Michael Malone - Weebly

so onto the patio. Judith disliked being in the living room
because its size and its barren modernity more radically
exposed her and forced her to feel how radically her
body, like the tentacles of an oozy jellyfish, held her
trapped in its soft, defenseless flesh. The family room
could be closed, and was therefore her favorite.
Mrs. Haig had been trying to occupy her mind with
meditations on her husband. It was only a little past ten,
but she was already dressed for bed in a nightgown and
bathrobe, for she had wanted to give herself time to fall
safely asleep before John's return from the station. Then
the phone call had come, and the still-heard sound of
that breath so close to her ear, the threat of that intimate
silence, had violated her escape and made sleep
impossible. While waiting, then, she was finishing the
scarf and thinking about her husband.
She thought unhappily about him, with deep pity in
her heart. He worked so hard to defeat failure, but felt
himself defeated. This unnecessary house they couldn't
afford, the unused furniture he had so carefully arranged
according to the store display, the early morning and
long evening hours he struggled to make the earth grow