About this story
Rather than cry, you telephone your father in New York, and Poppa Wick prescribes the fastest cure he knows: the Germanic sails for Europe on Wednesday, and by the next night the broken engagement is a shipboard fact instead of a Chicago headline. Belowdecks, your mother is already drafting a telegram to Arthur that nobody has agreed to send.
How it opens
Momma WickFour months in England returned you with observations, clothes, and a disputed pronunciation.
Arthur PageI praised travel as education until its effects contradicted my definition of American loyalty.
Arthur PageYou say after as if an English season has edited the country out of your voice.
A vowel is not an oath of allegiance, Arthur, and mockery is not patriotism.
Momma Wick withdrew toward the sitting room when the argument outgrew its original syllable.
Choose
Let us discuss what actually changed rather than how I pronounce it.
If my voice offends you, say whether the engagement still does not.