Page 81 - Where the Dream Ends ebook

Quartet

She watches the news on television and listens to talk radio
incessantly, speaking with an air of authority on topics rang-
ing from teenage pregnancy to international politics. But the
world is a foreign place to her. She rarely goes outside.

She worked part-time in a neighborhood store selling Ve-
netian blinds until she was mugged climbing the stairs to her
apartment. Once, at work, an armed robber entered the store
and demanded all the money from the cash register. Without
blinking, she grabbed her purse from the under the counter
and clutching it to her breast said, “You can take anything you
want, but you can’t have this!” The thief took the money from
the register and ran. That was 30 years ago.

Now, she ventures out only once a week, to do what little
shopping she needs to do at the grocery around the corner,
and to go to the beauty parlor to have her hair done. She walks
along Broadway at a brisk pace, pulling her shopping cart be-
hind her.

Harry spends the better part of two hours in the apartment
until they have run out of things to say. She thanks him for
coming and invites him to come again, “while I’m still alive.”

On the way out the door, he leans over to kiss her. She is
so tiny. It’s as if she is fading away, getting smaller and smaller
until one day there will be nothing left.

Walking down the street toward Broadway, Harry looks up.
He sees her standing at the living room window. She waves.
He waves back. You can ask anyone in the neighborhood. She
is a formidable figure.

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