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    Joy Williams - The Wedding

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    grupodelectura04

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    of 6
    486 ‘American Short Story Masterpieces When they parted, they shook hands, and Hub would have \ walked Orson to the subway kiosk except that he hed an ap- ointment in the opposite direction. Orson received two A's ‘and two B's on his final exams; for the remaining three years at Harvard, he roomed uneventfully with two other colorless pre- ‘med students, named Wallace and Neuhauser, After gradu. tion, he married Emily, attended the Yale School of Medicine, ‘and interned in St. Louis. He is now the father of four children and, since the death of his own father, the only doctor in the town. His life has gone much the way he planned it, and he ‘much the kind of man he intended to be when he was eighteen, He delivers babies assists the dying, attends the necessary meet ings, plays golf, and does good. He is honorable and irritable. If not a8 much loved as his father, he is perhaps even more re- ‘pected. In one particular only-—a kind of scar he carries with- ut pein and without any clear memory of the amputation— does the man he is differ from the mani he assumed he would become. He never prays Joy WILLIAMS The Wedding Elizabeth always wanted to read fables to her little gir! but the child only wanted to hear the story about the little bird. who. ic table. In a litle whi the sereen door would slam and Elizabeth would come The Weddin shaking her head. The child had frustrated her again. The child Would not go to sleep. She was upstairs, wandering around, ‘making “cotton candy” in her bone china bunny mug. “Cotton candy” was Kleenex sogged in water. Sometimes Elizabeth would tell Sam the story that she had prepared for the child. The people in Elizabeth's fables were always looking for truth or happiness and they were always being given mirrors or lumps of coal. Elizabeth’s stories weré inhabited by wolves and cart horses and solipsists. “Please relax,” Sam would say At eleven o'clock every night, Sam would take a double Scotch on the rocks up to his bedroom. fam," the child called, “have some of my cotton candy. It's delicious. Elizabeth's child reminded Sam of Hester's little Pearl even ‘though he knew that her father, far from being the “Prince of the Air,” was a tax accountant. Elizabeth spoke about him often, He had not shared the 1973 refund with her even though they hhad fled jointly and half of the year’s income had been hers. Apparently the marriage had broken up because she often served hamburgers with baked potatoes instead of Prench fries. Over the years, astonishment had turned to disapproval and then to true annoyance. The tax accountant told Elizabeth that she didn’t know how to do anything right. Elizabeth, in turn, ‘old her accountant that he was always cjaculatng prematucely, “Sam,” the child called, “why do you have your hand over your heart?" “That's my Scotch," Sam said Elizabeth was a nervous yourig woman, She was nervous be- cause she was not married to Sam. This desire to be married again embarrassed her, but she couldn't help it. Sam was mar ‘ied to someone else. Sam was. always. married to someone, Sam and Elizabeth met as people usually meet. Suddenly, there was deceptive light in the darkness. A light that re ‘minded the lonely blackly of the datkness. They met at the wedding dinner of the daughter of a mutual friend, Delicious food was served and many peculiar toasts were given. Stim liked Elizabeth's aura and she liked his too. They danced. Sam had quite a bit to drink. At one point, iélehought he Saw a red rabbit in the oral centerpiece. It's true it was Easter week, but 488 ‘American Short Story Masterpieces he worried about this. They danced again, Sam danced Eliza- beth out of the party and into the parking lot. Sam's car was nondescript and tidy except for a bag of melting groceries. Elizabeth loved the way he kissed, He put his hand on her throat. He lay his tongue deep and quiet inside her mouth. He filled her mouth with the decadent Scotch and cigarete flavor of the tragic middle class. On the other hand, when Sam saw Elizabeth's brightly flowered scanty” panties, he thought he'd faint with happiness. He was a sentimentalis Elizabeth thought she heard him say. Fe that he heard Elizabeth say, “Life is an eccentric privilege.” This worried him but not in time. ‘They began going out together frequently. Elizabeth