Keeping Time: A Novel

Keeping Time: A Novel Read Free Page B

Book: Keeping Time: A Novel Read Free
Author: Stacey Mcglynn
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looked perfect. And as the seconds passed, no drip!
    Then, a humbling thought. She had turned the main water shutoff valve. Of course there was no drip. Quickly returning to the cellar toturn the water back on, then hurrying back to the shower to watch for water.
    No drip! Now she could be proud.
    Standing there, letting the minutes pass, enjoying herself. She could learn to do new things on her own. Eager to tell Dennis. She would call him right away and ask him to come over tomorrow even singsong voice.
    Feeling proud and happy, running into her bedroom to change out of her overalls and into her work clothes.
    NOTHING COULD SHAKE Daisy’s good mood because nothing had felt so good in a long time. When, during Grace Parker’s retirement party, Grace appeared at Daisy’s side to whisper and point out Grace’s replacement, Daisy looked at the New Grace Parker and didn’t worry. When Daisy heard the New Grace Parker—fifty years her junior—cheerfully and enthusiastically talking about the new technologies they would now be implementing to improve and update the library, Daisy didn’t panic. And when she heard more about Grace’s illustrious retirement plans, Daisy didn’t feel a sharp pain in her side.
    Instead, Daisy wanted to talk about her plumbing repair.
    Imagining herself going back to the old hardware store man and discussing it with him. Maybe picking up some new tools or buying herself a little tool box. And asking him if he knew anyone who could cut her lawn. She was convinced now that it was true: Hardware stores really could fix life’s problems.
    But Daisy was too tired after the library to do anything but go home, and when she got there, she was too tired to do more than a simple meal, some TV, Cointreau, a little light reading, and early bed. Eyeing the jewelry box on her bedside table. Too tired to look. After all those years, it could wait another day.
    Getting into bed, under her new rel="styleshe

FIVE
    DAISY, THREE DAYS in the hospital recovering.
    Sleeping through the first two days.
    The third day, Daisy sitting up. Feeling guilty, contrite, foolish. Her visitors: Dennis, Amanda, and Gabriel, and Lenny. He showed up three hours later than everyone else, full of good cheer, scooping Daisy up in his massive arms, planting a hearty kiss on both cheeks before lowering her softly back down on the stiff hospital pillow. And with him, someone new. A new girlfriend, Sarah. All eyes on Sarah during introductions; everyone silently wondering if Lenny realized he had broken the mold with this one—starting with her age, which was apparently in striking distance of his. And her hair color—a natural brown. And her clothes fitting as if they were picked for her current self, not her younger self. And her overall look—a smarter, warmer, more plainly attractive one than all his many previous girlfriends.
    All of them kicking around in Daisy’s private room, politely sharing the shortage of chairs, shuffling around one another, altering positions. Gabriel, claiming the foot of her bed.
    Daisy started several conversations that went nowhere. Instead, the talk seemed to motor around in circles on wheels of its own, spiralingaround a center that Daisy hoped would never bloom. It went like this:
    GABRIEL: I think it’s cool, Nan, that you hung in there all day on the top of that ladder.">They thanked heritDaisy Phillips
       A general nodding in agreement.
    DAISY: I feel awful about having all those people come to the house. Can you imagine? Firemen, electric workers, ambulance people, all out in that pouring rain to rescue a simpleton stranded on a ladder in her own cellar.
    LENNY: It wasn’t your fault, Mum. It could have happened to anybody.
    DENNIS: Except that the bubble in the washing machine hose probably burst when she turned the main water valve back on. The renewed pressure probably did it.
    LENNY: So? All she did was turn the main water on and off like anybody else would have done. I’m proud

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