OCR Text |
Show Amelia had decided no wedding, so be it. Instead, she would arrange a little reception for afterwards. A few guests, a meal to sit down to. They would rent a ballroom in a hotel. In Cleveland, of course. Back and forth went the phone calls, each one taking weight off Ben, who also had been trying to give up his childish habit of cracking his knuckles. The Rubins called the girls' apartment so often that I didn't dare answer the phone at all, called each time to find that Amelia was not in, she was never in, she had always just left or was on her way back or in the tub or ItyrfjL expected her right away. Always & £ & asked if Amelia could call them back. Then kflL would call Amelia at their place, who would then call Operator So-and-so in Cleveland, and the little debate would continue. Or Amelia would initiate the call to make her latest point, to give her final concession, and then would call |(£CB, to tell her about it, how furious Ben was this time, and K M 3 L would tell her it damned well served her right, and Amelia would cry, and tdscbt would soften and cluck with sympathy, and then afterwards with me would laugh bitterly. I just laughed: the whole thing had nothing to do with me. Though Amelia was adamant about not going to Cleveland for the wedding, she gave in a bit on the recejfcption, a small one, people would bring gifts and they could use *ifts, they had so little to start out with. We need silver trays? Ben would snarl, popping a knuckle, and Amelia would wait until the next day to say, Won't it look funny getting married in the groom's city, and could they really expect people to come from Cleveland just for a reception? Ben would howl and pop five knuckles in a row and she would quickly agree that it had to be in Chicago. Or not at all, Ben said ominously. Then after he had ranted and raved, Amelia wringing her hands, flinching at the loud cracks of his knuckles, she would go on stage in Mandel Hall and play a magnificent Candida, unshakable in her Shavian will, and then come home and return her mother's call and give in on some other detail. |