“Don’t be ridiculous. Helen and I didn’t argue at the wedding.”
“It was before Uncle Abe’s heart attack. I was in the bathroom by the coatroom and I heard you yelling about a deal you made, thirteen years ago, you said. After that, I couldn’t hear anything else and I went back to the party.”
Judith waited for her mother to speak, but Rose didn’t say anything. She took a seat at the kitchen table and smoothed her skirt on her lap.
Judith kept talking. “I don’t expect you to explain everything to me. It was a long time ago, I know that. But I think you were talking about the night Teddy was born. The night Teddy and Natalie both were born.” Rose still didn’t speak, so Judith continued, “You were never the same after that night.”
“I was never the same? Nothing was ever the same!”
“Please don’t get angry with me,” Judith whispered. “I don’t want to argue with you.”
“Then what do you want?”
“I just want to ask a question. One question, that’s all. And I won’t bother you about it ever again.”
Rose crossed her arms over her chest and glared. “Go ahead.”
The air was thick with dinner smells and it was hard for Judith to breathe. There was nothing to do but to come out and say it. “I think you and Aunt Helen … that night. I think…”
“For heaven’s sake, just say it!”
“Is Natalie my sister?”
There was nothing exceptional about the moment that followed. Rose didn’t even seem surprised by the question. There were no tears, no shouts, no confessions. There was no hesitation before her mother spoke, and no excuses after. Judith knew the answer before the sound was fully formed. The only thing that surprised her was the flood of oxygen that filled her lungs the moment the word was spoken out loud. “Yes.”
Chapter 63
ABE
Abe was glad he was being discharged on a Sunday. After two weeks of hospital food, he couldn’t wait to get home and have one of Helen’s Sunday night pot roast dinners. She always made mushroom gravy to go with the roast, and those little homemade rolls he loved.
He had never been so happy to sit on the couch and watch the baseball game with his family. Helen didn’t follow baseball, but that first day home she wouldn’t let him out of her sight. She wasn’t watching the game as much as watching him, like she wanted to check his pulse. With all her staring Abe couldn’t concentrate on the game, so, sweet as could be, he told her maybe she should find something else to do. After that she made Natalie and George check on him and report back to her in the kitchen every fifteen minutes.
Sol, Arlene and Johnny were coming over to celebrate his first night home. Helen had invited Mort and Judith as well. Luckily, Rose was still in Florida.
“I told Mort to come over for dinner any night he likes while Rose is away,” Helen told him.
“I’m surprised you want to spend that much time with him.”
“I’m sure he won’t want to come every night. Judith is headed back to Boston soon and I don’t want him to eat alone. Plus, he can tell you what’s going on at work over dinner.”
“I won’t need updates from Mort. I’m going back to work tomorrow.”
“Abe!” She swatted his arm, not too hard. “The doctor said no work for at least a week!”
“Yeah, but he meant for people who don’t like their jobs.”
“He meant for people who had heart attacks! You’re not going!” The look on her face told him there would be no negotiating. He held up his hands in surrender.
A few hours later, when Abe looked around the table at Helen and the rest of his family, he felt an overwhelming surge of gratitude. He felt considerably less grateful when he saw what Helen was serving for dinner. “Where’s the pot roast?”
She pretended not to notice his disappointment. “The doctor said you have to cut back on red meat. I made a recipe from the cookbook the cardiologist’s nurse gave me.”
“It looks delicious,” George said, without enthusiasm.
“No, it doesn’t,” said Natalie. “It looks awful. But if Daddy has to eat it, then we do too.”
“Thanks, sweetheart.” Abe blew her a kiss from across the table. “Did you make the rolls, at least?” he asked Helen.
“Yes, but you can’t have butter.”
Abe sighed and shook his head. “When I was in the hospital I dreamt about this dinner. Pot roast, mushroom gravy, buttery rolls, pecan pie.”
“Well, tonight you can dream about broiled fish,” Helen said, “because that’s what we’re having tomorrow.”
Chapter 64
NATALIE
Natalie was excited to have her father home from the hospital, but she wasn’t looking forward to a house full of company. She would have liked one night alone with her father and brothers before everyone else was invited. Besides, she hadn’t seen Johnny since the night they kissed, and she was concerned things between them might be awkward. It turned out she was wrong: being with Johnny was the same as always. No, the person who surprised her that evening wasn’t Johnny. It was Judith.
When Teddy was alive, Natalie wasn’t particularly comfortable around any of his sisters, and after he died, she saw them only at large family gatherings. To Natalie, her cousins were “the Three Sisters,” like the title of a play George once told her about. She didn’t think of them as separate individuals with voices and ideas of their own. Rationally, of course, she knew they were different. But whenever she pictured them, it was always as a group.
Judith was the only one of the sisters to come to Abe’s homecoming dinner. Dinah was in Florida, and Mimi was still on her honeymoon. Aunt Rose’s absence, coupled with Abe’s long-awaited presence, created an unusually festive atmosphere at the table. Maybe it was because of the celebratory mood of the dinner, or maybe it was for some other reason Natalie couldn’t fathom, but Judith seemed intent on changing the old pattern between them. She chose a seat next to Natalie at dinner and asked several questions about Natalie’s summer plans and her friends. The unexpected attention was confusing but not unwelcome. If Natalie had been asked to choose one of the Three Sisters to spend time with, she would have chosen Judith for sure. Mimi was too self-absorbed and Dinah too wishy-washy. But Judith was more complex; she was smart and interesting. Natalie liked her.
Natalie told Judith about the mother’s helper job she had lined up for the summer, and after dinner, they talked about Judith’s summer plans in Boston. “I got a position as a research assistant for one of my professors,” Judith explained. They were sitting on the floor in Natalie’s room, looking at yearbooks from Judith’s old high school in Brooklyn. Natalie kept all of her brothers’ old yearbooks in her room. The boys didn’t want them anyhow, and Natalie liked to read the inscriptions.
Every few pages Judith would remember something about a classmate and stop to tell Natalie the story. Most of them involved Harry and one girl or another. It was cozy sitting together like that, handing yearbooks back and forth. Natalie hadn’t realized how much fun Judith could be.
“What are you researching?” Natalie asked.
“I’m looking for religious symbolism in the works of the early Romantic poets. It’s actually a lot more interesting than it sounds.”
“It’s funny,” Natalie admitted, “but most people don’t think the stuff I like is interesting either.”
“You mean math?”
Natalie hadn’t known that Judith knew so much about her. “How do you know I like math?”
“My father told me he studies with you. He told me he used to teach you and Teddy from his old math books.”
Natalie nodded. “Uncle Mort is really smart.”
Judith was smiling. “The two of you have a special relationship. I’ve been meaning to thank you, actually.”