“I’m not Hillary Clinton,” she told the crowd. “I don’t have the stomach for another election. I don’t have the desire to travel. These days, my interests don’t extend much past leaving my house. I’ll be voting for her, by the way. Who else would I be voting for?”
THE LIBRARY DIDN’T have a green room, so they had stowed Embeth’s belongings in someone’s dumpy office. As soon as Embeth turned her phone back on, Jorge was calling.
“How was the speech, beautiful?” he asked.
“Fine,” she said. “The vote?”
“Still happening,” Jorge said. “He’ll be back late—only an hour or so.”
“Shocking. Remind me why we’re having this party again.”
“He’ll have to go straight from the airport to the hotel, so if you could bring his tuxedo. I’ll be on the originally scheduled flight,” Jorge said.
“Why?” Embeth asked. Jorge and Aaron usually flew together.
“Why pay two change fees? And I don’t want to miss the start of the party,” Jorge said. “Also, I wouldn’t mind a word with you alone, if you have a moment.”
Embeth knew what this was about. The election was next week, and Jorge wanted to leave them. Embeth knew it was time—he had been with them for almost twenty years; no one had served Aaron more loyally—but still, she feared a post-Jorge world. She knew there would be a new Jorge, but she dreaded the opening of her inner circle to a stranger.
“Is the girl with you?” Jorge asked in a low voice.
“Yes, she’s having lunch,” Embeth said.
“What’s she like?” Jorge asked.
“She’s thirteen. She’s a girl. She has curly hair and light eyes. She talks a lot,” she said. “She doesn’t seem like a liar and she doesn’t remind me of Aviva.”
“Thank you, Em. You’re a trooper to take her, and on your anniversary, no less. I can’t imagine what that’s like.”
“Yes, I am a trooper,” she said wearily.
“Trooper! Trooper!” said El Meté.
“I don’t mind the company, actually. Did you tell Aaron?” Embeth said.
“Not yet. Do you want me to?”
“No. Let’s wait and see what this is first. Why upset him if this is nothing?”
Another call came in.
“I should take this,” she said. “It’s Aaron.”
“How’s your day going?” Aaron asked.
“Fine,” she said.
“Any good stories for me?”
“Someone sent us an angel,” Embeth said. “Like an effeminate, incredibly tacky Jewish angel boy. I guess it’s an anniversary present, but I don’t know who it’s from.”
“How weird,” Aaron said.
Yet another call came in. Tasha.
“I should take this,” Embeth said to Aaron.
“I need to get back to it anyway. I just wanted to hear your voice. Love you, Em.”
“Love you.”
Embeth flipped to Tasha.
Tasha said she had found Rachel Grossman’s number. “She’s Rachel Shapiro now.”
Embeth hung up and dialed Rachel Shapiro’s number, but she did not press call. She put the phone in her bag, and she went out to find Ruby.
Ruby was speaking to Alumna Jeanne.
“Oh my, Embeth, the FGLI program sounds marvelous!” said Alumna Jeanne. “Ruby was telling me about it. I have a niece who would be perfect for it.”
“They’re not doing it next year,” Ruby said.
“Funding,” Embeth said with an exaggerated sad face.
“Maybe I could help with that?” Alumna Jeanne said. “My expertise is not-for-profits.”
“Definitely send me an e-mail,” Embeth said.
The women thanked her for her speech, and Embeth “you’re welcome”-ed until her throat was hoarse and her face hurt from smiling. If a speech had gone well, it always took longer to leave an event than she thought it would. Someone wanted a picture. Someone wanted to tell a story about her own mother. Someone cried. Someone invited her to dinner. Someone pressed a business card into her hand. Someone wondered if her sons were married. The distance from the hall to the parking lot could be a few hundred feet that lasted an hour. Embeth couldn’t be brusque because she needed these women to vote for Aaron, after all.
By the time Embeth and Ruby arrived at the car, Embeth was exhausted. She was not shy, but she was not a natural extrovert either.
“I’ve been thinking, Ruby,” Embeth said. “What if we both played hooky today? I mean, it’s your first time in Miami. Let’s do something. Do you like the beach?”
“No,” said Ruby.
“Me neither,” said Embeth. “I only said it because it’s something people like to do when they come to Florida.”
“I’m kind of a nerd,” Ruby said.
“Me, too,” said Embeth. “What would you like to do?”
“Well, I’d like to meet your parrot,” Ruby said. “I’ve never met a talking bird before.”
“El Meté’s shy. He/she doesn’t always like to come out.”
“Okay . . . then, what if we went to the movies?” Ruby said.
“Don’t say that because you think it’s something I want to do,” Embeth said.
“That is why it occurred to me,” Ruby admitted. “But it is also something I want to do. Mrs. Morgan says, ‘A woman should never please other people at the expense of pleasing herself.’ ”
“Mrs. Morgan is correct,” Embeth said. She started the car.
The only movie that was playing at a convenient time was a superhero movie. They bought the largest size of popcorn and the largest drink. Embeth fell asleep before the trailers were even over. She had a strange dream. She was an enormous tree with many branches, perhaps an oak, and woodsmen were trying to cut her down. She should have been in a panic about being cut down, but she wasn’t. It was almost pleasant. It was almost like a massage. The feeling of being hacked into with tiny axes. The feeling of being felled.
Ruby nudged Embeth when the movie was over. “What did I miss?” Embeth said.
“They saved the world,” said Ruby.
“I thought it might turn out that way,” said Embeth.
As they left the movie theater, a policeman in tight shorts with tanned legs and a carpet of black curly leg hair stood in the lobby. Ruby observed discreetly, but with Christmas morning glee, “Police officers in Florida wear shorts!”
“They do,” Embeth said.
The police officer was showing the manager a photograph on a phone. The manager pointed toward Ruby. “That’s her!”
Ruby began to back away.
“Are you Ruby Young?” the police officer said.
“I thought your last name was Grossman,” Embeth said.
“It is,” Ruby said. “My mom changed it.”
“Your mom is very worried about you,” the police officer said.
“How did she find me? I had my phone off.”
“She tracked you down using Find My iPad.”
“There’s a Find My iPad? That’s . . .” Ruby threw what was left of her popcorn toward the police officer, and then she began to run. But instead of running outside, she ran toward the bathroom.
Embeth and the police officer both headed toward the bathroom. The policeman brushed popcorn from his hair. “What’s your role in all of this?”
“I’m no one,” Embeth said. “I’m irrelevant.”
“You’re the adult who is with the child who was reported missing,” the cop said. “I would say that seems somewhat relevant.”