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magazine—they wouldn't have to hear. He promised her. It was nothing to<br />
worry about. He had the magazine in his hand, and then he dropped it. The<br />
magazine fell for years. It took a long time to fall. She watched it lying there.<br />
Admission. That was all. Admit it! I was wrong.<br />
The kitten was a way to bridge the gap, to help him along, and because<br />
she was sure he had had a share of his own problems after the death of their<br />
daughter. She didn't know what these problems were, of course, because he<br />
never talked about them or about anything at all. This much she could say:<br />
Marina. As in: It's okay, I forgive you, you were stupid, you didn't know better,<br />
and I believed you as I shouldn't have, but it's okay.<br />
Marina: their dead daughter's name.<br />
Edwin pressed the kitten into his neck. No, he said. Let's call it Love.<br />
He looked at Darla. She looked back. He said, Okay, we'll flip for it. He<br />
put the kitten into his crotch long enough to set a bottle cap on his thumb<br />
and said, This end here is heads.<br />
He flipped it in the air.<br />
Heads, Darla called out as the bottle cap landed and tinked around at<br />
their feet.<br />
It turned out tails.<br />
So that's how they came to call it Love, though as the kitten grew, Darla<br />
called it the cat, or when addressing the animal directly, simply cat. As in:<br />
Get away from me, cat.<br />
He tells her one night that she needs to get over it. He brings the TV into<br />
the kitchen and plugs it in.<br />
Over it? I need to get over it? What are you doing? Get that TV out of<br />
there.<br />
Yes, he says. Get over it. It's been two years.<br />
Two years! She's standing at the sink washing lettuce, slamming it into<br />
the bowl, leaf after leaf. And you think that matters?<br />
Yes, I do. You're lucky. I mean, we can have another one. It's not all over.<br />
You need to watch the news. You need to see how bad others really have it.<br />
She slams the bowl of salad onto the kitchen table and runs into the<br />
bedroom. He tries to come in and hold her, but she pushes him away until<br />
he leaves again, and then she can hear him out in the living room watching<br />
the news.<br />
Later in kitchen while he's sleeping, she rips into a package of Swirly<br />
DeLIGHTS, endorsed by a professional athlete who says they taste sinful<br />
but add speed to your legs, followed by one turkey pot-pie only because she's<br />
never had this brand before.<br />
Not bad for a frozen pot pie and screw it, she'll have another.<br />
80 How They Came to Call it Love
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