Deborah sat and listened
to her parents quarrelling
after dinner.
ـِـ Do
you know what, her father asked. I've finished the divorce papers you
were filing. I can't appreciate you having to be here all the time!
ـِـ It
all comes down to me, huh?! And now I have to go after managing your
house hold for two decades.
He was silent for a
while. Then he answered:
ـِـ I
appreciate you having taken that into you that it's almost helping me
out. But it's worse than you're admitting! It's less than twenty of
the full twenty-four years we've been married.
ـِـ Stop
that, his wife retorted. You know as well as I that there was laundry
and dishes and stuff even during the first four years.
He looked at her,
now slowly pondering on if he should keep scolding her back or try to
do something else in order to insinuate that she would be better of
without the young men she wanted.
ـِـ Charlie,
he said at last, you don't know what you're into. When you're fucking
those young men and scolding me for after all being, and for having
been your husband.
She giggled.
ـِـ How
come you don't think so?!
Now he looked at her
with new eyes. The room was silent for almost a minute.
ـِـ Because
I feel there's not any notion of sense to seeing in them the
caretaker of the home you've been living in!
She looked at him
with a very scornful glimpse, and shrieked:
ـِـ Ha!
She was still
looking the same way at him when saying:
ـِـ I
don't ever see you doing the laundry here do I!?
Now Deborah broke in
and said:
ـِـ So
what? Mom, you haven't ever tried to let him do it! At least I don't
think that you have.
Charlie looked
chocked now. After a while she began sobbing. Deborah's eyes wondered
between her and him.
No one said
anything. After ten minutes, Richard said:
ـِـ I
don't know if there can be room for us to sleep in the same bedroom
anymore. ...
His wife looked at
him.
ـِـ No,
I don't suppose there can be after all of this!
While they were
talking someone turned the key to the outside door. Deborah went up
to greet her brother. But he wasn't responsive at all for her
greetings now.
ـِـWhat's
the matter, she asked.
ـِـ What
have you been saying to me, he asked back.
ـِـ Nothing
you didn't know!
He looked at her
sternly.
ـِـ I
just found out that you've been talking to all the girls in school
that I appreciated being the idol that was to be adored by my little
sister, whom I supposedly tried to fool into thinking I was a role
model!
ـِـ But
I have said that to you as well!
He examined her.
ـِـ Sort
of, he said at last. But I haven't been told how they would
appreciate that as a comment on my business, which can be sort of
ruined because of you!
ـِـ No
it can't!
ـِـ What
do you mean by that?!
ـِـ I
mean that it's not to be seen as a comment on the business you're
doing!
ـِـ What
do you mean?!
ـِـ How
can you ask that?
He stared at her. At
last he answered:
ـِـ I
ask that because I don't have anything that says to me that there's
no business in the women that want my art.
Richard broke in
with:
ـِـ I
don't think it's really worth it to ignore them, Deborah! At the same
time I think you're right in that they're not the important part of
it!
ـِـ They
are the important part of my business! They are the most
appreciative, up until now at least, of my customers!
ـِـ They
are?!
Richard sounded very
surprised.
ـِـ Yes,
dad! Yes, they are!
ـِـ They
are?!
His mother sounded
almost as surprised as his dad.
ـِـ They
are, mom, he assured her.
ـِـ Then
how come, his mother asked, you don't feel like telling us about
them. ...
ـِـ It
never occurred to me to talk about them, he answered.
ـِـ Then
do now, both his parents retorted at once.
ـِـ No,
I don't want to talk about it, he said, and left for his room.
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