Standing in the Rainbow - Fannie Flagg [199]
“O.K., Norma,” he said from the den.
“And then to glare at the groom like that . . . no wonder they’re having trouble. I could hardly face his parents. They thought you were a drunk, or at least I hoped that’s what they thought. I didn’t want them to think you would do something like that sober. And then to have Aunt Elner laugh out loud like that, it’s a wonder that our daughter even speaks to us.”
Macky came back in. “Linda knows what I meant. I was not going to stand up anyplace, church or not, and say I’m giving my daughter away . . . like she was something that we had sitting around the house. And no matter what you and Linda think, I still say it was a rash decision.”
“Macky, she had dated him on and off for six years, how rash can that be? You knew she was going to get married sometime, and then to sit there and carry on like that, everybody heard you. I was the mother of the bride, I was the one who was supposed to cry, not you.”
“Norma, why are you dredging up all this old stuff?”
“Oh, I don’t know, just nervous I guess. Do you want some crackers or something? I have some pimento cheese.”
“No, I’ll just wait until after she calls.”
“But now, Macky, don’t get your hopes up, we’ve had false alarms before.”
“I’m not. I just hope it’s good news, that’s all.”
They sat across from each other, waiting, and said nothing until the phone rang and then he got on the extension in the den and she picked up in the kitchen. After they hung up Macky came strolling into the kitchen all smiles but Norma was not smiling. “Well, I hope you’re satisfied now.”
“I am,” he said, looking in the refrigerator for the pimento cheese.
Norma opened the cabinet where she kept the crackers. “Honestly, I never saw a man so happy his daughter was getting a divorce in all my life.”
Dr. Robert Smith Tours
AFTER MONROE’S FUNERAL something happened to Bobby. Going back home again had stirred up so many old memories. Being there had made him remember not so much who he was but all the things he had wanted to be. Yes, he had made good money, had enough in the bank, held good stocks, no complaints there. They had two homes, one in Cleveland and one in Florida. His children had gone to the best schools, he had worked hard, been a good provider, but now those old secret longings came creeping back. That boy who had watched the shadows of a fire dancing on the ceiling of the old bunkhouse and dreamed himself to sleep seemed to be waking up inside him again. He found he hated to put on a tie and sit in stuffy corporate offices in every stuffy corporate town. He found himself staring out windows more and more.
After three months of thinking about it, Bobby walked in the door one night and said, “Lois, what would you say if I told you I wanted to go back to school?” Lois said, without a moment’s hesitation, “I would say do it!”
And so Mr. Robert Smith took an early retirement and went back to college and got his doctorate in history and his dissertation, The American West: Dream and Reality, was published and Dr. Robert Smith and his wife went on a lecture tour, and as Lois told their children, “Your father is having the time of his life.”
Darling, We Are Growing Older
MACKY WAS RESTLESS. He walked into the kitchen and sat down at the table across from Norma. “Norma, what do I look like?”
Norma glanced up from her Things to Do Today pad. “What do you mean, what do you look like? You look like yourself.”
“No, I’m serious . . . what do I look like?”
“Macky, I don’t have time to play some silly game. I’m trying to figure out how many sandwiches I need to order.”
“It will only take a second. . . . Look at me . . . and tell me what you see.”
Norma put her pencil down and studied him. “You look just like you always did, Macky, only older.”
“How much older?”
“You look . . . oh, I don’t know, Macky, you look the same to me as you always did. I don’t know what you look like. Go look for yourself in the mirror.”
“I want an objective view. I see myself every day.”
“Well, I see