Three Women at the Water's Edge Read Online Free PDF

She wished she could call her mother and ask her what to do, but recently her mother had changed so dramatically that Daisy was not sure of her response, and she couldn’t face a new weird mother on top of everything else. So Daisy could only sigh and get up. She smoothed the bed, picked up the afghan, gathered together the sheets of her mother’s letter, and laid them on the bedside table. She heard her friend’s car in the driveway, and looked out the window at her son running up the walk to the door, and was filled with a wonderful love. She could not believe it—that little boy, so full of grace, was something she had made in her body. She smiled with anticipation at how she would hug him when he came in the door, at how she would see him smile.
    —
    “Let’s not talk about anything serious,” Paul had said that night as he helped Daisy get into her chair at the restaurant. “Let’s just enjoy our meal, and have our talk over coffee.”
    Daisy blithely agreed, although, looking back at it, she saw that she should have guessed by those very words what was coming. But it’s hard not to have hope at even the most difficult times. And then, would anything have been gained if she had let herself worry throughout the meal? It was such an excellent meal. She hadn’t been to such a fine restaurant in months, why should she have spoiled the occasion? It would not have changed a thing.
    So she ate crusty French onion soup, and duck, sweet with cherries and wine, and a sharp salad full of oily smooth avocados and a creamy mocha dessert.
    “Why not have a decaffeinated coffee?” Paul asked Daisy, and she agreed.
    Paul seemed to have been pacing himself: as the coffee was set on the table, he began to talk. He put his elbows on the table, and clasped his coffee cup in both hands, and did not attempt to be subtle.
    “I’ve had a good offer from a firm based in Los Angeles,” he said. “It’s a good position, with a chance for advancement. I could make a lot of money.”
    Daisy thought: No. I don’t want to move. I don’t want to leave my house, the lake.
    “I want to take the job,” Paul said, without waiting for Daisy to speak. “I want to take the job, and I want to marry Monica. I’ve talked to a lawyer. There’s a new divorce law in Wisconsin. All I have to do is claim irretrievable breakdown of our marriage, and the divorce is granted. There’s not a thing you can do about it. I’m going to get a divorce. If you’ll be decent about it, I’ll be as generous as I can with money, and I’ll be nice to the children. But if you fight me over this, if you get nasty, I’ll be nasty right back. I’ll be a bastard about money, and I’ll be a bastard to the children. I won’t come to see them, I won’t remember their birthdays, I’ll hit them.”
    Daisy stared at her husband. Her entire body curled backward from him, sick with distaste. “My God,” she said.
    “I’m desperate,” Paul said.
    “You are contemptible,” Daisy said.
    “So are you,” Paul replied.
    “My father was right about you,” Daisy said then, in a whisper of amazement, talking more to herself than to Paul.
    “What do you mean?” Paul said. “What did your father say?” It was one of his most vulnerable points; he idolized Daisy’s father, and wanted to be liked by him.
    Daisy smiled, confident of her father’s protection. “I don’t dare tell you,” she said. “You might accuse me of not being decent to you, you might walk in the house and hit Danny.”
    To her surprise, tears came into Paul’s eyes and his voice went mushy. “Daisy, please,” he said. “I told you I’m desperate. I’m trying to play the heavy, anything, to make you let me go. I don’t want to hit the children.”
    “Why can’t you stay married to me, remain a father to your children, and have your sweetie on the side?” Daisy asked. Something had happened; the worst moment was over; she began to sip her coffee.
    “Because I don’t love