Kin (19 page)

As everyone else went upstairs, David saw his dad go out the front doors of the hotel, so he followed him. Dad stood against one of the pillars smoking a cigarette.

“Getting some air?”

“Yes, it's a nice evening.”

David took a few deep breaths. “Dad, I want to thank you.”

“For what?”

“Being here. Paying for that ridiculous meal. For being the person you are…for everything…”

Dad reached over and squeezed the back of his neck. “You're welcome.”

David choked up. “I'll never be the man you are.”

“I'm sure you will. It takes practice. You have your whole life ahead of you to rehearse.”

“Thanks.”

“Go inside. Your bride will be wondering where you are.”

David nodded and turned to go.

“But David…”

David turned back. “Yes?”

“You're in another world here. Don't lose yourself. Remember where you came from.”

Lila opened her eyes and lay on the bed listening to Caroline's soft breathing. She curled up on her side and watched her through the slats of the crib on the far wall. The early morning light made her daughter's hair look more red than it really was. It was always a tangled mess when she woke up, and if she was too warm, her hair would get even curlier.

There was no getting around it. Lila had to get Cricket a new bed. She was too big to be sleeping in a crib, but there was a part of Lila that didn't want to change a thing.

It felt hot out already and it was only six in the morning, which was unusual for mid-June. Annie was calling her every day to bitch that women who were eight months pregnant with twins should not be subjected to a bloody tropical heat wave before it was even summer. Lila finally told her to go stick her head in a bucket of ice cubes. In typical hormonal fashion, Annie took it the wrong way and didn't call her until the afternoon of the next day.

Cricket began to stir. Then, as always, she sang by herself for a while and babbled about nothing. Lila wished she could greet each morning like that, content with her world and happy to be awake. And then it was time to wake mom. Lila sat up and looked over and as soon as she saw her, Cricket's face lit up.

“Hi, Mama.”

“Hi, baby.”

Cricket was perfectly capable of getting out of the crib herself, but she always waited for her mother to scoop her up and take her into the big bed to snuggle under the blankets.

“I think someone is happy today,” Lila smiled.

“I saw a doggy.”

“A doggy? Were you dreaming about your puppy dog?”

“Fweddy.”

“Freddy. I miss Freddy.”

“Sing.”

Lila sat up and Caroline made herself comfortable on her mother's lap.

“Mommy loves the button nose,

Mommy loves the button nose,

Mommy loves the button nose

And the little chinny chin chin.”

Cricket would point to her nose and her chin at the appropriate moments.

“Mommy loves the button eyes

Mommy loves the button toes

Mommy loves the button nose

And the little chinny chin chin.”

“Again.”

Then they'd play patty-cake, patty-cake, baker's man, and London Bridge is falling down. Lila would hold on to her hands and let Caroline lean back slowly until her head almost hit the blankets and then pull her up real quick. She loved that one.

“Do you know why Mama calls you Cricket?”

“I love them.”

“That's true, but also, they say that if you have a cricket in your house it brings you good luck.”

“Luck?”

“And you've brought Mommy the best luck she could ever want. I'm very, very lucky I have you.”

“Mama, where's Fweddy?”

“Freddy is a part of the world now. Our bodies die, but our spirit or energy doesn't. So as long as you remember Freddy, he'll stay with you. What do you think?”

“Fweddy's hungry.”

“And so are we. Let's go and see what we can rustle up.”

It was such a beautiful day that Lila and Cricket took their breakfast outside. They sat on the outdoor chairs and ate cut-up fruit out of their bowls, and then cheese on bread. Uncle Joe came outside to mow the lawn with his push-reel mower. The rhythmic swishing of the blades was soothing somehow.

Aunt Eunie emerged from the house to hang up some towels. “It's going to be a hot one today. I don't envy Abigail and Annie trying to get the food ready for the wedding party.”

“That's today?”

“Isn't it?”

“It's next weekend, I think.”

“My memory isn't what it used to be.” She held up the towels and stood there.

“What's wrong?”

“How do I hang this?”

“What do you mean?”

“How do these stay on?”

“With a clothes peg.”

Aunt Eunie lowered her arms and looked at the clothesline. Lila got out of the chair and went over to her. She pointed to them on the clothesline. “You use these.”

