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"Ilc'll be fine." she'd replied, not Lrndcrstanding,speakinginste the other lbar. "Don't wc have a traditiorl of bastardsl" L{c was finc, :r classicallyugly healthy litde boy with that shock white
HappyEndings. 17
lovin$ you and hating you for your (^) lifb, for not asking about what you have no reason (^) to imagine, (^) soft-chinned innocence I love.
hair that marked so manv of us. But afterward. it was that bad with my sistcr down with pleurisl, then cystitis,and no work, no mrlvc back horne with mv cold-eyeclstepfbthcr.I would c l-rcr.tionr itlrc wornan I could not admit I'd (^) been with.
having t<l
screams.That little bastard.
my slster, no one bcreamingred-faced, "Shut upl Shut,upl" With each word her tist med the mattress fan-
ng it as gendy as I could ion. She had her ottrer .rrnr clanrpcd acr,rsrher abdomen rnd c 't fight mc at all. She just kept shricling. " fhrt little bastard.just screams I'll kilf hirr.". t Then (^) rhc words seeped in and she lookcd at me while hcr son kept cry,in* ano kicking his feet. llla his head the mattressstill showed the im- [)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 no dilicrcrrt.We rn't no rlitfcrcnt."
]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<-rscchildren 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
MARGARETATWOOD
MargaretAtwood, born in 1939and raisedin Ontario and Quebec,has pub- lishedmore than thirty acclaimednovelsand collectionsof poems,essays,and stories.Anrmportantcritic,she hashelpeddellne contemporary Canadianlit- erature and has a distinguishedreputationamong feministwriters in North America and abroad.Her novelsincludeSurfoclng(1972);TheHondmoid'sTole ( 1986),which receivedCanada'sGovernor General'sAward; Cots Eye (1989): 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'sEggond 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,likescribblinganonymouslyon 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.
home to see take my infi-
Jesseputs heg hands be est stories."
pulsing.
y neck, smiles and says, "You tell the funni-
"Yeah,"-{.rdllhei'.tBut I lie."^ (re88)
ning thc brby's eirr. "Don (^) t!" I grelbed her, pulling her back, so I woultln't brcirk the stitchcs fiorn her qd
l8.^ l"largarerAtwood
A
]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
.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.l
Mary; it's tlre restaurant. fohn has never taken Mary to a restaurant. Mary 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 out. She sleepswith him even though she's nor in love with him. She met 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.
