After the Reunion Read Online Free Page A

it.”
    “You’re too young for such an expensive car,” Emily said. “We’ve talked about this already.”
    “But it would be good for me to learn how to fix a car. If it was my own car I’d have an incentive.”
    “I want you to spend your time studying, not fixing cars,” Emily said.
    Peter sounded pained. “I get all A’s. You said if I sold my car I could have another one.”
    Where’s Ken ? she thought. I hardly see him anymore. I miss him and I want to be with him and it isn’t fair . “I thought we decided you were going to get a Toyota,” she said.
    There was a silence while Peter mused on his fate. “Do you think a white car is too feminine?” he asked.
    “Too feminine?”
    “Yes. Girls have white cars, and so do fags.”
    “I go out with a man who has a white car,” Kate said languidly. “He’s not a fag.”
    “Maybe I’ll get a white car and have the windows tinted black,” Peter said. “That would really look great.”
    “How are you going to see?” Emily asked.
    “You can see,” Peter said.
    “Oh, rub my back,” Kate said. “It’s killing me.” She bent over double and Peter began kneading her shoulders. “Mmm … that’s great,” she said.
    “I wish I had my own money,” Peter said. “I wish I were phenomenally rich.”
    “You will be,” Emily said encouragingly.
    Peter smiled. “Then I’d get a glamorous beach house, a gorgeous live-in girlfriend, an expensive sports car, and a killer dog to protect it all.”
    “You’ll get them,” Kate said.
    “Well,” he said, “I’m trying.”
    “Dinner is served,” Adeline called cheerily.
    They went into the dining room, bringing what remained of the wine. Emily had put one of her white orchid plants in the center of the table, and around it had arranged small, fat white candles. She lit them now, and dimmed the light in the overhead chandelier to a faint golden glow. The room looked very pretty and she wished Ken were here to make the evening complete.
    “I’m starving,” Peter announced happily.
    Adeline came in bearing a huge platter of her famous oven-fried chicken, surrounded by mounds of corn fritters. I didn’t know she was going to fry everything , Emily thought in dismay. She noted with relief that there was a large glass bowl of salad on the sideboard.
    A glare of bright light hit her like a physical assault. Adeline was standing by the dimmer on the wall, and had turned the overhead light on as high as it would go. “If I cook, you’re going to look at what I cook,” Adeline snapped. She stood there, arms folded, thin lips pinched in a straight line, waiting for any backtalk. Of course there was none. They all smiled at her and began to eat heartily in the blinding light until she was satisfied and went back into the kitchen.
    Emily was furious, but she knew there was nothing she could do. Ken would never have let Adeline get away with it, but then, Adeline never tried anything like this when Ken was around. When Emily tried to complain to Ken he just told her she ought to be able to control her own help and was acting ridiculous. Kate was giggling. She thought Adeline was hilarious; the more outrageous Adeline was the more Kate loved it.
    “Adeline, this is delicious,” Peter called.
    “When you’re rich and have your beach house I’m going to give her to you,” Emily whispered. Kate stifled another giggle and Peter just kept on gorging himself.
    They had finished dinner and were having coffee when Emily heard the sound of Ken’s key in the lock. “I’m here!” he called. He put some packages down in the hall and walked into the dining room. How tired he looked! He still had the boyish, sandy-haired looks that belied his age, but now instead of compact and athletic he seemed too thin. She wondered with a little start of fear if all this time there had been something physically wrong with him, some secret, almost unnoticed illness, and that was why he had been so irritable.
    But he wasn’t