Miranda's War Read Online Free PDF Page A

gay couple, neither of whom she cared for. It was either that or sell. Either way, her freedom had been taken from her, her neighborhood altered forever, and her life placed on a downward trajectory from which it never recovered. Miranda had asked her over and over again why she had “let it happen.” Rebecca never gave a satisfactory answer.
    Miranda walked up the aging steps to Rebecca’s front door with its three buzzers and rang. Rebecca opened the door while cupping a tiny bird in her right hand. She was nearly six feet tall, had shoulder-length straight gray-white hair, wore watches on both wrists and looked older than her seventy-three years but had an earth-mother aura that drew most people in. Her voice was mannish and full of charm.
    â€œCome on in,” she said, “and for God’s sake, don’t start rearranging things around here. There’s a method to my madness, I can assure you.”
    And madness it was. Two other birds were flying around the apartment, a .32-caliber revolver lay on an end table, old newspapers were piled in the living room, and her three cats scampered about as Mahler’s Seventh Symphony emanated from an old record player. There were crooked paintings, silk scarves draped over the backs of chairs and bags of groceries blocking Miranda’s path on the floor.
    â€œOf course there’s a method to it, it’s just that nobody else understands, which is my problem too. I think I’m operating on a different plane from everyone else. There are different things going through my mind. My new colleagues on the Conservation Commission are timid souls. But their job is to be brutal.”
    â€œWe’re all brought up that way now.” Rebecca said. “Men don’t go into the military. We don’t win wars. We lose them. We lost in Iraq. I don’t care what anyone says. And we all have to be sensitive to everyone’s feelings.”
    â€œI’ve been accused of narcissism because I lack empathy for my colleagues. You know what happened to me on the Wang Board.”
    â€œAnd by God you are. And so am I, although one must always be graceful. You sometimes come on very strong, like a locomotive.”
    â€œWell, I don’t want to do that now. It’s tough showing up a seventy-four-year-old law professor without looking like you disrespect him.”
    â€œThere’s a right way to do everything, my dear, even taking on Judge Anderson. I don’t know him, but I remember some of his decisions. We all do. Does he still wear the narrow bow ties?”
    â€œAt every meeting.”
    â€œEndearing, but maybe people are ready to join the twenty-first century. You can give them that. That’s what Archer really loves most about you. So ask him how to proceed. Then adjust it accordingly, and you proceed.”
    â€œHe’s appalled.”
    â€œOf course he is. But his heart is in the right place. You can bring him around.”
    â€œIf you can tell me why he supports subsidized housing in Lincoln, I’ll understand him a lot better.”
    â€œHe never went to war. He had too much comfort, although he worked very hard in school.”
    â€œThe guilt level is so high in Lincoln. We all have so much and have produced so little.”
    â€œYes, he never made any real money. He’s just depleted the trust. His father wanted him to own something.”
    â€œJenny doesn’t think like him,” Miranda said, referring to Archer’s sister in Connecticut.
    â€œNo, but her husband is much less interesting than you. Now, help me with this painting,” she said to Miranda after placing the little bird back in its cage. Rebecca pointed to a huge impressionist painting in a gold-leaf frame over a chintz-covered couch. “What are you doing with it?”
    â€œSelling it for whatever my picker can fetch.”
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œCan’t stand to look at it. What other reason could there