શુક્રવાર, 25 ફેબ્રુઆરી, 2011

Modern Powers

Everyone pauses. This cat talk makes them uncomfortable, can’t she see it?
“Anyways, I’ve been thinking about quitting,” Ashleigh says. “Mitch makes enough. I think I could do the stay-at-home thing.”
“Not all it’s cracked up to be, believe me!” Mary says.
Amy agrees, “When I was out of work and had to stay at home all day—”
But Donna is talking over her. “—It’s impossible to know until you’ve tried it, but you don’t want to spend that much time with your kids. Really, you don’t. You love them less, I think.”
Amy makes a few more comments but no one responds. It’s not that they can’t hear her, she can tell, they just aren’t listening. “Out of sight, out of mind, is that it?” Amy says, but no one responds.
“To tell the truth,” someone says later in the brunch, “Scoundrel wasn’t even a nice cat.”
“And Amy—remember her?—what did she ever do but mope around.”
“Took everything very seriously. Never knew how to let go and have a drink.”
“She was a sweet girl,” Ashleigh says, “but too quiet. Hanging around, keeping her thoughts locked away in her own head. It was creepy, you know?”
Amy sits at the table and considers protesting. They say all the things she knows about herself. They’ve seen her insides all along. She is surprised how long they talk about her, and how much it hurts to hear it all. She even thinks about getting up and leaving, but she decides to stay. She even comes back the week after, and the week after that, though no one knows but her.

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