Free Family Linen by Lee Smith

and paid Mrs. Dwight and sent her home and locked up. Myrtle kept feeling like her life had happened to somebody else. Mother’s house looked so small, up at the end of that long stone walk lined with boxwoods, looking down on the whole town. Myrtle used to think it was the biggest, most imposing house in the world. And now she and Don have their own white colonial in Argonne Hills, with thirty-eight hundred square feet, about double Mother’s.
    Sean was not at home. Don called Louise, who hadn’t seen him. Then Don poured them each a glass of white wine. They like Principato. Myrtle tried to reach Theresa at the lake. Then she gave up on that and called Karen, whose computer boyfriend answered, and left a message. Karen says he’s a genius. Then Myrtle called Lacy, who said she’d come right away, and Sybill, who wasn’t home. She called Nettie and Arthur. “
Oh Jesus,
” Arthur said. Myrtle could tell he’d been drinking. Sean came in and refused to tell Don where he had been. Don treats adolescents all day long and establishes the best rapport. Sean just breaks their hearts. Myrtle was sipping her wine and dialing again when the doorbell rang.
    Don went to the door and there was Sybill, all dressed up as usual—but tonight, she had a wild hard grim look about her.
    Sybill looked exactly the way Myrtle felt.
    â€œHow did you know?” Myrtle asked.
    â€œ
Know what?
” asked Sybill.

I hate all this active-listening shit. Ever since they learned it last year in that class, you can’t have a decent conversation with them. If you ever could. But now I mean you come home from school really pissed about something, I mean really pissed, and they say something like, “Gee, son, you’re very angry!” and then if you say “Well, yes, I am pretty goddamn angry” they say “Yes! Yes, you
are!
I can tell you’re angry!” and
that’s it
. Then they smile a big faggy smile and go off whistling or something, and you feel like shit. You feel worse than you did before. There must be some other part to it, some part they didn’t learn or the class didn’t get to, like in History the way they never finish the book.
    The thing that really drives me crazy is how everything around here is so perfect and how they’re so nice. They’re just so goddamn understanding all the time. I mean if you leave a glass someplace, anyplace in the house, it gets automatically picked up like suction, and they’re always going around asking you what your
feelings
are. Theresa and Karen were lucky. They got out of here before everybody got so rich and understanding.
    Take my room. They say it’s
your room
, right? They say you can do whatever you want in here, you can play your music as loud as you want, whatever. It’s your room. We won’t go in. But then she always does. She goes in and she’s all disappointed and she says Oh, honey, you’ll make yourself sick it’s so dirty, you’ve got to clean it up right away. So you say okay, and you
will
, but if you don’t do it
right that minute
, like if you’ve got something else you have to do right then, when you come back she’s gone in there and done it, she’s been all in your private things, so you get pissed, and then she’s all apologetic, and then she gets pissed too. You can’t get any privacy around here. I’d say this is one of the biggest houses in town and you still can’t get any fucking privacy. In your room or in your head. They want to know what you’re thinking all the time. What you’re
feeling
. I’ll tell you, it’s not like I’m feeling anything particular, if everybody would quit asking me about it. It’s not like I go anyplace either.
    Like that night, all I did was ride over where they’re building that new office park, they’ve got an unloading ramp there that’s real good, it’s almost