l5 . i;o rctrryA.lirs or , HappyEndings.

17

"Ilc'll be fine." she'd replied, not Lrndcrstanding,speakinginste lovin$ you and hating you for your lifb, for not asking about what
the other lbar. "Don't wc have a traditiorl of bastardsl" you have no reason to imagine, soft-chinned innocence I love.
L{c was finc, :r classicallyugly healthy litde boy with that shock white
hair that marked so manv of us. But afterward. it was that bad with my Jesseputs heg hands be y neck, smiles and says, "You tell the funni-
sistcr down with pleurisl, then cystitis,and no work, no having t<l est stories."
mrlvc back horne with mv cold-eyeclstepfbthcr.I would c home to see
l-rcr.tionr itlrc wornan I could not admit I'd been with. take my infi- pulsing.
"Yeah,"-{.rdllhei'.tBut I lie." (r e88)
my slster, no one
bcreamingred-faced,
,/
"Shut upl Shut,upl" With each word her tist med the mattress fan-
ning thc brby's eirr.
"Don t!" I grelbed her, pulling her back,
M AR G A R E TA T WO O D
ng it as gendy as I could
so I woultln't brcirk the stitchcs fiorn her qd ion. She had her ottrer MargaretAtwood, born in 1939and raisedin Ontario and Quebec,has pub-
.rrnr clanrpcd acr,rsrher abdomen rnd c 't fight mc at all. She just
lishedmore than thirty acclaimednovelsand collectionsof poems,essays,
and
kept shricling.
stories.Anrmportantcritic,she hashelpeddellne contemporary Canadianlit-
" fhrt little bastard.just screams screams.That little bastard.
reputationamong feministwriters in North
erature and has a distinguished
I'l l k ilf hir r . " . t
Then rhc words seeped in and she lookcd at me while hcr son kept America and abroad.Her novelsincludeSurfoclng
(1972);TheHondmoid'sTole
cry,in* ano kicking his feet. llla his head the mattressstill showed the im- ( 1986),which receivedCanada'sGovernor General'sAward; Cots Eye (1989):