Aunt Eunie held up the towel and took the clothes peg off the line and then pressed it into the towel, but if fell to the ground.

Cricket giggled. “Nanny Noonie is silly.”

Lila felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. “Try it again.”

Aunt Eunie took another peg and pressed it harder into the towel, but again, the towel fell to the ground. She was very distressed. “I can't make it work. These pegs are no good. I'll get Joe to buy some more in town.”

“Leave the towels with me.”

Aunt Eunie went back inside. As Lila hung up the towels, she saw her future stretched out before her. Sometime soon, Lila would have two children in the house.

Ewan's truck came up the driveway. He got out of the cab with a basket of eggs. Cricket jumped up and ran over to him. “Hi, Ooan.”

“Hi, Cricket.”

She stuck her face in the basket. “Eggs.”

Lila took the basket. “Thank you. Come and sit down for a minute.” Cricket ran over to the chairs and spooned grass into her breakfast bowl. “I make soup, Ooan.”

“Sounds good.”

They sat together under the shade of the trees.

“I need to talk to you about something.”

“Okay.”

“I'm worried about Aunt Eunie. Lately she's been forgetting things. This morning she couldn't remember how to hang up clothes.”

“What does Joe say?”

“That's just it. He's ignoring the problem.”

“Now that you mention it, I wondered what she was doing walking down the road by herself the other day. I stopped to pick her up and she said she was out for a stroll, but now I'm not so sure. She had on an apron.”

“I'm frightened.”

They watched Uncle Joe walk up and down the side lawn with the mower. He waved to them when he got close. Cricket waved back.

“If you need help, I'm here.”

Lila reached out her hand and squeezed his. “Thank you.”

* * *

Annie took a kitchen chair and sprawled on it in front of her open fridge, wearing just her underwear. That's how her mother-in-law found her when she arrived unannounced.

“Yoo-hoo! Nana's here! Where are my grandchildren?”

Annie asked all her friends, but none of them had mothers or mothers-in-law who acted like a grandmother before the kid arrived. It drove Annie up the wall, but she tried to stay calm for Henry's sake. She knew there were times when he wanted to strangle his mother. He even mimed it behind Joy's back one day and almost got caught.

Annie closed her bathrobe. “We're in the kitchen!”

Joy fairly danced into the room. “And how are we three today?”

“We three are hot.”

“Oh dear, let me fan you.”

At first Annie was going to say that wasn't necessary, but it actually was. “Okay.”

Joy didn't seem to notice that the fridge was open. She grabbed a newspaper and did a fantastic job waving it.

“I feel like the queen of the Nile,” Annie said.

“Your wish is my command.”

How could you dislike someone like that? Annie had learned quickly that Joy in small doses was a delight. It was when things progressed to a couple of hours that the fatigue set in. Annie asked Henry how his father died, and he told her to take a guess. Annie didn't want to be mean and say he put his head in the oven, and was briefly horrified when Henry told her that that's what had happened. She felt much better when he told her his dad had been trying to fix the stove when something went terribly wrong. Of course, that was just what his mother had told him as a child. Now that Henry was an adult, he wondered.

“When are your brother and his wife coming?”

“They're in tonight and the party is tomorrow. But to tell you the truth, I've kind of had it with celebrating his wedding. One eighteen-hour ordeal is enough. But if Mom wants to do it, who am I to say anything?”

“I understand how she feels. She wants to be involved with a wedding.”

Here it was again. It was thrown in her and Henry's faces at least once a month that neither Joy nor Abigail had had the chance to partake in their wedding.

“What are you up to today, Joy?”

Joy kept fanning. “Nothing, really. I just wanted to see you and the children.”

“At the moment the kids are a bit shy.”

“Have you thought of any names?”

Annie needed to get up. “Thanks Joy, that's enough fanning. I'm fine now.” She carefully got out of the chair and closed the fridge door. “We're going to wait until they're born.”

Joy put down the newspaper and rummaged through her purse, taking out a small notepad. “I wrote down some of my family's names, in case there's anything of interest to you.”

Annie took the paper. “Asaph, Mehitabel, Jedaiah. I'll have to run these by Henry, but we'll keep them in mind.”

