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Show 93 Annis takes two lemons from the bin, but feels her enthusiasm for the dinner diminished. " I wanted to see you again before you go," the child persists, and her hair hangs loosely over her face. Annis gives her a hug, j o v i a l and affectionate. " I f you can't come tonight, come tomorrow. Or the next day. I ' l l be washing dishes for a week." "But you won't be there," the child protests, "I wanted to see you before you go." "Go?" "Donf you even know about it?" says the child, "Didn't they tell you?" Annis finds that she is suddenly feeling weak, nauseous. The girl leads her out to the cooler air of the parking lot. "My car is here," she says, opening the door of a rusted Volkswagen. "You can sit in it." Annis lowers herself limply into the car, and stares at the dials on the dashboard: they are old, small, caked with dust. The girl walks around the car, extracts a key from the hip pocket of her jeans; she sits in the car, puts the key in the ignition, but does not turn it on. "Are you sure?" Annis asks, her eyes fixed dully on the dashboard. "I heard them talking at the bar." "I won't go to any hospital," Annis says, suddenly stubborn. "But they've got commitment papers signed and everything," says the girl. "An ambulance is coming in the morning." Annis thinks a long time, slowly, painfully, carefully. "What about John?" she says at last. "They're going to take him home with them. Rod first, for two months. |
