Breathing Lessons (1989 Pulitzer Prize) - Anne Tyler [27]
A slim blade of black knelt at Durwood's elbow It was Sugar Tilghman, blowing at a swatch of net to free it from her lipstick. "If I'd known I was expected to provide the entertainment I never would have come," she said. "Oh, Ira. I didn't see you there." "How you doing, Sugar," Ira said.
"Elizabeth." "Pardon?" "The Barley twins have the right idea," Sugar said. "They flat-out refuse to go along with this." "Isn't that just like them," Maggie said. The Barley twins had always acted so snobbish, preferring each other to anybody else.
"And Nick Bourne wouldn't even come to the funeral." "Nick Bourne?" "Said it was too long a drive." "/ don't recall Nick at the wedding," Maggie said.
"Well, he was in the chorus, right?" "Oh, yes, I guess he was." "And the chorus sang 'True Love,' remember? But if the Barley twins won't join in and Nick Bourne's not coming, there wouldn't be but the four of us, so she's going to skip the chorus part." "You know," Durwood said, "I never understood why 'True Love' went so high on the charts. That was a really boring tune, when you think about it." "And then 'Born to Be with You,' " Sugar said. "Wasn't it funny about Serena? Sometimes she kind of overdid. She'd take some run-of-the-mill pop song like 'Born to Be with You' that all the rest of us liked okay, and she would make so much of it, it would start to look weird. It would start to look bizarre. Things always got so exaggerated, with Serena." "Like her wedding reception," Durwood said.
"Oh, her wedding reception! Her receiving line with just that mother of hers and one fat twelve-year-old girl cousin and Max's parents." "Max's parents looked miserable." "They never did approve of her." "They thought she was sort of cheap." "They kept asking who her people were." "Better not to have a receiving line at all," Durwood said. "Shoot, better just to elope. I don't know why she went to so much trouble." "Well, anyhow," Sugar said, "I told Serena I'd sing today if she insisted, but she'd have to make it some other piece. Something more appropriate. I mean I know we're supposed to be humoring the bereaved, but there are limits. And Serena said, well, all right, so long as it came from the time when they were first dating. Nineteen fifty-five, fifty-six, she said; nothing later." " 'The Great Pretender,' " Durwood said suddenly. "Now, there was a song. Remember, Ira? Remember 'The Great Pretender'?" Ira put on a soulful look and crooned, "O-o-o-o-o-o- oh, yes . . ." "Why not sing that?" Durwood asked Sugar.
"Oh, be serious," Sugar said.
"Sing 'Davy Crockett,' " Ira suggested.
He and Durwood started competing: "Sing 'Yellow Rose of Texas.' " "Sing 'Hound Dog.' " "Sing 'Papa Loves Mambo.' " "Will you be serious for a minute?" Sugar said. "I'm going to get up there and open my mouth and nothing's going to come out." "Or how about 'Heartbreak Hotel'?" Ira asked.
"Ssh, everybody. They're starting," Maggie said. She had glimpsed the family approaching from the rear. Sugar rose hastily and returned to her seat, while Serena, who was bedding over two women who could only be the Barley twins, settled next to them in a pew that was nowhere near the front and went on whispering. No doubt she still hoped to talk them into singing. Both twins wore their yellow hair in the short, curly, caplike style they'd favored in high school, Maggie saw, but the backs of their necks were scrawny as chicken necks and their fussy pink ruffles gave them a Minnie Pearl look.
An usher led the family up the aisle: Serena's daughter, Linda, fat and freckled, and Linda's bearded husband and two little boys in grownup suits, their expressions selfconsciously solemn. Behind them came a fair-haired man, most likely the brother, and various other people, severely, somberly dressed. Several had Max's