As in:
“So how do you say it?” Astrid asked.
“Core-re-oh-lis,” Chellis replied, looking directly at her and making broad ohs with her mouth.
“That is so interesting,” Astrid replied. “Cor-o-lis.”
“No, it has an ‘e’ in it,” Chellis said. “Core-eee-oh-lis.”
And Astrid repeated this, correctly this time, and continued on explaining how she always knew there was a reason water turned when it went down the drain, but now it was just so interesting that it had a name.
It’s true what they say about women. They multi-task much better than men, and it is a trend that continued, with the march of time, well into the 21st century. The thing about Chellis is not just that she could multi-task well, but that she could multi-task well with a hangover. So even as she was explaining the Coreolis effect to Astrid and the boys, she was also simultaneously considering her next moves. Gardner Karst, charming enough as he was, probably didn’t deserve a fiancé as lovely and capable as Chellis, but there you are. If Gardner had a speaking part in this, he would likely argue that no man deserved someone like Chellis, and he would have a point.
The problem with Astrid is that she had arrived too soon. By Flavian’s math, it was still years to soon. But Chellis thought it a matter of at least ten days, probably closer to two weeks, before she would have to cut the umbilical cord, and have Flavian fend for himself with Astrid.
Now was too soon. So she would filibuster and use her best non-verbal threats (including the buttocks pinches) to keep Gardner in line. Fortunately, she’d started with the movie listings in her on-line reading that morning, just as soon as the tea and ladyfingers began their dance of revivification. There she read that “Love in the Time of Cholera” was returning for Moscow Film Festival. And now, in a stroke of genius, she announced that if the four of them hurried they could make the 1 p.m. showing. She offered this with enough enthusiasm to lead everyone else to think that if they didn’t get to the show, pronto, it would be like giving away tuition money. But what she was really after, of course, was a place where Flavian could be with Astrid, but not be expected to talk. Or at least talk very much.
No comments yet.