Page 101 - Where the Dream Ends ebook

Lovers

his mother stood inside the back door in her wrinkled house
dress, puffing on a cigarette and protesting. “Lou, you’re go-
ing to fall. You’re going to fall, Lou.”

That was all years away though, and by then Brian’s life
would change dramatically. For now, he watched the con-
struction of the water tower in awe and disgust, seeing it as
the source of renewed friction between his mother and father,
whose relationship had seemed to blossom anew since they
moved from their Bronx apartment to the house in the sub-
urbs. Once again, Brian’s mother had taken to faulting his fa-
ther for everything, most especially the water tower, which was
an embarrassment to her.

After watching the workers put a huge steel beam in place,
Brian headed off down the street. When he reached the corner,
he crossed over onto the next block, whose houses were iden-
tical to the ones on his street, except that here there were no
houses on one side of the road. Instead, there was a huge catch basin
a block square for rain water. The “sump”, as it was called,
was surrounded by a chain link fence. Small bushes had been
planted around the perimeter in a sorry attempt to disguise its
ugliness. Brian was glad he didn’t live on this block, having to
stare out at a huge hole in the ground. Much later he realized
that the people on this street thought they were lucky not hav-
ing houses all around them, just the way his family eventually
came to believe they were lucky living beneath the water tower.
Brian walked on for several more blocks keeping pace with
the rhythm of the street as he passed one driveway, then anoth-
er, then another, each one situated exactly like the previous one.
When he reached Laura’s house he stopped, and with a shrug,
turned up the walk.

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