A Late Divorce by A. B. Yehoshua

secretary calls, tell her to sit tight and that I’m on my way.... Yes, I’ll see the doctor first. It’s not just a medical issue, it’s a legal one too. What’s this? What’s in this bag?...Vitamin powder for the dog? I swear to God ... All right, all right, I’ll give it to her. A work of genius could be written about that dog if only you could find the genius to write it. Don’t you have some new novel for her to read?...All right, all right. I’ll call during the day. We’ll be in touch. Don’t worry, and whatever you do don’t forget to tell the secretary to wait. Gaddi, I’m off!”
    Yesterday it rained and gusted today the sun’s beating down how can you expect stability in a country with such weather? The can keep streaming down the hill no one stops to let you in you might think from the rush that people actually work around here they just want to punch in quick so they can go moonlight somewhere eke. Honk you stinking Subaru screech till your brakes burn it’s my road too I pay enough taxes for it.
    To think that once I went to this school too I’d kill myself if I had to go back how scared I was of those shitassed teachers but he looks like he actually enjoys it the jaunty way he bounces out of the car. Where are those traffic monitors they promised? Don’t tell me young kids have started striking too. I’ll just wait to watch him cross the street. I don’t like to think of his walking home by himself with all these crazy cars zooming around. Honk honk your head off you fucking Volvo you just wait till my son crosses the street you bitch if you’re itching to kill some child this morning go find another one than mine.
    That’s it. I can’t see him anymore among the children. When they’re babies you don’t feel a thing for them but the older they get the wilder you become about them. That’s all life is in the end just a few people no matter how grand no matter how complicated no matter how wretched so spare them a smile if you can.
    â€œMorning.”
    My secretary is huddled by the electric heater small dark and bitter if she goes on like this only the heater will want to marry her.
    â€œAre you cold, Levana? And here I was thinking I’d actually seen a little bit of sunlight outside—or was I mistaken?”
    She glances up at me darkly with that look that’s already driven more than one client away.
    â€œFor the forty thousand pounds that I pay you per month plus all the fringe benefits don’t I at least deserve one smile in the morning? Or do I have to pay extra for that?”
    By the time she gets it and gives me a twisted smile I feel sorry for having made fun of her. And it’s only on her good days that she gets one out of every ten jokes that I tell her. When I opened a private practice two years ago after getting fed up with financing a new Cadillac for Mr. Advocate Gordon each year I was advised by those in the know to take an old maid with two years of high school it will cost you less they said and you can be sure she’ll sit faithfully in the office and not run to the doctor every day with a sick baby what they forgot to mention was that you can also be sure of perpetual gloom stuck to a chair a foot away from you and of a big hike in the electric bill.
    â€œWas there any mail?”
    â€œNo.”
    That aggrieved tone of voice. They can’t forgive us for having rescued them from the caves of the Atlas Mountains and introduced them to civilization.
    â€œDid anyone call from the district court to let us know if they’ve set a date for our murder trial?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œDid Mr. Goren call to tell us when he sent that check of his that he never sent?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œDid anyone call this morning, was anyone in the office?”
    â€œNo.”
    I pay her forty thousand pounds a month to hear her say no all day long. Two hundred