Vida

Vida Read Online Free PDF Page A

Book: Vida Read Online Free PDF
Author: Marge Piercy
Tags: General Fiction
doesn’t know I’m around. We’ve been enemies since the split. He never forgave.”
    “Then you’re not worried that he’s been busted?”
    “I’m scared when they catch anybody, Leigh. How could I not care? It’s one less of us surviving. A victory for their side.”
    “I don’t know if Kevin and I are on the same side” Leigh said with thin grin taught in his beard.
    “Do I know any more? But I do know we were on the same side of the law, Kevin and I” she said bitterly. “The outside. Here come the clams” She felt buffeted by a hard cold force in Leigh. Was this going to be one of their bad times, after so long? Did he blame her for the months’ passing since they’d seen each other? Times had been hard in L.A., hard for the fugitives. She felt a moment of fierce longing for Eva, to talk to her. Eva would feel exactly as she did about Kevin: Eva would be able to hate Kevin and still mourn his being taken. In L.A. they did not even have a phone in their little house. What would they say on it? Alice and Eva perhaps did not even know the news yet.
    With the first taste of the clams, his temper seemed to lighten. “Sweet little darlings. Good this time. Couldn’t be better.”
    “I haven’t had these since … a year? At least.”
    “An honest pleasure. Eating a clam that can’t fight back. That tastes like an angel’s come. Pure protein. You could eat these till you couldn’t stand up and you wouldn’t gain an ounce.”
    Leigh had put on a little weight. Nicely cut casual jacket and pants tailored like a bush outfit in black corduroy. Who picked that out? She’d used to dress him. Leigh did not like to shop for clothes, associating it with childhood excursions to places where relatives could get it for you and “it” was always too big and never what the other guys were wearing. He liked to be given clothes, but they had to be chosen carefully, because his taste was precise. “Not that shade of orange. Want me to look like a walking Orange Julius?” The shirt was a muted plaid in soft wool, predominantly blue and gray with a touch of yellow. “You’re looking sensational” she said.
    ”Getting older. Know I’m going to turn forty in March? Forty!” He shook his head. “And they used to say never trust anybody over thirty. ‘Course I never said that. I was twenty-nine when the foolish kids started saying that. I was damned if I was going to be retired by superstition. Forty, though, that’s a tombstone. That’s a real clunker.”
    Who’d bought the suit and shirt for him? What was the name of the woman he’d been seeing in April? Leigh always had women in his life—old lovers, new lovers, and her, the old wife. With a prick of resentment, she realized she was going to have to charm him. He wasn’t paying enough attention to her. He wasn’t gazing hard enough. She took off the poncho and sat up across the table. No more hand holding, piteous for reassurance among the battered stainless steel flatware. Finishing her last clam she set her head at a becoming tilt, the face a little turned, the chin up, and gave him that old slow smile. “Well, you may be turning forty, old dear, but I’m just thirty-two on my I.D. I grow younger now each year—I find it superior for the figure and the disposition”
    He grinned, then looked as if finally seeing her. “You do look younger. On the thin side, though. We can fix that. Feed you up. Here comes the lobster. Ta dah! Let’s pray devoutly they haven’t overcooked it.”
    “To whom do you pray? Con Edison?”
    “Neptune—isn’t he the fishy one? So you’re not broken up about Kevin?”
    “I don’t like them chalking up any wins. But it’s nothing personal.”
    “How do I know? You used to be crazy about that loudmouthed bulvon. Thought he was Che come again.”
    “We all make our mistakes. I’ve had to live with that one.” She smiled wanly. Leigh’s jealousy was not sexual but political. He could not forgive her for having
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