White Elephant
Page 28
Allison gave her the lemon bar. Suzanne hung up the phone and smiled. “Bless you, Allison Miller. How’s Adam doing?”
“Jumping on a bed, last I saw. With Grammy at his side.”
Suzanne crossed herself. “My dear, sainted mother.”
Grammy had gotten Adam to promise to come to her for help with everything during the next few months, so Mommy could rest, and Adam promised he would. Sometimes it got lonely, Suzanne admitted, but she was getting some work done for a change.
“It’s just temporary. Remind me that it’s just temporary.” Suzanne called Allison several times a day to ask for reassurance.
“It’s just temporary,” Allison said. “Everything is.”
Temporary, ephemeral, fleeting. Nothing lasted. Maybe that was good. The fight over the future of Willard Park had loomed so large for a while, until, suddenly, it didn’t. After the fire, the town council unanimously agreed to adopt the building regulations of another similar town nearby, thereby ending the threat of mass mansionization. Problem solved.
But there were other, less solvable, problems. Like Grant. He’d shown up at the Coxes’ two days after the fire. He wouldn’t say where he had been. “It doesn’t matter,” he’d said, but it did to Suzanne. He’d tried to explain away the boudoir shot as a joke, but Suzanne wasn’t having it. She told him to leave and never come back—and so far, he hadn’t. The longer he was gone, the better her case for abandonment, Suzanne said, having consulted a lawyer. It seemed clear which way that marriage was going.
Her and Ted’s was less certain. Valeria, who never called, made a video call in the middle of the night, Paris time, to offer her best-friend opinion after Allison finally told her about Ted’s holiday from sex. “No sex? Are you kidding me?”
They’d done regular video chats since then, and one audio chat, during which Allison told her about Nick. She’d been afraid to do it face-to-face, not wanting to see disappointment, or even disgust, on Valeria’s face, but Valeria surprised her by telling her about rumblings in her own marriage. Ted would have to agree to go to therapy with Allison. She would do her part if he did his. If he forgave her when she told him what she’d done. There were a lot of “ifs.” There were no guarantees.
Allison went back home, to find Ted on the porch. He showed her the snowblower and she showed him Kaye’s artwork.
“I’m going to miss those guys,” Ted said.
Allison laughed. “You are?”
“No,” he admitted.
She sat beside him, joining him in watching the goings-on next door. A pickup truck pulled up. A man stepped out of the driver’s side, and got a sign out of the back. He hammered it into the ground in front of the Coxes’ house.
FOR SALE, the sign said, and there was Nina’s smiling face, in a photo Allison had taken.
The hammering stopped. And there was silence. The neighborhood had, for now, returned to silence.
Acknowledgments
So many people helped bring this book into the world! White-elephant-size thanks to one and all.
First, special thanks to my amazing agent, Suzanne Gluck, who somehow was unfazed by the fact that I inadvertently named all of my characters after members of her family and fulfilled thirty years’ worth of dreams. Equally special thanks to Megan Lynch, my fantastic editor, whose editing brilliance gave the book the extra shimmer it needed. You are my dream team. I could not be more grateful.
Sincere thanks as well to all of the talented, dedicated, and kind people I’ve worked with at Ecco and WME, including but not limited to Dan Halpern, Sonya Cheuse, Meghan Deans, Miriam Parker, Nyamekye Waliyaya, Dale Rohrbaugh, Victoria Mathews, Sara Birmingham, and Renata De Oliveira at Ecco; and Tracy Fisher, Sylvie Rabineau, Matilda Forbes Watson, Alina Flint, Andrea Blatt, and Jamie Carr at WME.
Thank you to Allison Saltzman for the pitch-perfect cover and to Roger Ycaza for the little houses; thank you to Ilsa Brink, website designer extraordinaire.
Thank you to my family:
To my mother, Isabel, who is always there for me.
To Ethan and Sylvie, who watched me write for years without ever suggesting I give it up already—offering love, encouragement, and understanding all the while. Extra thanks to you, Sylvie, for all of your original art.
To my brother Kenny, the wise model for Terrance, who reminds me every day that kindness is what it’s all about.
To my brother Stephen and my sister-in-law Jeanne, my niece Natasha, and my nephew Austin. To my cousins Robin and Holly—an extra shout-out to Robin for providing me with a New York home and the glam author photo. Canine thanks to Ginger, who made sure I got out for walks and offered a belly to rub during the long writing process.
Thank you to Jeannie Zusy—BFF, sister, writing twin—for love and friendship and unparalleled support since we were two years old. May we forever meet each other halfway.
To dear friends who helped in countless ways, supporting me at every turn: D.C. sister Cari Shane, California sister Ann Shulman, Spiderwoman Mary Koles, peace-loving Cheryl Dodwell, and best-ever-neighbor Audrey Singer. To the lovely and ever-gracious Susan Coll, who took me by the hand and led me over the wall. Grazie mille to Diana Meyer-Buchanan for a room of my own in Besacio, Switzerland, and to the rest of the Baum-Hackenberg crew. In special memory of Sylvie Hackenberg. Thanks to Cackalacky Michael Durbin, aesthetic magician Anna Kahoe, and my beloved yogi tribe: David Zyck, Susan Fensterheim, Cecile Giannangeli, Michaela Genitheim, Shannon Sharma, and the rest of the One Aum crew. Thank you to Lauren Cerand. Thank you to Siri, who heard “Happy Halloween” as “Gary Holloway” and therein named Allison’s ex; look for another appearance in Jeannie Zusy’s next book. Thank you to all of the more seasoned writers and bookish folks in D.C., New York, and beyond who so generously took me under their wings and to the debut writers who flapped along beside me—newfound friends all. Thank you to my yoga students and to everyone else who has been there for me in ways big and small throughout this long journey.
About the Author
JULIE LANGSDORF has received four fiction grants from the Maryland State Arts Council and her work has appeared in several literary magazines. She lives, writes, and teaches yoga in Washington, D.C.
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Copyright
WHITE ELEPHANT. Copyright © 2019 by Julie Langsdorf. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
Cover design by Allison Saltzman
Cover illustration © Roger Ycaza
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Langsdorf, Julie, author.
Title: White elephant : a novel / by Julie Langsdorf.
Description: First edition. | New York, NY : Ecco, [2019]
Identifiers: LCCN 2018022061 (print) | LCCN 2018024191 (ebook) | ISBN 9780062857774 (ebook) | ISBN 9780062857750 (hardcover)
Subjects: | GSAFD: Humorous fiction.
Classification: LCC PS3612.A5847 (ebook) | LCC PS3612.A5847 W48 2019 (print) | DDC 813/.6—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018022061
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Digital Edition MARCH 2019 ISBN: 978-0-06-285777-4
Version 12112018
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-285775-0
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