Farewell, Dorothy Parker Read Online Free PDF

looked up. She was crying. “I’m so sorry,” she said. She kissed Cliché on the top of the head. “Truly. Were you close with your sister?”
    Violet took a sip of her drink. She didn’t want to start crying. Not now. She wanted to get through this story and move on. “Very,” shewhispered, and drew a long, jagged breath. “They had been living here, in this house. So after the accident, I gave up my apartment and moved in to take care of my niece.”
    “So where is she?”
    “That’s the part I screwed up so badly. When the people at her school district told me I needed to be her legal guardian, I figured it was just a matter of paperwork and that a judge would rubber-stamp it. But Neil’s parents—Delaney’s grandparents—showed up at court with a lawyer. And not just any lawyer—a mountain of a guy with a shaved head and a European suit. He got right in my face and said, ‘My clients just want what’s best for the child,
Miss Epps
…or should I say
Ms.
?’ He was so derisive, as if I could only be one of the two lowest forms of life—an unmarried woman or worse, a feminist. I realized later it was all theater meant to intimidate me, but at the time it worked like a charm. I freaked. I was so blindsided I couldn’t talk. Not a word. I could barely even stand upright. So the judge set a date for a formal hearing to determine guardianship, and in the meantime…in the meantime he granted temporary custody to her grandparents.” Violet paused to push at her cuticles. “It should have been me,” she said softly. “She had stability here—her room, her house, her friends, her dog. If I had been able to utter a single word—”
    “But you’ll get her back, right?”
    “Not if I have another meltdown in front of the judge.”
    “You have a lawyer now, yes?”
    “I do, and she’s good. But since Delaney’s been living with her grandparents for a few months, it’s not a slam dunk.”
    Mrs. Parker looked puzzled.
    “A sure thing,” Violet explained.
    “I see,” Mrs. Parker said. She petted Cliché as she considered this. “So you appear before the judge and go mute in terror and he decidesyou’re too irrational to take care of a child and he grants permanent custody to the grandparents.”
    “That’s right.”
    “Are you?”
    “Irrational? No, I’m good with her. Maybe not perfect, but I’m learning. And Neil’s parents are ghastly. Not that they don’t mean well, but she’s miserable there. Sandra, the grandmother, is a hypochondriac and a neurotic mess. And her husband, Malcolm, is in his own world. He used to be okay, but now that he’s retired he devotes his spare time to a worthy cause—himself.”
    “What does the girl want?”
    “She wants to move back here.”
    “Won’t the judge honor her wishes?”
    “The way I understand it,” Violet said, “he’ll take that into account, but it’s not the deciding factor. So I’m going to need to do a hell of a lot better at the next hearing, or poor Delaney will be stuck.”
    “Well, then,” Mrs. Parker said.
    “Well, then what?”
    “Well, then, we will just have to teach you to speak up for yourself.” She held up her empty glass. “Let’s have another drink.”

Chapter 4
    Teach her to speak up for herself? Yes, Violet thought. That was just what she needed. Of course, it wouldn’t be easy. Violet had been suppressing her voice for decades.
    She hadn’t always been so timid. As a small child, Violet was so outspoken that her verbal brass became family legend. It was blown out of proportion, of course. To hear her relatives tell it, you would think she was the love child of Oscar Wilde and Fran Lebowitz—a neat trick in more ways than one. But in truth, she really
had
been a verbal prodigy, speaking in clear sentences at eighteen months, to the delight of her loving parents and any other adults who might be within earshot.
    Unfortunately, the more praise she received, the angrier her older sister became. It was a