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The Fourth Hand Rudy was so impressed by Wilbur, the pig in Charlotte's Web, that he wanted to rename Medea and call her Wilbur instead. "That's a boy's name," Zajac pointed out, "and Medea is a girl. But I suppose it would be all right. You could rename her Charlotte, if you like - Charlotte's a girl's name, you know." "But Charlotte dies," Rudy argued. (The eponymous Charlotte is a spider.) "I'm already afraid that Medea will die." "Medea won't die for a long time, Rudy," Zajac assured his son. "Mommy says you might kill her, because of the way you lose your temper." "I promise I won't kill Medea, Rudy," Zajac said. "I won't lose my temper with her." (This was typical of how little Hildred had ever understood him; that he lost his temper at dogshit didn't mean he was angry at dogs!) "Tell me again why they named her Medea," the boy said. It was hard to relate the Greek legend to a ix-year-old - just try describing what a sorceress is. But the part about Medea assisting her husband, Jason, in obtaining the Golden Fleece was easier to explain than the part about what Medea does to her own children. Why would anyone name a dog Medea? Dr. Zajac wondered. In the six months since he'd been divorced, Zajac had read more than a dozen books by child psychiatrics about the troubles children have after a divorce. A great emphasis was put on the parents' having a sense of humor, which was not the hand surgeon's strongest point. Zajac's indulgence in mischief overcame him only in those moments when he was cradling a dog turd in lacrosse stick. However, in addition to his having been a midfielder at Deerfield, Dr. Zajac had sung in some kind of glee club there. Although his only singing now was in the shower, he felt a spontaneous outpouring of humor whenever he was taking a shower with Rudy. Taking a shower with his father was another item on the small but growing list of things Rudy liked to do with his dad. Suddenly, to the tune of "I Am the River," which Rudy had learned to sing in kindergarten - the boy, as many only children do, liked to sing - Dr. Nicholas M. Zajac burst into song. I am Medea and I eat my poo. In an-tiq-ui-ty I killed my kids, too! "What?" Rudy said. "Sing that again!" (They'd already discussed antiquity.) When his father sang the song again. Rudy dissolved into laughter. Scatological humor is the best stuff for six-year-olds. "Don't sing this around your mother," Rudy's father warned him. Thus they had a secret, another step in creating a bond between them. As one of Irving's biggest fans, I was delighted to get my hands on The Fourth Hand. I've read everything Irving wrote and I love his style, even though he is obsessed with the eccentric and sometimes downright bizarre. This novel, however, wasn't as good as many of his others. The characters seemed distant, there was a lot of repetition and many of the side-stories never got resolved. Nonetheless, I enjoyed reading it and it gave me quite a few laughs.

©2005 karenika.com