No River Wide

Southern Review, The, Spring, 2007 by Robert Boswell

" Beverage break? " he says.

The women turn to him. " It ' s not even noon. " Greta taps her watch. " If we start drinking now, we ' ll never finish. "

He shrugs. " We need to empty the fridge, don ' t we? "

Ellen offers her hand. " We ' ve just been admiring the butts these young men possess, " she says, accepting a bottle.

" I ' ve got one of those, too. " Duncan turns to display his evidence. The divide of his slacks is marked with sweat. " I ' ve been watching the trimming from above. "

" You can ' t call it ' trimming. ' " His wife takes a bottle. " It ' s wholesale destruction. "

" That tree would have crushed us, " Ellen says. " Don ' t forget that. We ' ve been living quite literally in death ' s shadow. "

" That ' s quite a feeling, " Duncan says, " isn ' t it? "

" I can ' t help thinking about the tree itself, " Greta says. " If there ' s a tragedy, it ' s that oak coming down. "

" The tragedy would ' ve been not finding out, " Ellen insists. " Even if it hadn ' t crushed us when it fell, it would have made a mess of our lives. "

" All right, " Greta concedes, " but felling the tree is a tragedy, too. "

" I know it is. " Ellen puts her arm around Greta. " Once it ' s cut, I want you to come over and count the rings with me. "

Greta softens immediately. " What am I going to do without you? "

The embracing women send a small erotic charge through Duncan ' s weary body. He is the most familiar and least celebrated of romantic heroes: the man who loves his wife.

" You finish the attic? " Greta asks him. She wants him to walk home and fetch their station wagon. " Ellen ' s giving us all these books, " she begins, but she reads his reaction accurately. " Or I can get the car. You look pooped. "

" I wouldn ' t mind resting. "

" I ' ll go. " Greta sets the bottle on the window ledge. " Only take a minute. The beer won ' t even get warm. " She vanishes. The closing door creates an echo.

Duncan decides to use the time with Ellen. He has something to tell her and something to ask.

" I need to talk to you, " he says, " while we have some privacy. "

" About anything in particular? "

" Something very particular. "

" Cigarette? "

The back stoop is made of concrete and has a distinct slope. Duncan leans against its metal rail. The tree men have hauled in a trailer with wire mesh sides and are filling it with twigs, leaves, and limbs. In the shade of the house, the afternoon air is surprisingly cool. Duncan understands that autumn is really beginning. In the Midwest, seasons often change hands during a single day. It is the last day of summer and it will be the first evening of autumn, warm in the sunlight and cold in the shade. He lights two Merits, passes one to Ellen. " I ' ve been to the doctor, " he says, " and a specialist. " He reveals his diagnosis. The symptoms are just starting to show. " Greta doesn ' t know. I ' ve tried to tell her, but it ' s harder than you might think. I don ' t know what I should do. "