Burning House

Burning House Read Free

Book: Burning House Read Free
Author: Ann Beattie
Ads: Link
someone is going to see that something beyond tiredness is wrong with Andrew, and we are going to be offered a seat, and he is going to know why. He suspects already, the way children of a certain age look a little guilty when Santa Claus is mentioned, but I hope I am not there when some person’s eye meets Andrew’s and instead of looking away he looks back, knowing.
    “We’re going to have to wait for the next train,” I tell him.
    “How come?”
    “Because we missed our train.”
    “Didn’t you know it when you looked at your watch at Bonnie’s?”
    He is getting tired, and cranky. Next he’ll ask how old I am. And why his mother prefers to stay with Brandon instead of coming to New York with us.
    “It would have been rude to leave earlier. We were only there a little while.”
    I look at him to see what he thinks. Sometimes his thinking is a little slow, but he is also very smart about what he senses. He thinks what I think—that if I had meant to, we could have caught the train. He stares at me with the same dead-on stare Ray gives me when he thinks I am being childish. And, of course, it is because of Ray that I lingered. I always mean not to call him, but I almost always do. We cross the terminal and I go to a phone and drop in a dime. Andrew backs up and spins on his heel. His parka slips off his shoulder again. And his glove—where is his glove? One glove is on the right hand, but there’s no glove in either pocket. I sound disappointed, far away when Ray says hello.
    “It’s just—he lost his glove,” I say.
    “Where are you?” he says.
    “Grand Central.”
    “Are you coming in or going out?”
    “Going home.”
    His soft voice: “I was afraid of that.”
    Silence.
    “Ray?”
    “What? Don’t tell me you’re going to concoct some reason to see me—ask me to take him off, man to man, and buy him new gloves?”
    It makes me laugh.
    “You know what, lady?” Ray says. “I do better amusing you over the phone than in person.”
    A woman walks by, carrying two black poodles. She has on a long gray fur coat and carries the little dogs, who look as if they’re peeking out of a cave of fur, nestled in the crook ofeach arm. Everything is a Stan Mack cartoon. Another woman walks across the terminal. She has forgotten something, or changed her mind—she shakes her head suddenly and begins to walk the other way. Far away from us, she starts to run. Andrew turns and turns. I reach down to make him be still, but he jerks away, spins again, loses interest and just stands there, staring across the station.
    “Fuck it,” Ray says. “Can I come down and buy you a drink?”
    More coffee. Andrew has a milkshake. Ray sits across from us, stirring his coffee as if he’s mixing something. Last year when I decided that loving Ray made me as confused as disliking Arthur, and that he had too much power over me and that I could not be his lover anymore, I started taking Andrew to the city with me. It hasn’t worked out well; it exasperates Ray, and I feel guilty for using Andrew.
    “New shoes,” Ray says, pushing his leg out from under the table.
    He has on black boots, and he is as happy with them as Andrew was with the pennies I gave him this morning. I smile at him. He smiles back.
    “What did you do today?” Ray says.
    “Went on an errand for Ruth. Went to the Guggenheim.”
    He nods. I used to sleep with him and then hold his head as if I believed in phrenology. He used to hold my hands as I held his head. Ray has the most beautiful hands I have ever seen.
    “Want to stay in town?” he says. “I was going to the ballet. I can probably get two more tickets.”
    Andrew looks at me, suddenly interested in staying.
    “I’ve got to go home and make dinner for Arthur.”
    “Milk the cows,” Ray says. “Knead the bread. Stoke the stove. Go to bed.”
    Andrew looks up at him and smiles broadly before he gets self-conscious and puts his hand to the corner of his mouth and looks away.
    “You never

Similar Books

A Bad Night's Sleep

Michael Wiley

The Detachment

Barry Eisler

At Fear's Altar

Richard Gavin

Dangerous Games

Victor Milan, Clayton Emery

Four Dukes and a Devil

Jeaniene Frost, Cathy Maxwell, Tracy Anne Warren, Sophia Nash, Elaine Fox

Fenzy

Robert Liparulo