40
Berkeley Fiction Review
"Listen, the point I'm trying to make relates only to the way you and I interact. Other people are beside the point." "I don't believe you." Arnold's flood of words was momentarily halted. "Why not?" he asked. "None of this bothered you before. It's always been true." "I find it more distressing as I age and it becomes more clear how big a part of my life my work is.** "You have only aged a year since we've met. If you find it more distressing it's because you're becoming more uptight. Or because you met someone else better suited to be the girlfriend of a funeral director. Or should I say wife?" "Don't bug me about marriage. You disdain marriage." "I do indeed. Let's drop it, can't we?" Arnold quit talking, happy to drop the subject of another woman, but perplexed by her placidity, angry at her smugness, and frightened by her nearness to guessing the truth. He climbed off the couch clutching an empty glass, walked into the kitchen and got some ice. Returning to the coffee table he poured more Scotch, avoiding Evelyn's eyes, allowing the freeze to deepen. Walking into his bedroom, small and overfull of heavy, ornate furniture he ha^ alwaysknown, he undressed, put on his bathrobe and^sat on the bed, Evelyn moved around in the kitchen getting something to eat before bed. He was through with oblique approaches. Eyelyn might not agree that theynad enough problems to prompt split, Lucy or no Lucy, but he believed it. He continued drinking in silence when Evelyn entered the room and got undressed for bed. She glanced at him inquiringly a couple times, but he avoided both the eye and touch of the nude lover., "Must it be like, this?" she as^ed. ^ "It's always like this." v^ ^ Drainingyhis glass, he turned out the light and slipped under the covers. She climbed in beside him and lay down as far away as space would permit.. Though they fell asleep that way, when Arnold awoke the next morning he felt her curled against his back as always. Rising first, as was his habit, he showered and dressed while she still slept, and left for work downstairs. He was in his office when she came downstairs on the way to work an hour later. She did not stick her head in; he.did not step out^ When the front door of the funeral home closed behind her for the last time he was writing on a yellow legal pad.