promised to always take the baby-stter home. At first, Elizabeth and Sam attempted to do vile and imaginative things to one another, This was culminated one afternoon when Sam. spooned 4. ‘mound of pineapple-lime Jell-O between Elizabeth's legs and began to eat. At first, of course, Elizabeth was nervous. Then she stopped being nervous and began watching Sam's sweating, ‘good-looking shoulders with real apprehension. Simultane- ‘ously they both gave up. This seemed a good sign. The battles. | always between the pleasure principle and the reality principle. is it not? Imagination is not what i's cracked up to bes Samy decided to forget the petty, bourgeois rite of eating food out of) ‘one another’ orifices for a while. He decided to just love Elizas ) beth instead “Did you know that Charles Dickens wanted to marry Little | Red Riding Hood?” “What!” Sam exclaimed, appalled, ‘Well, as a child he wanted to marry her,” Elizabeth said, “Oh,” Sam said, curiously relieved. Elizabeth had a house and her little girl. Sam had a house and ag car and a Noank sloop. The houses were thirteen hundred. apart: They spent the winter in Elizabeth's house in the So and they drove up to Sam's house for the summer, The took two and one-half days. They had done if twice nowy seemed about the same each time. They argued on the B ‘The Wedding 489. more Beltway. They bought peaches and cigarettes and fire- ‘works and a ham. The child would often sit on the floor in the front seat and talk into the air-conditioning vent. “Emergency.” she'd say. “Come in please.” On the most recent trip, Sam had called his lawyer from a Hot Shoppe on the New Jersey Turnpike, The lawyer told him that Sam’s divorce had become final that morning. This had been Sam’s third marriage. He and Annie had seemed very compati- ble. They tended to each other realistically, with affection and common sense. Then Annie decided to go back to school. She ‘became interested in animal behaviorism. Books accumulated. She was never at home. She was always on field trips, in thick: els or on beaches, or visiting some ornithologist in Barnstable. ‘She began keeping voluminous notebooks. Sam came across the ‘most alarming things written in her hand, ‘Mantids are cannibalistic and males often literally lose their hheads to the females. The result, as far as successful mating concerned, is beneficial, since the suboesophageal ganglion frequently removed and with it any inhibition on the copula- tory center; the activities of male abdomen are carried out with more vigor than when the body was intact. “Annie, Annie,” Sam had pleaded. “Let's have some people over for drinks. Let's prune the apple tree. Let's bake the or. ange cake you always made for my birthday. “I have never made an orange cake in my life,” Annie sai. ‘Annie,” Sam said, “don't they have courses in seventeenth: century romantic verse or something?” “You drink too much,” Annie said. “You get quarrelsome ‘every night at nine, Your behavior patterns are severely lim- ited.” ‘Sam clutched his Head with “Plus you are reducing my ‘occurrences, Sam. Sam poured himself another Scotch. He lt a cigarette, He applied a mustache with a piece of picnic charcoal 1am Captain Blood,” he said. “I want to kiss you.” ‘When Errol Flynn died, he had the body of a man of ninety," Annie said. “His brain was unrealistic from alcohol.” is hands. ility to respond to meaningful 490 ‘Anterican Short Story Masterpieces ‘She had already packed the toast rack and the pewter and rolled up the Oriental rug ‘am just taking this one Wanda Landowska recording,” she Said. “That's all Tm taking in the way of records Sam, with his charcoal mustache, sat very straight at his end of the table, “The variations in our life have ceased to be significant; Annie sad. Sam's house was on a hill overlooking a cove. The cove was turning into a saltwater marsh. Sam liked marshes but he thought he hed bought property on a deep-water cove where he ‘ould take his boat in and out. He wished that he were not involved in the process of his cove turning into a marsh Whey had first bought the place, he was s0 excited about every, thing that he had a big dinner party at which he served soupe do ‘Poisson using only the fish he had caught himself from the cove He could not, irseems, keep himself from doing this each year, Each year, the soupe de poisson did not seem as nice as it had the year before. About a year before Annie left him, she supe ested that they should probably stop having that particuley dinner party. Sam felt