by James Villas
“No harm done,” was his only comment.
“And a little sun wouldn’t do you any harm,” she added, pressing one of his pale knees with a finger.
“Stop worrying about me.”
“Well, I do think you owe me one explanation,” she continued to carp casually as they rocked.
“About what?”
“That book. Your memoirs. Don’t you think you went a little overboard with the family and some of our close friends?”
He chuckled. “Oh, don’t be silly, Mama. There’re no secrets that everybody at home doesn’t already know about. All I did was tell the truth.”
“Well, some things—like poor Olivia’s skin problem as a child and your daddy’s and my disagreements—are private matters, in my opinion. And you have no right, no right whatever, to ridicule the way Rose-Ann Beale used to take communion at home after Rufus died.”
“Oh, Mama, I didn’t identify her by name, and besides, who wouldn’t like to read about an eccentric grand dame who used to take communion every Sunday with coffee and Ritz crackers while watching a church service on TV?”
“Well, Rose-Ann is a Presbyterian, and even if she now knew night from day out in that awful nursing home, she wouldn’t consider her ritual the least bit strange. Of course, those Presbyterians do things different than we do, and she was always quick to explain to anybody that she didn’t have to dress up, and go to church, and be served grape juice and a special wafer to find meaning in Holy Communion. And, as far as I’m concerned, that was her privilege.”
“She’s certainly not going to be reading my book, and I doubt there are many relatives today who’d take offense.”
“You’d be surprised. Now listen, I don’t mind you telling all those shady stories about yourself—that’s your right—but when you implicate the family and our friends…well, Son, it’s just a question of good manners, that’s all.”
Ella’s tone was in no way hostile, but, accustomed to being mildly chided by his mother over any number of similar matters, Tyler knew the only defense was to simply change the subject again and shift the train of conversation to herself.
“Darling, I don’t think my book is the reason you asked me to join you down here on this crazy expedition. Earl did call me, and he says you’re giving them a hard time back in Charlotte. Is that what this is all about?”
“Why, the nerve! Me giving them a hard time! They’re the ones driving me up the wall, trying to force me to go to doctors for no earthly good reason at all and acting like I’m on my last leg. Well, I’m not going to any doctor till I need one, and nobody’s going to stop me from driving my automobile, and that’s that. The nerve of your brother and sister.”
“Honey, you really should have checkups from time to time.”
Ella slapped the arm of her chair. “Now, don’t you start on me—not for one second. That’s one reason I had to get away from them for a while, and you’re the one person I thought would understand. Anyway, that’s certainly not what I want to talk about now. I’ve been thinking, thinking hard, and one thing I do have to talk over with you is what all of mine you might want when I’m gone—things out of the house, I mean. Earl and Liv both already have more than they know what to do with, and…what I want to do is draw up a specific list to be added to my will and make sure you get what you’re entitled to before they snatch everything up. We need to discuss these things. Not that I’m planning to fall over dead anytime soon, mind you, but I would like to just get my affairs in order since…you never know.”
Tyler simply made light of the issue by saying that he and Barry couldn’t cram another thing in the apartment or house and that, yes, she did seem to be jumping to unnecessary conclusions. He also couldn’t help pondering the stark possibility that, given his precarious physical condition, his mother might well outlive him.
“Well,” she continued in her determined manner, “I do want you to have my antique screens and the mahogany dining table and china cabinet—that table, you know, has been in my family for four generations—and, of course, I know you want that Grand Baroque silver, and my Belgium lace tablecloth, and…the others would have no use whatsoever for those Alsatian wineglasses, or—”
“Mama,” he interrupted her endless roster, patting her on the arm and not wanting to offend her, “I think it’s going to be a long time before you have to worry about disposing of all those lovely things, and—” he falsified a short titter—“as I’ve always said, you’ll probably outlive me at the rate you’re going.”
Ella said he was being absurd, and that she wanted him to think seriously about this since she planned to begin drawing up her list as soon as she got back home. Then, as quick to end this conversation as she’d been to start it, she broached the subject that had been distracting her all week.
“Son, I think I mentioned on the phone one reason I thought it would be nice for you to come down, and what I’d love for just the two of us to do one day is drive down to Charleston for old time’s sake, and look around, and maybe have lunch at Simon’s. Wouldn’t you enjoy that?”
“Isn’t that a pretty long drive just to have lunch?”
“Of course not, and it wouldn’t be just to have lunch. Sometimes I think you forget that you were born in Charleston, and never got to know the town, and…It’s such a lovely old town, and I do have lots of wonderful memories and would love to visit a few places, and see the old house again after all these years, and show you some interesting things. Do you remember the one time we took y’all to Simon’s when your grandmother was still alive?”
“Afraid not,” he replied, wondering where this could be leading.
