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Show Motherlunge a novel 130 20. The Reverse Thief Five months passed, a period that culminated in the disappearance of the infant's mother, my sister, Pavia James-and an interlude in which several things prevented me from giving full attention to my nephew, X. Let us examine this lack of materteral attention and its causes. First, there was the fact that in that period of early infancy Pavia and Jack were always there-always at the house together, bent over X. like a pair of tensor lamps. He I occupied them physically; babies, as you know, require constant manipulation. But it was a spiritual preoccupation, too. For Jack, this expressed itself as a repeating incredulity, as a sequence of moments of regenerating awe. "Xavier reached for his mobile!" "Xavier looked out the window!" "Xavier smiled at me!" Jack would breathe out as he spoke, like someone noticing that it's raining even though the sun is out, light-filled beads of water falling all around him as in a shampoo commercial minus the sexual overtones. For Pavia, the spiritual impulse manifested in rituals. Checking twice to see if the door was locked. Waiting till the fourth ring to pick up the phone. Kissing her son an even number of times in the same place, back of his head. All her movements were formalized and careful, sacramental-seeming. |
