The Town Crazy

by Suzzy Roche

  Steph put her hand on Miranda’s arm to stop her from making any more comments about the poem. She noticed that Clarisse seemed choked up.

  “I like it,” said Clarisse, almost to herself. “Can I have this?”

  Steph closed the magazine and handed it to Clarisse.

  “What’s wrong, Clarisse?” said Miranda.

  Everyone got quiet, only the bickering and squealing of the children could be heard from across the yard. Miranda lifted her baby out of the playpen and laid him on her shoulder.

  “Oh, well. Poor Marilyn,” said Vicki.

  Steph sat with her elbow on the arm of her chair and her chin in her hand, thinking about how Lil and Jim O’Brien had left Hanzloo without warning. Not even a goodbye. It was like they disappeared. “You know, I miss Lil, she added a lot to this town.”

  Clarisse lit a cigarette and turned to watch the children. “I think it’s about marriage. It’s about us. And Hanzloo. And other things, too,” she said to no one.

  “It’s about us?” said Steph.

  “What is?” said Miranda.

  “The poem. Rivulets are meant to be tears,” said Clarisse, blowing smoke into the air.

  “I didn’t know that rivulets meant tears,” said Steph.

  “It’s poetry,” snapped Clarisse. “Nobody really knows what it means.”

  Just then, the purple clouds broke open with a violent thunderclap and a zigzag of white lightning. Torrents of rain quickly followed, pelting the driveway and the lawn, sending the mothers scrambling. They held magazines on top of their heads and babies in their arms as they tried to corral their children, who now ran in all directions, screaming, crazily, in the rain.

  Thanks to

  Alexandra Shelley, Harriet Goldman, David Bumke, and the gang

  Gail Hochman

  Nancy Burke, Deb Robertson, Mary Bisbee-Beek, and Karen Sheets de Gracia

  Loudon Wainwright

  Stewart Lerman

  &

  Lucy Wainwright Roche

  SUZZY ROCHE is a singer / songwriter / performer / author and founding member of the singing group The Roches. She has recorded more than fifteen albums, written music for TV and film, and toured extensively in the U.S. and Europe. In addition to The Town Crazy, Roche is the author of the novel Wayward Saints and the children’s book Want to Be in a Band? She tours with her daughter, Lucy Wainwright Roche, and lives in New York City.

  GIBSON HOUSE PRESS connects literary fiction with curious and discerning readers. We publish novels by musicians and other artists who love music.

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