Where I'm Calling From

Wyatt and Duane. Who knows what I was missing all those years? You were my everything, just like the song.”
    I go; “You’re a wonderful woman, Holly. I know you’ve had the opportunities.”
    “But I didn’t take them up on it!” she goes. “I couldn’t go outside the marriage.”
    “Holly, please,” I go. “No more now, honey. Let’s not torture ourselves. What is it we should do?”
    “Listen,” she goes. “You remember the time we drove out to that old farm place outside of Yakima, out past Terrace Heights? We were just driving around? We were on this little dirt road and it was hot and dusty? We kept going and came to that old house, and you asked if we could have a drink of water? Can you imagine us doing that now? Going up to a house and asking for a drink of water?
    “Those old people must be dead now,” she goes, “side by side out there in some cemetery. You remember they asked us in for cake? And later on they showed us around? And there was this gazebo there out back? It was out back under some trees? It had a little peaked roof and the paint was gone and there were these weeds growing up over the steps. And the woman said that years before, I mean a real long time ago, men used to come around and play music out there on a Sunday, and the people would sit and listen. I thought we’d be like that too when we got old enough. Dignified. And in a place. And people would come to our door.”
    I can’t say anything just yet. Then I go, “Holly, these things, we’ll look back on them too. We’ll go,
    ‘Remember the motel with all the crud in the pool?’” I go, “You see what I’m saying, Holly?”
    But Holly just sits there on the bed with her glass.
    I can see she doesn’t know.
    I move over to the window and look out from behind the curtain. Someone says something below and rattles the door to the office. I stay there. I pray for a sign from Holly. I pray for Holly to show me.
    I hear a car start. Then another. They turn on their lights against the building and, one after the other, they pull away and go out into the traffic.
    “Duane,” Holly goes.
    In this too, she was right.

One More Thing

    LD’s wife, Maxine, told him to get out the night she came home from work and found L.D. drunk again and being abusive to Rae, their fifteen-year-old. L.D. and Rae were at the kitchen table, arguing. Maxine didn’t have time to put her purse away or take off her coat.
    Rae said, “Tell him, Mom. Tell him what we talked about.”
    L.D. turned the glass in his hand, but he didn’t drink from it. Maxine had him in a fierce and disquieting gaze.
    “Keep your nose out of things you don’t know anything about,” L.D. said. L.D. said, “I can’t take anybody seriously who sits around all day reading astrology magazines.” “This has nothing to do with astrology,” Rae said. “You don’t have to insult me.”
    As for Rae, she hadn’t been to school for weeks. She said no one could make her go. Maxine said it was another tragedy in a long line of low-rent tragedies.
    “Why don’t you both shut up!” Maxine said. “My God, I already have a headache.”
    “Tell him, Mom,” Rae said. “Tell him it’s all in his head. Anybody who knows anything about it will tell you that’s where it is!”
    “How about sugar diabetes?” L.D. said. “What about epilepsy? Can the brain control that?”
    He raised the glass right under Maxine’s eyes and finished his drink.
    “Diabetes, too,” Rae said. “Epilepsy. Anything! The brain is the most powerful organ in the body, for your information.”
    She picked up his cigarettes and lit one for herself. “Cancer. What about cancer?” L.D. said.
    He thought he might have her there. He looked at Maxine.
    “I don’t know how we got started on this,” L.D. said to Maxine.
    “Cancer,” Rae said, and shook her head at his simplicity. “Cancer, too. Cancer starts in the brain.”
    “That’s crazy!” L.D. said. He hit the table with the flat of his hand. The ashtray jumped. His glass fell on its side and rolled off. “You’re crazy, Rae! Do you know that?”
    “Shut up!” Maxine said.
    She unbuttoned her coat and put her purse down on the counter. She looked at L.D. and said, “L.D., I’ve had it. So has Rae. So has everyone who knows you. I’ve been thinking it over. I want you out of here.
    Tonight. This minute. Now. Get the hell out of here right now.”
    L.D. had no intention of going anywhere. He looked from Maxine to the