Chapter Seventeen

When home Richard found that his wife was no longer making dinner. She had said to Debbie and David that she was no longer the slave of the household, and that even the dishes he would have to do himself.

ـِـ She surely must have meant you dad, both of them assured him.

Instead she had cooked a meal for herself and eating it when he came home. David said he was going to eat out, Debbie that she was going to cook herself.

ـِـ Kids, I want to talk to you, he said to them, and continued: Care if we go someplace and eat out together?

David looked at him:

ـِـ No, or well, yeah OK dad – or whatever you are for me, dad.

ـِـ OK, dad Deborah answered.

Charlie looked bitter, but they ignored her. For now, she could be the bitch who didn't even do the house work for them.

ـِـ Bye, mom, Debbie said.

She said nothing.

ـِـ Bye mom, Dave said now.

Again she just sat and munched.

Richard didn't say goodbye, but told them to take a ride with him to a restaurant and that he would pay them for the dinner. They put on their shoes and jackets while he was out in the staircase fetching the elevator. Dave threw anther “Bye mom” before he left, but she still stayed silent.

In the elevator Richard said that he would take them to a restaurant that their mother didn't deserve knowing about. Why, he promised, they would find out eventually. After some hesitation, they both promised not to tell her.

When leaving the car for the restaurant, they saw that it was a fairly fancy place. Their father said to a clerk that he had ordered table four. A waiter soon came out and showed them to a corner table with a fairly neat view out on an empty street.

After ordering they began speaking about Charlie.

ـِـ I feel, David said, that she's still my mother. She's not completely the bitch that couldn't be talked to, although she has acted like it tonight.

Deborah looked at him.

ـِـ Well, I kinda feel the same, she said at last.

Richard said that he wanted to be clear about one thing about her:

ـِـ What was it, he asked, she wanted by being infidel?

Debbie looked solemn before saying:

ـِـ I think she does it for being into knowing what men are about. ... Somehow she can't take it you're the man to be trusted about such a thing!

ـِـ I think it's not that, Dave answered. Instead, I feel it could be that she tells everyone to be into that man as the adventure to be had, just like there seems to be women now having talked about me that way, he said.

Debbie looked at him. At first she didn't believe he knew that he was talking about. Then it occurred to her that he really had been provoked by her, and her fanciful attitude about men, or so to speak men, guys, rather, perhaps. ...

Their father told them that he too thought that she was into men only, and that it was because she actually thought of men as being real good – or so to speak – only when they had been rumoured about as the real men to be had by other women, it seemed, and that he felt this was very bad of her.

He waited a while for his children to react to this.

At last Deborah said:

ـِـ I guess that then she's into, then, that only men are guilty or something, because that's what she said to me when talking about you and the other men she had been screwing.

ـِـ She did, her father asked.

ـِـ Yeah! And that you all were into being ignorant about why a man can be wanted even though he doesn't seem to deserve it!

Her brother looked up at her when saying:

ـِـ Oh, she said that did she?!

Their father cleared his throat.

ـِـ At my bank, there's a girl among the receptionists who is even worse, I think, than your mother is!

ـِـ Really dad, David said.

ـِـ Yeah, really, son.

ـِـ What's her name, he asked.

ـِـ Claire Witherbrant

ـِـ Is there any way for us to go and check that? I mean about her personality – so it would go unnoticed. ... I mean I feel like going to the bank and checking her. Is that OK by your standards?

ـِـ Yeah. It's OK, son. But hardly should be seen as your dad or so. And that goes for either of you.

He glanced at his daughter, who also seemed a bit eager to go and check.

ـِـ I think, he continued, that you can check her unnoticed if you go there for a deposit of money into a certain bank account. I think it should be called 'extra low stakes'.

ـِـ How much money do I have to bring, David asked.

ـِـ I think the lowest amount they're willing to accept is fifty dollars, and it's safer to bring a hundred, if you want to be sure to actually deposit it. But since that's not the issue, I think you shouldn't worry much. You could even probably speak to her exactly about that, and then come back and speak to her about rents and such. And then a third time go there and ask her to deposit something for you. ... But what I'm not sure about is if can manage to cross the subject without that seeming to be on my account that you're doing it. ...

David sat thoughtfully for a few seconds.

ـِـ I think I can handle it pa', he said after that.