Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Ya-ta Boy]

I used to live in Colorado and so when I saw a book called �Plainsong� it attracted my attention. Loved it. Then I picked up the author�s (Kent Haruf) next book �Eventide�. I can�t say at this point if it is as good because I�m only half-way through, but I can say that it is taking longer than expected because it�s difficult reading through the tears. It isn�t sentimental, but when tragedy strikes real people, you have to feel something. (Some of the same characters over-lap in both books.)

Betty isn�t my favorite character, but I know her. She�s overweight, fairly stupid, pock-marked and has lost one of her kids to Social Services for good reason.

�Then Luther went into his and Betty�s room, and he undressed and got into bed in his underwear and stretched out. The bed sagged and complained under his weight. Dear, he called, ain�t you coming to bed?

In a minute, Betty said. But she had stayed in the front room and was sitting on the couch now, watching the snow falling in the front yard and out in Detroit Street. After a while she took up the phone, set it in her lap, and made a call to a house in Phillips. A woman answered.

I�d like to speak to Donna, please, Betty said. I want to talk to Donna Jean.

Who�s calling? the woman said.

This is her mother. This is Betty Wallace.

You, the woman said. You�re not supposed to call here. Don�t you know that?

I want to talk to her. I ain�t going to do nothing.

It�s against regulations.

I won�t hurt her. I wouldn�t hurt her for nothing in the world.

Listen to me. You want me to put her on the phone and have her tell you herself you�re not her mother anymore? Is that what you want me to do?

I am too her mother, Betty said. You ain�t supposed to say something like that to me. I�m always going to be her mother. I give birth to her, out of my own self.

Oh no, the woman said. That�s not what the court order says. I�m her mother now. And don�t you ever call here again. I�ll call the police. I got enough trouble on account of her without you making it worse.

What kind of trouble? Is something the matter with Donna?

That�s none of your business. The Lord will guide me. I don�t need any help from you. The woman hung up.

Betty put the receiver down and sat motionless on the couch, and presently she began to cry.

Outside the trailer house the snow continued to fall. It fell thickly in the yard and in the street in front and it kept falling until midnight, then it began to diminish and by one o�clock it had stopped altogether. The sky cleared and the cold brilliant stars came out.

Betty woke then, lying on the couch. It was cold in the room and she rose and walked back to their bedroom and pulled off her thin dress and stepped out of her underwear and unfastened her bra. She put on a tattered yellow nightgown and lay down beside Luther in the sagging bed. Shivering and cold, she pulled the blankets up and moved closer to him. Then she began to remember what the woman had said to her. How her voice had been.You want me to put her on the phone and have her tell you herself you�re not her mother anymore. Betty lay in bed beside Luther, remembering. Soon she began to cry again. She cried quietly for a long time and at last fell asleep against his great warm wide bare back.