1
" What made more sense was that the bargain she was bound to was to go on living as she had been doing. The bargain was already in force. Days and years and feelings much the same, except that the children would grow up, and there might be one or two more of them and they too would grow up, and she and Brendan would grow older and then old.
It was not until now, not until this moment, that she had seen so clearly that she was counting on something happening, something which would change her life. She had accepted her marriage as one big change, but not as the last one.
So, nothing now but what she or anybody else could sensibly foresee. That was to be her happiness, that was what she had bargained for, nothing secret, or strange.
Pay attention to this, she thought. She had a dramatic notion of getting down on her knees. This is serious...
It was a long time ago that this happened. In North Vancouver, when they lived in the Post and Beam house. When she was twenty-four years old and new to bargaining. "
― Alice Munro , Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage: Stories
2
" A fight like this was stunning, revealing not just how much he was on the lookout for enemies, but how she too was unable to abandon argument which escalated into rage. Neither of them would back off, they held bitterly to principles.
Can't you tolerate people being different, why is this so important?
If this isn't important, nothing is.
The air seemed to grow thick with loathing. All over a matter that could never be resolved. They went to bed speechless, parted speechless the next morning, and during the day were overtaken by fear - hers that he would never come home, his that when he did she would not be there. Their luck held, however. They came together in the late afternoon pale with contrition, shaking with love, like people who had narrowly escaped an earthquake and had been walking around in naked desolation. "
― Alice Munro , Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage: Stories
4
" The job she had to do, as she saw it, was to remember everything—and by “remember” she meant experience it in her mind, one more time—then store it away forever. This day’s experience set in order, none of it left ragged or lying about, all of it gathered in like treasure and finished with, set aside. "
― Alice Munro , Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage: Stories
9
" There was a danger whenever I was on home ground. It was the danger of seeing my life through other eyes than my own.
Seeing it as an ever-increasing roll of words like barbed wire, intricate, bewildering, uncomforting—set against the rich productions, the food, flowers, and knitted garments, of other women’s domesticity. It became harder to say that it was worth the trouble. "
― Alice Munro , Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage: Stories
12
" The stinging nettles that we must have got into are more insignificant plants, with a paler purple flower, and stalks wickedly outfitted with fine, fierce, skin-piercing and inflaming spines. Those would be present too, unnoticed, in all the flourishing of the waste meadow. "
― Alice Munro , Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage: Stories
17
" Non che le sarebbe stato riconoscente, comunque. Era arrivato a un punto in cui la gratitudine non rappresentava più un peso, ma un gesto spontaneo [...].
Nemico, amico, amante...
- Certo. Viene al ristorante un paio di volte la settimana. Lo fa anche col te. Legge le foglie di te.
Il ponte galleggiante
Doveva esserci decisamente troppo da mangiare, e i discorsi a tavola dovevano vertere per lo più sul cibo, con gli ospiti che ripetevano quanto fosse squisito e che, sollecitati a prenderne ancora, giurando di non potercela fare, sazi com'erano, per poi cedere a un bis, gli uomini, e prenderne ancora un boccone, le zie, dicendo che non avrebbero proprio dovuto, che si sentivano scoppiare.
Mobili di famiglia
Nina si era informata per l'acquisto di una sedia a rotelle. E lui non si era opposto. Tra di loro non parlavano più di quella che avevano battezzato la Serrata Generale.
Conforto
Di come il mio intero territorio si sarebbe modificato, come se una frana ci si fosse riversata sopra, facendo piazza pulita di ogni significato tranne che della perdita di Mike.
Ortiche
Le ricordavano certi segni leggeri che a volte si notavano sui marciapiedi in primavera: ombre lasciate da foglie rimaste incollate per terra l'anno precedente.
Post and Beam
Poi sarebbe venuto il tragitto nell'antiquata gabbia dell'ascensore, azionata da un vecchio - o forse da una vecchia, un'invalida magari, scaltra serva del vizio.
Quello che si ricorda
Il pesante trucco alla Cleopatra e l'ombretto viola le rimpicciolivano anziché ingrandirle gli occhi, come se si nascondessero apposta. Aveva i buchi alle orecchie, trafitti da due tondeggianti cerchi d'oro.
Queenie
Nel centro abitato vicino a Lagoverde trovò un fioraio e comprò un grosso bouquet. Non aveva mai regalato fiori a Fiona. Né a nessun altra. Fece il proprio ingresso nell'edificio come uno spasimante disperato o un marito colpevole da fumetto.
The Bear Come Over the Mountain "
― Alice Munro , Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage: Stories
