Aly was given an information packet with everything about the school, its features and all of the systems in place to keep the kids safe and to make dropping off and picking up run smoothly. “Soft lock downs, hard lock downs,” she said glancing through it as they headed home. “We had nothing like this when I was growing up. Reminds me of the kids hiding under desks in the fifties and sixties in case of an atomic bomb.”
“My worst nightmare,” Erika said quietly.
“The drills are lit,” Lu said brightly from the back seat.
“They’re boring,” Whitney murmured.
On the last Friday afternoon of summer break, as Aly sat at the kitchen counter working, Lu emerged from the hall. “Something’s wrong with Whitney.”
She leaped up and headed down the hall. “What happened?”
“I was in my room and I saw her go out of the bathroom and go into Mom’s bathroom.”
Aly went into Erika’s room. The bathroom door was open. She stood outside and called out, “Whitney? Are you okay?”
“Yes,” came a small voice muffled by another door.
She peered around the corner into the bathroom. It smelled like Erika’s clean, crisp work perfume. Behind the open door was a variegated slate shower with a glass door. There was a large fiberglass tub next to it and straight ahead a beige marble counter with two sinks. The towels and accessories were violet and plum, like Erika’s bed set. Whitney was in the private toilet at the other end, next to a walk-in closet. “Are you sick?”
“No.”
She thought a moment. Whitney’s sweet tooth had been particularly insatiable lately. And she had been moody, finally culminating in a kerfuffle with Lu the day before over Lu teasing her about “mikent”, which Lu herself didn’t understand, Aly hadn’t figured out, and Erika didn’t recognize, either. Whitney had yelled “Sip tea!”, current slang for “mind your own business”, at Lu. and gone to her room and slammed the door.
Aly hustled Lu out of Erika’s bedroom and closed the door. She went back to the bathroom and, standing back by the first door, asked quietly. “Did you get your period?”
There was a long pause and Aly was going to ask again when Whitney said, “Yes.”
“Do you know what to do? Did your mom show you?”
“Yeah.”
“How’s it going?”
“I can’t get it…I can’t get it to...”
“I’ll call your mom.”
“No, I will!”
Of course Whitney would have her phone with her in the toilet. It was an appendage. Aly heard muffled speaking through the door. She hoped Erika was available. “Did you reach her?” she asked when it was quiet.
“She’s on her way.”
Erika was home in less than ten minutes.
“She’s in your bathroom,” Aly said as she put down her briefcase on a stool at the bar and whisked down the hall.
“Thank you!” she called with a wave.
“Text when all's clear," Aly called out to her. "Come on, Lu. Let’s go get supplies for dinner.”
“But we have all the ingredients,” Lu said, baffled.
“Yeah, well, we’ll get more for the next time we make it.” She figured quiet, private Whitney would need the space and time with Erika.
That evening, after dinner, it was Whitney’s turn to do the dishes. Erika and Lu were in other rooms and Aly was alone with Whitney in the kitchen when Whitney said, looking at what she was doing at the sink, “Thank you for today, Aly. So I could be alone with my mom.”
“Of course,” she said. And then she put an arm around Whitney’s shoulders and gave a squeeze. “Welcome to womanhood, sweetie. Mood swings, cramps, headaches, bloating.”
Whitney smirked but gave a little laugh and Aly kissed her head through her mass of curls. She smelled of bubblegum scented hair product and her own sweet ashy scent. Whitney accepted the affection.
This episode seemed to break the ice with Aly for Whitney. The next day, Saturday, as they were all milling in the kitchen cleaning up after breakfast, she spoke to her without prompting. “How old were you when you went on your first date alone with someone, Aly?”
She was clearly hoping to find another way in with her mother. Aly and Erika exchanged a look. “I was fourteen, too. Also with a girl.”
“Your parents were okay with that?”
“I didn’t ask.”
Whitney was all amazement. “They didn’t have rules? They didn’t tell you how to date?”
“No.”
“You were lucky.”
“No, honey, you’re the lucky one. Your parents setting boundaries shows they care about you.” She said this as a fact, without self-pity. She was behind a cupboard door putting away cereal boxes, and when she closed the door and turned around she saw the others had all stopped and were looking at her. They each quickly resumed what they were doing.
“What she said,” Erika said, tilting her head at Aly while looking at Whitney.
A few days later, when it was clear Whitney’s warming toward her would hold, Aly told Erika one evening that she must’ve earned Whitney’s trust with her discretion. “It’s not something I could’ve planned.”
“You’re a natural, Aly. You’re strong with Lu and you’re soft with Whitney. I don’t know if it’s because you’re older than Janet and Casey were, but they’ve responded to you quickly. I suspect your sensitivity to others is your calling.”
Aly was taken aback. She had no calling. She was a drifter.
“You look surprised,” Erika said with a little smile.
“I’ve never figured out what I want to be when I grow up. I’ve never had a ‘calling’.”
“Maybe you’ve just always lived it. Not all callings are professions.”
She thought about this for a while. “Toy used to tell me to get cards made that said, ‘There For You’”
Erika laughed. “See, she saw it, too.”
