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Back The Surrogate Save as PDF
Chapters (65)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. Epigraph
  4. Part One
  5. One
  6. Two
  7. Three
  8. Four
  9. Five
  10. Six
  11. Seven
  12. Eight
  13. Nine
  14. Ten
  15. Eleven
  16. Twelve
  17. Thirteen
  18. Fourteen
  19. Fifteen
  20. Sixteen
  21. Seventeen
  22. Eighteen
  23. Nineteen
  24. Twenty
  25. Twenty-One
  26. Twenty-Two
  27. Twenty-Three
  28. Twenty-Four
  29. Twenty-Five
  30. Twenty-Six
  31. Twenty-Seven
  32. Twenty-Eight
  33. Twenty-Nine
  34. Thirty
  35. Thirty-One
  36. Thirty-Two
  37. Thirty-Three
  38. Part Two
  39. Thirty-Four
  40. Thirty-Five
  41. Thirty-Six
  42. Thirty-Seven
  43. Thirty-Eight
  44. Thirty-Nine
  45. Forty
  46. Forty-One
  47. Forty-Two
  48. Forty-Three
  49. Forty-Four
  50. Forty-Five
  51. Forty-Six
  52. Forty-Seven
  53. Forty-Eight
  54. Forty-Nine
  55. Fifty
  56. Fifty-One
  57. Part Three
  58. Fifty-Two
  59. Fifty-Three
  60. Fifty-Four
  61. Fifty-Five
  62. Fifty-Six
  63. Acknowledgments
  64. About the Author
  65. About the Publisher

“I’ve heard a lot about you guys,” I said.

No response. Caleb wiped his nose on his arm.

“Caleb’s fighting a cold,” Hal explained.

“Oh, that’s too bad,” I said, but also I didn’t want to catch it. “We just saw Titanic, have you seen it?”

Caleb smirked. No response from the TV watcher; finally, Jake tossed me a bone. He said, “We liked Scream 2.”

“Oh,” I said. A horror movie.

Caleb got up and went to sit by his brother.

“Hey,” said Hal, clearly trying to break the tension, “do you guys wanna order pizza?”

“Sure,” they both said as they switched screens to begin playing a video game.

“Great,” said Hal. “Excuse me, I’ll be right back.” He went down the hall to the bathroom, leaving me alone with the moody monkeys.

“So . . .” I took a few steps closer to them. “Do either of you play school sports?”

They were facing the TV, controllers in their hands. “I play soccer,” said Caleb. “And Jake doesn’t.”

“I don’t want to, you little wuss,” said Jake, side-checking Caleb. “I snowboard. In competitions.”

“Oh,” I said, not knowing how to respond to that.

“Broke his collarbone last year,” said Caleb, laughing.

“You busted your leg,” said Jake. “Doing nothing.”

Caleb punched Jake’s arm, and Jake stood up as if ready to fight. Hal returned and calmed them down and apologized to me. Jake sat down again, and the boys glowered at each other until one of them started the video game again, then all was well. Hal invited me to stay for pizza, but I declined, so he plopped some cash on the counter for the boys and took me home. And that was the first of my many attempts to gradually crack the code to understanding Hal’s boys. The first glimpse I got of what kind of father Hal was.

While we were dating, Hal often wanted me to come for dinner at “the House” during his week with the boys. This place was huge. The kind of house with lofty ceilings to impress its visitors, or intimidate them. There was an echoey emptiness inside that seemed to hold the pain of Audrey’s emotional struggles, which I’d been hearing more and more about. Even when she wasn’t physically there, I could sense Audrey’s presence in each room, the way it was decorated with yellows, pinks and florals, frilly pillows, scented candles, the Talbots in the closets, Clinique and Calvin Klein in the bathroom: she was everywhere.