“Las Vegas.” Her mother repeated this twice, then asked, “Where is Las Vegas?”
Athena said, “You don’t mean Las Vegas, Nevada? You’re not telling Mama and Baba you’re moving to Las Vegas, Nevada?”
She had hoped Athena would keep her mouth shut, for once. She should have known better.
“How far is this place?” Mama asked.
“Almost as far as California,” Athena said, holding her pregnant belly. She’d already gained close to forty pounds. Her maternity dress was snug across her middle.
Mama clutched her chest. “Nico,” she said to Baba. “Do something!”
“I’m not moving there.” Christina tried to reassure them. “Think of it as college. Two years of college but it won’t cost you anything. Instead I’ll be getting paid. And I’ll come home for the holidays.”
Baba said, “That Irish boy, he’s going, too?”
Now Mama screamed. “No!” She banged her fist on the table hard enough to make the glasses and the silverware jump. Alex climbed onto Thad’s lap and wrapped his fat little arms around his father’s neck.
“You’re breaking their hearts, Christina,” Athena said.
“You don’t understand,” Christina said to her parents. “Jack is 1-A—he could be called up at any time. You know what that means? He could be sent to Korea. Would you be happy then?”
Thad got up from the table and carried Alex, who had begun to whimper, out of the room.
Athena glared at Christina. “You have a way of ruining everything, even Sunday dinner. You do this and I’m the one who’s going to have to pick up the pieces around here. It will all fall on my shoulders. You are the most selfish person I’ve ever known.”
The grandparents began jabbering to one another in Greek.
Baba said, “Girls—you are sisters! Stop this fighting.”
But Athena didn’t stop. Her face heated up. “As if I don’t already have too many fish to fry, between the store and Alex and the baby I’m about to have and a husb—” Before Athena could finish she cried out, “Oh!” Then “Oh!” again.
“What is it?” Mama asked.
“I think my water broke. I think I’m in labor. Somebody get Thad. Somebody get my bag!”
Everyone jumped up from the table at once. Everyone except Christina and her grandmother. Yaya moved next to her and rested her hand on Christina’s. Christina put her head on the table and cried. She hadn’t even told them her biggest news. She didn’t see how she’d ever be able to tell them now.
Miri
Rusty and Dr. O wanted to take her out to dinner but Miri refused. She was not going to be seen with the two of them in public. “All right,” Rusty said, “we’ll eat here.”
“Does he know you can’t cook?”
Rusty smiled. “If you can read, you can cook.”
“Are you quitting your job?”
“Not yet.”
“When?”
Rusty shook her head. “Would you like pizza or deli?”
“Pizza from Spirito’s. No sausage. Will Nana and Uncle Henry be eating with us?”
“No.”
“Do they know?”
“Not everything. Not yet. We wanted to talk to you first.”
“This sounds like fun.”
“Sarcasm doesn’t become you, Miri.”
“Well, sorry about that, Mom.”
“Look, I know how you feel…”
“No, you don’t know!”
Rusty gave up. “Okay. Fine. Pizza from Spirito’s. Tonight. Six-thirty.”
Miri turned and walked out the door.
“Miri…”
“I’ll be late for school.”
“It’s not even seven-twenty,” Rusty said.
“Don’t you have a train to catch, Mom?”
—
SHE WOULD HAVE to tell Mason about this. They had no secrets from each other. But what could she say? That she’d found her mother and Dr. O doing it? That Dr. O and Corinne were getting divorced?
These were her thoughts as she walked home from school that afternoon. She never expected to run into Mason, standing in front of a small apartment house on Cherry Street. They hadn’t planned to meet. Fred was staying with a friend so she didn’t need to drop him at the Steins’ today. She ran toward Mason, taking him by surprise, dropping her books to the ground and throwing her arms around him. “I’m so glad to see you!”
“Whoa…” he said.
“I have something to tell you,” she said.
“I have something to tell you, too,” he said.
“You go first,” she said.
“Okay. The good news is, I’m going, too.”
“Wait—going where?”
“Las Vegas. Isn’t that what you wanted to tell me?”
“What do you mean, you’re going to Las Vegas?”
“Jack’s been talking it up. He says I can finish high school there, then come to work for him. He’s going to teach me to be an electrician.”
“Jack is going to Las Vegas?”
“Yeah, with Christina. Daisy’s going, too. They’re going to work for Dr. O in his new office.”
“What else do you know?” Her mouth felt dried out. Her skin felt clammy.