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34.
Alice had been a baby when Helen Ma
For Ro
Tonight, the front door was open, the screen door latched. Ro
Helen had taken care of all her old things. The house on Nottingham was filled with her books, her clothes, and even her toys-tiny stuffed animals from Germany that she said you couldn’t buy today for a hundred dollars, old board games like Masterpiece and Life, a red double-decker bus from England, papier-mâché acrobats from Mexico, metal windups, pristine Barbie dolls.
The best toys, by far, were Helen’s City Mouse and Country Mouse houses, which she sometimes allowed Ro
The Helen who came to the door on this evening looked the same to Ro
“Vintage,” Ro
“Hello, Ro
“Hi, He-Helen.” It had always been Helen, never Mrs. or even Ms. Ma
“You grew up so pretty. I always thought you would.”
“I’m not pretty,” she said automatically.
“Well, you should tweeze your eyebrows in the middle, and wear your hair back. But you’re a knockout. Enjoy that body. You won’t have it forever, although I know it’s hard to imagine. Metabolism always comes to call. Happened to me at thirty, on the dot.”
“Oh.” The conversation confused Ro
“I don’t think Alice wants to see you, Ro
She’s dying to see me. This thought did not find voice, but it pierced Ro
“Is she here? He-Helen?”
“No. I don’t know where she is. I don’t know where she goes and I don’t know what she does.”
“Does she have a job?”
“She says she can’t find one. But you did, so I have to think it’s a lie.”
Did Helen mean to be unkind? If stupid Ro
“What does she do, if she’s not working?”
“She says she walks. For weight loss. Although-well, between us, she is bigger than ever. I’m afraid I didn’t do well by her when I went wading in her father’s gene pool. Between us.”
Between us. There was the magic phrase. Between us, Ro
But the words didn’t seem to mean anything to Helen.
“Do you think Alice will be home soon? It’s almost dark.”
“I don’t know, Ro
“Don’t you-” Her voice tore a little.
“Oh, no, baby, I’m happy to see you. I really am. But a reporter came by here not more than an hour ago. She wants to write a story about you and Alice. Now, Alice has a lawyer, a smart one this time-well, she has the stupid one again, but the stupid one now works with a smart one-and they’re going to take care of my baby. They promised me that they’ll scare that reporter so badly she won’t even think about putting Alice’s name in the paper. Have you got a lawyer?”
“I haven’t done anything.” Then, remembering what Helen knew, “Not this time.”
“Well, there’s doing and there’s doing, of course. Sometimes the i
“Where does Alice go, He-Helen? When she goes walking?”
“I don’t know. I really don’t know.” The repetition revealed the lie.
“Please, Helen. Please.” For the first time, the proper name slipped out without a stutter.
Helen leaned close to the screen, to a spot almost directly across from Ro
“She never told me, but I saw her once, when I was coming home from the grocery store. She goes up to the pool. She walks around the swim club, looking at people. Sad, isn’t it?”
Ro