‘I’ll be honest,’ Muriel said, ‘my baby was not exactly planted for. If you want to know the truth, the baby was the reason I married Norman in the first place. But I didn't push him into it.’
She looked past Macon at Edward, who lay on the hall rug. He’d had to be pushed down, but at least he was staying there.
‘Now I’m going to turn my back. You watch how he does.’
She walked into the living room. Macon anxiously watched Edward, and Muriel went on talking. ‘My folks didn't want me to get married. Norman and I were just kids, playing at marriage. It was pretend! And then it turned real, and now I've got this great big seven-year-old boy. What’s Edward doing now?
‘he’s still lying down,’ Macon said.
‘Maybe tomorrow he’ll lie down on his own,’ Muriel said.
‘You think so?’
‘If you practice. If you don’t give in. if you don’t go all soft-hearten.’ She told him. ‘I think softhearted men are sweet.’
Macon backed away. He just missed stepping on Edward.
The lessons continued, as did the history of Muriel’s marriage.
She talked all the time, and sometimes Macon got the feeling that she used words as a sort of background music. But he couldn't help listening, and was quite shocked when he heard some of the unkind things that Norman’s mother had said to Muriel.
‘It was the baby that broke our marriage up,’ Muriel said. ’Alexander was born early and spent months in the hospital, he was such a sick little baby. Norman wouldn't go near him and he didn't like me spending all my time at the hospital. In the end I took a cleaning job there, to help pay the medical bills, you should have seen them, thousands of dollars’
She and Macon were walking along the road with Edward, hoping to meet a biker. Edward was getting quite good at lying down and staying, but he still had to learn that he was not allowed to attack bikers.