ashamed to be seen with me and the next you think I’m the best thing that ever happened to you.”
He stared at her. He had never guessed that she read him so clearly.
‘Maybe tomorrow you’ll be here , maybe you won’t. Maybe you’ll just go on back to Sarah. Oh yes! Don’t think I didn’t see how you and Sarah looked at each other at Rose’s wedding.’
‘All I’m saying is I want Alexander to learn to add up!’
‘All I’m saying,’ Muriel said, ‘is take care what you promise my son. Don’t go making him promises you don’t intend to keep.’
At supper she was too quiet. Alexander was also quiet, and quickly disappeared when the meal was over. Muriel began to wash the dishes at the sink. Macon said, ‘Shall I dry?’ Without any warning, Muriel turned and threw a wet cloth in his face.
‘Just get out!’ she shouted, tears shining in her eyes.
Macon went away and watched TV with Alexander. Later, he cautiously returned to the kitchen, where Muriel was talking to her mother on the phone. He came up behind and put his arms around her, and she leaned back against him.
The mailman rang the doorbell and gave Macon a large stiff, brown envelope addressed to him. He took it into the living room where Muriel was sitting, reading.
‘This looks like your handwriting on the envelope,’ he said.
Muriel turned a page of her book.
He opened the envelope and found a calendar. Puzzled, he looked through the months - January, February, March, April, May. Then June. A word in red ink written across a Saturday. ‘Wedding,’ he read out. ‘Wedding? Whose wedding?.
‘Ours?’ she asked him.
‘Oh, Muriel…’
‘You’ll be separated a year then, Macon. You can get your divorce. T always did want to have a June wedding,’
‘Muriel, please, I’m not ready for this! I don’t think I ever will be. I mean, I don’t think people should get married. Well, perfect couples could marry, maybe, but who’s a perfect couple?’
‘You and Sarah, I suppose,’ Muriel said.
‘No, no…’ he said weakly.
‘You’re so selfish!’ Muriel shouted. ‘So self-centered! You’ve got all these clever reasons for never doing a single thing I want!’
Then she threw down her book her and ran upstairs.
Macon heard the cautious sounds of Alexander as he very quietly got himself a drink from the kitchen.