in Place Read Online Free PDF Page B

encouraging me to grow in new directions,” Louise said.
    Mary passed them. John Joel was lagging behind, panting as they began to go up another hill. Brandt had picked up a stick and was pretending it was a cigar, tapping the top of it, rolling his eyes and talking to himself.
    “Mary,” Louise called, “why don’t you carry this cooler the rest of the way?”
    “Because I don’t even want to be on this picnic,” she said.
    “Come here and get it and carry it,” her father said. “Please.”
    Mary stopped and let them catch up with her. When they did, she took the cooler. “I guess I’m not the only one who doesn’t want to be on this picnic,” she said.
    “Where would everybody like to be?” John said. “Just where would everybody like to be? You want a pizza? You want Chinese? What? I didn’t hear that nobody wanted to be on this picnic until we were on the picnic.”
    “This isn’t a picnic,” Louise said. “This is walking around and getting sweaty. Which is okay, if you’re in the mood for that.”
    “What would you rather be doing, Louise?”
    “It doesn’t matter what I would rather be doing.”
    “Just tell me,” he said. “Tell me, and stop right here, and I’ll go get the car and chauffeur you wherever you want to go.”
    “Magnanimous,” Louise said. “You’re only here two nights a week, but it’s the
quality
, not the quantity.”
    “Where?” he said. “Where do you want to go?”
    “Oh, maybe you could drop me at exercise class. I like that a lot. I can socialize with Tiffy Adamson and Marge Pendergast and I can wonder along with everybody else what it feels like for Marge to do those stretch exercises with no tits. I can pick up some more smart talk. Or you could drop me at the hospital and I could see if Marlene’s father’s leg ulcer is clearing up. It’s not New York, but there’s a world of excitement out here in suburbia. I read in the paper today that a deer got hit crossing the road. We could call the police barracks and find out where the deer wasburied and make a pilgrimage to its grave. It was probably escaping from New York when it had its accident.”
    “Don’t kid yourself. Whatever cop pronounced it dead is eating it tonight.”
    “Well,” she said, “it’s not entirely civilized out here in the woods. Everyone has to make do.”
    “I asked you at Christmas if you wanted to get an apartment in the city.”
    “You’re going to put them all in private school?” she said.
    Mary was far enough ahead of them so that she didn’t have to hear the answer. She wished she had gone to Angela’s for dinner, even if it would have meant listening to Angela’s father trying to convince both of them to do well in summer school so they could get into good colleges and become lawyers. He wanted everybody to be a lawyer. Angela’s mother was taking courses in law at night. During the day she worked selling real estate. Mary wanted to do well in English just so she would never have to read, or have read to her, another book. It was for sure that Peter Frampton didn’t sit around reading first chapters of famous books. You could bet that Peter Frampton’s business manager didn’t bore the lady love by lecturing her about going to law school.
    Her parents called to her. Finally, her father had found the place he wanted to have the cookout. Her mother was already sitting at the wooden bench, opening the bottle of wine. If this was like the last cookout, her mother wouldn’t eat anything, and she would make a scene if Brandt refused to eat. Brandt liked hamburgers instead of hot dogs. Tonight there were hot dogs.
    John threw a match on the coals. Small blue flames spread through the coals. He watched until a streak of flame went up.
    “How many men does it take to light a barbecue?” John said to John Joel.
    “How many?” he said.
    “One,” John said. “One supremely confident and competent man. Your dad. Don’t forget that Father’s Day is the