Spring Fever

“I’m almost finished,” Sallie said. “Sit down, please.”

A

Mason was right again. She shouldn’t have come. Despite all her best intentions, Sallie was getting to her yet again, needling, criticizing, and, yes, pushing her around. A

Sallie took a deep drag on her cigarette and flicked the ashes into the nearest potted palm. “All I wanted to do … all I wanted to say, is this: if you’re going to become a part of this family … again, I want you to stop trying to tear us apart. That’s it. In a nutshell.”

“I’m tearing your family apart?”

“You think I don’t know what you’ve been up to?” Sallie asked. “Pokey is furious with me over this mess with Celia, which she somehow thinks is my fault. Mason won’t return my phone calls. He actually has Voncile ru

A

“You are unbelievable,” she said, when she could finally gather her thoughts. “Me? Wreck your family? Let me clue you to the real world, Sallie, since you refuse to face it for yourself. Your daughter is furious with you because you let her know you don’t consider her children to be ‘real’ Baylesses. Also, you treat her like shit, always criticizing her clothes, or her weight, or her housekeeping, always letting her know she isn’t quite good enough.”

“I never!” Sallie said. “Pokey knows I love her. And if I’ve given her constructive criticism, she knows it’s because I want her to be the best she can be.”

“I don’t know what’s going on with Davis,” A

“You have no right,” Sallie said, stubbing out her cigarette in the palm. “I want you to leave this house right now.”

“You asked me over here, and I listened to your bullshit, so now it’s my turn,” A

“How dare you!” Sallie jumped up from her chair and stormed into the house. A

“It’s not even noon yet,” A

Sallie gulped the wine, spilling some down the front of her blouse, a rare sight. “He had no right to tell those lies, to talk about his father that way,” she said.

“He’s telling the truth and you know it,” A

Sallie took another gulp of wine. “This is unforgivable.”

“You knew all about the cheating, didn’t you?” A

“I didn’t know anything,” Sallie said, unconvincingly.

“But you guessed.”

*   *   *

Sallie stared down into her wineglass. “The first time he cheated, I told myself it was just a slip. The children were so young; Pokey was still in diapers. He went to a ballgame in Chapel Hill for the weekend, and I stayed home with the children. When he came home, I just knew. The phone would ring at night, and if I picked up, she’d hang up.”

She gave A

“Why didn’t you have it out with him?” A

“I didn’t want to leave him,” Sallie said. “I was in love with him. You knew Gle

“Except your self-respect.”

Sallie raised an eyebrow. “A highly overrated commodity, A

“Until things changed,” A

“It was outrageous behavior!” she said, her nostrils flaring. “Even for him. I waited up all night, wondering whether he and Mason were even alive. He came stumbling into our bedroom way after midnight, still drunk. And Gle

“His heart medication?” A

“Sildenafil citrate. Ever hear of it? I hadn’t. I had to look it up on the Internet.” Sallie put the glass carefully down on the counter, then picked up a sponge to wipe down any traces of the spilled wine. “He’d gotten himself a prescription of Viagra so he could perform like the young stud he thought he was. He didn’t care if he couldn’t get it up for his wife,” she said bitterly. “But his girlfriends were a different story.”

Sallie opened the cupboard under the sink and brought out a bottle of spray cleaner. She sprayed the already-immaculate formica countertop, then wiped it briskly, using nearly half a roll of paper towels, while A

“You think I’m a bitch,” she told A

A

That made Sallie laugh. “I spend a lot of money to look this good. I had a face-lift last year, did you know?”

“I wondered,” A

“Yes. There’s a surgeon down there who does amazing work. I’m thinking of having a tummy tuck next. In fact, I’ve put in a contract on a little bungalow down in Palm Beach, and that’s where I’ll be wintering next year. I’m going to sell the Wrightsville Beach cottage. I never cared for it there anyway. It’s much nicer in Highlands, and most of my friends have places there. A much more interesting social scene.”