In Case We're Separated
By Alice Mattison, first published in Ploughshares
After unannounced absences, lies, and a switched kitchen appliance, a woman in 1950's New York discovers the truth about her boyfriend and the life he is hiding.
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Plot Summary
After her boyfriend, Edwin, tells her that she looks fat in her dress, Bobbie decides to send it to her slimmer sister. However, upon her arrival at the post office, Bobbie changes her mind and keeps the dress instead. When she returns home, she finds that Edwin has taken apart her stand mixer, and he says she mentioned something was wrong with it. Edwin is secretly married and has two daughters. After he misheard a coworker’s question, Edwin found himself on a blind date with Bobbie, and the two began to see each other. To avoid introducing Bobbie to his family, Edwin tells her that his mother is anti-Semitic and would not approve of their relationship. However, he sometimes has lunch with Bobbie and her mother or sister. Edwin takes Bobbie’s mixer home to fix it, and, on the same day, Bobbie and her sister Sylvia take their kids to a planetarium. Bobbie has one son, Bradley, from a previous marriage, and Sylvia tells Bradley that if he gets lost, he should just wait where he is. Bradley takes Sylvia’s directions very seriously, and Bobbie tells Sylvia that she has scared him. After they spend the day at the planetarium and a natural history museum, they all take a subway ride home, and Bradley suddenly tries to run out the door one stop too early because he mistook someone else as Bobbie and thought he was being left behind. Bobbie comforts her son, and they return home. Sylvia comments that Edwin should spend more time with Bobbie, but she also agrees that she indeed looks fat in the dress Edwin brought up. At his own home, Edwin tries to fix Bobbie’s mixer but can’t. He decides to switch Bobbie’s mixer with his wife’s, who has the same one. A few days later, Edwin has dinner with Bobbie and Bradley and gives them his wife’s mixer. Edwin stays the night, and, in the morning, promises Bobbie he will visit again on Saturday, forgetting that he is supposed to watch his kids. When Edwin fails to come by on Saturday, Bobbie invites her sister Sylvia over, and Sylvia tells her that she deserves more. Sylvia says that she knows how Bobbie feels and reveals that she has feelings for another man, despite the fact that she has a husband. Sylvia then notices Bobbie’s mixer and asks if she’s sure that Edwin brought back the same one. Bobbie studies her mixer and realizes that it is not hers, and Sylvia jokes that perhaps Edwin has a wife and it is her mixer. Bobbie begins to cry, and thinks that, of course, Edwin is married.