member. All she had to do is cry and slam a few doors, and you cave in. I want to go out West where the coyotes howl and the wind blows free." "If you had only told me... " But Larry had already started to fade into the yellow, flowered wallpaper. Sylvia put the coffee and remaining cookies on a tray. It was so hard to keep peace in the fami ly. Upstairs the banging had resumed. Powdered plaster filled the air, and Sylvia had to cover the tray with a napkin before she brought it into the dining room and set it down on the table. Bert took his coffee light and Fred black. "So have you decided, Mrs. Gold?" Fred said, his voice raised above the din. Sylvia paused, her attention perhaps caught by the sway and click of the chandelier, or the globe spontaneously revolving, or the grayish mist that swirled and swirled around the ghostly outlines ofNaomi and Hal. Naomi in her baby-blue dress, and Hal with that silly boutonniere. "Sylvia, Sylvia, why so bitter?" Hal said, extending his hand. "Come, Jet's make up. We were like fami ly once, remember?' Had they come to gloat? Sylvia crossed her arms. ''No family of mine,' she said. Naomi, shyly smiling, held something wrapped in white out to her. What was it? Another bouquet? A bouquet in white tissue? No. It was a baby. A baby in a blanket. "You brought us together." Naomi said. "We're naming her Sylvia after you." Sylvia pulled back. She was not religious, but it seemed disrespectful, if not downright insulting to name a baby after a living person. "Oh, no you don't. I'm not dead yet," Sylvia cried. "Of course not," Bert said. "You have many, many years ahead of you." Sylvia blinked. In the wedge of space formerly occupied by her ghosts, Bert and Fred now sat, calmly drinking coffee. Had she been talking aloud? She must watch herself. "Many happy years ahead, ifl may say so, "Fred added. "Why spend them rattling around in an empty apartment?" Sylvia sighed. If he only knew how crowded it actually was. II
Filii # 21