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Show Moon -178 Esther has attractive smile wrinkles around her eyes and frown lines, too, the same as Ruth, who seems to look exactly as she always has, even though she's well into her seventies. I see how time is going to handle my features. Could be worse, I think. Esther has a job with a radio station in Washington and she shares a house in Bethesda with her mother, not far from where my family lived after Manila. I can't remember what that house looked like or where it was exactly. Esther and Ruth have been living together for many years now, and it soon becomes clear that what holds them together is also what antagonizes them. There is a faint air of unspoken rage, knowable only by little frowns, fists tight on the steering wheel, little games: "Esther, dear, don't you think Joy would like to drive by the house she used to live in?" Knuckles on the wheel. "I have no idea, Mother, what Joy would like. You could ask her." "I didn't live there, actually," I say. But my presence is immaterial to the actual exchange, and Ruth doesn't so much as glance in my direction. Instead, she leans forward from the back seat so as to have more effect. "Of course Joy would like to see the house." She pats her daughter's shoulder, leans back complacently. A few moments later, she leans forward again and says, "We need milk." Esther turns to me and winks. "We do not need milk. We never drink milk." "Joy might want some." Laughter threatens to burst out of me. |
