The Interruption of Everything

The Interruption of Everything Read Free Page B

Book: The Interruption of Everything Read Free
Author: Terry McMillan
Tags: Fiction
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the door like I’m stepping into the light.
    “Marilyn, what in Sam hell are you doing in the handicapped stall? I should give you a ticket! Are those tears in your eyes? What is this, the Tear Factory? I suppose you heard Miss Maureen’s good news so we can pretty much label her tears, but what are yours for?”
    “I honestly don’t know. I think maybe it was hearing about your situation, Maureen. I suppose.”
    “It’s a situation all right,” she says, as if a thickness is coating her tongue.
    “How many years have you been married now, Marilyn?” Trudy asks out of what seems like the blue.
    “Twenty-three. Why?”
    “That’s entirely too long,” Trudy says. “What I mean is, it’s too long for you not to be just as miserable as the rest of us. So come on Miss Pillow Perfect, tell us you’re on the one-Zoloft-a-day diet like the rest of us and we’ve got ourselves a club.”
    “Sorry, Trudy, but I don’t think I qualify. I’m not exactly bursting with joy but I’m not miserable. You could say I’ve been living somewhere in the neighborhood of Mediocrity but have been waiting for a reserved parking space to open up in Happy Hills.”
    “Where? What are you talking about?” Trudy asks.
    “It’s not important. Anyway, I’m really sorry to hear about Roger, Maureen.”
    “It’s fine. I’m fine. We’ll all be fine. If he thinks he’s going to just walk out of my and the kids’ lives because he wants to live on Fantasy Island, I mean, hello? I didn’t hear you flush, Marilyn. What were you doing in there?”
    “I’d already flushed. But once Maureen got going, I didn’t feel right opening the door.”
    “No worries!” Maureen says. “Look, we were here for the bread-making class, but I just can’t handle it today.”
    To show that I understand, I nod. “Wait a minute! You did just say ‘bread making,’ correct?”
    “Yes. We’re evolving. Out of the fire and into the pan or something like that,” Trudy says. “Come on, Mo, let me treat you to a mocha nonfat latte with no foam and one Equal?” She winks at me. “See ya next weekend for a little trim, Marilyn.”
    After they leave, I drop the book and magazine on the dry part of the sink and put my hands under the faucet. I look down at the silver stream that gushes out, but can still see a shadow of myself in the mirror above. If I look up, I’ll see the truth in my eyes. What the hell am I doing? Here. Not in this store. But here: in this world, in northern California, in February 2004. Worrying about my hormone levels? Not only. I need to breathe. To stop pretending.
    What I do know is that I’m forty-four years old. That I have been attached to my husband and kids for so long I need to find out what kind of person I’m capable of being as Marilyn Dupree and not just as Marilyn Grimes: mother and wife. But how do you make changes in your life without upsetting everything and everybody around you?
    I’m scared. But I have to do something or the spirit I still have left is going to petrify. I just can’t believe that I grew up and became one of those women who got married and had kids and forgot all about my personal dreams. At first I just tucked them away and then as the years passed, they got buried and I felt embarrassed or ashamed to have had them in the first place. I figured after I finished raising my children I’d at least get the interesting man I married back (didn’t happen) and reacquainted with my other self and pick up where I left off.
    They call us housewives. But contrary to popular belief, we’re not all trophies like Maureen or as uneducated as Trudy, no malice intended. In fact, I did more than go to college. I got a degree, although I’ve almost forgotten what I majored in. Might as well have been Intro to First Husbands 101 (Gordon) the soul mate I let get away, and after two summer sessions of nothing close to intimacy, was coerced into repeating the class and enrolled in Second Husbands 101A

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