Girls in White Dresses - JENNIFER CLOSE [85]
“Well, I dreamt that Ken was marrying this big black woman. And he kept saying, ‘Sorry, sorry, I’m so sorry. We can still be together, but I have to marry her.’ And I was crying, and then the woman came over and started fighting me. I bit her ankle, and then I woke up to Ken screaming.”
“That is really weird,” Isabella said.
“I know. What if that’s what I do now? What if I just keep biting Ken in my sleep?”
“I don’t think that will happen,” Isabella said.
“It might. Plus, I’m a bad mom.”
“No, you aren’t,” Isabella told her. “Where did that come from?”
Mary sighed. “Henry was sick last week, and I didn’t even notice. He was rubbing his ear on the floor and whining, Niii, niii, before I noticed anything.”
“So? You took him to the doctor in time.”
“I guess so. Now I feel bad for leaving him this weekend.”
“I pushed someone on the subway last week,” Isabella told her.
“Really?” Mary asked.
“Yeah, it just happened. Does that make you feel better?”
“Yeah, it kind of does.”
Lauren bought about a million bottles of wine for the house, and when everyone walked in they said, “Oh, that is too much wine. We’ll never get through that.”
“I planned for five bottles a girl for the weekend,” Lauren said. “Believe me, we’ll go through it.”
“No,” everyone said. “No, that’s too much.” By the second night, more than half of it was gone and everyone stopped talking about it.
Beth White talked the whole weekend. From the moment she got there, she went on about her divorce. “Such a hard decision,” she said. “But I’m in a much better place now.”
Isabella tried to avoid getting caught alone with her. “I know she needs to talk about this,” she said to Lauren, “but she has a therapist, right?”
Lauren shrugged. “God, I hope so. I know way too much about their bedroom life now. Way too much.”
“I’m not changing my name back,” Beth told them. “I thought about it, but I’m going to stay Beth White.” Isabella didn’t think this was a wise decision.
“Why wouldn’t she go back to Beth Bauer?” she asked Lauren. “She doesn’t have any kids. It’s so weird.”
“I don’t know,” Lauren said. “Maybe she’s afraid no one will remember who she is.”
“Maybe,” Isabella said. The thought left her uneasy.
The last night, they went out to a seafood restaurant. They returned to the house stuffed and tired. Everyone was drinking wine and talking when they noticed that Beth White was crying in the corner.
Her head was down and her shoulders were shaking. She was crying so hard that no one could understand what she was saying. “What happened?” Mary whispered to Isabella. She just shook her head. “I have no idea,” she said. They sat and listened to Beth gasping for breath. “She’s choking,” Isabella thought. She tried to remember the proper steps for CPR in case they needed to use it. They all stood around and watched until Isabella stepped forward and knelt in front of her. She touched Beth’s leg and said, “This is a normal reaction.” Lauren was standing to her right and shook her head at Isabella. Finally, their friend Sallie took Beth by the arm and walked her upstairs. The rest of them dispersed in silence. No one wanted to talk about what they had just seen.
Mary and Isabella sat on the porch, and Isabella smoked a cigarette. “I thought you quit,” Mary said.
“I did,” Isabella said. “This is an emergency.”
“I don’t really miss smoking as much as I used to,” Mary said.
“You sound disappointed,” Isabella said. Mary shrugged.
“Where’s your wine?” Isabella asked her.
“Oh, I left it inside, I guess.”
“Are you pregnant?”
“What?”
“Oh, my God, you are! You’re pregnant, you fucker.”
“Most people say congratulations.”
“I can’t believe you’re pregnant!”
Mary smiled and looked embarrassed but pleased. “It’s really early. I haven’t even told my mom. I’m like, three days pregnant.”
“Wow,” Isabella said, “you’re going to have two kids. You’re going to have two kids before I’m married.”
“I wish you were pregnant too,” Mary said to her.
“So you would have someone to be sober with?”
Mary nodded. “Yeah. I’d be happy.