fimammed. When Sam returned to the able in the Hot Shoppe on the New Jersey Turnpike after learning about his divorce. Eheabath didn't look at him, “I have been practicing different expressions, none of which seem appropriate," Elizabeth said “Well,” Sam said might as well be honest,” Elizabeth sai. Sam bit into his egg. He did not feel lean and young and ‘unencumbered, In the following sentence, the same word is used in each of. the missing spaces, but pronounced diferent.” head was bowed. She was reading off the plage mat. “Don't {ook at yours now, Sam,” she said, “the answer's on i.” She lid his place mat off the table, spilling coffee on his cuff in the process. “A prominent and-———man came into a restaurant af the height ofthe rush hour. The waitress was-—-—-1o were a immediately as she had- ‘Sam looked at her. She smiled. He looked at the child. ‘The Wedding. roy child's eyes were closed and she was moving her thumb around in her mouth as though she were making butter there. Sam paid the bill. The child went to the bathroom. An hour later, just before the Tappan Zee Bridge, Sam said, “Notable.” “What?” Elizabeth sai. “Notable, That's the word that belongs in all three spaces.” ‘You looked,” Elizabeth said ‘Goddamn it,” Sam yelled. “I did not look!” 1 knew this would happen,” Elizabeth said. “I knew it was going to be like this.” It is a very hot night. Elizabeth has poison ivy on her wrists, Her wrists are covered with calamine lotion, She has put Saran ‘Wrap over the lotion.and secured it with a rubber band. Sam is in love. He smells the wonderfully clean, sun-and-linen smell of Elizabeth and her calamine lotion Elizabeth is going to tell a fairy story to the child. Sam tries to convince her that fables are sanctimonious and dully reals. tie, ‘ell her any one except the ‘Frog King.’”” Sem whispers. ‘Why can't I tell her that one,” Blizabeth says. She is wor- ried, “The toad stands for male sexuality," Sam whispers. ‘Oh Sam,” she says. “That's so superficial. That's a very superficial analysis of the animal-bridegroom stories” “Tam an animal,” Sam grows biting her softly on the collar- bone, ” she says, Sam's first wife was very preity. She had the fattest stomach he hhad ever seen and very black, very straight hair. He adored her. He was faithful to her. He wrote both their names on the: Ayleaves ofall his books. They were married for six years. They went to Europe. They went to Mexico. In Mexico they lived in ' grand room in a simple hotel opposite a square. The trees in the square were pruned in the shape of perfect botes, Each , hundreds of birds would come home to the trees. Beside the hotel was the shop of a man who made coffins. So many of the coffins seemed small, for children. Sam's wife grew de- Pressed. She lay in bed for most of the day. She pretended she 492 ‘American Short Story Masterpieces, was dying. She wanted Sam to make love to her and pretend. that she was dying. She wanted a baby. She was all mixed up. ‘Sam suggested that it was the ions in the Mexican air that ‘made her depressed. He kept loving her but it became more and ‘more difficult for them both. She continued to retreat into a landscape of chaos and warring feelings. Her depression became general. They had been macried for almost six years but they were still only twenty-four years ol. ‘Often they would go to amusement parks. They liked the bumper cars best. The last time they had gone to the amuse- ‘ment park, Sam had broken his wife's hand when he crashed head-on into her bumper car. They could probably have gotten ‘over the incident had they not been so bitterly miserable at the In the middle ofthe night, the child rushes down the hall and into Elizabeth and Sam's bedroom “Sam,” the child ries, “the baseball game! T'm missing the baseball game “There is no baseball game,” Sam says. ““What’s the matter? What's happening!” Elizabeth cries. “Yes, yes,” the child wail. “T'm late, 'm missing it” “Oh what isi!” Elizabeth erie. “The child is having an anxiety attack,” Sam say. ‘The child puts her thamb in her mouth and then takes it out again, “I'm only five years old,” she says “That's right," Elizabeth says. “She's too young for anxiety stacks, 10 only a dream.” She takes the child back 10, het ‘oom. When she comes back, Sam is sitting up against the pit lows, drinking a glas of Scotch ae S {Phy do you have your hand over your heart” abt “Lthink i's because it hurts,” Sam says. Eiabeth is tying to staf another fale into the cil, Shee

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