Golden States Read Online Free PDF Page A

asked.
    “Don’t ask stupid questions,” David told her.
    “No, it’s okay,” Janet said. “I’m not getting married because, well, I don’t think I could marry Rob and get into medical school both. I think part of the reason I didn’t get in the first time is that Rob makes me feel too comfortable. So I’m setting out to get less comfortable.” She laughed. “God, that doesn’t make much sense, does it?”
    “Yes it does,” David said.
    “Oh no, it doesn’t,” Janet said. “I know nonsense when I hear it.”
    “I understand,” Lizzie said.
    “No you don’t,” David told her.
    She looked at him coldly. “Do you know what seven times seven is?” she said.
    “Don’t do that,” he said.
    “It’s forty-nine.”
    “Mom, Lizzie keeps asking multiplication questions and doesn’t give me time to think of the answer. She just knows because they’re doing multiplication now, and I haven’t done it for two years.”
    “Do you know what six times eight is?” Lizzie said. David put his fingers in his ears and closed his eyes. Mom said something to him.
    “What?” he asked her, pulling the finger from one ear cautiously as you’d draw the cork from a champagne bottle.
    “Forty-eight,” Lizzie shouted. David jammed the finger back in his ear.
    The telephone rang. “I think it’s probably for me,” Janet said. She folded her napkin and went into the kitchen. She didn’t pick up the phone until the sixth ring.
    “Hello? Hi.” Her voice was muffled by the two slatted, swinging doors that led from the dining room to the kitchen.
    “Lizzie tells people she was born in London,” David said to Mom.
    “I was born in London,” Lizzie said.
    Mom sat still, her fork tilted in her hand, her head cocked toward the door.
    “She was born in Glendale, right?” David said.
    “No. We’ve already talked,” Janet said in the kitchen.
    “Mom, tell her,” David said.
    “I was pregnant with you in London, honey,” Mom said. “But by the time you got around to being born, we were back in California.”
    “I remember London,” Lizzie said, which overrode a sentence of Janet’s that had begun, “I don’t want—”
    “You couldn’t,” David said. “You were never there.”
    “I was there.”
    “Mom?”
    “Please stop that,” Janet said. “You know how easy it is to make me feel guilty.”
    “You were there in spirit, honey,” Mom said.
    “I remember the Tower of London,” Lizzie said. “There were little windows, and you could see a river through them.” “That’s funny,” Mom said. “I did look out a window in the Tower of London when I was carrying you.”
    “She just saw it in a movie or something,” David said. “There was a boat coming down the river,” Lizzie said. “With red smokestacks and a man in a black hat who waved to us.”
    “Oh, I don’t know,” Mom said. “I don’t remember.”
    “Do you know,” Janet said, “you’ve used the word owe three times in the last two minutes? I don’t think I owe you anything.”
    “We also went to Buckingham Palace,” Lizzie said. “One of the guards fainted.”
    “—any more tonight. Good-bye,” Janet said. After a moment she came back into the dining room, running the fingers of one hand lightly over her hair. She smiled, tight-lipped, and sat down at her place.
    “Everything all right?” Mom asked her.
    “Oh yes. Everything is fine.” She smiled down at her plate, at the serving of pink lamb.
    “What did he say?” Mom asked.
    “He’s just a little upset, is all. A man naturally gets upset when his bride-to-be leaves him with a note propped up against the salt and pepper shakers. You know, I don’t think I’m very hungry after all. Would you mind if I excused myself and took a little walk?”
    “It’s dark out,” David said.
    “I know. I’ll be back soon.” Still smiling, she got up and walked out of the house.
    “I hope she’ll be all right out there,” Mom said.
    “Do you want me to follow