The Shine Journal

 

The First Wife

 

 

I want to be the first wife.

 

Even when my dad said nasty things about his first wife, he’d get this faraway look in his eyes, as if an old movie were playing inside his head and he didn’t want to miss certain scenes.  I never saw that look when he was with my mom, his second wife. 

 

A few years ago, I asked him if he heard from wife Number Three.  I liked her; she was almost my age.  He just shrugged, said he ran into her in the city a while back.  He sounded like he was talking about an old suit he’d given to Salvation Army.

 

The present wife seems nice enough, but soon he’ll tire of her and she’ll become another painting he once bought yet can’t recall why.

 

But he’ll always get that faraway look when he thinks of his first wife.

 

 

 

 

 

The Classroom

 

 

We discuss the fiction of Raymond Carver while a student in the third row, with no book on her desk, sleeps.  Her head bobs as if she's trying to catch a quick nap on an Atlanta to Charlotte flight.  I ask the class to describe the doctor in "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love." 

 

"In control," one student says.  "Self-confident."

 

"He's a pompous ass," another offers.

 

As observations are tossed like Mardi Gras beads, my mind wanders to a conversation I had with Sleeping Beauty earlier in the semester.

 

"Will I need the textbook?" she asks.  I don't have the $29.95 right now." 

 

I note the designer name on her pocketbook. "When will you have the money?"

 

"I'm not sure."

 

"You can zerox the first few stories from my book."  I hand my book to her.  She reaches for it with perfectly manicured fingernails. "But you'll have to purchase the text."

 

My mind returns to the discussion. "Your descriptions of the character are good, but where does Carver state any of this?" 

 

They point to dialogue and seemingly trivial details.  "Is there any place in his narrative where he explicitly tells you what the doctor is like?"  I give them time to search the text.  Some students, of course, are reading the story for the first time.  I don't mind.  If Carver does his job, he'll arouse their interest.

 

All the while, as she sleeps, I squint to see that her nails are still professionally maintained.

 

BIO: WAYNE SCHEER taught writing and literature in college for twenty-five years, he retired to follow his own advice and write. He's been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and a Best of the Net. Some of his work has appeared in Notre Dame Magazine, The Christian Science Monitor, flashquake, Flash Me Magazine, Pindeldyboz, Eclectica, The Shine Journal and Skive Magazine. Wayne lives in Atlanta with his wife.

MOTIVATION:

The First Wife: "I really have no conscious idea what motivated this one. I've been married to the same woman for forty-one years, so it's certainly not autobiographical."

The Classroom:  This story is based on any number of real incidents and students, although no acutal student or specific discussion of Raymond Carver comes to mind.