Part 16 (2/2)
”A real lady,” says the physiotherapist, Russell Latterby, ”of the old-fashi+oned school”
Which is why Mrs Flett forgets about the existence of Daisy Goodwill from moment to moment, even from day to day, and about that even earlier tuber-like state that preceded Daisy Goodwill; she's kept so busy during her hospital stay being an old sweetie-pie, a fighter, a real lady, a non-complainer, brave about the urinary infections that beset her, stoic on the telephone with her children, taking an interest in young Jubilee's love affairs, going coquettish with Mr Latterby, and being endlessly, valiantly protective of Reverend Rick's sensibilities, which, to tell the truth, are disturbingly ahter, Alice, arriving froland in time to help her mother move out of Sarasota Memorial and into the Canary Palms Convalescent Home, ”she's a real inspiration”
Inspiration, Alice says, but she doesn't mean it She means , handsoht very little about life's dio, in fact, when she happened to look into the drawer of her mother's bedside table at Canary Palms and saw, jumbled there, a toothbrush, toothpaste, a co of keys, some hand cream, a box of Kleenex, a small velvet jewelry box-all Mrs
Barker Flett's possessions accommodated now by the modest dimensions of a little steel drawer That three-story house in Ottawa has been emptied out, and so has the commodious Florida condo
How is it possible, so ht and gives an involuntary cry
”What is it, Alice?”
”Nothing, Mother, nothing”
”I thought I heard-”
”Shhhhh Try to get a little rest”
”All I've been doing is resting”
”That's what convalescence is-rest Isn't that what the doctor said?”
”Hiht of Dr Scott says he's the best there is”
”Did you tell the nurse about the apple juice?”
”I told her you thought it had gone off, but she said it was fine
It's just a different brand than the hospital uses”
”It tastes like concentrate”
”It probably is concentrate”
”It's not even cold It's been left out”
”I'll talk to her again”
”And the gravy”
”What about the gravy”
”There isn't any, that's what's the matter The ravy any more, Mother Gravy was over in 1974”
”What did you say?”
”Nothing Just a joke”
” 'Yolk, yolk,' you used to say You and Joanie, clucking like chickens”
”Did we?”
”There's nothing to see froarden?”
”I liked the hospital better”
”I know”
”I miss Jubilee”
”Oh, God, yes”
”And the Flowers Glad, Lily-”
”It's so far for them to come”
”I'm not myself here”
”You will be You'll adjust in a few days”
”I'm not myself”
”You and me both”
”What's that? I can't hear with all that racket in the hall, that wo”
”I said, I'm not myself either”
Alice has officially adopted her mother's maiden name; it appears now on her passport: Alice Goodwill Her ex-husband's nao in a solicitor's office in London, although their three grown children, Benjamin, Judy, and Rachel, retain it And for Alice the nao with the publication of her fifth book which received unfavorable reviews everywhere: ”Alice Flett's first novel should be a warning to all acade” ”Donnish” ”Didactic” ”Cold porridge on a paper plate”
What was she to do? What could she do? She went to court and changed her nairl Alice had complained about the name Flett, which suffered, she felt, from severe brevity; Flett was a dust , while Goodwill rang rhythreeable ht of the naed at the moment (that damned novel), but hopeful about the future Or she was until she arrived in Florida and sa changed herover she had invented rich, thrilling dialogues for the two of them
”Have you been happy in your life?” she'd planned to ask her mother She pictured herself seated by the bedside, the sheet folded back in a neat fan, her ht from thedim, churchy ”Have you found fulfillment?”-whatever the hell fulfillenuine ecstasy? Has it been worth it? Have you ever looked at, say, a picture or a great building or read a paragraph in a book and felt the world suddenly expand and, at the same instant, contract and harden into a kernel of perfect purity? Do you knohat I 's in its place Like in our Ottawa garden, that kind of thing Has it been enough, your life, I htened? Are you in there?
What can I do?”