The Woman in Oil Fields Read Online Free PDF Page A

behavior? Houston was more than just the city in which I lived. It was a spot whose intricate culture, whose social codes I’d cracked.
    I called Kelly from a pay phone and told her I’d live on Fritos if she left. “I’ll waste away …”
    â€œYou’re being deliberately cruel,” she said. “Come with me.”
    â€œWhat would I do in Arizona?”
    â€œOpen another press. Write books. I don’t know, George.”
    â€œYou think I don’t have a life here, is that it?”
    â€œIt’s certainly not a life you can’t improve on, is it? Is it?” she said. “Look at the hours you keep. The crap you eat. Here’s a chance to start over, to lead an intelligent –”
    â€œIntelligence has nothing to do with it,” I said.
    ______
    When I thought about my children, I imagined them in ten-pound, double-ply fertilizer sacks at the back of the garage. If I talked Jean into having them – a boy and a girl – I’d cut the baling wire and let them out.
    â€œYou’re late,” she said. I’d been driving around all day. My eyes were swollen from crying. “Supper’s in the fridge. Where’ve you been?”
    â€œRunning errands.”
    She’d been working on her computer. “George?”
    â€œYes?”
    â€œHow worried should I be?”
    â€œWhat about?” I put my hands on her shoulders from behind. She touched my fingers. “I don’t know,” I said.
    She turned the desk lamp away from her face. “When I got married the first time, my husband and I seemed perfectly matched,” she said. “Emotionally, intellectually, temperamentally. Our goals were the same. We each wanted a nice house, dinner parties on the patio. But right after Roy was born I felt this desire to go back to school. I couldn’t understand it. I’d never been ambitious for a career. What had changed?”
    She placed her elbows on the desk. “Now I think people get married for very specific reasons. Roger wanted someone to arrange his social life. I wanted a child. Beyond those things we had nothing to build on. I guess I’m not sure marriage is functional after a certain point. It has a half-life of maybe five years.”
    â€œWhat did you need from me?” I asked.
    â€œI wanted to feel sexy again.”
    I kissed the back of her neck.
    â€œDo you know what quarks are?” she said.
    â€œSubatomic particles, right?”
    â€œDo you know where the word comes from? Finnegan’s Wake . Guy who named them thought it was a nice-sounding nonsense word Joyce made up. Turns out, in German ‘Oliark’ means something like ‘cottage cheese.’” She turned off the lamp. “I can’t seem to make sense of –”
    â€œShhh.”
    Crying softly against my shoulder.
    ______
    Kelly was leaving on Saturday night. “It’s crazy to cross Texas in the heat,” she said.
    I touched her chin. “You have the smoothest skin …”
    â€œWe’ll leave around nine, from the house. I hope you’re there.”
    I squeezed her hands.
    â€œYou won’t be, will you?”
    I didn’t say anything. She kissed my cheek.
    Saturday afternoon I drove for hours in the Beast, into the piney woods then south along the NASA road. I felt as groundless as an astronaut reeling in a dizzying orbit.
    Around six I stopped at a place I knew called Grady’s and ordered a chicken-fried steak. On the bar TV the Mets were thrashing the Astros. I ordered a pitcher of beer. When the baseball game was over I played a little pool, threw some darts. Bought another pitcher.
    ______
    Ten-twenty. My stomach tightened. You asshole , I thought. Maybe she’d waited. I could leave all my clothes … buy a pair of shorts down the road.
    I was kidding myself. My mind had been set all along.
    Mike, the bartender, said, “Rack ‘em up, George. I’ll