Forty Words for Sorrow

26

EDIE’S STOMACH HURT, she was laughing so hard.

“I’ve been very sick for a week,” Eric was reading. “I’m not exactly sure how long, but you wouldn’t believe how boring throwing up can get after the tenth time.”

“See, Eric. Keith liked my Ipecac cocktails. My magic barf potions. It’s mixing it with the Valium does the trick. Gives it that extra something special.” Oh, she loved it when Eric laughed. Why couldn’t he be like this all the time? So funny, so easy. At times like this she could almost believe they were a normal couple, just your normal, basic couple enjoying a good laugh together. You could forget the dreary winter and the endless cold. At times like this she could almost forget what she looked like. Oh yes, she had seen Keith London’s eyes do that male survey of her face and figure, summing her up and spitting her out, despite his friendly manner. He’d just as soon run her over. But it didn’t matter when Eric was with her, when Eric was happy.

“Better ease up on the Ipecac and stick with the Valium,” Eric was saying. “Can’t have him throwing it up as soon as we give it to him. Listen to this.”

There was a thump, thump, thump from upstairs. God, Gram, give it a rest. I’m with the man I love and I’m having fun for once in my life. Why can’t you let us be?

Eric’s response to the summons was just to read all the louder. “I’m staying with a young couple. They’re very strange, Karen, but the fact is, without them I’d probably be dead.”

“Hear that, Eric? Without us Keith would probably be dead.”

“The woman, Edie, works in a drugstore and gets all sorts of medicine free. At least she says she gets it free. I have a feeling she’s just stealing it.”

“That rotten little prick,” Edie said. “He’s going to wish he never wrote that letter, Eric. You watch. I’m going to make him scream.”

Another thump, thump, thump from upstairs.

“Listen to this.” Eric read, “I think of you, I dream of you, I miss you. I miss making love with you—you make me feel so good!” There were some very explicit passages after that, and Eric read them in a funny, high-pitched voice that had them both doubled over with laughter, tears rolling down their faces.

“Eric told me they don’t have a phone here, but I heard one ringing just now. It’s a little disturbing.”

“A little disturbing, is it, Keith? You find the phone ringing a little disturbing?”

“We’ll show you disturbing, Keith. We’ll disturb your balls right off your bloody carcass.”

“We’ll disturb your brains right out of your bloody head, you little shit. What’s wrong?”

Eric had suddenly gone quiet.

“What is it, Eric?”

He showed her the letter, pointing to a line scrawled across the bottom. It was Edie’s address. “How did he remember the address, for God’s sake? He was drunk as a skunk.”

Eric folded the letter and slipped it back into the envelope they had steamed open. “I’ll throw it away. In fact, I’ll flush it down the—”

“What’s going on in here? Why didn’t you come when I called you?” Edie’s grandmother tottered in the doorway, leaning on her walker. Her red-rimmed eyes were pits of accusation.

“Sorry, Gram. We were just listening to some music.”

“I don’t hear any music. I’ve been banging and banging, Edie, and you didn’t come. Banging and banging. Why is Eric still here?”

“Hello, Gram,” Eric said with a sweet smile. “Want me to bash your skull in for you?”

“What’s he say?”

“Nothing, Gram. Come on, I’ll take you upstairs.”

But Gram wasn’t finished. You could never shake her off an indictment when she got going. “I don’t see why you can’t come when I call, Edie. I don’t ask you to do much for me. A lot of people would ask a lot more of the person they raised up as if they were their own.”

“It’s because she hates you, Grammy. Nothing to worry about. She just hates your stinking guts.”

“Leave her alone, Eric. I’ll take her.” Edie helped her grandmother get turned around, glaring at Eric over the old woman’s shoulder.

When they were gone, Eric went into the tiny bathroom under the stairs. There, he stared at the letter for a long time. He had intended to tear it into tiny pieces, but the erotic sections had captured his interest. He closed the lid of the toilet and sat down to read them again. This Karen must be quite an interesting number. It would be a shame not to send her a little something.