Cousin Maggie

Joyce Ito

1948

Oh Jimmy, yer mammy never wanted ye to know. I stared at my husband. He pushed thick lenses up his nose, a delay tactic to give himself time to think. They make thin lenses with special plastic these days, but still he wears the milk bottle lenses of his childhood. I am working on it, but he says his nose has developed to accommodate them. Its a funny idea, a nose growing into a pair of glasses, but it is true. Two deep and permanent grooves sit where the glasses rest, skin and cartilage shifted out of natural line to accommodate the heavy glass.

Oh Jimmy, Jimmy she cries. Will ye come and see me? Theres something I have to tell you, Oh Jimmy, Jimmy. ... (continues)