Tuesday, May 03, 2005

Phantom Scribbler started it.

Almost as an aside in this post, Phantom Scribbler mentions Little Women*, which automatically reminded me of the early days in Mr. Spock's & my relationship.

In those days we were living in a two room apartment on West 96th Street in NYC. That is not a typo - two rooms, not two bedrooms.

He was doing something in one room (watching tv? working on the computer?) at this distance, I don't recall exactly what. I was in the other room reading Little Women, something I do about once a year. Beth had just died. I was going past him to get to the bathroom, sobbing.

Him: "What's the matter? Why are you crying?"
Me: "B-b-b-beth d-d-d-died."
Him: "What? When?"
Me: "J-just now in the b-book."
Him: "But....haven't you read it before?"
Me: "Yes."
Him: "So, why are you crying?"
Me: "She died!"

He never really got it. Somehow it's always a surprise when Beth dies.

*This is the edition I have. Beautiful illustrations.

2 comments:

Phantom Scribbler said...

LOL, Liz. Beth's death gets me every time, too.

Julie said...

Me too! And even worse than the death is when she talks about being homesick for her family when she's in heaven. That just tears me apart every time, even though I figure I must have read it around 30 times (I got the book for my tenth birthday in 1976; I'm sure I've read it at least once a year every year since...).