Ghost Wife : Part 10

Skylight Confessions
by Alice Hoffman

(Page 10 of 12)

"Don't act as though you're so above it all," Arlie said. "You've been after John from the start. Do you think I'm stupid?"

"Actually, I do. All we've done is flirt. Unlike you and George. I heard you do him in his truck in a parking lot down at the beach."

Arlyn felt dizzy. Had this really been her best friend, the woman she'd confided in, invited to her home each and every Friday?

"If I got my windows washed as often as you did, the glass would be worn away," Cynthia said. "Sooner or later you're going to get caught, baby girl."

She wouldn't want to face off against John in divorce court. He might try to take away everything she cared about for spite. Even Sam. Then what would she do? Arlie must have turned even paler, her freckles standing out like a pox. She thought of the sort of war John might wage if he was angry enough, if Cynthia stoked his fury. Arlie began to imagine a custody battle, a lost little boy.

"Don't worry. I haven't told him." Cynthia seemed able to see right through her. "He's not home enough to notice anything, is he? But all of us gals on the road have been keeping track. We meet once a week to discuss your progress as a liar. Who would have thunk it? Little Arlie. Enjoy it while you can. I plan to be there for John when he needs me. Whenever that happens, I'll be right next door."

"I have to get home." Arlyn turned and started walking.

"Go right ahead," Cynthia called. "Fuck your window washer however much you'd like. But don't come crying to me when it all comes crashing down."

THE FIRST CRASH CAME WITH A CRACK IN THE WINDOW. One night rain came pouring into the upstairs hall. "Nobody noticed this!" John shouted. "What the hell are those window washers paying attention to?"

There were breaks in several of the roof panels, one in Sam's bedroom, as a matter of fact. It was a dangerous oversight. John fired the Snow brothers the next day, even though Steven Snow insisted they hadn't been hired for structural work. After threatening the Snows with legal action, John engaged a team to replace the broken windows, then found a new cleaning service, one that would be responsible for the yardwork as well. George's truck could no longer be seen near the house. Still, he continued to come around, even though Arlie told him to phone instead and she'd meet him at the beach. He couldn't stay away. Once he arrived on a bicycle borrowed from a neighbor's child, another time he was waiting behind the boxwoods, so that when Arlie went out to get the newspaper a hand reached for her, and pulled her into the hedges. There he was, George Snow.

Arlie began to worry. Fate had a funny way of getting back at you when you were selfish and thoughtless, and maybe that's what they'd been.

"Isn't that the window man?" Sam asked when they passed George's truck parked on their corner on the way home from the bus stop one day.

"He must be working for someone else," Arlie said brightly.

"He's looking at you funny," Sam said.

Cynthia had been completely wrong in her assessment of the boy; there was no child smarter than Sam.

"Maybe he's wondering why we're not waving," Arlie said.

She and Sam turned and waved with both hands.

"Hello, window man!" Sam cried.

The truck pulled away from the curb and made a U-turn.

"He didn't wave back." Sam looked up at his mother.

"Let's have hot chocolate," Arlie said. She was crying, but it was windy and she didn't think Sam could see. She would have to make up her mind, she realized that now. It was stupid to think she could have it both ways. But if she left John did she risk the possibility of losing Sam?

"You don't like hot chocolate." Sam wondered if that was why she was crying.

"Sometimes I do," Arlie said.

How could she be someone's mother and be so selfish? After Cynthia, her eyes were opened. She saw the way people were staring at her at the market. She hurried through her shopping; then in the parking lot, Sue Hardy, who lived down the street, came up to her and said, "I'm just telling you as a neighbor - everybody is talking about that George Snow lurking around. I'm just warning you, Arlie. He's not the invisible man."

Arlyn called George that night, after John had gone off to bed. Sitting in the dark kitchen lit only by stars, she told him she thought they should take a break.

"Why would we ever do that, Arlie?"

"Don't come around," Arlie finally told him. "I can't risk this anymore."

Copyright © 2007 by Alice Hoffman

About the Author

Alice Hoffman was born in New York City on March 16, 1952 and grew up on Long Island. After graduating from high school in 1969, she attended Adelphi University, from which she received a BA, and then was a Mirrellees Fellowship at the Stanford University Creative Writing Center, which she attended in 1973 and 74, receiving an MA in creative writing.