Chilly Scenes of Winter by Ann Beattie Read Free Book Online Page A

bread-baking is in question.
    “Will you call me?” he says. She nods, rolling the window up. Her car is moving slowly forward.
    “I’m going to follow you,” he says. “You’re too sick to drive.”
    “I only have a fever,” she says through the crack in the window, but he puts the key in the ignition, and she waits. The car won’t start. It grinds, but nothing happens. When he is about to scream, pound the windshield, holler and curse, it starts. He follows her car. He follows it all the way to her house, which he can barely see from the road. It is a twenty-minute ride from the school, along streets he has never driven. He starts to pull into the drive, but sees another car and backs up, drives on. At the end of the dead-end street he makes a U-turn and coasts slowly past her driveway. What if she is dying? He sees her get out of her car and walk toward the house. He watches her until she disappears, then coasts to the end of the street. There is a lot of traffic, once he leaves her block. He keeps thinking about turning around, going to the house and saying something to her, no matter who’s there. He lacks nerve. He’s not sure what else he lacks, because her husband’s no prize either. He is wondering about that when his car conks out at a stop sign. He tries to re-start it, but nothing happens. Finally, he sits there with the car flooded, cars pulling around him, head on the steering wheel. What the hell—it wouldn’t hurt to grow his hair some.
    Eventually the car starts, and he drives back to his house. Sam’s car is out front. Charles pulls into the driveway and gets out, not bothering to put the car in the garage. The piece of junk doesn’t deserve to be covered. He goes up the walk. Sam opens the front door.
    “What are you doing here?” Sam says.
    “What are you?” Charles says.
    “I felt funny. I took off a couple of hours early. The flu’s going around. I hope it’s not that.”
    “If you think you’ve got the flu, what are you doing here?”
    The wrong thing to say. Sam looks hurt.
    “We can take care of you if you get sick,” Charles says. He nods agreement with himself at Sam, whose expression changes.
    “What happened to Laura?” Sam says.
    “She’s got it. She was awfully sick. I didn’t get to talk to her. I followed her home. That’s all.”
    Sam shakes his head. He is drinking wine. A bottle is on the floor by the chair.
    “Wine?” Sam says.
    “What are you drinking that for if you’re getting sick?”
    “I don’t know,” Sam says. “Where’s Susan?”
    “Shopping.”
    “I could go out and get food for dinner if there isn’t any,” Sam says.
    “What would you go out for if you’re getting sick?”
    Sam shrugs. “What are we going to eat?” he says.
    Charles gets a glass and pours some wine. It is French wine, instead of the Gallo that Sam used to drink. Sam sympathizes with the boycott. Charles feels sorry that he is getting sick.
    “I guess I should call the hospital,” Charles says. He gets up and calls. Pete answers on the first ring.
    “Mommy did something that was a little silly,” he says. “She had some laxatives in her purse, and she took them. She hasn’t been feeling well today.”
    “Laxatives? What for?”
    “She’s going to be just fine, and fit as a fiddle for the Windy City,” Pete says.
    “Can I talk to her, Pete?”
    “Sure you can. She’s right here, and feeling better by the minute.”
    There is a lot of rustling and whispering.
    “Hello?” his mother says faintly.
    “I’m sorry you had a setback,” Charles says. “You okay now?”
    “Charles, I was in awful pain. It was like the night you had to come for me. I was going to kill myself this morning and I went into the bathroom and took the laxatives.”
    “Made you weak, huh?” Charles says.
    “Charles, the woman in the bed next to me died.”
    There is a loud rustling, and Pete’s voice. “Charles? Pay no attention. Mommy’s got her facts confused. The woman