Free An Atomic Romance by Bobbie Ann Mason

evening, but he couldn’t think that far ahead—how would he cover his ass if he took off from work another night? Maybe God could cover for him, if he wasn’t too busy.
    When he returned to his mother’s room, he met a male nurse and a lab tech wheeling an ultrasound contraption out the door. Reed was always surprised to see a male nurse.
    “Radiology just scanned her bladder,” the nurse explained after Reed identified himself. “She doesn’t need the catheter anymore.”
    Reed saw that the scanner was equipped with an enormous black plastic ultrasound probe. Reed thought of aliens kidnapping people and scanning them on their intergalactic operating tables.
    He said, “Could you please see that her teeth are brushed? She has a bridge, and I don’t think it’s been out once since she’s been here. She’ll be growing a garden in there before long.”
    “One of the aides will be around later.”
    Reed hammered down a sudden surge of anger. He had no confidence that his mother’s teeth would ever get brushed. The nurses and aides changed like runners in a relay race. He did not recognize this nurse. There was no one watching out for his mother except himself. Grimly, he set about the task of brushing her teeth.
    “I’ll do it later,” she said. “I’m sleepy. Go away and let me snooze.”
    He drove home, aware that he ought to investigate the nursing homes the next day. A few years before, he had gone with his mother to visit her aunt Willoughby at a small rest home. The smell of urine assaulted them at the door, and as they passed the kitchen, he saw the cooks frying bologna. He remembered a scrawny man wheeling up to him and pleading, “Find my glasses!” Maybe the other places weren’t that bad, he thought. He would not call his sister until after he had seen some of them. Shirley would be all for a nursing home, he felt sure. Or at least, she would be all for leaving the problem up to him.
    It was a bright, full-moon night. He remembered that the penumbral eclipse was coming soon—maybe minutes from now. He kept glancing at the moon during the drive, but it still shone brilliantly. The ancients believed the moon was the eye of God. Who would worship a god with only one eye? Cyclopsians? Cycloppers? He parked in his weed-thronged driveway. He had bought this weathered old place four years ago, after he relinquished the brick ranch house to Glenda, so that she could sell it and buy a farmette in her home state of Iowa. Now she was raising Nubian goats, of all things. As Reed jumped out of the truck, Clarence roared with joy. Reed opened the backyard gate and let the dog jump on him.
    “Come on, boy, let’s go see about this moon.”
    The eclipse should start any minute. The moon would turn blood red. He thought he saw a faint red rim around the moon, but he decided his eyes were playing tricks. He walked down the street, glancing upward every few steps. Clarence frisked along, pausing to nose aromatic spots along the edges of the lawns. Reed didn’t leash him unless people were around. At the end of the block, they reached a large vacant lot, an open field, with an unobstructed view of the sky. Clarence raced around in extravagant figure eights for a few minutes.
    “Hey, Clarence! Aren’t you supposed to bay at the moon? Bay before it’s too late, boy. Bay!”
    Clarence barked. “I didn’t say bark, Clarence. I said bay. Oooo—ooo.” Reed tried to howl at the moon.
    The rim of the earth’s shadow had reached the moon, clipping off a sliver of the round white disc. Engrossed, Reed forgot to watch his footing. He was vaguely aware that he had stepped in dog shit. But he stayed out in the field for a long while, while Clarence romped around him and the penumbra slid gradually across the moon, at last engulfing it. The moon was the color of terra-cotta. He could see through the shadow onto the patterned surface of the moon. The moon had a lace curtain drawn across its face.

10
    The morning