“I think
“I’m serious, Isabel a. It’s not a good time to get a job. You real y need to get out there and pound the pavement.”
“Pound the pavement? Could you sound more like my seventy-year-old father if you tried?”
“I’m just trying to help.”
“Wel , you aren’t.”
“It seems like you don’t real y want to find a job,” Harrison said.
“What are you worried about? That I’m not going to be able to pay rent? Calm down, I got it covered.”
“It’s not that,” Harrison said.
“Then what? What?”
“Nothing,” Harrison said. “Forget it.”
“I’m not going to forget it. You know, I’m only moving there because of you.”
“I know,” Harrison said. He walked out of the room and left Isabel a lying on the bed. Two hours later he came back. “I’m sorry,” he said.
“Good,” Isabel a said.
“I don’t care if you have a job or not,” Harrison said. “I just want you to be happy and find something there that you like.”
“I know,” Isabel a said. “I know.”
“Are you sure you want to go?”
“Yeah,” Isabel a said. “I’m sure.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I’d rather have you here than not here,” Isabel a said.
“That sounds pretty simple,” Harrison said.
“I think it is.”
“The only pil in the pot,” her mom said, “is that you’ve never driven a U-Haul before.”
“The pil in the pot?” Isabel a asked.
“Isabel a,” her mom said. “Don’t be difficult.”
“Wel , anyway, I’m not driving it. Harrison’s going to. He’s the pil in the pot.”
“No,” her mom said. “I meant that the rest of your moving plan sounds good, but that the drive wil be difficult.”
“Maybe the worm should take the pil ,” Isabel a said. “Then there won’t be a pil in the pot.”
Her mom sighed. “Isabel a, I think you’re the pil in the pot.”
“People on the subway that stand too close,” Harrison said. “Put it on the list.” He threw the boxes on the floor and the dog jumped.
Isabel a got up and went to the refrigerator, where they had hung a running list of things that they hated about New York. It was supposed to make them feel better about leaving. So far, they had rats, cockroaches, huge puddles that you have to leap over, people walking with umbrel as that hit you, Duane Reade pharmacy workers, and now people on the subway that stand too close.
“Oh, and how about people on the subway that let their leg rest against yours and then when you move over, they move closer?” Isabel a asked.
“Isn’t that the same thing?” Harrison asked.
“No way,” Isabel a said. Harrison nodded.
“Put it on the list,” he said.
“I can real y have your couch?” Lauren asked. She was holding Mary’s new baby. She and Isabel a had been passing her back and forth al night and drinking wine. Mary just sat on the couch and watched. She didn’t even seem worried that every time they passed her to one another, they said,
“Don’t drop her.”
“Yeah,” Isabel a said. “You can have it. I don’t think it wil look right in the new apartment.”
“Why didn’t you offer me the couch?” Mary asked.
“You have a baby,” Lauren said. “You don’t need a couch.”
