Gerald's Game(49)

She went down to the puppet show in Bethel with you and Will lastweek. In fact, didn't you tell me that she stayed with Will-even boughthim an ice cream out of her own allowance-while you went into thatauction barn?

That was no sacrifice for our Jessie, Sally replied. She sounded almost grim.

What do you mean?

I mean she went to the puppet show because she wanted to, and she tookcare of Will because she wanted to. Grimness had given way to a more familiar tone: exasperation. How can you understand what I mean? that tone asked. How can you possibly, when you're a man?

This was a tone Jessie had heard more and more frequently in her mother's voice these last few years. She knew that was partly because she herself heard more and saw more as she grew up, but she was pretty sure it was also because her mother used that tone more frequently than she once had. Jessie couldn't understand why her father's brand of logic always made her mother so crazy.

All of a sudden the fact that she did something because she wanted tois a cause for concern? Tom was now asking. Maybe even a markagainst her? What do we do if she develops a social conscience as well asa family one, Sal? Put her in a home for wayward girls?

Don't patronize me, Tom. You know perfectly well what I mean.

Nope,-this time you've lost me in the dust, sweet one. This is supposedto he our summer vacation, remember? And I've always sort of had theidea that when people are on vacation, they're supposed to do what theywant to do, and he with who they want to be with. In fact, I thoughtthat was the whole idea.

Jessie smiled, knowing it was all over but the "shouting. When the eclipse started tomorrow afternoon, she was going to be here with her Daddy instead of on top of Mount Washington with Pooh-Pooh Breath and the rest of The Dark Score Sun Worshippers. Her father was like some world-class chessmaster who had given a talented amateur a run for her money and was now polishing her off.

You could come, too, Tom-Jessie would come if you did.

That was a tricky one. Jessie held her breath.

Can't, my love-I'm expecting a call from David Adams on theBrookings Pharmaceuticals portfolio. Very important stuff...also veryrisky stuff, At this stage, handling Brookings is like handling blastingcaps. But let me be honest with you: even if I could, I'm not really sureI would. I'm not nuts about the Gilette woman, hut I can get along withher. That ass**le Sleefort, on the other hand-

Hush, Tom!

Don't worry-Maddy and Will are downstairs andiessie's way outon the front deck...see her?

At that moment, Jessie suddenly became sure that her father knew exactly what the acoustics of the living room/dining room were like; he knew that his daughter was hearing every word of this discussion. Wanted her to hear every word. A warm little shiver traced its way up her back and down her legs.

I should have known it came down to Dick Sleefort! Her mother sounded angrily amused, a combination that made Jessie's head spin. It seemed to her that only adults could combine emotions in so many daffy ways-if feelings were food, adult feelings would be things like chocolate-covered steak, mashed potatoes with pineapple bits, Special K with chili powder sprinkled on it instead of sugar. Jessie thought that being an adult seemed more like a punishment than a reward.

This is really exasperating, Tom-the man made a pass at me sixyears ago. He was drunk. Back in those days he was always drunk, huthe's cleaned up his act. Polly Bergeron told me be goes to AA, and-

Bully for him, her father said dryly. Do we send him a get-wellcard or a merit-badge, Sally?

Don't be flip. You almost broke the man's nose-

Yes, indeed. When a fellow comes into the kitchen to freshen his drinkand finds the rumdum from up the road with one hand on his wife'sbehind and the other down the front of her-

Never mind, she said primly, but Jessie thought that for some reason her mother sounded almost pleased. Curiouser and curiouser. The point is, it's time you discovered that Dick Sleefort isn't a demonfrom the deeps and it's time Jessie discovered Adrienne Gilette is just alonely old woman who once slapped her hand at a lawn-party as a littlejoke. Now please don't get all crazy on me, Tom; I'm not claiming it wasa good joke; it wasn't. I'm just saying that Adrienne didn't know that.There was no had intent.

Jessie looked down and saw her paperback novel was bent almost double in her right hand. How could her mother, a woman who'd graduated cum laude (whatever that meant) from Vassar, possibly be so stupid? The answer seemed clear enough to Jessie: she couldn't be. Either she knew better or she refused to see the truth, and you arrived at the same conclusion no matter which answer you decided was the right one: when forced to choose between believing the ugly old woman who lived up the road from them in the summertime and her own daughter, Sally Mahout had chosen Pooh-Pooh Breath. Good deal, huh?

If I'm a Daddy's girl, that's why. That and all the other stuff shesays that's like that. That's why, but I could never tell her and she'llnever see it on her own, Never in a billion years.

Jessie forced herself to relax her grip on the paperback. Mrs Gilette had meant it, there had been bad intent, but her father's suspicion that she had ceased being afraid of the old crow had probably been more right than wrong, just the same. Also, she was going to get her way about staying with her father, so none of her mother's ess-aitch-eye-tee really mattered, did it? She was going to be here with her Daddy, she wouldn't have to deal with old Pooh-Pooh Breath, and these good things were going to happen because...