“Oh, sorry. The names are on the other side. I wrote those down because they were in the family Bible.”

Annie turned it over. “Patience, Hope, Faith, Charity. Interesting.”

“My grandmother had eighteen kids. She ran out of names. My mother carried on the tradition with me and my brother, Ernest.”

When Joy left, Annie called her mother. “Do we have a family Bible?”

“Yes, it's a huge old thing with a scrolled leather cover about four inches deep. Why?”

“Joy was over and mentioned some family names, and I thought it might be worth a look.”

“There were a few Sarahs, Elizabeths, and Janes.”

“That's a whole lot better than Mehitabel.”

“Good heavens. As long as you don't want to know everyone's date of birth, you're welcome to look through it.”

“Isn't that what a family bible is for? To record the date of birth and death?”

“Yes, but Aunt Muriel changed everyone's birthday to make herself seem younger.”

Later that evening, Annie was lying on the sofa while Henry rubbed her feet. Their front door opened and David's voice shouted “Anyone home?”

“We're in here,” Henry said.

David walked in with Kay. “Greetings! I figured we should come to you. Mom told me you don't go far after supper.”

“She's right, so don't mind me if I don't get up. You're looking as fabulous as ever, Kay.”

“Thank you,” she smiled, “but I think you look beautiful! Pregnancy suits you.” She held her hand out. “May I?”

“Sure. Everyone wants to touch my belly. I should charge a fee.”

Kay laid her hand carefully on top of Annie's stomach. Annie took her hand and pushed it down on one side. “This one's kicking up a storm tonight.”

Kay squealed with delight when one of the twins poked back. “Oh, I can't wait to have a baby!”

Henry pointed at the two armchairs. “Please, sit. Can I get you anything?”

David shook his head and sat down. “If I have one more morsel or drink of anything, I'll explode. You know Mom. I think she's getting worse as she grows older. There must have been four desserts at our disposal.”

Kay sat as well. “I've eaten at a lot of restaurants in my life, but your mother's cooking is the best I've ever had.”

“Don't tell her. She's already smug as it is.”

Henry kept rubbing Annie's feet. “Did you and Kay come alone?”

David nodded. “Yes, everyone's schedule in Kay's family is booked up months in advance.”

“David is relieved,” Kay laughed. “He had a fit thinking of my mother using an outhouse. I think it's an adventure.”

“That opinion will quickly fade the minute you use it,” Annie said. “Davy, remember Aunt Muriel?”

“It's hard to forget. She came screaming out of it with her underwear around her ankles being chased by a swarm of wasps. I thought Mom would die laughing.”

Annie smiled at the memory.

“Do you have your nursery all ready?” Kay asked. “I'd love to see it.”

Henry got up. “I'll take you. I've had it ready for months.”

The minute they went upstairs, Annie started the interrogation. “So, what's married life like?”

“We're having fun.”

“Do you ever see her mom?”

“Sometimes, but we ignore each other. Kay doesn't care. She can barely tolerate her mother.”

Annie turned over on her side. “I wonder what that's like.”

“She's never known anything else. How are you getting along with Henry's mother?”

“I'm afraid of what's going to happen when the babies arrive. She'll be camped on our doorstep.”

“I'm sure you'll put her straight.”

Annie shook her head. “I'd never hurt Henry like that.”

“What do you know? Annie's been tamed. I think you love the guy.”

“I know I do.”

The entire extended family descended on the bungalow the next day, and because it was hot and sunny, the party was outside. They'd borrowed some folding chairs from the church for the older people in the crowd, but mostly they ate and drank on big blankets laid out on the grass, picnic style.

Annie watched David introduce Kay to his friends and the relatives who hadn't made it up for the wedding. They reacted to Kay the same way she had the first time, wondering what the heck someone so sophisticated and glamorous was doing sitting in a hayfield eating sandwiches.

David's friends couldn't help themselves; they did what they could to attract Kay's attention, but her eyes were on David almost the entire time. Annie waited to see David look back at her, but it didn't happen—though, to be fair, David was excited to see his friends and laugh about old times. Annie wondered why she even noticed it. Maybe it was the slightly anxious look on Kay's face.

It was one of those moments that get filed away, and then remembered years later as the beginning of something.