Her face shook, then she began to sniffle, the preamble to the deep sob. Magda looked too shocked to cry for her father. The health drink spilled across the doll and magazine and couch. Something in Claudia snapped, and she jumped across the room and slapped Magda-another urge that had been building for years, though this consummation was far more satisfying.
LIGHTSPEED GIRLS LINEUP FULL
Magda sipped the health drink, which bubbled like it was full of living organisms trying to breathe. Claudia peeked into the guest bedroom Magda’s father was passed out, clutching the sheet like it was a great comfort.
Is Jane playing one of her hiding games? Magda shrugged.Ĭlaudia looked in every room in the house, in closets, under beds.
Magda, honey, what do you mean you don’t know? Claudia asked. Probably the father had played a part in this too, Claudia considered, but she was done with him, with this whole family. Probably at this very second Magda’s mother was buying cod oil or soy crackers to shove down her daughter’s throat. It wasn’t the girl’s fault her mother had taught her that. She was a pale, ragged child who recoiled from candy as if physically repulsed. Without looking up, Magda said she didn’t know. Nestled on the doll was a health drink that was a green so healthy it almost looked unhealthy. A doll sat next to Magda on the couch, head ninety degrees askew, arm missing. Magda was alone in the living room, flipping through The Economist, brow furrowed as if grappling with some new political instability in Eastern Europe. Claudia could see he’d lost all interest-good thing she was leaving!-and she slipped out of bed, tidied up and dressed, and went downstairs. It was done quickly-quicker than Claudia had expected, what seemed like only a few turns of the ceiling fan, pushing the hot air down. Claudia would do this thing quickly, while Magda’s mother was at the grocery store, then she and Jane would finish packing the car and leave the next morning and she would not have to see this man or his wife ever again. Tomorrow Claudia and Jane were moving across the state her husband had gone there already for work. Tension had been building between Claudia and Magda’s father over the years at play date pickups and school picnics, and now was the time. He’d steered Claudia away from the master bedroom, the way he might any old house guest on a tour of the upstairs: No, no, total disaster zone in there. Magda and Jane were downstairs playing an aggressive doll game they’d invented Claudia and Magda’s father were in the guest bedroom. This was in the house of Jane’s friend Magda. All her life she’d made mistakes and here was one more, worse than the others. When Claudia’s six-year-old daughter Jane disappeared, Claudia was making love to a man who was not her husband.
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