Valley of Ashes Read Free Page A

shivered. “Poor little things.”
    The doctor bustled in, clipboard in hand. “Mrs. Bauer?”
    Dare
, I thought to myself, having kept my maiden name. But it seemed needlessly strident to correct her so I just nodded.
    “We’re behind on the girls’ vaccination schedule,” she said. “I’d like to get them caught up today.”
    Mom raised an eyebrow at me, having always been a proponent of the “I don’t think that really
needs
stitches” school of parenting.
    “Okay, I guess.” I mean, I didn’t want to leave my children vulnerable to typhoid, or whatever, right?
    Parrish wailed in my lap as she got an injection in each arm. I closed my eyes and stroked her hair, whispering
shhhh
in her ear. “It’s okay, sweetie… It’s okay. All done now.”
    India screamed next, struggling in Mom’s lap.
    I was just so damn tired. The pitiful sound of both children’s sobs made tears well up in my eyes.
    “Now, we find these shots are usually tolerated really well,” said thedoctor, “but if the girls have any discomfort tonight, it’s all right to give them a little liquid Tylenol.”
    “Okay,” I said. “Thank you.”
    The woman grabbed her clipboard and race-walked out of the room.
    “What a
bitch
,” said Mom in a stage whisper the moment the exam room door had clicked shut.
    I snickered despite myself and turned to look at her.
    “Oh, Mom… you cried, too?” I said, handing her a wad of Kleenex from the doctor’s stash. “Your mascara’s running.”
    “I couldn’t stand it,” she said, sniffling and dabbing at her eyes. “Getting a shot in each arm? Horrible.”
    We carried the girls back out to the parking lot. India was asleep before Mom had finished fastening the straps on her car seat.
    “Why don’t you go up and take a nap when we get home, Madeline?” said Mom. “You look exhausted.”
    “That would be my idea of Nirvana,” I said, right before Parrish projectile-vomited all over me.
    I was looking for clean clothes for Parrish once we’d gotten back to the house.
    “I’ll do all that,” said Mom. “Don’t be silly.”
    “But you shouldn’t have to—”
    She took me gently by the shoulders and turned me toward the staircase.
    “Go upstairs,” said my mother. “Wash your face. Put on a clean shirt.”
    I just stood there for a minute, then glanced back over my shoulder.
    Mom had already somehow stripped Parrish down to just a diaper and laid her gently on the sofa. “I think she’s finished throwing up, poor little thing.”
    Even so, the cushions beneath her were now miraculously, tautly sheeted with several clean towels.
    I shook my head. “How did you get—”
    “Go upstairs,” said Mom, shaking a crook’d finger at me. “I’m the mother, and I say so.”
    When I reached the landing, I heard her call my name from below.
    “Yeah?” I said, peering back down over the banister.
    “Turn your dirty clothes inside out and throw them down here once you’ve got them off. I’ll start a load of laundry.”
    “Thank you.”
    “And then I think you should run yourself a bath.”
    “Okay.”
    She stepped into sight beneath me. “After that you can go to sleep.”
    I bowed to her in gratitude, knocking my forehead three times against the banister.
    I’d just gotten out of the bathtub and wrapped myself in a big towel when Mom came upstairs.
    “Is Parrish okay?” I asked, reaching back into the tepid water to yank out the plug by its chain.
    “I gave her some apple juice and she kept it down. She might go to sleep for a while.”
    “Do you think I should take her temperature?”
    “I think you should take a
nap
.”
    I padded down the hallway toward Dean’s and my bedroom, my skin not even damp anymore.
    “It’s so weird,” I said. “You barely even
need
towels at this altitude. It’s like going through the dryers at a car wash.”
    I put on a bra and pulled a clean T-shirt over my head.
    “The clasp broke on these pearls you got from Mummie?” asked