Page 39 - Sweet Embraceable You: Coffee-House Stories

Sweet Embraceable You 27

harmonica, one of three he kept on a shelf inside the door, and the
four hikers were singing a German song.
“So what do you want me to do?” Cameron asked. He scratched
the dog behind the ears.
“I want....” Curtis hesitated.
“Go on,” Cameron said. “Good girl, Mala. That’s a good girl,
Mala.”
“I want,” Curtis said, “to live with Ada.”
“You’re crazy,” Cameron said. “She thinks you’re a joke.”
“No.” Curtis leaned into the table. “I want...and this is really
hard to verbalize.”
“Try,” Cameron said.
“I want to move in with Ada. And with you.”

*
Ada lay prostrate on the couch with laughter. “Poor Curtis!” she
said. “What did you say to him?”
Cameron fell across her, stretching down the length of her
body. Her laughter was infectious. He laughed too. “What do you
think I said?”
She roared. “Yes!” she screamed. “You said yes! We’re no longer
a marriage. We’re a menage!”
“He wants us to be his mommy and daddy.”
Ada’s hilarity ignited her immense energy and she pushed
Cameron off her to the floor. “You idiot,” she said, gaining control
of herself. “Of course, you didn’t really!”
“You hurt my back,” Cameron said. “Of course, I did. I couldn’t
help myself.”
“You didn’t!” She began to strike his shoulders with her small
fists. “I’ll hurt more than your back. I’m not ready to adopt. Any-
one.” She meant Cassiopeia especially.
“Watch your knee,” he said. He rolled into a fetal position.
“Say you didn’t,” she said. “I’ll positively murder you!”
Cameron was laughing, tickling her, teasing her, driving her

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