In the Woods

March 26, 1984 P. 42

March 26, 1984 P. 42

The New Yorker, March 26, 1984 P. 42

Writer is separated from her husband Marcus and goes to stay with her sister Barbara and her brother-in-law Kenneth, at their Indiana farm. She rides a horse named Sunny every day. In the weeks before her stay at the farm, she'd been awake too much and when she did sleep, she had ugly dreams about Marcus, who lived in Chicago. Marcus looked much older than she did. Whenever they were in a place where someone would see them, Marcus held onto her, as if to announce that she was his. To her, that was sadder and a bigger problem than his skirt-chasing. At dinner one night, Barbara told her sister"you're doing everything wrong." She thought about the whole situation one afternoon while she was brushing down Sunny. Sunny bit her. Kenneth helped her, explaining, "That's a horse you're playing with, not a puppy dog." A week before she had surprised Kenneth when he wasn't wearing his dentures. He looked at her with unusual gentleness and then winked. At the end of August, there was a series of thunderstorms. She was talking to Marcus long-distance. Barbara told her sister Oit's all work. Marriage, money,'ve got to insist." Then she confessed that she and Kenneth had not been faithful to each other, "But being so selfish and wrong often brings with it a sort of strength." Her sister knew and felt dizzy for her. She wanted the rain to end and the summer to start over-for everything to just hold off until she could catch up.

View Article

This article appears in the print edition of the March 26, 1984, issue.