“Yeah, I’m not so sure she saw what you’re saying.”
“Don’t underestimate what you have to offer. It’s worth more than anything a highfalutin’ degree gets you.”
Aly shook her head, laughing. “If you really believe that, you’re the only one.”
“If that’s true, that’s sad. You, at least, should be someone else who believes it.”
18
School began and Aly got into her new routine. Instead of days by the pool or out with the girls, after dropping them off at school she worked in her room at her billing job until she picked them up in the afternoon. Since she had ample time during the day to complete her work, her evenings were free. She spent time with her extended family or with Cass or Anita, who again encouraged her to date without an agenda for anything more. Every now and then she dipped into an online dating site, but she never took the plunge.
Erika went out on a couple of dates, but they didn’t seem to amount to anything. Aly learned that for social occasions Erika did not wear the crisp, clean perfume she wore for work. Instead, she wore a very sexy, musky, spicy scent that lingered in the house like a tease when she went out the door.
She had been right that most of her time would be spent with the girls. She spent more time with Erika with the girls than with her alone. Erika tended to work late on Wednesdays when the girls were at dinner with Julio. And on Dad’s Weekends, one or both of them usually went out. In September, they had dinner alone together twice, one of them a fast food night where Aly discovered that Chardonnay went well with KFC.
She was surprised to find she enjoyed Erika. She was intelligent, of course, but also thoughtful and interesting in her views and opinions. She was also genuinely interested in Aly’s views and opinions. She was wryly funny and unfailingly kind. Aly looked forward to her coming home in the evening and watching her interact with her girls. She reasoned it was because it was nice to have another adult around.
The girls adjusted well to the new school year. They’d been going to The Verkammer since Kindergarten and at
tended classes with many kids they’d known since.
At the end of September she was sitting with Lu and Whitney in the living room in the afternoon as they did their homework when her phone rang. She saw on the screen that it was her brother, Mark. It was very unusual for him to call. Usually, Aly did the reaching out.
She had barely given her “Hello, elusive bro” greeting when Mark launched into his reason for calling. “Aly, Dave’s had a heart attack.”
“What?” she blurted in shock and both girls looked at her. “When?”
“Last night…” Mark explained that Dave had chest pains in the middle of the night, so Linda had called an ambulance. She called Mark from the hospital and he told her to call Aly to be with her. He assumed she had, but she kept calling him and finally he found out that she was still alone. Dave was stabilized and was having stents put in to keep his arteries clear.
“I’ll go now. Which hospital?”
After she hung up with Mark, she tried to reach Erika and Julio, but neither was available. She called Thea and told her what happened and that she would take the girls with her to Summerlin Hospital.
She helped the girls pack up their laptops and homework and they piled into Gigi. For them, it was a dramatic little adventure, but they were also sensitive to her concern for her step-father.
At the hospital they found Linda in the cardio-vascular ward on the fourth floor, in the corner of a small, triangular waiting room with muddy orange walls. “What are you doing here?” she asked as Aly approached with the girls. She looked small, pale, and fatigued.
Aly did not respond to the question but introduced the girls. Then she settled them a little away from Linda under windows that looked south over lower level roofing and the parking lot. She went back to a vending machine in the hall and got herself and each of them water. Linda didn’t want anything.
“You didn’t have to come,” Linda said when Aly settled next to her.
Aly opened her water and took a couple of gulps. “I love him, too, you know.” She then prompted her mother to tell her what happened and what she knew.
Dave had been having shortness of breath for a while. Last night he woke up sweating and nauseous with chest pains. Linda gave him an aspirin and called an ambulance. She spent the day since waiting around with Dave as they ran tests and set up the procedure to insert stents into his arteries. He was currently undergoing the procedure.
Linda concluded with, “Donna will be here this evening.” She was referring to Dave’s daughter. “She’s on a plane right now. She’ll be staying a few days.” Aly understood this to mean her help would not be needed.
An hour later she was helping Lu with her math when she saw Erika approaching down the hall from the elevators. She leaped up and went to head her off. “You should’ve texted. I’d have brought them out.”
“No problem. If I didn’t find you here I’d have texted.” She reached out and squeezed Aly’s forearm. “How is he?” Aly gave her a brief rundown. Erika glanced past her toward Linda. “She okay? You okay?”
Aly didn’t answer for her mother. “I’m okay. I’ll feel better when he’s out.”
“I’ll make other plans for the girls. You take as long as you need.”
“I’ll be home tonight and up in the morning.”
Erika cocked her head and looked closely at Aly. “You sure?”
“Yes, I’ll be home tonight. Dave’s daughter is coming in to help out. I can visit Dave in the evenings.”
Again, Erika glanced at Aly’s mother. The girls had gathered their things and joined them. “Trade keys,” she said. “We’ll take Gigi and I’ll leave my car for you.” She told Aly where she parked. “You know what I like about you?”
Aly frowned. “What?”
“We’re the same height. I never have to adjust the seat in the cars.” Erika went to turn away and turned back, frowning. “I’m sorry, that was trivial. Now is not the time for trivial.” She surprised her with a quick but tight hug.
