Saturday, April 8, 1989 (Clare is 17, Henry is 40) CLARE: Im sitting in Grandma Meagrams room, doing the New York Times crossword puzzle with her. Its a bright cool April morning and I can see red tulips whipping in the wind in the garden. Mama is do...
Arrgh. Ill never get this. I stand up and stretch. I desperately need to go for a walk. My grandmothers room is comforting but claustrophobic. The ceiling is low, the wallpaper is dainty blue flowers, the bedspread is blue chintz, the carpet is white...
I think about it. Yeah. Well, anyway, the stuff you were drinking was about forty proof. And you had two whiskeys.. .but you seemed perfectly fine and then all of a sudden you looked awful, and then you passed out, and I thought about it and realiz...
The drink is the color of strawberry Kool-Aid. What is it? I take a sip. It tastes like 7-Up. Mia smiles an evil little smile. Its something I invented. You want to get smashed, this is the express train. Oh. Well, thank you. I toast her, and drink u...
I want to be with people, I want to be distracted. I suddenly think of the Get Me High Lounge, a place where anything can happen, a haven for eccentricity. Perfect. I walk over to Water Tower Place and catch the #66 Chicago Avenue bus, get off at Dam...
The Berghoff is warm, and noisy. There are quite a few people, eating and standing around. The legendary Berghoff waiters are bustling importantly from kitchen to table. I stand in line, thawing out, amidst chattering families and couples. Eventually...
and then I walk down to the skating rink. A few couples and little kids are skating. The kids chase each other and skate backward and do figure eights. I rent a pair of more-or-less my size skates, lace them on, and walk onto the ice. I skate the per...
I didnt mean to put all this sadness on you. I just find Christmas.. .difficult. Oh, Henry! Im so glad youre here, and, you know, Id rather knowI mean, you just come out of nowhere, and disappear, and if I know things, about your life, you seem more....
You know about gravity, right? The larger something is, the more mass it has, the more gravitational pull it exerts? It pulls smaller things to it, and they orbit around and around? Yes.... My mother dying...its the pivotal thing...everything else go...
I have a scar where it started to cut my forehead. I show Clare. It got my hat. The police couldnt figure it out. All my clothes were in the car, on the seat and the floor, and I was found stark naked by the side of the road. You time traveled. Yes....
Whats that? Look it up. It was built like a tank. It had fins. My parents loved it it had a lot of history for them. So we got in the car. I sat in the front passenger seat, we both wore our seatbelts. And we drove. The weather was absolutely awful....
I run my hands over her hair and come away with a small handful of snow that melts immediately. Whats wrong? Clare takes in the untouched food, my uncheerful demeanor. Youre sulking because theres no mayo? Hey. Hush. I sit down on the broken old La-Z...
My mom wears lipstick, eye liner, mascara, blush, and eyebrow pencil to go to the dry cleaners. Dad is much as he always is, tall, spare, a quiet dresser, a wearer of hats. The difference is his face. He is deeply content. They touch each other often...
She was wearing dark lipstick and I insisted on going to bed with her lip prints on my cheek. I remember her sitting on a bench in Warren Park while my dad pushed me on a swing, and she bobbed close and far, close and far. One of the best and most pa...
CHRISTMAS EVE, ONE ALWAYS CRASHING IN THE SAME CAR Saturday, December 24, 1988 (Henry is 40, Clare is 17) HENRY: Its a dark winter afternoon. Im in the basement in Meadowlark House in the Reading Room. Clare has left me some food: roast beef and chee...
