Read The Age of Miracles for Free Online Page B

no reason to get angry now. You aren’t being rolled into surgery today.” Kathleen leaned over and touched her mother on the arm. She kissed her forehead. Then she walked over to the television set and turned the plastic surgery tape back on. She had rigged it so that the opening scene was the surgeon poised above the patient with his knife. He cut into the flesh behind the ear, a long incision along the hairline and down below the ear. Blood seeped out. A nurse began to suction it.
    Edwina sat up, stared at the set. She looked past me at Arthur. “Turn that off, please. Is there any coffee around here? My God, did I sleep on the sofa?”
    â€œThe coffee’s ready,” Kathleen said. “And I’m cooking pancakes and scrambled eggs and bacon. You can forgive us and eat with us or you can disinherit us. And don’t get mad at Sara. She and Arthur are getting married. She’s in this by mistake.”
    â€œI don’t believe this,” Edwina said. “Where’s the phone, Kathleen? I have to call those people.”
    â€œWe called them. We told them that you changed your mind.”
    Edwina shook her head. She lifted her arms to the ceiling. She fell back on the sofa and started laughing. “Oh, God,” she said. “What have I wrought? This is unbelievable. I have to go to the bathroom.” She stood up. “Is there a bathroom in this house?”
    She left the room, barefooted, shaking her head from side to side.
    â€œShe isn’t going to disinherit us,” Cary said. “Let’s get breakfast started.”
    â€œNext time it will be something worse.” Kathleen walked into the kitchen and got out the bacon. “Next time it will be a man.”
    â€œWell, are you going to have her some grandchildren? Are you going to interrupt your medical school and deliver the heirs and heiresses?”
    â€œMaybe Sara will?” They looked at me. I picked up a carton of eggs and began to break them into a bowl.
    â€œNot anytime soon. I’m playing tennis.”
    When Edwina came back from the bathroom she had combed her hair and straightened up her clothes. It was amazing how well her hair had stood up, given the long sleep on the down sofa.
    Arthur was setting the table. Edwina joined him and began to straighten the place mats and realign the silver. All the Standfields are perfectionists. Everything they do has to be just so. English genes. “I’m starving,” Edwina said. “I suppose you know I’m going to lose a four-thousand-dollar down payment. There’s no way he will give my money back.”
    â€œI’ll get it back,” Kathleen said. “Leave it to me. You want jelly or honey or both? The coffee’s ready. You want it now or with breakfast?”
    â€œNow would be lovely. What did Arthur give me?”
    â€œA Seconal.” Kathleen held out a cup of coffee to her mother. A beautiful cup and saucer with morning glories growing around the cup and handle. We had set the table with the prettiest china we could find. Food being cooked, sunlight coming in the window, life being led. Edwina took the cup of coffee and sat down in a chair at the table. “That’s the first night’s sleep I’ve had in weeks,” she said. “I don’t care what happens after a night like that. I didn’t even dream.”
    â€œThen why were you doing it?” We all drew near. Moved around her.
    â€œI don’t know. I guess I thought it was my duty somehow.”
    â€œTo not get old?” This from Cary.
    â€œWell, not to be ugly. To go find love.” Edwina hung her head, then started laughing again. “What did you tell them? Oh, my God, what did you say?”
    â€œThat you had changed your mind. That you were going home.”
    â€œWe went to the opera,” I offered. “It was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. I brought you a program and a libretto. It’s