Stone Diaries, The - Carol Shields [135]
"This is beautiful."
"Are you sure she did it?"
"There’s this tiny little daisy in the right-hand corner."
"You’re right, there is."
"A signature, sort of like."
"Hey!"
"The nurses were always saying how good-natured she was, a smile for everyone."
"Except that time she broke her radio. Threw it on the floor."
"It could have been an accident."
"True."
"What I can’t figure out is why she never told us about this first marriage of hers."
"She must have known we’d find out after she was gone. I mean, the papers are all there. The marriage license and the report and everything."
"Hoad! His name was Hoad."
"Harold Hoad."
"Rhymes with toad. Give me strength."
"But look at that picture, will you. He was—he looks like a movie star, silent movies I’m talking about. Gorgeous."
"But why weren’t we told?"
"Think about it. How could she talk about anything so—so perfectly awful."
"I don’t get it. Was she embarrassed about it or what?"
"This beautiful man fell out of a window. Her lover. Her brand new husband. Think if that happened to you. Would you want to talk about it?"
"Probably she was just so, you know, broken up by it, she couldn’t bear to think about it, never mind talk about it. Imagine being on your honeymoon and—"
"And at her age."
"Repression. Sometimes repression’s a good thing. How else was she going to continue with her—?"
"He looks handsomer than Dad."
"And younger."
"By a long shot."
"Surely Dad must have known about—about him."
"He must have. I mean, she may have been secretive, but—"
"It gives me—"
"What?"
"Goose bumps."
"What does? Thinking of Mr. Hoad falling on his head?"
"No. Thinking of her. Her. All those years."
"All those years—saying nothing."
"She must have been reminded every year, on the anniversary of his—"
"Remember how sometimes she’d just want to lie down on her bed in the middle of the day. Not sleeping, she’d just lie there looking at the ceiling."
"Keeping it all in her head. Remembering."
"I know."
"Oh, God."
Garden Club Luncheon, 1951
Ham Rolls / Cheese Pinwheels Mixed Pickles Melon Balls and Seedless Grape Salad Jelly Tarts Assorted Cookies Coffee Tea
I’m still here, inside the (powdery, splintery) bones, ankles, the sockets of my eyes, shoulder, hip, teeth, I’m still here, oh, oh.
"If she’d lived in another age she might have been Ms. Green Thumb with her own TV show."
"Prime time."
"Somehow I can’t imagine it."
"This mean old sentimental century. It smothered her. Like a curtain. The kind you can’t see through."
"She could have divorced Dad."
"For starters."
"What? What are you talking about?"
"Why would you think that? I mean, the two of them were reasonably happy together, all things considered."
"You honestly think so?"
"Well, as happy as most."
"Whatever happy means."
"Tell me about it."
"All I know is, the past is never past."
"Is that supposed to be profound?"
"Hmmmmm."
Aunt Daisy’s Lemon Pudding 4 tbs butter 1 cup milk 1 cup white sugar 2 tbs flour 2 eggs separated juice and rind of 1 lemon Cream butter and sugar, add egg yolks beaten until thick and lemoncolored, stir in flour and milk, lemon juice and grated lemon rind. Beat egg whites until stiff but not dry. Fold egg whites into mixture. Bake twenty-five minutes in buttered baking dish set in pan of hot water.
Moderate oven, 350 degrees.
"Do you think her life would have been different if she’d been a man?"
"Are you kidding!"
"Just look at this bedjacket."
"Looks brand new. Never worn, I’d guess."
For Tuesday—1 can condensed milk 1 bunch celery carrots onions 1 pound butter 1 pound lard matches soap flakes 2 cans corned beef pork chops Phone Mr. M.
new beater for Mixmaster Warren’s teeth post office drugstore, cough syrup, Box K juniper Now there’s a woman who made a terrific meatloaf, who knew how to repot a