I told you – Again she seemed to be talking to someone else in the

“I told you -” Again, she seemed to be talking to someone else in the room with her Her voice trailed off.”Melanie,” he said “Talk into the phone.”"I know it’s hard,” she told him. “I know it’s asking you to take a lot in.”"Well, no,” Ballinger said, feeling something shift inside, a quickening in his blood. You’re saying your fiance, the man you’re going to marry, he’s sixty-three?”"A young sixty-three,” she said.”Melanie. Sixty-three?”"Dad?”"You didn’t say six feet three?”She was silent.”Melanie?”"Yes.”"Honey, this is a joke, right? You’re playing a joke on me.”"It is not a – it’s not that God,” she said “I don’t believe this.”"You don’t believe -” he began “You don’t believe -”"Dad,” she said.

“George – George Burns? Melanie, I don’t understand.”"Come on, Daddy, stop it.”"No, what’re you telling me?” His mind was blank.”I said William is sixty-three.”"William who?”"Dad My fiance.”"Wait, Melanie. Out in the garden his wife had got to her knees again, pulling crabgrass out of the bed of tulips. It was a sunny near-twilight, and all along the shady street people were working in their little orderly spaces of grass and flowers.”Did you hear me, Daddy? It’s perfectly all right, too, because he’s really a young sixty-three, and very strong and healthy, and look at George Burns.”"George Burns,” Ballinger said. “Dad, William’s sixty – he’s – he’s sixty – sixty-three years old.”Ballinger stood. “There.” She sounded as though she might hyperventilate.He left a pause. “That’s it?”"Well, it’s how much.”"OK.”She seemed to be trying to collect herself She breathed, paused. “This is even tougher than I thought it was going to be.”"You mean you’re going to tell me something harder than the fact that you’re pregnant?”She was silent.”Melanie?”"I didn’t expect you to be this way about it,” she said.”Honey, please just tell me the rest of it.”"Well, what did you mean by that, anyway?”"Melanie, you said this would be hard.”Silence.”Tell me, sweetie Please?”"I’m going to.” She took a breath.

Should I be sitting down? I’m sitting down.” He pulled a chair from the table and settled into it. He could hear her breathing on the other end of the line, or perhaps it was the static wind he so often heard when talking on these new phones “OK,” he said, feeling his throat begin to close “Tell me.”"William’s somewhat older than I am,” she said. Through the window, he saw his wife stand and stretch, massaging the small of her back with one gloved hand, Oh, Mary.”Are you ready?” his daughter said.”Wait,” he said “Wait a minute. “After all,” he added, “I’ve never been pregnant.”"It’s not about being pregnant You guessed that.”He held the phone tight against his ear. I think we should get this over with.”"Get this over with Melanie, what’re we talking about here? I mean maybe I should put your mother on.” He thought he might try a joke. She was fretting on the other end, sighing and starting to speak and then stopping herself.”I don’t know,” she said finally, and abruptly he thought she was talking to someone in the room with her.”Honey, do you want me to put your mother on?”"No, Daddy I wanted to talk to you about this first.