[)act()l hcr tist.
"()h r-ro,"she moaned, "l wabn't going to be like that. I alwaysprom-
iscd rnysel;." She startcd to cry, htilding her belly and sobbing. "We an't
n o d ilic r c r r t .W e r n ' t n o rl i tfc rc n t."
]esservrap; hcr arnr around my stomachi.pressesher belly into my back. I
rehx egair st hcr. "You sure you can't have childrcn?" she asks. 'I sure
would like to see what your kids 'uvouldturn out to be like."
I stifltn, say,"I can't have children. I've hever wanted children."
"Still," she says,"y<lu're so good with children. so gende."
I thinr of all the timcs mv hands have curled into fists, when I have
just barcly held on. I opcn mv mouth, close it, can't spcak.What could I
sav llow) /Jl thc times I have n<>tspoken bcfore, all the things I just could
not tcll hci, the shamc, the sclf:hatred, the fbar; all <lf that hangs between
us uow-.r wall I cannot tcar down.
I wouid likc to turn around and talk to her, tell her . "I've got a
dust rivc; n my hcad, a river of names endlesslyrepeating. That dirty wa-
tcr risey'in nre, all th<-rsc
children screaming out their lives in my memory,
ancl I bec<,mesolllc()ne else, sclmeoneI have tried so hard not to be."
l},rt I don't say anlthing, and I know, as surely as I know I will never
havc a cl-rilJ,that by not spcakingI am condemning us, tiat I cannot go on
The RobberBride (1993); A|iosGroce(1995), which won the Giller Prize in
Canada;the Booker Prize-winningThe BlindAssossjn(2000); and Oryx ond
Croke(2003).Atwood s story collectionsinclude DoncingCirlsand Other Stories
(1982), B/uebeord's
Eggond Other Stodes(1983), WildernessTips ond Other
Stories(199 1),and GoodBonesond SimpleMurders(1994).Atwood has said
about her experimentalstory "Happy Endings,"
"l did not know what sort of
creature it was. lt was not a poem, a short story, or a prose poem. lt was not
quite a condensation,
a commentary,a questionnaire,and it missedbeing a
parable,a proverb,a paradox.lt was a mutation.Writing rt gave me a senseof
furtive glee,like scribblinganonymously
on a wall with no one looking....lt was
a little disappointingto learn that other people had a name for such aberra-
tions fmeta{iction],and had alreadymade up the rulesl
HappyEndings
|ohn and Mary meet.
What happens next?
If you want a happy ending, try A.
l8 . l"largarerAtwood
A Mary; it's tlre restaurant. fohn has never taken Mary to a restaurant. Mary
]ohn and Mary fall in love and get married. They both have worthwhile
anci remunerativc jobs which they find stimulating and challenging.They
buy a charming house. Real estate values go up. Eventually, when they
can aflbrd live-in help, they have two children, to whom they are devoted.
'fhe children turn out well. John and Mary have a stimulating and chal-
lcnging sex lifb and worthwhile friends. They go on fun vacations to-
gethcr. 'fhey retire . They both have hobbies which they find stimulating
and challenging. Evcntually thcy die . This is the end of the story.
B out. She sleepswith him even though she's nor in love with him. She met
.Vlan' falls in love with )ohn but fohn doesn't fall in love with Mary. He
r.ncrcly uses her body fbr selfish pleasure and cgo gratification of a tepid
kind He comes to her apartment twice a week and she cooks him dinner,
you'il noticc that hc docsn't even consider her worth the price of a dinner
out, and aftcr hc's eaten the dinner he fucks her and after that he falls
aslcep,whilc she does the dishesso he won't think she's untidy, having all
thost: dirry dishes lying around, and puts on fresh lipstick so she'll look
goocl r.l'henhe wakes up, but when he wakes up he doesn't even notice,
he p-rts <xr his socks and his shorts and his pants and his shirt and his tie
and lris sh<les.the reverseorder from the one in which he took them off.
FIc coesn't take off Mary's clothes, she takes them off herself,she acts as
if'sh,:'s dying fbr it cvery time, not because she likes sex exacdy, she
doesil't, but she wants fohn to think she does becauseif they do it often
enor,gh surcly he'll get uscd to her, he'll comc to depcnd on her and they
vvill Iet marricd, ['rut ]ohn gocs out the door with hardly so much as a
goocl-night and thrce days later he turns up at six o'clock and they do the
r,r.hoiething over again.
.Vlarygcts run-down. Crying is bad for your f-ace,everyone knows that
and ;o does Mary but she can't stop. People at work notice. Her friends
tell lLcr iohn is a rat, a pig, a dog, he isn't good enough for her, but she
can'r bclievc it. lnside fohn, she thinks, is another fohn, who is much
nicer. 'l'his other John will cmerge like a butterfly from a cocoon, a )ack
fion a box, a pit from a prune, if thc first fohn is only squeezed enough.
r-)ne evening |ohn complains about the food. He has never com-
plaired about the fbod before. Mary is hurt.
ller friends tell her they've seen him in a restaurant with another
w()nian, whosc name is Madge. It's not even Madge that finally gets to
HappyEndings.l9
collects all the sleeping pills and aspirins she can find, and takes them and
a half a botde of sherry. You can see what kind of a woman she is by the
fact that it's not even whiskey. She leavesa note for lohn. She hopes he'll
discover her and get her to the hospital in time and repent and then they
can get married, but this fails to happen and she dies.
lohn marries Madge and everything conrinues as in A.
c
John, who is an older man, falls in love with Mary, and Mary, who is only
twenty-two, feels sorry for him becausehe's worried about his hair falling
him at work. She's in love with someone called |ames, who is rwenty-two
also and not yet ready to setde down.
John on the contrary settled down long ago: this is what is bothering
him. John has a steady, respectable job and is getting ahead in his field,
but Mary isn't impressed by him, she's impressed by fames, who has a
motorcycle and a fabulous record collection. But lames is often away on
his motorcycle, being free. Freedom isn't the same for girls, so in the
meantime Mary spends Thursday evenings with Iohn. Thursdays are the
only days lohn can get away.
Iohn is married to a woman called Madge and they have two chil-
dren, a charming house which they bought just before the real estare val-
ues went up, and hobbies which they find stimulating and challenging,
when they have the time . John tells Mary how important she is to him,
but of course, he can't leave his wife becausea commitment is a commit-
ment. FIe goes on about this more than is necessary and Mary finds it
boring, but older men can keep it up longer so on the whole she has a
fairly good time.
One day lames breezes in on his motorcycle with some top-grade
California hybrid and fames and Mary get higher than you'd believe pos-
sible and they climb into bed. Everything becomes very underwater, but
along comes |ohn, who has a key to Mary's apartment. He finds them
stoned and entwined. He 's hardly in any position to be jealous, consider-
ing Madge, but nevertheless he's overcome with despair. Finally he's mid-
dle-aged, in two years he'll be bald as an egg and he can't stand it. He
purchases a handgun, saying he needs it for target practice-this is the
thin part of the plot, but it can be dealt with later-and shoots the two of
them and himself.
f0 l'at,garetAtwood TheLesson. 2l

