Part 7 (1/2)
”Daisy?” hea question of it Ale he could not face the fret and fuss and jitters of a fullscale wedding, and so they were ust 17th, 1936 The telegraton minutes before the ceremony was framed in the past tense: ”We have just been married Letter to follow”
Both Daisy and Barker Flett felt cowardly about this announcement, and awaited a reply with some embarrassment
The erotic realm is our nearest approach to the wild half of our nature So thinks Barker Flett There is a part of the human self that is unclassifiable This is what he must learn to accept And to be open to visitations of ardor without the thought of sha be flattened by the iron of goodness and badness? Why?
He confesses to Daisy that he has in the past paidher fingers lightly on his hair, confesses her true state: that she is untouched (her word), that soe to Harold A
Hoad; she's not sure what it was, but she may possibly have been at fault in the matter He does not want to hear this; at this tis for himself
These kinds of confessions, these points of honor, are almost always comic when viewed up close-and equally comic when viewed fro honesty And afterward, regret Was any of it really necessary? Of course not
One thing puzzles Barker Flett: he cannot understand how Daisy's nine years of hood were spent (in ine how her father's youth in Stoneas passed-year after year after year) He can picture Daisy darting about Blooloved, a healthy, hearty Aolf But what did she do?
”I suppose youlectures”
She shakes her head
”Reading?”
Another shake
”Of course there was your father's household to look after”
”Well”-she pauses-”we had Cora-Mae Milltown, you see All those years And then Maria”
”Youwith your time,” he prods
”Charities? The Red Cross?”
She looks blank, then brightens ”The garden,” she says ”I looked after the garden”
”The garden?”
”Yes”
”Ah,” he says, ”ah” A week later he e house on The Driveway near Dow's Lake
The house, solidly built of stone and brick, is situated on a triple lot and possesses a garden that has seen better days
The Things People Had to Say About the FlettGoodwill Liaison The Prime Minister of the Doe between Barker Flett and Daisy Goodwill: The Prime Minister of the Doe between Barker Flett and Daisy Goodwill: ”Marriage is the highest calling, and after that is parenthood and after that the riculture exclaie announceot hiht the bloke was queer as a bent kipper”
Mrs Donaldson, Barker Flett's housekeeper, said, bafflingly: ”Out of the frying pan, into the fire”
Simon Flett in Edmonton sent a crule word: ”Bravo” Andrew Flett froht of Jesus shi+ne on you both”
Mrs dick Greene of Blooratulatory note to Daisy: ”Here, in a phrase, is e: 'Bear and forbear'”
Fraidy Hoyt said (to herself): ”She's lost her head, not her heart I thought she hadwife, an old husband-a prescription for disaster, if you believe in the wisdo Incestuous Obscene Without a doubt he has raood wishes as you set out on the happy highway of life”
To himself, Cuyler Goodwill said, ”He's alood deal He'll dampen passion with a look or a word My poor Daisy”
”Ba cradle of her ar
Daisy Goodwill's own thoughts on her iven up the practice of keeping a private journal The recent loss of her travel diary-it has never been found-caused her a certain arief; she shudders to think whose hands itthat belongs, properly, to the province of girlhood-a place where she no longer lives
CHAPTER FIVE
Motherhood, 1947
Suppertime
People the orld over like to think of Canada as a land of ice and snow That's the i on to, even when they know better
But the fact is, Ottawa in the month of July can be hot as Hades-which is why the Fletts' supper table is set tonight on the screened porch There will be jellied veal loaf, sliced toared raspberries in little glass bowls
You should know that the raspberries are froo by the children of the faot raspberry stains all over the front of his cotton shi+rt, and he has just been sent upstairs by hisclean
”Lickety-split,” she tells hiirls, Alice, nine, and Joan, five, have been encouraged to pick a s as a vase Their arrange and short steether, and already some of the flowers look a little unfresh ”Very pretty,” Mrs Flett pronounces, but then she's distracted because the jellied veal is stuck to the botto to reverse itself neatly on to the glass platter she's prepared ”damn it,” she says under her breath so the children won't hear, but of course they do hear ”daes of last month's Ladies' Ho Meals for Hot Days” She's followed the coht down to the piarnishi+ng ”Why didn't I just buy some cold ham?” she wonders out loud
”I love ham,” Warren says dreamily, and it's true What he especially loves is to take a slice of boiled haers and then stuff it in his ue and inner cheeks
The tablecloth is checked cotton, blue and white The mother's place is set at one end and the father's at the other; this is a family that tends to adhere to conventional routines and practices At each place, just above the berry spoon, is a goblet for iced tea-even the children will be allowed iced tea tonight as a reward for having been good all day
Being good-what exactly does being good mean in the context of the Flett faood because they , and, in addition, Alice has helped herthe front and back stairs, the little wood side parts not covered by carpet Before the war the family employed a woman to clean twice a week (a Mrs Donaldson, famous for her indolence and sarcasm, who has since been reduced to comic dimensions), but nowadays such help-except for Mr Mannerly who coarden-is not to be had for love nor money, or so Warren has heard his ood because she ate her eggs goldenrod for lunch (all but a little bit) and went down for her nap afterwards without whining, and because she remembered, mostly, her pleases and thank yous And there's been atoday Mrs Flett, the children's mother, has only spoken sharply to Alice once; there are days when Alice feels her mother likes her and days when she's sure she doesn't Alice is alanting to please her elders, but she's noticed that when she tries her hardest she feels sneaky and sweaty
At last The top half of the jellied veal drops, with a sucking slithering sound, on to the platter; the rest is hurriedly prised out with a spatula-”daap hidden under pi1arden lettuce The platter is then covered lightly with a sheet of waxed paper and popped back into the Frigidaire so the loaf will stay firlances up at the kitchen clock, shaped like a teapot with a little s mouth, and sees that the time is five-fifteen She sucks in her breath ”Time to put your bikes in the shed,” she says to her three children ”Your father'll be here in three shakes”
It's about this time that she disappears to ”fix up” for dinner
Warren is always surprised how this disappearing happens without his noticing it, like a little bite taken out of the day, so quick it see there in her housedress with her face all da her red and white su around the neck Her hair will be colossy like the licked surface of a jujube She looks straight from the Oxydol ads, or so Warren thinks-perky, her eyes full of twinkles, her red lips pulling up, and her voice going slidey and loose Sos that hang on by pinching her ear lobes hard Warren can't help feeling proud of her when he sees her looking like this, co up” is one of her girlhood expressions, one of her Hoosierisms, his father calls it She says a nu on” so a little lie-down” instead of ”taking a nap” Her voice has a cracked slant to it, slower but also brighter than other ht,” she says to her husband, as though to confine his expectations ”Just odds and ends”