Sisters

NINETEEN




The next morning, as she was heading out of the door, Alex called up the stairs to Dory, who had not yet come down to breakfast, and said that she was leaving for her new job. There was no response.

‘Dory,’ Alex yelled up the stairs. ‘Can you answer me?’

Dory did not come to the top of the stairs. ‘I heard you!’ she shouted.

Alex was almost relieved not to have to see her. She left the house and decided to walk down to the station since she was getting an early start on the day. She hadn’t been able to get back to sleep once Dory and Remus had appeared by her bedside. She finally decided to just get up and iron her clothes. For her first day of work Alex had picked a stylish black suit with a short, closely-fitted jacket and a box-pleated short skirt. She ironed the suit carefully, polished her boots and made herself a good breakfast. At least she would look ready for her first day on the job. It was no substitute for a night’s sleep, but it was better than tossing and turning, sleepless, in the bed. She walked in the morning cold to the train station, wrapping her wool coat tightly around her and avoiding the piles of snow with her high-heeled boots. She did not have long to wait for the next commuter train to Boston. She hopped on and found a seat, where she stared out the window at the winter landscape, all the while trying to get herself mentally ready to sound intelligent and knowledgeable about art.

The day in the gallery flew by as Louis included her on speakerphone in conversations with two sculptors and a painter, and heaped her with museum and gallery references to track down and assess for him on the Web. Every time Alex looked up from her work and saw herself surrounded by exquisite paintings and sculptures bathed in the spotlights of the spacious gallery, she felt happy and lucky to have found work here. Judging by her first day, she was in exactly the right place. It was almost six o’clock and she was finishing up a printout on the sale prices of a certain painter’s work when the door to the gallery opened and a stout woman dressed in cheap polyester and wearing a limp ponytail walked in.

Alex looked up and then beamed. ‘Marisol!’ She got up to greet the law student.

‘Hey,’ said Marisol in a hushed voice.

‘I’m so glad you came over. You don’t have to whisper, you know.’

Marisol made an engagingly self-conscious grimace. ‘I feel like I’m in the temple of art here.’

Alex shook her head. ‘Just the marketplace,’ she said, pretending a nonchalance she did not yet feel about the paintings and objects on display. ‘So, what brings you over here?’

Marisol frowned slightly. ‘I wanted to hear what you thought about the news,’ she said.

‘News?’ Alex asked.

‘Well, I spoke to Dory earlier. I thought she would have called you.’

‘What happened?’

‘We heard from the DA’s office. They have decided not to refile the charges.’

‘Really. For real?’ Alex cried.

Marisol smiled and nodded. ‘It’s over.’

‘Wow,’ said Alex, sagging against the wall. ‘What a relief.’

‘She sounded pretty happy,’ Marisol admitted. ‘I thought she would have given you a call.’

It doesn’t matter, Alex thought. This means I don’t have to have her under my roof any longer. But she didn’t say it. ‘I’ll call her,’ she said instead. ‘Oh, thank you, Marisol. You are going to be an amazing attorney. If I ever get in trouble, I’ll know who to turn to.’

‘Try to stay out of trouble until I pass the Bar then,’ said Marisol.

‘How can I ever thank you?’

Marisol smiled bashfully. ‘I’m just glad it all worked out.’

Alex reached in her pocket for her phone.

‘I’ll be going,’ said Marisol. ‘Good luck.’

Alex gave her a hug as she headed for the door. Then she punched in Dory’s number.

The phone rang a few times before Alex heard Dory’s voice. ‘Hello.’

Actually, Alex only heard Dory’s voice dimly, given the noise in the background. ‘Dory, it’s Alex. Marisol was just here at the gallery.’

‘Oh,’ Dory shouted. ‘Did she tell you?’

‘Yes,’ said Alex. ‘The charges aren’t going to be refiled. You’re free.’

‘Yes, I am,’ said Dory.

‘Are you excited?’

Dory said something unintelligible.

‘What’s all that noise?’ Alex asked. ‘I can barely hear you.’

‘We’re celebrating. I’m at my mother’s.’

‘Your mother is hosting a celebration?’ Alex asked, incredulous.

‘When I called them with the news, my dad insisted,’ Dory admitted.

‘Well, that’s very nice,’ said Alex. She wondered if Elaine had been consulted about this spontaneous celebration. Alex couldn’t imagine it. But she hoped, for Dory’s sake, that Elaine’s position might have softened as a result of this news. Alex knew how badly Dory wanted to have her mother’s approval or forgiveness or whatever it was that was missing between them.

‘What?’ Dory asked someone in the background who was speaking to her. ‘Oh, yeah,’ she said into the phone. ‘You can come over if you want, Alex.’

Not much of an invitation, Alex thought. But she thought she would go anyway. It was certainly an important event. For one thing, it marked the end of her official responsibility for her half-sister. She thought of last night, of waking up to find Dory and that dog beside her bed. She shuddered involuntarily. Not a minute too soon, she thought.

‘I’d be happy to,’ she said.

Alex walked over to the Colsons’ apartment in the South End, feeling grateful for how quickly the snow had melted and been packed down by the city traffic. The sidewalks were clear, and her high-heeled boots were not the same handicap they had proved to be this morning when she walked to the station.

She mounted the stairs to the vestibule and pressed the buzzer. There was a short wait and then the door opened. Garth Colson was standing there, holding a bottle of champagne and looking distinctly unburdened and about ten years younger than he had the last time Alex had seen him.

‘Alex, come in,’ he said. ‘We’re just having an impromptu celebration. I guess you heard. Dory will not have to stand trial after all. The charges have been dropped.’

‘I did hear,’ said Alex. ‘It’s great news.’

