Mr. Bridge_ A Novel - Evan S. Connell [83]
“If you can’t, I can,” said Mr. Bridge, and he did.
88 Watering the Flowers
Spring came earlier than usual. High overhead the Canadian geese streamed northward. In the yard pale shoots of grass appeared unexpectedly. Neighborhood boys threw baseballs back and forth. Little girls uttering shrill cries roller skated up and down the sidewalk.
The arrival of spring pleased Harriet. She did not like winter. Winter created retractions in the blood and noticeably interfered with the system. But now warm weather was on the way, so she sang as she worked while robins and sparrows and a pair of glossy blackbirds fluttered through the arbor and alighted from time to time on the rim of the birdbath. And when she had finished cleaning up the kitchen and hidden the newly baked cinnamon tarts where Douglas could not find them and vacuumed the carpets upstairs and downstairs and made the beds and telephoned for groceries, she thought it might be pleasant to spend a while outside. It might be nice to spend half an hour watering the flowers. Since nobody else was home she changed from her white uniform into a halter and plaid skirt, which she was not supposed to wear, and presently she stepped outside with a daiquiri in one hand.
She turned on the water, picked up the hose, and wandered back and forth humming and chatting with herself while she sprayed the begonias, the tiger lilies, the chrysanthemums, the hollyhocks, a side of the garage where it was streaked with dirt, and Goethe, the Edisons’ German shepherd, who gave her a bleak look before trotting away, and several robins which did not mind very much.
Soon the daiquiri was gone. She stepped inside just long enough to prepare another, then she took up the hose again.
She sprayed the kitchen steps and the basement steps, the trunk of the old elm and the evergreens, and the irises planted beside the porch, and about half of the yard, and a number of windows, and when everything in sight was wet she directed the hose nearly straight up to see if she could create a rainbow, which she did. She waved the hose and the rainbow drifted. She felt pleasingly damp and refreshed. She hung the hose over the clothesline while she went inside to fix another daiquiri and after sampling it she floated outside just as the Chrysler turned in the driveway. Mr. Bridge was home early.
She held the kitchen door open for him, but he stopped before entering the house. He stared at the hose hooked across the clothesline with water pouring from the nozzle. He looked at the dripping trees, at the flooded basement steps, the sparkling flowers, the wet garage, the pools of water on the driveway, and at Goethe who had returned and now sat observing the scene from the shade of the hollyhocks like a saturated coyote. He looked at the glass in her hand, and he said:
“What is going on here?”
Harriet said, “Well, I have been watering.”
“Indeed?” he asked.
“Yes,” Harriet said. “Things seemed to require it.”
He remained standing on the back step. Once more he looked around. The Edisons’ dog regarded him with deep attention, obviously waiting to learn what would happen next.
He said, “Harriet, I think everything has been watered sufficiently.”
“Well,” Harriet said, “it does appear that way.”
Then he said, indicating the daiquiri, “If by any chance you are not planning to drink that, I believe I might. This has been a rather difficult day.”
89 Mrs. Paul A. Cornish
Turning through the evening Star he noticed on the society page a photograph of Mrs. Paul A. Cornish, whom he had never met, although he was acquainted with her husband. Frequently she appeared on the society page for one reason or another—at a benefit for crippled or retarded children or at the opening of a flower show or having luncheon with friends or attending a reception for somebody. She did not look as young as she used to. She had gotten stout and she wore her hair differently now, in a chignon which emphasized her classical features but at the same time pointed out the damage of the years. He noticed that she had begun