Women and Children First Read Online Free PDF

sending seems somewhat easier. She fixes her eyes on the triangle and wonders if Kevin will blame her for making him do yet another boring thing that she’d thought would be fun.
    Finally Eric says, “Well, that’s it.” They look at each other a moment too long. Janet looks away. There’s some complicated timing here, much more finely tuned than who picks up the wine glass first. They leave the room together; Dr. Wilmot and Kevin are already in the hall. When Kevin pouts, as he’s doing now, he looks like a much younger kid. Janet has a moment of hating herself for the disloyalty of dragging Kevin here, making him sit through this, and, on top of all that, wishing he would act friendlier for some guy she’s just met.
    Dr. Wilmot asks if Janet and Kevin will bear with them for just a few more minutes in the waiting room. Janet and Eric exchange a quick heavy look, embarrassingly reminiscent of suburban-adultery movies. Janet says, “No problem.”
    Gordie glances up when they enter, and for a moment Janet wonders what he’s doing there. He looks so out of context, so far from the Victorian burgundy-reds of his bedroom. It reduces him, the way baseball stars look smaller when you see them in business suits on the evening news. “How was it?” he says.
    “Tons of fun,” says Kevin. Janet is about to ask Gordie if he met up with his friend when Dr. Wilmot and Eric walk in.
    “Eric,” says Gordie.
    Eric looks a little blankly at Gordie, then says, “Oh, hi.”
    “You guys know each other?” says Janet. Eric looks from Janet to Gordie, somehow managing to pay them both that same serious attention Janet felt from him back in the room. Well, you can never tell. Janet reminds herself not to jump to conclusions. Eric might not even be gay; Gordie is always developing these sudden impossible crushes.
    Dr. Wilmot tells them that the final results aren’t in yet but right now the quick match-ups indicate an unusually high score, at least in one direction—Janet sending, Kevin receiving. Janet feels wronged: in fact she knows Kevin’s thoughts as often as he knows hers. She has a childish desire to say that it’s Eric’s fault for ruining her concentration. But she can only smile lamely as Dr. Wilmot says she’ll be in touch with them about follow-up tests, and they can expect payment shortly. “The check’s in the mail,” she says, and they all laugh. Everyone says goodbye and shakes hands except Kevin, who stands in the doorway, impatiently rolling his eyes.
    On the way to the car, Kevin walks ahead. “Watch out, it’s a parking lot,” calls Janet.
    Gordie says, “What did you think about Eric?”
    “Very cute,” says Janet.
    “No,” says Gordie. “I mean, you’re the one with ESP. Do you think he’s gay?”
    Janet should be cheered by this. Maybe there is some basis to whatever she felt in that room—maybe Eric will call, maybe anything else is in Gordie’s mind. Then she remembers how Eric looked at them, both of them. She thinks: Maybe Eric is just your basic compulsive seducer. Suddenly she feels exhausted. It occurs to her that if you heard what was said in any hospital parking lot on any average day, you would hear lots of bad news. And suddenly she can’t bring herself to give Gordie one bit more. “Yes,” she says. “I do. He couldn’t keep his eyes off you.”
    “Really?” says Gordie.
    “Trust me,” says Janet.
    They find Kevin sitting on the hood of Gordie’s car, his long legs dangling. He gets in the back, and Janet slides in beside Gordie.
    A block from the hospital, Gordie stops at a crosswalk and waves some pedestrians across—an Italian or Hispanic family, formally dressed, walking slowly so as to wait for a little girl in a white communion dress who is limping, straggling behind, stopping every few minutes to pop her white pump off her heel and lift her foot and examine it. Even from the car, Janet can see the angry blister on the girl’s heel. Suddenly she wishes Will