Love, Dad
- Автор: Хантер Эван
- Год: 1981
- Язык: английский
- Год: Crown
- ISBN: 978-0-517-54411-2
- Жанр: Роман, новелла
Электронная книга - «Love, Dad». Краткое содержание книги:
“What’s the modern?” Sparky asked.
“The museum,” Lissie said.
“Oh, terrif,” Sparky said, and rolled his eyes.
“Spend a little time together walking, whatever,” Jamie said. “It’s like a spring day outside, you won’t even need your jacket.”
“Wisht it was springtime in Boston,” Sparky said, and rolled his eyes again.
“Get off the nigger act, will you, please?” Lissie said.
“The thing is,” Jamie said, glancing at Joanna, “we’ll have to cut our visit a little short. I don’t know whether you planned to spend the night here or not, but we’ve made other plans, you see.”
“Oh? What other plans?” Lissie asked.
“We’re going out to Great Neck. To spend Yom Kippur with Joanna’s folks.”
“That’s when they blow the chauffeur, ain’t it?” Sparky said, and grinned.
“We’ll be leaving here about four,” Jamie said, and hesitated. “So... I... I guess you and Sparky’ll have to make other arrangements for tonight.”
“What do you mean, other arrangements?” Lissie said.
“Some place else to stay.”
“Great,” Sparky said. “We come all the way down from Boston...”
“Well, we can still spend the entire afternoon together...”
“Sure, till four o’clock, when you’ll be splitting.”
“We were hoping we’d, you know, see a lot of you over the next few days,” Lissie said. “We hitched all the way down...”
“I’m sorry about that, Liss.”
“Hey, don’t sweat it, really,” she said. “We’ll just have to make the best of it. I’m sorry we got here so late last night, but we had a tough time catching rides. Anyway,” she said, and shrugged and went back to the stove. She came back with the coffeepot, poured some into the cups on the table, returned the pot to the stove, and then sat down beside Sparky again.
“If we’re going for an early lunch,” Joanna said, “I’d better get started. Excuse me,” she said, and went out of the kitchen.
“I’ll be skippin’ lunch, if you don’t mind,” Sparky said, and Lissie quickly looked at him. “Got some business uptown,” he explained to Jamie. “Have to take a rain check.” He looked at his watch. “Fact, I better get crackin’,” he said, and pushed back his chair.
They were alone in the kitchen.
“So,” Lissie said.
“I’m really sorry about this,” Jamie said.
“The thing of it is Mom’s not here, either, you know. I came down here just to see you. Now it’s turning into a big lunch type thing.” She shook her head. “I thought we’d have a chance to talk, you know.”
“Well, if...”
“Instead, it’ll be, you know, polite chitchat. I think we’ve got more to say to each other than just polite chitchat, Dad.”
“Would you like me to ask Joanna...?”
“No, no, I don’t want to upset Joanna.”
“I’m sure she wouldn’t mind if we had lunch alone. Just the two of us.”
“Well, that’s what I’d like, really, but if it’ll upset Joanna...”
“I’ll ask her.”
“I’d appreciate it, Dad,” she said, and suddenly hugged him.
Over tempura and sukiyaki in a Japanese restaurant on West Fifty-fifth Street, she told him how truly sorry she was not for having been in real touch with him since June, but she’d had her own life to work out, she’d been in the midst of trying to pick up the wreckage of her own life. And then, startling him because she seemed to be in the midst of an apology, she said, “But I guess you don’t much care about other people’s lives, do you, Dad?”
“Lissie,” he said, “peace,” and smiled and covered her hand with his own. “I’m sure you didn’t come all the way to New York to argue with me.”
“Well, I wasn’t aware we were arguing,” she said. “I’m trying to have a meaningful discussion here. That’s what you asked for in your letter, isn’t it? A more open communication? Okay, I’m trying to communicate.”
“Well, it’s not really communication when you accuse me of...”
“I didn’t accuse you of anything,” Lissie said. “I simply asked whether you cared much about other people’s lives.”
“I care about your life, yes, Lissie.”
“How about Sparky’s life? Do you care about his life?”
“I hardly know Sparky.”
“You could get to know him better...”
“Lissie...”
“... if you’d make any kind of effort. I mean, we’re both decent people, Dad, you don’t have to...”
“I know you are. But, Lissie, I really don’t want to talk about Sparky just now.”
“What do you want to talk about, Dad?”
“I want to know what’s happening to us. I want to mend whatever...”
“It’s a little late to be asking that, isn’t it?”
“No, I don’t think so. If I thought it was too late, I wouldn’t have written that letter to you.”
“Okay, then,” she said. “Let’s start all over again.”
“Please,” he said, and squeezed her hand.
“Let’s get it all out of our systems, let’s clear the air.”
“That’s just what I want to do.”
“So,” she said.
“So,” he said, and paused. “I’ve always leveled with you, Liss...”
“I know you have.”
“Not because you’re a decent person, which I’ve never doubted, by the way, but also because you’re my daughter. And I love you.”
“I love you, too, Dad.”
“It’s just that each and every time we’ve tried to communicate recently...”
“I know.”
“You’ve misunderstood my concern and interpreted it instead as anger or...”
“No, I...”
“... or reprimand, or scorn...”
“Well, guilt-ridden was what I thought.”
“Whatever.”
“Yes,” she said, and nodded.
“When all I was trying to do was understand what was happening to us.”
“Yes.”
“I’d like to correct that situation, Liss. I really would.”
“So would I.”
“If you love me as much as you love your... as much as you love Mom... then my happiness and welfare should at least be of some concern to you.”
“It is, Dad.”
“I’m very happy with Joanna, Liss.”
“I’m glad about that. Really I am.”
“And I hope to stay married to her for the rest of my life.”
“Good, I hope so, too, Dad.”
“I’ve been trying to keep a dialogue open between us, Liss, you know I have. I’ve invited you here repeatedly without response, I’ve sent gifts without your acknowledgment...”
“Well, I’ve been going through a lot, you know. Sparky...”
“Yes, I know that. But still...”
“Anyway, that’s what we’re trying to put behind us, isn’t it? I mean, I’m here, we’re together again...”
“But shouldn’t we discuss this, Liss? I mean...”
“Sure, let’s get it all out in the open.”
“I really do want you to be a part of this family.”
“That’s what I want, too.”
“But it won’t work if you continue to believe your mother... Mom... was unfairly treated. Isn’t that what you really believe, Liss?”
“Well, yes, Dad. Sort of. But I’ll get over it.”
“But why do you feel that way, Lissie? It wasn’t your mother who rushed up to the Henderson School every weekend when you were confined to campus, it was me. It wasn’t your mother... Mom... who nursed you through that drug episode in June. When you tell me...”