The Marriage Plot - Jeffrey Eugenides [206]
The neighbors’ old Great Dane, hearing activity, barked dutifully three times, then commenced nosing along the bottom of the fence. The air was heavy with garden smells, floral and herbal.
“The subject I’d like to bring before the board is the situation with Leonard. In light of Phyl’s conversation with Mrs. Bankhead—”
“The kook,” Phyllida said.
“—I think it’s time to reassess where we go from here.”
“You mean where I go,” Madeleine said.
At the end of the yard the swimming pool hiccuped. A bird swooped from a branch, just a little blacker than the sky.
“Your mother and I are wondering what you’re planning to do.”
Madeleine took a sip of wine. “I don’t know,” she said.
“Fine. Good. That’s why I’ve called this meeting. Now, first, I propose that we define the alternatives. Secondly, I propose that we try to determine the possible outcomes of each alternative. After we’ve done that, we can compare these outcomes and make a judgment as to the best course of action. Agreed?”
When Madeleine didn’t reply, Phyllida said, “Agreed.”
“As I see it, Maddy, there are two alternatives,” Alton said. “One: you and Leonard reconcile. Two: you don’t.”
“I don’t really feel like talking about this now,” Madeleine said.
“Just—Maddy—just bear with me. Let’s take reconciliation. Do you think that’s a possibility?”
“I guess so,” Madeleine said.
“How is that possible?”
“I don’t know. Anything’s possible.”
“Do you think Leonard will come back on his own?”
“I said I don’t know.”
“Are you willing to go out to Portland and find him? Because, if you don’t know if Leonard’s coming back, and you’re not willing to go look for him, I’d say the chances of a reconciliation are pretty slim.”
“Maybe I will go out there!” Madeleine said, raising her voice.
“O.K. All right,” Alton said. “Let’s propose that you do. We send you out to Portland tomorrow morning. What then? How do you intend to find Leonard? We don’t even know where Leonard is. And suppose you do find him. What will you do if he doesn’t want to come back?”
“Maddy shouldn’t be the one to do anything,” Phyllida said, grim-faced. “Leonard should be coming here begging on his hands and knees to have her back.”
“I don’t want to talk about this,” Madeleine repeated.
“Sweetheart, we have to,” Phyllida said.
“No, we don’t.”
“I’m sorry, but we do!” Phyllida insisted.
All this time, Mitchell had sat quietly in his Adirondack chair, drinking wine. The Hannas seemed to have forgotten that he was there, or else they now considered him part of the family and didn’t care if he saw them at their most fractious.
But Alton tried to ease the tension. “Let’s put reconciliation aside for the moment,” he said in a milder tone. “Let’s agree to disagree about that. There’s another alternative that’s a little more clear-cut. Now, suppose you and Leonard don’t reconcile. Just suppose. I took the liberty of talking to Roger Pyle—”
“You told him?” Madeleine cried.
“In confidence,” Alton said. “And Roger’s professional opinion is that, in a situation like this, where one party is refusing contact, the best course of action is to get an annulment.”
He paused. He settled back. The word had been said. It seemed that voicing it had been Alton’s main objective all along, and now that he’d said it he was momentarily at a loss. Madeleine was scowling.
“An annulment is a lot simpler than a divorce,” Alton continued. “For a lot of reasons. It represents a voiding of the marriage. It’s as though the marriage never was. With an annulment, you’re not a divorcée. It’s as though you never were married. And the best thing is, you don’t need both parties to get an annulment. Roger also looked into the statutes in Massachusetts, and it turns out that annulments are granted