The time traveler's wife by Audrey Niffenegger Read Free Book Online Page B

me." I don't
remember ever throwing anything at Henry. "Did not."
    "Did too. We just met for the very first
time, and as soon as you laid eyes on me you said, 'That's the man I'm going to
marry,' and you pasted me one. I always said you were an excellent judge of
character."
     
    Thursday, September 29, 1977 (Clare is 6, Henry
is 35)
     
    Clare: The calendar on Daddy's desk this
morning said the same as the paper the man wrote. Nell was making a soft egg
for Alicia and Etta was yelling at Mark cause he didn't do his homework and
played Frisbee with Steve. I said Etta can I have some clothes from the trunks?
meaning the trunks in the attic where we play dress up, and Etta said What for?
and I said I want to play dress up with Megan and Etta got mad and said It was
time to go to school and I could worry about playing when I got home. So I went
to school and we did adding and mealworms and language arts and after lunch
French and music and religion. I worried all day about pants for the man cause
he seemed like he really wanted pants. So when I got home I went to ask Etta
again but she was in town but Nell let me lick both the beaters of cake batter
which Etta won't let us because you get salmon. And Mama was writing and I was
gonna go away without asking but she said What is it, Baby? so I asked and she
said I could go look in the Goodwill bags and have anything I wanted. So I went
to the laundry room and looked in the Goodwill bags and found three pairs of
Daddy's pants but one had a big cigarette hole. So I took two and I found a
white shirt like Daddy wears to work and a tie with fishes on it and a red sweater.
And the yellow bathrobe that Daddy had when I was little and it smelled like
Daddy. I put the clothes in a bag and put the bag in the mud-room closet. When
I was coming out of the mud room Mark saw me and he said What are you doing,
asshole? And I said Nothing, asshole and he pulled my hair and I stepped on his
foot really hard and then he started to cry and went to tell. So I went up to
my room and played Television with Mr. Bear and Jane where Jane is the movie
star and Mr. Bear asks her about how it is being a movie star and she says she
really wants to be a veterinarian but she is so incredibly pretty she has to be
a movie star and Mr. Bear says maybe she could be a veterinarian when she's
old. And Etta knocked and said Why are you stepping on Mark? and I said Because
Mark pulled my hair for no reason and Etta said You two are getting on my
nerves and went away so that was okay. We ate dinner with just Etta because
Daddy and Mama went to a party. It was fried chicken with little peas and
chocolate cake and Mark got the biggest piece but I didn't say anything because
I licked the beaters. So after dinner I asked Etta if I could go outside and
she said did I have homework and I said Spelling and bring leaves for art
class, and she said Okay as long as you come in by dark. So I went and got my
blue sweater with the zebras and I got the bag and I went out and went to the
clearing. But the man wasn't there and I sat on the rock for a while and then I
thought I better get some leaves. So I went back to the garden and found some
leaves from Mama's little tree that she told me later was Ginkgo, and some
leaves from the Maple and the Oak. So then I went back to the clearing he still
wasn't there and I thought Well, I guess he just made up that he was coming and
he didn't want pants so bad after all. And I thought maybe Ruth was right cause
I told her about the man and she said I was making it up because people don't
disappear in real life only on TV. Or maybe it was a dream like when Buster
died and I dreamed he was okay and he was in his cage but I woke up and no
Buster and Mama said Dreams are different than real life but important too. And
it was getting cold and I thought maybe I should just leave the bag and if the
man came he could have his pants. So I was walking