The Stroke
A Story
by Ann Beattie“We don’t like the children.”
“We do love them, though.”
“Doesn’t matter. We want them to go away.”
“I don’t want Amity to go. She came all the way from Santa Cruz. And I’m sure she didn’t really want to come.”
“She criticized the frames of my glasses. Then she bragged about her vacation to the Turks and Caicos. We don’t like to hear about other people’s vacations.”
“The worst thing is that she’s still with that Andrew. How can she stand that braying voice? At least we didn’t have to hear about their vacation from him, talking through that big nose like it’s a megaphone.”
