First Love and Other Sorrows: Stories (18 page)

Martin came out of the house. He saw that the hammock was swinging gently back and forth, and he smiled. He knew at once that Laura felt better, and he was serious and proud because he had consoled her. Not that he knew what he had done; in fact, as he walked across the grass, he felt small, and awed by the mysteries of what went on between a husband and wife.

“You all right?” he whispered.

“Yes,” Laura whispered tearfully.

“You want to cry on my shoulder or do you want to cry alone?”

“Alone,” said Laura. “But don’t go too far away.” Oh, the world was sad, she thought. Oh, the separateness of people. Oh, the clumsiness of being a woman.

Martin sat in the lawn chair and drank his highball. His heart was full. And, smiling peacefully in the darkness, Laura cried.

Harold Brodkey (1930–1996) was born Aaron Roy Weintrub into a Midwestern Jewish family. Both of his parents were recent immigrants from Russia, and after the death of his mother when he was not yet two years old, he was adopted by the Brodkeys, who were cousins on his father’s side. After graduating from Harvard in 1952, he moved to New York and came to prominence as a writer in the early 1950s, publishing collections such as
Stories in an Almost Classical Mode
and novels including
Profane Friendship
. Widely acknowledged as a modern master of short fiction, and the winner of two PEN/O. Henry Awards, Brodkey contributed regularly to the
New Yorker
and other publications. A long-time resident of New York City, Brodkey was married to novelist Ellen Schwamm. He announced in 1993 that he had contracted AIDS, and he died of complications from the virus in 1996.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook onscreen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 1954, 1955, 1957 by Harold Brodkey

Cover design by Jason Gabbert

978-1-4804-2802-7

This edition published in 2013 by Open Road Integrated Media

345 Hudson Street

New York, NY 10014

www.openroadmedia.com