Robert Stone - Children of Light

“You’re no fun anymore now that you stopped drinking. Drunks aren’t fun when you’re not drunk. I bet nobody ever told you that before.”

“Often,” Walker said. “Repeatedly.”

“I can think of a quote,” Shelley said. “Too much of water hast thee, maid.” She reached across the table and pushed his Perrier into his lap. “How’s that grab?”

Walker tried to dry his clothes with his napkin.

“The reason I came here after the service,” he told Shelley, “was to see you.”

Shelley swallowed hard.

“Oh,” she said brightly. “Oh, me.”

“I was hoping that in future … I was hoping that in future you might represent me.”

She blinked and looked around Joe Allen’s as though she were expecting someone. She was smiling brightly.

“Sure, Gordon. Absolutely.”

“I have some things in mind,” he told her.

“Oh yeah?” her voice came as a croak. “Excuse me,” she said, and cleared her throat. “Like what?”

“We can talk another time. I have to go.” He stood up and shook hands with Jack and Celli. “I thought that at my present age I might stop going with the flow.”

“We’ll do good stuff,” Shelley said, not looking at him. “You better believe it. Hey. I’m sorry about your drink, Gord.”

“It’s just water,” he said. “So long.”

“Right,” Shelley said as he went toward the door. “And I paid for it too.”

“Goodbye, Shelley,” Walker said.

When he was outside they sat in silence for a while.

“Excuse me,” Celli said. “But I don’t know how to make of it.”

“You were pretty tough on the guy,” Jack Glenn said. “Pretty tough on Lu Anne too.”

Shelley turned on him.

“Goddamn it,” she said. “I mourned her. You think I didn’t mourn her? I thought she was wonderful. I always thought it was like somebody fed her a poisoned apple.”

She took out her handkerchief and cried into it. Jack ordered another round.

“One more,” he said. “One more can’t hurt.”

When the drinks came Jack handed Shelley hers. “Drink me,” he said. Shelley drank.

“She used to talk about her big night as Rosalind,” Jack said. “I think it was a student thing.”

“I was there,” Shelley said. “I had applied to Yale Rep, so I drove down from Northampton. I saw her do Rosalind.”

“And was it, like, tremendous?”

“Yeah,” Shelley said. “Yeah, it was nice.”

“Sweet are the uses of adversity.” Jack asked, “That’s As You Like It , right?”

“That’s it,” she said. She put her handkerchief away. “Men have died from time to time and worms have eaten them, but not for love.”

“Great line,” Jack Glenn said.