The Johnstown Girls

Chapter 7. Saturday, April 29-Sunday, April 30, 1989

179 T H E J O H N S T O W N G I R L S Saturday, April 29– Sunday, April 30, 1989 ■ Tomorrow is Orthodox Easter Sunday and today Nina is taking Ben to Johnstown to meet her mother properly. There’s another visit to Ellen happening, too, that’s how the weekend plan started, but it’s also time to bring her mother on board about Ben. They’re taking two cars because Ben is coming back on Sunday to finish up his article and she’s staying over on Monday, a little holiday with her mum. “Two cars,” he mutters. “It’s crazy.” “I know. Don’t be nervous. She’ll like you. And vice versa. I mean, she’s . . . you know, from J-town. Totally likeable.” “How did you define that J-town thing again?” he asks as he helps her into her car. “Oh, you know, nervous, high strung, alert, but also very patient. Describes every woman I ever knew there. It must be in the water.” “There must be exceptions.” “Not too many.” “‘Love is patient, love is kind . . . ’” “Don’t take that tone with my mum, okay? Don’t be sarcastic. She won’t like that. She wants you to be the man she always dreamed of for me.” “Oh, well.” He makes a funny face. “No pressure.” 180 K AT H L E E N G E O R G E “No pressure.” She watches in her side mirror as he goes to his car. The old Ben. And not. Everything is changed, changing. Their first stop—before the important reintroduction of Ben to her mother—is to be lunch with Ellen Emerson. To prepare for the likely size of that Emerson lunch, they hardly ate breakfast, just a half piece of toast each, all the time marveling over the fact that Ellen was slender. “That comes with extreme age,” Nina explained. “You should eat lots more,” Ben teased. “It’s Ellen’s secret, you know. She stored up. You could live to a hundred and ten years old. You could have two more husbands after me.” She heard him, the assumption that they would marry, but she had her mind on other things this morning over the toast and strawberry jam. “I think you should add as much about Ellen’s life after the flood as you can. People will be interested. I mean, in how a life was lived. That’s what I want to read about.” “I’ll include it if I can. Hal disposes.” She balked again at the limits of daily news journalism. “I mean she went from carts and horses to cars, for God’s sake. She went from gas lamps to electricity. Talkies must have seemed like the end result, like, what more could anyone want, and now of course there’s TV. And cable. I wonder if she could get interested in a computer? And now, if things are going faster . . . we’ll go from airplanes to what? You could end with the question of what we’ll see developed. Like James Bond devices and cars that fly and watches that talk.” “Teleporting, you mean?” “Little personal wings to travel up over roads.” “Drop down for a donut, power back up to the rooftops. My kids will like that, all right.” Yeah, well, clearly the half piece of toast wasn’t doing it for him. He was thinking of donuts. Anyway, on the slight breakfast, they start out. The day is cloudy and cool. Every once in a while a sprinkle of raindrops hits the windshield. Spring—you never know what you’re going to get other than hope. Orthodox Lent is a matter of waiting for the spring to spring. It’s a routine of being very hard on yourself. Nina doesn’t ob- 181 T H E J O H N S T O W N G I R L S serve it but her mother makes a pass at it every year. It means very strict dieting. Almost nothing is allowed. Her mother tends to fall off the wagon several times during any Lent when faced with extreme hunger or temptation. Tomorrow the fast gets broken with a traditional ham and fixings for Easter dinner. Nina has explained about Ben in a phone call. The man you saw in the car . . . Ben . . . yes, I’m seeing him...