"Brooklyn Circle"

Face
"Brooklyn Circle"
by Alice Mattison

Rating: 8.4


Short story about Constance and Jerry, a divorced couple in Brooklyn, and their thirty-year-old daughter Joanna. Fourteen years after their divorce, Constance Tepper agreed to let her former husband, Jerry Elias, spend a few days in her Prospect Heights apartment.

“A glass of water would be good.” Jerry stared at the television screen. The gray-green knitted blob next to the sofa seemed larger than it had that morning. Six Americans had died in a helicopter crash in Iraq. Maybe Con would check the police report on Joanna’s arrest, try to figure out if it was legal after all. She retrieved her drink. Her hands still felt lighter and larger than usual, pleasanter than the gray cold hands she’d carried for years. Again she didn’t touch Jerry. She returned to the kitchen and drank, looking at her hands. ♦