Excerpt: DOROTHY AND LEONARD

This novel excerpt was written by Meghan Daniels in Catapult’s first 12-Month Novel Generator graduating class

How old is too old to come of age? Set in an over-60 community on Florida’s Gulf Coast, Dorothy and Leonard explores what happens when you get to what’s supposed to be the end of your life — retirement bliss! — and find instead you’re just as confused as you were 50 years ago.

*

Leonard stopped walking for a moment and turned to Dorothy. “I have something that I think might help you relax a bit. Are you up for it?”

  “What is it?” Dorothy worried he was going to take drugs of some kind out of his pocket. She knew that some of her neighbors made a habit of smoking marijuana — apparently it was easy to obtain if you knew someone with cancer or chronic pain, both of which were a dime a dozen around here — but she wasn’t keen on the idea. The last time she’d smoked marijuana had been in her thirties, when her son MJ was a teenager; Patty and Ray had had a New Year’s party and someone had brought a joint along. Dorothy, already several cocktails in, had ended up passed out in their upstairs bathroom; she’d had to tell thirteen-year old MJ that she had the stomach bug.

  Leonard did not take out drugs, though. He didn’t take out anything. Instead, he took a step toward her so their heads were mere inches apart. Dorothy would have never admitted this to anyone — she barely even acknowledged it to herself — but for a split second she felt sure that he was about to kiss her. She had no clue what she would have done if he did. Her heart sped up, her breath caught in her throat. But just as quickly the thought was gone, and Leonard was looking down at her. His eyes were so mirthful, so unencumbered! Like a winsome baby goat. He said: “Dorothy, would you allow me to perform reiki on you?”  

  “Rakey?” She paused. “What is that?”

  “Reiki —” Leonard closed his eyes as if to explain would require substantial effort. “How do I convey its power? Okay. Essentially? Reiki is the power of healing, without touch.”

  “How —” she began, and Leonard held up a hand.

  “Would it be OK if I just show you?” His gaze was so intent that Dorothy felt she had no option but to say yes.

  She nodded, and Leonard bowed his head slightly and moved so that he was standing directly behind her. “Would you be more comfortable sitting or standing?”

  Dorothy considered this momentarily. She thought of the times in yoga where their teacher Sigrid had had them sit on the yoga mat instead of the floor, thought of the three blocks she always had to arrange underneath her bottom and her knees in order to approximate any sense of comfort. “I’ll stand, I suppose.”

  “Now. Deep breath in. Deep breath out,” Leonard said. “Like the doctor is about to listen to your heart. OK. Now breathe normally. That’s right. Just relax.” This was an impossible request, with him looming mysteriously, liable to — Dorothy didn’t know what. Cast a spell on her? Jump on her back for a piggy-back ride? Worse? Her breath was not deep or relaxed; it was ragged, quick. She said a silent prayer that this experience would not last long.

  “Are your eyes closed?” Leonard said.

  Dorothy realized that they were. Some sort of self-preservation instinct, maybe, a way of removing responsibility from herself. She nodded.

  Nothing happened for a matter of seconds. Minutes passed, and Dorothy felt — was that a hand on her shoulder? No. The wind? Her nose itched. She fluttered her eyes open slightly, just to reassure herself that she was still there, so quickly that the glimpse of ocean disappeared before she’d really seen it. She wanted to turn around, to say, “Are you almost done?” She wanted to laugh, to hear Leonard laugh along with her. But a seriousness had overtaken the air, she could feel it even with Leonard behind her, even with her eyes squeezed shut. Sigrid always encouraged them to exhale from their mouth when they felt anxious — like fogging up a windshield. But that required making sound, which Dorothy was loathe to do right now. She didn’t want to disturb Leonard’s process, and even more importantly, she didn’t want to do anything to prolong this ritual she had unwittingly subjected herself to. She began to count her breaths instead, one-two-three-four on the inhale, pause, one-two-three-four on the exhale, and she felt herself begin to relax, just slightly. But it was only a moment before she was nervous again. How long had they been standing like this? She opened her mouth to speak, but before the words came out, she heard a humming sound come from behind her.

  “Omm,” Leonard was intoning, the same sound they made at the beginning and end of every yoga class. Maybe this was just another form of yoga? She wondered if she should join in. No, she decided. Leonard would tell her if he wanted her to, wouldn’t he?

  When his humming had stopped, she waited a moment and then turned back to him.

  She smiled tentatively.

  “You felt it, then!” Leonard said triumphantly.

  He came around to face at Dorothy, his face beaming with pride.

  “I knew you felt it! I could sense your body relaxing. Your shoulders positively melted.”

  “I —”

  Leonard’s face was lit up, eyes dancing.

  “I did!” Dorothy said. She didn’t want to disappoint Leonard — he was so excited. And maybe she had felt it. Had she? Maybe. There had been that moment, when she’d felt herself give in…

  “It’s amazing, isn’t it? Not a touch of a finger and you feel all the benefits of a massage. Just smooths you right out. I can see the difference in you already. You look… serene!”

  Dorothy was not sure she had ever looked, or felt, serene but she nodded in a way she hoped was encouraging. What had Leonard called this? Rakey? She needed to google it.

  “No need to thank me, Dorth,” Leonard laughed.

  “I’m sorry — thank you Leonard,” Dorothy said. Had he just called her Dorth?

  “Puts you in a good mood, doesn’t it! I’ve been getting reiki for years, but I’ve just started watching videos online to learn how to do it myself.”

  “It’s definitely very interesting,” Dorothy said.

  “I’m just so glad it worked for you,” Leonard said, and again Dorothy felt a sense of his enthusiasm retroactively shaping her experience, making her question her previous skepticism. It hadn’t been unenjoyable, that was for sure, and he had been so focused on her, so intent on helping her improve her mood. It was touching, really. As they walked together down the beach, back toward the walkway to the pool, Dorothy couldn’t stop stealing glances at Leonard. He was quiet, but he was smiling, broadly, as they walked. Just smiling at nothing. Smiling at the air. How did you get to be a person like that, she wondered, a person who smiled by default?

*

Meghan Daniels is a writer based in Brooklyn. She received her MFA from Hunter College, where she was a Hertog Fellow. Her fiction has appeared in The Masters Review.