[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
squired two such lovely young ladies at the same time?"
Mrs. Horowitz had mastered the whiskey laugh by this
time, and she loosed it on an undeserving world. "Mr. Keller,
if there were more gentlemen like you, we wouldn't need an
Equal Rights Amendment."
"There aren't many like him," Sandy mumbled. "You
can bet on that."
"Don't swallow your words, Sandra," Mrs. Horowitz
rapped out briskly. "If you have something worth saying, say
it so that we can all hear." To Kelerison she added, "You try
and try with your children, but it never ends, does it?"
Sandy privately agreed that it went on forever. She trailed
into the dining room in the frothy wake of her mother and the
King of Elfhame Ultramar.
An iron-grip rapport was welded into place between Mrs.
Horowitz and Kelerison before the second round of G&Ts had
been cleared away. Sandy poked at a rose-colored abomination
of shaved ice, tequila, and smooshed strawberries while her
luncheon companions discussed children: King Lear Didn't
Know the Half of It.
"At least your daughter can be said to be settled in life.
Somewhat," Kelerison said. "Correct me if I am wrong. She
has a nice house right here in Godwin's Comers "
"It would be nicer if she kept it clean, but you know
these young women today. Dusting isn't relevant, and waxing
the kitchen floor isn't fulfilling. If the board of health ever
checked up on them, then you'd see fulfillment."
"And she has a husband who's doing well "
Mrs. Horowitz sniffed. "A teacher. He could do better.
But I never say a word. It's not my business what he does with
his life. Not one word. Such a sweet boy Lionel is, too. The
things he puts up with ..."
Sandy stabbed her swizzle stick into the pink slush in her
glass and told herself it was Kelerison's heart.
"Then there's her child "
92 Esther M. Priesner
"An angel. And I'm not just saying that because I'm
Ellie's grandma."
Kelerison raised his glass. "I believe that, Mrs. Horo-
witz; though anything's easier to believe than the fact that a
woman who looks like you is a grandmother already."
"Sandy was in a hurry," Mrs. Horowitz said, after the
correct amount of oh-get-along-with-you-now tittering.
Sandy's chair scraped backward from the table. "I really
have to be going. ..."
"Sandra, sit. " Sandy sat. "Isn't that just like a child?
Hasn't touched her drink, and completely forgot she ordered
lunch, and yet whoops, tally-ho, off she goes. Where on earth
do you have to be this very minute? Not that I'd be surprised
to hear you'd scheduled something right on top of your own
mother. God knows, Mr. Keller, I try not to intrude young
couples today love impromptu entertaining so long as it's not
a blood relative; then it's intruding but you'd think I was
coming all the way up here from New York, through all that
terribly exhausting traffic, every other day and twice on Sun-
days from the way my own daughter can't seem to wait to get
our visits over with."
Sandy sank lower in her chair and took a long pull on
her Montezuma's Lady. "I don't have any appointments,
Mother. My mistake."
"Sandra, darling, didn't I give you a nice Gucci appoint-
ment book for your birthday? If you'd look at it, you wouldn't
be flying off in all directions at once. Don't you have it with
you?" Sandy's negative reply was met by a heave of the ma-
ternal bosom. "I'm not surprised. Not in the least. It was only
bought at Bloomingdale's. Not on sale, either; full price. And
what I would've heard if I'd have given you a nice blouse or
some perfume instead. 'Mom, I'm a career woman! Mom,
why don't you ever give me something I can use in my pro-
fession?' My Sandra's a lawyer, you know," she confided in
Kelerison.
"Really." He sipped his drink, rainbow eyes fixed on
Sandy over the glass's rim.
"Where are you keeping that appointment book, Sandra?
No, never mind, don't tell me. You've either lost it in the
hodgepodge you call a desk or it's still in its box on the hall
table. The day you use it will probably be the day you write
me a thank-you note for it."
Sandy stopped playing with her drink and disposed of it
in one desperate gulp, then flagged the waitress for a refill.
ELF DEFENSE 93
Mrs. Horowitz made an offhand comment about too many
drinks before five being bad for girls whose complexions are
sallow to start with, then leaned across the table to implore,
"Do your children give you any pleasure at all, Mr. Keller?"
"Not recently."
Sandy's lunch passed in a pink tequila fog while her
mother and Kelerison commiserated on the shortcomings of
their respective offspring. Through the pleasant buzzing in her
ears, Sandy became marginally aware of the fact that Kelerison
was speaking of having two sons; not just Cass, but Jeffy too
was mentioned.
Mrs. Horowitz brought out the swatches at the same time
that the mobcapped waitress wheeled around the dessert trol-
ley. The King of Elfhame Ultramar ordered strawberries and
schlag for the table while Mrs. Horowitz segued into her Bright
Choice spiel. Sandy goggled at the plate of strawberries in
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]