lvla.lgic, after a suitablc period of mourning, marries an understanding TO N I C A D E B A M B A R A

cailJ,l Frcd and .u".yihing continues as in A, but under different
'ra'
namcs. for her civilrightsactivismas well as herfiction and essaywriting,Toni
Cade in
(1939-1995) grew up in Harlem and Bedford-Stuyvesant
D New ln 1977 she publishedthe short story collectionGorillo,My Love,
well and
Fred an.I Madge have no problems. They get along exceptionalla which has widespreadcriticalattention.Her other work includethe
their charm-
.rre gooJ ,t..riking our any little difhculties that may arise.But collection BrrdsAre Still Alive (1977) and the novels The Solt Eoters
Real
i,rglouse is by the scashori and one day a grant tidal wave approaches' the American Book Award, and /f 8/essingComes(1987). I,
the tidal
estatc vrlucs go rJown. The rest of the story is about what caused Shewas alsoan including
of and contributorto severalessaycollections, al
but
wavc arrd how they escapefiom it. They do, though thousands drown' The BlockWomon: Anthology( | 970) and Tolesond Storiesfor Black Folks i,
they clasp
F'rcd and Maclge arc virLous and lucky' Finally on high ground ( 197l).In additionto
as in A' adivism and writing,Bambarataught in collegesand
cach otire r, wci and clripping and gratefi'rl, and continue
rndependent hools in numerouscities.ln an interview in B/ock
WomenWriters
otWok explainedthe valueof her varietyof experiences:
E "lt's a tremendous
t
kind and and honor-to be a write[ an t
Ycs,bu : Fred has a bad heart. The rest of the story is about how you call this vocation.One's got to see
devotes herself artist,a cuhuralworker. .,
un.jerstanding they both are until Fred dies' Then Madge*Madge"'"can-
what the factory worker sees, the prisonersees,what the welfarechil-
to charity w,rik until the end of A. If you like, it can be
dren see,what the scholarsees, to see what the ruling-class
mythmakers
ccr," "11uilryand confused," and "bird watching'"
see as well,rn order to tell the truth not get trappedl'

F
Mary a
lf vou think this is all too bourgeois, make John a revolutionary and
this is
coul.Itei'espionageagent and sie how far that gets you' Remember'
(lanacli. You'll still cnd up with A, though in between you may get a lustful
sort of.
brawling saga Of passionate involvement, a chronicle of our times, f) ack in the dayswhe n evervone was o stupid or young and fool-
and me and Sugar were rhe only just right, this lady moved
-fDirn
you,ll lraveto flce it, the endings are the samehowever you sliceit. Don't on our block with nappy hair and proper and no makeup. And
fake' quite naturally we laughed at her, laughed the we did at the junk man
be dch,ded by any other endings, they're all fake, either deliberately
with n,alicious intent to deceivc, or just motivated by excessiveoptimism who went about his business like he was some bi -time president and his
if not 1,ydownright sendmentality. sorry-ass horse his secretary. And we kinda hated r too. hated the wav
Tl,c only authentic ending is the one provided here: we did the winos who cluttered up our parks and on our handball
nnd' Mary d'ie' walls and stank up our hallways and stairs so you n't halfway play
frt,tn nnd Mary d'ie.lohn nnd' Mnry d'ie'John
hide-and-seekwithout a goddamn gas mask. Miss was her name.
So mu,h filr cndings. Beginnings are alwaysmore fun. True connoisseurs' The only woman on the block with no first name. was black as
hardest
howev:r, are known t<, fivor the stretch in between, since it's the hell, cept fbr her feet, which were fish-white and spooky. d she was al-
to do r,nything with. ways planning these boring-ass things for us to do, us be my cousln,
just one
Tl ,ai's abiut all thar can be said for plots, which anyway are mosdy who lived on the block cause we all moved North same time
thing rLfteranother, a what and a what and a what' and to the same apartment then spread out gradual to . And our
N'rw try How and WhY.
(Ie83) parents would yank our heads into some kinda shape and