Free Going Ashore by Mavis Gallant Page A

something.”
    “I loved mine,” Marina said. She looked into the depths of her glass.
“Loved
it. I had a medal every week that said on it ‘Perfection.’ Just the same, I was ungrateful. I used to say to myself, Well, all told, I don’t give a goddamn if I never see these dark green walls again…. But then, as you say, the home background helps a lot. I look at my pupils, and I see nine little Carols for every little Victor. I don’t see myself anywhere, though, so I guess there’s nothing much between the Victors and the Carols.”
    “Yes, I see what you mean,” said Peggy Ann. She slid back her white organdie cuff and glanced at her watch. “The boys do talk on, don’t they? Of course, they haven’t seen each other for so long … There’s something we wanted to talk to you about, but I guess Victor’s just never going to get around to it.” She smiled at Marina, wide-eyed, and went on. “We wondered if you wouldn’t want to have this little apartment for your own.”
    “My own?”
    “To live in,” Peggy Ann said. “We thought it was such a good idea. You’d be right near your school, and you wouldn’t have to pay any rent – only the heat and gas. If there
is
heat or gas,” she said uncertainly, glancing around. “It was Victor’s idea. He thinks the store belongs to the family and you should all get something out of it. Victor says you really deservesomething, because you always took such good care of your mother, and you made so many sacrifices and everything.”
    “Live here?” said Marina. She straightened her chair suddenly and put down her glass. “Courtesy of Victor?” She looked across the table at her brother, and then, rising, unhooked the calendar from its pin. “Victor –” she said, cutting through a remark of Carol’s – “dear, sweet little Victor. Now that you’re proprietor of Rumania Fancy Groceries, there’s a keepsake I want you to take home. You might like to frame it.” She placed the calendar carefully before him on the table.
    “I was just coming to that,” said Carol. “I was just going to say –”
    “Well, I said it,” said Marina, “so shut up.”
    “What a memory,” Georgie said. “God – women and elephants!” He pulled the calendar toward him and read aloud, “Nineteen thirty-seven.”
    “The year I did not go to France,” said Marina. “The year I had the scholarship to Grenoble.”
    “I remember,” Victor said, smiling a little but glancing uneasily at his wife.
    “You should,” his sister said. “You damn well should remember.”
    “Victor, what
is
it?” said Peggy Ann. “You know, we should start back before dark.” She looked appealingly at Marina standing over the table.
    Turning the calendar over, Georgie read, “Sergeant-detectives Callahan and Vronsky, and two phone numbers. You ought to know them by heart, Vic.”
    “Not exactly,” Victor said. He shook his head, amused and rueful. “I’d rather just forget it.”
    “We haven’t,” Carol said. He pushed the calendar back toward his brother, staring at him.
    “It’s a long time ago now,” Victor said, relaxing in his chair as if the effort of leaving were hopeless. “You sort of started it all, as I remember.”
    “
I
started it,” said Marina. She moved around the table to stand between Carol and Georgie, the better to face Victor. “I had the scholarship in France and Mama had the money to send me.”
    “What has that –” Carol began, annoyed, glancing up at her.
    “Women,” Georgie said. “They always have to be first in the act. It was Carol started it.”
    “Your brother-in-law, Carol,” said Marina to Peggy Ann, “was arrested for some schoolboy prank one Sunday morning as the Boldescu family returned from church. Brother Georgie was ‘away,’ and after Carol’s departure, amid the tears of his sister and mother –”
    “Peggy Ann doesn’t want to hear this,” Victor said.
    “– a gun was discovered on a shelf in the shop,