The Anatomy Lesson by Philip Roth Read Free Book Online

underpants, only a stocking-colored chiffon hood, something to wear home from the beauty parlor. Newly set hair, hers, or so he was ready to believe, holding the hood up to his nose and searching for some fragrance he remembered. The sharp smells. the decisive noises, the American ideals, the Zionist zeal, the Jewish indignation, all that to a boy was vivid and inspiring, almost superhuman, had belonged to his father; the mother who ’ d been so enormous to him for the First ten years of his life was as diaphanous in recollection as the chiffon hood. A breast, then a lap, then a fading voice calling after him, “ Be careful. ” Then a long gap when there is nothing of her to remember, just the invisible somebody, anxious to please, reporting to him on the phone the weather in New Jersey. Then the Florida retirement and the blond hair. Neatly dressed for the tropics in pink cotton slacks and a monogrammed white blouse (wearing the pearl pin he ’ d bought years before in Orly Airport and brought home for her from his first summer in France), a little brown-skinned blond-haired woman waiting down at the end of the corridor when he gets off the elevator with his bag: the unconstrained grin, the encompassing dark eyes, the sad clinging embrace, instantly followed by the gratitude. Such gratitude! It was as though the President of the United States had arrived at the condominium to call upon some lucky citizen whose name and address had been drawn from a hat.
    The last thing he found in her pocket was an item scissored out of The New York Times. Must have been sent to her by someone back home. She ’ d slipped it out of the envelope down by the mailbox, then put it into her pocket on the way to the beauty parlor or to Sylvia ’ s in Boca Raton. The headaches and the dizziness still incorrectly diagnosed, she ’ d driven off with a friend on a rainy afternoon to look at a dress. When it got to be 4 p.m., the two widows would have decided on a restaurant for the early-bird dinner. Looking down the menu, she would have thought: “ This is what Victor would order. This is what Nathan would order. This is what Henry would order. ” Only then would she choose for herself. “ My husband. ” she would tell the waitress, “ loved ocean scallops. If they ’ re fresh, and the nice big ones, I ’ ll have the ocean scallops, please. ”
    One short paragraph in the Times clipping had been squared off with rough pencil markings. Not by her. Any frame she drew would have been finely made with a freshly sharpened point. The paragraph was from an article in the “ New Jersey Section ” dated Sunday, December 6, 1970. She died fifteen days later.
    Similarly. Newark has produced many famous people, ranging from Nathan Zuckerman, the author, to Jerry Lewis, the comedian. Elizabeth ’ s most famous offspring are military men: General Winfield Scott, a 19th-century Army man, and Adm. William “ Bull ” Halsey, a World War II hero.
    In a kitchen cabinet he found a yellow plastic watering can decorated with white daisies and held it under the tap. He went into the living room to sprinkle her wilting plants. So sick and lost and forgetful that last week, she ’ d not even tended her garden. Zuckerman turned on the FM station she ’ d had the dial tuned to and, listening to her favorite music—famous show tunes smothered in strings—proceeded with the watering can along the windowsill. He believed he recognized plants from New Jersey and his high-school days. Could that be? So many years as her companions? He raised the blind. Out past the new condominium that had gone up next door, he saw a wide slice of the bay. So long as her husband was alive, they used to look at the bay ritually from the bedroom balcony every evening after dinner and the TV news. “ Oh, Nathan, you should have seen the colors last night at sunset—only you would have the words to describe it. ” But after Dr. Zuckerman ’ s death, she couldn ’ t face all