“I thought it was funny,” Aly said. She was touched by the hug and felt a surge of affection for Erika. Toy would never apologize for something so small.
The girls then surprised her further by putting down their things and giving her a hug as well. Aly’s heart glowed.
“If you change your mind and you need time, let me know.” Erika said. “Anything you need.”
The Miltons turned and disappeared down a hall that angled away toward the elevators. Aly watched them go and stood still for a few seconds longer, basking in the warmth of their hugs, dreading returning to her mother’s cold shoulder.
When she did return to Linda’s side, she said, “They’re black.”
Aly sighed. “Manifestly.”
“Some people would think it looked odd a white woman working for a black family.”
“That is so anachronistic I don’t even know how to respond. ‘Some people’, huh?”
“Oh, I don’t care about race.”
“You could never stand to be a Wong.”
“You kids don’t look Chinese. It would be different if you looked Chinese. Then people would understand my having the name.”
“Do Gemma’s kids look like Giannis?
“You and your dad and your brother always get a thrill over how others respond to your name.”
“You could’ve joined in the fun. If you felt left out, Mom, it’s because you chose to be on the outside.”
Linda didn’t respond to this. After a while she asked, “How did you get this position?”
“A friend of mine. I already knew Erika, though. She was an acquaintance.”
“Oh. So is she gay?”
“Yes.”
Linda was quiet for a while. “She’s an attractive woman.”
Aly knew where this was headed and tried to stop it. “If you like the type.”
“You don’t think so?”
“She’s so far out of my league it wouldn’t matter if I did.”
“That’s true,” Linda sighed. “They seem to care about you.” When Aly didn’t respond Linda went on, “You didn’t introduce us. Which one of us are you ashamed of?”
Again, Aly didn’t take the bait. Was it shame? No. She simply didn’t like to inflict her mother’s cold, haughty attitude on others. Linda was friendly, if not exactly warm, with Mark’s friends and acquaintances. They were always interesting to Linda. But Linda seemed to assume that if someone was connected with Aly, there was something fundamentally wrong with them.
For the next few hours, whenever Aly needed a break from the cold war with her mother, she only had to turn her head slightly to the left to smell Erika’s perfume on her shoulder and thaw out.
Dave came through surgery well and Aly had an opportunity to see him briefly. To her he seemed pale beneath his natural ruddiness, but Linda, who was visibly relieved, claimed his color was much improved. His blood was already pumping through him better than it had in a long time.
Dave’s daughter, Donna, tall, chunky, and ruddy like her father, arrived at the hospital around nine. Aly spent a few minutes with her. After Donna was caught up on Dave’s condition and relieved of most of her worry, Aly was caught up on Donna’s family. She got along better with her step family than with her own mother.
Before she left, Aly surprised her mother with a single arm hug around the shoulders that elicited a little, “Oh!” from Linda. This gesture, Aly knew, was really for herself. It was the least she could give and probably the most Linda would accept. If she and Linda didn’t have so much negative history, Aly knew she’d feel more compassion for her.
She found the Audi sedan near the hospital entrance and was enveloped in Erika’s crisp perfume when she got in. It was comforting. R&B music came on when she started up the engine and she left it.
Erika was in the kitchen making her bedtime chamomile tea when she arrived home. She told her about Dave and that her step-sister had arrived. They traded keys and she was headed to her room when she turned and s
aid, “I don’t want you to think I’m cold about my mother and just leaving her alone in this…”
“Aly, how could you possibly think I’d - ” Erika began, exasperated. Aly was surprised. Erika had never shown any kind of irritation with her. But then Erika caught herself and took a deep breath. “I don’t think you’re cold. In any way. Lu said your mother was not very nice to you - ”
“She said that?”
“Yes. And I know from some things you’ve said that she’s not very happy with you.”
She nodded. “I’ve always disappointed her.”
Erika frowned and cocked her head. “That’s inexplicable. Is it because you’re gay?”
“Oh, no, it was long before that. I don’t even know how she really feels about me being gay. She probably lumps it together with everything else that disappoints her.”
“Can you tell me why?”
Aly sighed. “Because I’m not like my brother…” She explained that Mark was a precocious child. From the time he was four and first saw an airplane he knew he wanted to fly. He was singularly focused on it. His wallpaper, his pajamas, his bedding, everything was airplanes. He did model planes and hung them in his room. He flew remote planes. As soon as he could, he hung out at the North Las Vegas airport and befriended pilots. He was driven and made his dream come true. “And then along comes Aly who just sort of dawdles along and has no particular interest, no ambition, no passion. Mark sort of spoiled my mother for a successful child.”
“So it’s nothing about you that disappoints her. It’s her unrealistic expectation that everyone should be like Mark.”
“A therapist said that to me once. I did some therapy in my twenties.” She explained that Linda was an orphan who was in various foster homes until she was eleven. Then she was in a group home. She married very young, and had a golden child. She didn’t know what was realistic. “She was disappointed in my dad, too. She poured all her love into Mark.”
A Good Woman Page 9