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Beeeeep.  So, I was asking my students, what is the definition of
absence? We decided it was when someone you love doesn t call you
for three days in a row when you leave them countless messages. I ve
got it! You haven t called because aliens have kidnapped you and are
performing unspeakable acts on your body. One alien, at least, and I ll
bet it s unspeakable. Ellie s voice chided her from the machine.
Beeeeep.  Hey, Sis. Sandhya and I will see you at seven. Anchor
Bar good? Bye. It was her brother s voice, surprisingly like hers, even
with the depth of it. She smiled to hear it.
Eric had been her best friend growing up, so much so that when
Rosalind went away to college, he d taken it as a personal abandonment.
She d missed his high school years, seeing him only in snapshots of
visits home. When she d left Poughkeepsie, he d been an awkward,
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Of Drag Kings & the Wheel of Fate
gangly boy in the full horror of adolescence. In a matter of visits he d
grown tall, filled out, his body transformed into a hulking young man.
The boy she remembered, who couldn t wait to tell her everything
about his friends, his projects, the books he read, was now unable to
more than grunt when he shambled through the room.
It had been as personal a betrayal to her, his journey into his
teenage years. It was a foreign place. Suddenly her wisdom no longer
had any bearing on his experiences. Her advice was less than useless. A
teenage boy has no use for an older sister, particularly one who was too
bookish to offer sound dating advice.
It wasn t until she was at Cornell, buried in her PhD, that she d
gotten to know him again. He d gone off to college a few months
before. Rosalind remembered seeing him off with the awkward one-
armed hug that her family employed for public leave-taking. She d
returned to Ithaca, the sadness old enough now that she didn t feel it as
a fresh loss. Her baby brother was leaving to find himself, outside of
Poughkeepsie. If he d asked, she might have been able to identify the
depth of the stabbing pain that took her breath, just for a moment. He
didn t ask, and she had stopped offering.
The phone call at midnight was unusual. For a moment she thought
it was Paul. He was off visiting his family, making plans for their
wedding in the spring. The male voice was ripping with excitement, a
voice strange enough to her that she couldn t place it until he said her
name.  Ros? It s Eric. The first thought was, Disaster.
 Are you okay? Rosalind had blurted out, unable to think of
another reason he d be calling her. He laughed. It was the first time
she d ever heard that laugh from him, a man s laughter.
 Yeah, I m okay. Better than okay. Ros, I m in love.
The story had poured out of him in a rush, while Rosalind sat
listening with a stunned tenderness. Who was this gregarious young
man, his conversational skills unleashed by falling in love? He d met
Sandhya Bharadwaj in a computer science class. They ended up in the
same study group. They d started e-mailing one another. Joy made hash
of the story. Eric threw details in at random, conveying his delight with
everything about this girl.
 She s gorgeous. She s brilliant. She s gorgeous. She can seem
so nice and sweet, then cut you to ribbons and you won t even see it
coming, Eric had said, reeling on the line like a drunken Boy Scout.
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SUSAN SMITH
 She sounds wonderful. When do I get to meet her? Are you going
to bring her home for Thanksgiving?
 No. That s kinda why I called, Eric had said.
Rosalind, who had been delighted with the sound of Eric s voice,
listened to it go flat in a heartbeat.  Tell me what s up, she d said to the
man who was still her baby brother.
There was a moment of silence, then Eric began.  I was gonna
bring her home for Thanksgiving. I mean try, anyway. I called home. I
told Mom about Sandhya. Well, you know Mom. She didn t take it well
that Sandhya s Indian. Gave me the minispeech about dating suitability,
all that shit. So I said I m not coming home without her. Can we stay
with you?
There had been things she could have said her place was very
small, she was working all the time, she and Paul were planning their
wedding. Rosalind said yes without hesitation.
It had been the start of years of campaigning. Rosalind had
gotten to know Sandhya and had been charmed to the core. Eric was a
different person around this fiercely intelligent young woman. Sandhya
argued with him, challenged him, and looked at him with a tenderness
Rosalind could not believe. She d taken up the banner for them before
the first afternoon was over.
It had been Rosalind s idea to approach their mother, to spend
countless hours gently talking her into meeting Sandhya. Olchawskis
were known for their stubbornness. In the end, when Eric and Sandhya
showed no signs of breaking up after years together, their mother had
come around.
Wonder if Eric would go to bat for me now? Their mother had
been heartbroken by her divorce from Paul. She hadn t asked Rosalind
if she were dating anyone since the divorce became final. There hadn t
been anyone worth mentioning.
Now, she felt like Eric in that midnight phone call overwhelmed
with emotion, unable to believe the miracle that had struck. She was
in love. It was stunning enough that she wanted to tell someone,
everyone, to alert the world to what had happened. She wanted to share
the happiness that threatened to rip her apart. It was that fierce and
immediate. She finally understood Eric s need to talk about it. Her heart
was outside her body.
The phone rang. Rosalind, chilled by the emptiness of her
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Of Drag Kings & the Wheel of Fate [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]