More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
“I should remind you that I’m Southern, and you’ll never win a politeness battle with me.”
“What about the weather?” “The weather today was lovely.” “You know what I mean.” “I do. And it’s relevant. It’s hard to convince people that catastrophic weather changes are coming on a nice day.”
The doctor pointed his pen at me. “If I had told you that your vomiting was caused by influenza, would you also refuse to take any medicine?” “But that’s different.” “It most certainly is not.” Rolling his stool closer, he held out the prescription. “My dear lady, your body is not supposed to react to stress in this way. You are, in literal fact, being made ill by forces outside yourself. Now, I want you to take this, and I’ll give you a referral to my colleague, who can discuss some other therapies as well.”
I sat down on the sofa and picked up the phone. “Well, hello. To what do I owe the pleasure?” My brother laughed in my ear. “I need a favor.” “I’m not doing your math homework.” “It’s more dire than that.” His voice took on the overly serious tones of a radio star. “It’s the most dire thing a man could face and hope to survive.” “Dancing?”
Someone had brought gin, and of course that meant we had to experiment with other cocktail variations. For science. Chemistry is a very important part of rocketry.
Afterward, being six and full of belief in my own infallibility, I announced that I wouldn’t make that sort of mistake when it was time for my bar mitzvah. He didn’t laugh at me like a lot of boys would. I remember him, balanced on his crutches, looking with pain at our father. That distress, on what was a happy day, is the part of my memory that is still so strong and so much my brother. He sat down and patted the sofa beside him, then explained that girls don’t get to have a bar mitzvah. It’s different now, but that’s the way the world worked in the thirties. I cried. And he held me. That’s
...more
“Now, explain it to me very slowly, like I’m a congressman.”
