The Age of Hope

The Age of Hope Read Online Free PDF

Book: The Age of Hope Read Online Free PDF
Author: David Bergen
Tags: Fiction, Literary, Extratorrents, Kat, C429
doctor’s wife tried to temper the conversation, though she was quite occupied with the food and the children, but by then the talk had turned elsewhere, back to cars, perhaps, or to hunting and fishing, activities the doctor was especially fond of.
    In the middle of the night, when Roy thought Hope was sleeping, he rose and left the room and went down the hallway to the doctor’s bedroom and knocked on the door. She heard a single knock, and then another, louder this time, and then she heard voices talking, and then it was quiet, and finally Roy returned. He lay down and covered himself.
    In the darkness, she spoke. “What were you doing?”
    Silence, and then, “I was talking to the doctor.”
    “Now? What time is it?”
    “Three o’clock.”
    “You woke him?”
    “Yes.”
    “What were you talking about?”
    “I told him that you and I aren’t married. We are engaged though. I thought he should know.”
    “Oh. The deal is off then? He doesn’t want the car?”
    “He didn’t care. He laughed. He said that I worry too much.”
    “What else?”
    “He called me terrifyingly honest. And then he said, ‘Go back to your wife.’“
    “You feel better?”
    “Yes. I do.” And he whispered as he held her hand, “I love you, Hope. You can be stubborn, but I wouldn’t have anyone else.”
    And they both fell asleep.
    When she woke to sunlight falling onto her bed, Roy was up and gone, downstairs with the doctor eating breakfast. She heard the muffled voices, the children calling out, and she lay there for a long while, holding on to the enchantment of the night.
    It rained the day of the wedding. The men sat on one side of the church and the women on the other, and the music was unaccompanied and there were no harmonies. All of this was typical of the conservative Mennonite Church that Hope’s father had been raised in and then rejected. Cousin Frida, from across the river, was Hope’s attendant. She wore a pale blue dress and matching satin shoes, and a hat to which were pinned white flowers. Hope wore a white gown with long sleeves made of lace that revealed subtly the whiteness of her arms. A veil fell over her face. She carried a bouquet of carnations. Roy wore a charcoal suit that he had bought in Winnipeg for the occasion. The cut of the suit was narrow but still practical. He intended to wear it again at work. The tie was paisley. The wedding was a simple event, with a reception held in the church basement where the guests sat on wooden chairs around collapsible tables covered with swaths of paper and ate the fare prepared by the local ladies: bean soup, white buns, farmer sausage, cheddar cheese, and dainties that consisted of cherry tarts and matrimonial cake. Hope hadn’t wanted a wedding cake. She thought it was ostentatious.
    Petra attended with her husband. She was eight months pregnant and proudly waddled about introducing herself to Roy’s mother and Roy’s sister, Berta, asking anyone and everyone where the alcohol was. Hope knew that she had the capacity to be slightly scandalous, and she worried that Mrs. Koop might be insulted. She wasn’t. She said later that Petra was a treasure, certainly a good friend, and terribly interesting. This was how things worked in Eden. The outsider’s behaviour was easily excused.
    In the evening there was a smaller gathering at the home of her parents, and it was there, in the living room, that Hope’s father took out his whisky and his fiddle, and Hope and her mother, along with several guests who didn’t care what people thought, danced in the space that had been cleared in the centre of the room. Roy’s brother Harold was the only one of his family who was present, and he drank a little too much and danced with Petra, showing off moves that he must have learned overseas, during the war. Hope thought then that for several years he had had a secret life, and only now were they catching a glimpse of it. Hope slipped out of her shoes and lifted her
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