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“Sorry,” she said when she could speak, but then she clapped her napkin to her mouth again. “I’m sorry!” she said between gasps.
“Glad to know you find me so amusing,” Red said stiffly.
“I apologize, Father Whitshank.”
She lowered the napkin and sat up straighter. Her face was flushed and her cheeks were wet. “I think it must be stress,” she said.
“Of course it is,” Ree told her. “You’ve all been through a world of stress! I should have thought before I came traipsing over here with my piddly little news.”
“No, really, I—”
“Fu
Red said, “You were nice to come, Ree, and the crumble’s delicious, honest.” He didn’t seem to realize that he hadn’t taken a bite of it yet.
“I used Gra
“These are not falling apart in the least.”
“Yes, they’re great,” De
“Well!” Ree said. “Now that we’ve got the fun and games out of the way, let’s talk about you all. What are your plans, everybody? Stem? De
It could have been an awkward moment — people were bracing for it around the table, clearly — except that Red said, “Nah, they’ll be moving out shortly. I’m going to get myself an apartment.”
“An apartment!” Ree said.
The others grew very still.
“Well, the kids have their regular lives, after all,” Red said. “And there’s no point in me rattling around alone here. I’m thinking I could just rent something, one of those streamlined efficiencies that wouldn’t need any upkeep. It could have an elevator, even, in case I get old and doddery.” He gave one of his chuckles, as if to imply how unlikely that was.
“Oh, Red, that’s so adventurous of you! And I know just the place, too. Remember Sissy Bailey? She’s moved into this new building in Charles Village, and she loves it. You remember she had that big house on St. John’s, but now, she says, she doesn’t have to give a thought to mowing the lawn, shoveling the snow, putting up the storm windows …”
“The boys were putting up our storm windows just this afternoon,” Red said. “Do you know how many times I’ve been through that, in my life? Put them up in the fall, take them down in the spring. Put them up, take them down. Put them up, take them down. Is there no end? you have to ask.”
“Very, very sensible to ditch all that,” Ree said. She sent a bright look around the table. “Don’t you all agree?”
After a brief hesitation, De
Amanda said it was sort of like when you’re playing tug of war and the other side drops the rope with no warning. “I mean, it’s almost a letdown,” she said.
And Jea
“He’s acting too meek,” Amanda said. “This is too easy. We need to find out what’s behind it.”
“Yes, you have to wonder why he’s in such a hurry.”
They were talking to each other on their cell phones — Jea
“You did tell him we should talk this over,” Jea
“Why would I tell him that?”
“Well, Stem?”
“He’s a grown-up,” Stem said, “and he’s doing what you’ve hoped for all along. Anyhow: whatever he does, Nora and I are leaving.”
“You are?”
“We’re just waiting till her church can find a new home for our tenants.”
“But you never said! You never discussed this with us!”
“Why should I discuss it?” Stem asked. “I’m a grown-up, too.”
Then he rolled up his blueprints and walked out.
“It’s like Stem’s a different person lately,” Jea
“It must have to do with De
“De
“De
“What could he have said to him, though?”
“What could he have said that he hasn’t already said, is the question. Whatever it was, it must have been a doozie.”
“I don’t believe that,” Jea
But as soon as she hung up, she phoned him. (Wasn’t it typical that even now, when he was living on Bouton Road again, she had to call his cell phone if she wanted to talk to him?)
It was past ten in the morning, but he must not have been fully awake yet. He answered in a muffled-sounding voice: “What.”
“Stem says Dad is going to move to an apartment,” Jea
“Yeah, seems like he is.”
“Where did that come from?”
“Beats me.”
“And Stem and Nora are just waiting till their tenants find a new place and then they’re leaving too.”
De
“Did you say anything to him?”
“To Stem?”
“Did you say anything that made him want to leave?”
“Dad’s moving, Jea
“But he was leaving in any case, he said. And he’s been acting so different these days, so grumpy and short-tempered.”
“He has?” De
“Something’s eating him, I tell you. It sounds like he didn’t even try to talk Dad out of this.”
“Nope. None of us did.”
“You mean you think it’s okay? Dad giving up on the house his own father built?”
“Sure.”
“You’ll be out of a home, you know,” Jea
“Right,” De
“So will you go back to New Jersey?”
“Most likely.”
Jea
“I don’t understand you,” she said finally.
“Okay …”
“You live here; you live there; you move around like it doesn’t matter where you live. You don’t seem to have any friends; you don’t have a real profession … Is there anyone you really care about? I’m not counting Susan; our children are just … extensions of our own selves. But do you care how you worried Mom and Dad? Do you care about us? About me? Did you say something hurtful to Stem that’s made him mad at everyone?”
“I never said a word to Stem,” De
And he hung up.
“I feel awful,” Jea
“I really let De
“So? What part of that isn’t true?”
“I asked if he even cared about us. Well, specifically me.”
“A reasonable question, I’d say,” Amanda told her.
“I shouldn’t have asked that.”
“Get over it, Jea
“But asking if he cared about me, when here he quit his job that time and fell behind on his rent so he could come and help out because I was afraid I was going to smash my baby’s head in!”
There was a silence.
“I didn’t know that,” Amanda said finally.
“You don’t remember that De