‘Come in. Hang up your coat,’ said Garth, pointing to the hooks beside the door. Then he smiled bemusedly. ‘You know where the coats go.’

‘I do, indeed,’ said Alex. She put her coat on a hook, adjusted the fitted jacket and skirt on her black suit, and followed him down the hall and then down the steps into the family room.

The scene which greeted her made her stop short. Dory was sitting beside Elaine on the sofa. Elaine sat up straight, her back rigid. Her eyes looked bruised and wary. On the opposite side of Dory, Alex was startled to see Seth, looking somewhat uncomfortable. He caught Alex’s eye. She glanced at him and looked away. Chris, Therese and Joy were also in attendance. The Ennis family had apparently been recruited to join in the celebration and were doing their best to appear enthusiastic.

Dory looked up at Alex as she came in. ‘Hi, Alex,’ she said.

Alex summoned all the friendliness she could muster. She walked over to Dory, bent down and gave her a hug. ‘Congratulations,’ she said. ‘I’m so happy for you.’ She deliberately did not speak to Seth, who was so close she could inhale his familiar, disturbing scent.

Dory grabbed her hand as she was straightening up. ‘Thanks, Alex,’ she said. ‘I mean it. I owe you.’

‘Not at all,’ said Alex. ‘I’m just glad it worked out.’

‘I’m glad I have a sister,’ said Dory with uncharacteristic warmth.

Alex saw a grimace of distaste twist Elaine’s face. She hunched her shoulders, as if to escape from Dory’s arm that pressed against her.

‘Me too,’ said Alex. ‘I’m glad too.’

Garth approached with a glass of champagne and handed it to Alex. She took it and began to sip.

‘So, Dory,’ said Joy, who was still dressed in her rumpled work clothes, but was wearing bedroom slippers. ‘What do you do now?’

Dory shrugged. ‘Get back to my life, I guess. Try to connect with my old customers. Maybe meet some new people.’ She looked pointedly at Seth, who smiled briefly and looked away.

‘You going to continue living with Alex?’ Chris Ennis asked.

‘I don’t know,’ Dory said evasively. ‘If I want to get my old customers back, I probably need to live here. Besides, Alex has probably had enough of me.’

Alex felt cornered as all eyes turned to her. I have had enough, she thought. But she would never say it in front of these people. In fact, looking at the way in which Elaine seemed to recoil from her daughter’s touch, Alex felt the old sympathy for Dory rising again. ‘We didn’t do that bad,’ she said.

Just then the doorbell buzzer sounded again.

Garth looked around the room. ‘Who’s that? Who else did you invite?’ he said pleasantly to Dory.

Dory shook her head.

Garth dutifully began to mount the stairs again.

Therese, who was sitting on a wooden chair beside her mother, spoke quietly into Joy’s ear. Joy nodded and patted her daughter on her bony knee. ‘We will,’ she said, a half-smile lifting the dimple and beauty mark on one side of her face. ‘We’ll leave in a few minutes.’

Seth, excusing himself to Dory, pushed himself up out of the corner of the sofa and came over to where Alex was standing. Alex looked at him coldly and refused to ask the obvious question.

Seth did not wait to be asked. ‘I saw your car in the driveway so I stopped by your house this afternoon. I wanted to find out how your interview went at the gallery,’ he explained in a low voice. ‘Dory told me you got the job and you started today. How come you didn’t call me?’

Alex remembered thinking that she had wanted to call him, but had convinced herself that she would sound needy and foolish if she did. ‘It didn’t occur to me,’ she lied.

‘How did the first day go?’ he asked.

‘Fine,’ said Alex. ‘I think I’m going to like it there. So, you were hanging out with Dory this afternoon?’

‘We weren’t “hanging out,”’ he protested. ‘We were talking a little bit, and I was still at your house when the call came. Dory was all excited, naturally enough, and wanted to tell her parents herself. So she asked me to drive her here.’

‘You don’t have to explain,’ Alex said, feigning indifference.

‘Yes, I do,’ he said. ‘I saw your expression when you saw me here.’

‘I was just surprised,’ Alex protested.

‘Anyway, that dog she bought nearly bit my head off,’ Seth said.

Alex nodded grimly. ‘Remus. He’s a handful.’

‘I was trying to imagine your delight yesterday when you came home and were greeted by that barking maniac.’

Alex smiled. ‘You’re right. It was bad.’ Then she could not resist adding: ‘I wasn’t pleased about the dog either.’

Seth burst out laughing.

Dory turned to look at him. ‘What’s so funny?’ she asked suspiciously.

‘Nothing,’ said Alex.

Seth composed himself and waved off Dory’s concern. When she looked away again, he spoke in a low voice to Alex. ‘So, are you relieved?’ he asked. ‘She’s free to go now.’

Alex nodded slightly. ‘To be honest, yes,’ she said.

Not looking at her, Seth put his arm around her waist and gently tugged her toward him. Alex allowed him to hold her like that for a second and then pulled away. Dory turned and gazed at them with an alert, flinty expression in her eyes.

Just then Garth reappeared at the top of the short staircase, flanked by two men, one white and one black, in overcoats and suits. The three of them descended the steps, their faces grave, as silence fell on the festivities.

‘Um, folks, we have an official visit here. This is Detective Spagnola and Detective Langford,’ said Garth.

‘More cops? This is overkill,’ Chris Ennis exclaimed.

Therese looked warily at the two detectives and burrowed against her mother.

Alex had to stifle a gasp herself. What now? she thought.

Dory looked at the policemen in alarm. ‘What’s going on?’ she demanded. ‘Why are you here?’

‘I called them,’ said Elaine. ‘I asked them to come.’