From seemingly nowhere appeared an unfamiliar receptionist in a blazer and tie who bent over politely and informed Ella that she had a phone call at the front desk.
“Weren’t you told, young man, that I’m not accepting any calls?” she scolded. “Whoever it is, just tell them you have no idea where I am. Is that understood?”
As the man apologized and slinked away, Tyler said in exasperation, “But Mama, it could be important.”
“Nonsense. It’s just that meddlesome brother of yours pestering me again, and I’m in no mood to put up with his hogwash. Now, as I was saying, Henry’s and Simon’s down in Charleston were always very special to me—so gracious and civilized and with the nicest waiters you could ever imagine. Lulu Woodside told me not long ago that Simon’s had changed a lot since the old days, but I can’t believe she’s right. Things don’t change much in Charleston. Charlestonians hate change.”
Tyler figured his mother was simply indulging in another of her many nostalgic fantasies, but while the last thing he felt like doing during this short stay was traipsing around a city he’d visited maybe twice as a child and with which he had no real emotional ties, if the excursion meant that much to her, he wasn’t about to protest and disappoint her.
“When did you want to drive down, Mama?”
“When do you have to go back to New York?”
“My return ticket is for Wednesday.
“That’s absurd,” she said. “When are we going to fish, and go down to Murrells Inlet, and eat at the Sea Captain, and…I’d really like you to get to know Dr. O’Conner and his family better.”
He smiled and looked suspiciously at her. “You seem quite infatuated with this Dr. O’Conner. Could there be a little romance brewing?”
“Oh, don’t be ridiculous, honey,” she muttered coyly. “He’s simply a very nice and intelligent gentleman. And, buster boy, he also happens to admire your writing, in case he didn’t mention it last night.”
“He did, but what he mentioned most was you.” He reached over and stroked her frail, rosy cheek. “I do think you’re blushing.”
“I certainly am not, and you’ve lost your mind. Why, the very idea, at my age. In any case, why don’t we drive down on Monday if the weather’s still nice. That would give you all day tomorrow to rest up, and maybe we can go up to Captain Jule’s at Little River fo
r dinner. You remember Captain Jule’s and the crab cakes. Riley says the place is still where it always was, right on the water, and I think Goldie would also enjoy it.”
“Is Goldie having a good time?”
“I think she’s having the time of her life, and it’s really pathetic to see what those two Mariani boys mean to her. But she deserves a good time.”
Before lunch, Tyler and his mother took a long walk on the beach, during which he recounted more of what all he and Barry had done in Paris the month before and made her yearn to return to some of the restaurants where she and Earl had had such wonderful times. Tyler was now aware how just being far away from New York’s high life and his work and the tedious book promotion was already doing psychological wonders to restore his strength and reduce his anxiety, and while he did miss Barry, who was working a few galleries in Chicago, being with his mother again, and returning to a way of life that was altogether different and less stressful than the one to which he’d become so accustomed, provided a mental respite that was even coming close to making him forget, or at least ignore temporarily, the medical problem that had been tormenting him. For her part, Ella treasured every moment with her son, utterly convinced by now that her furtive plan to divulge the truth about his background would not only reveal to him a facet of her humanity that he may never have perceived but also erase the one obstacle to their perfect bond. It could also, she realized, have the opposite effect. That each of them was harboring a secret that could prove caustic to the other was a factor in the relationship that simply had to be played out in the fickle game of fate.
Returning to the porch, Ella immediately spotted Edmund, Elizabeth, and Sal, who, explaining that Goldie had taken the boys down to the other end of the beach to look at huge jellyfish some people reported had washed up on the sand, insisted that the two join them for a Bloody Mary. After Sal had arranged the chairs in a circle so everybody could talk better, Edmund told about finding a notice from the management slipped under the door of his room announcing an after-dinner combo dance on the outdoor terrace for guests scheduled for Tuesday evening—weather permitting. Tyler, of course, found the event a little too quaint for his taste, but when Ella said that was the most charming idea she’d heard in years, and typical of the inn’s old-fashioned sophistication, he kept his opinion to himself.
“Have you ever seen your mother shag?” Elizabeth asked Tyler mischievously.
“Oh, God, don’t tell me. Where?”
“Can you shag?” Edmund asked him, friskily twisting his own hand in imitation of the dance gesture. “Miss Ella taught us all about it.”
“I guess I still know how—at least I used to before I drifted off the straight primrose path of my youth.”
The Marianis sniggered nervously at the suggestive remark, but Ella burst out laughing.
“Don’t tell me you’ve been showing yourself,” Tyler pretended to scold his mother, cupping the back of her neck with his hand.
“I most certainly have not. The shag happens to be a very respectable dance, and these folks found this wonderful club over at O. D., and, yes, I did show them a few steps. I forgot to tell you, but it was just like the old days when I and your daddy danced all over this beach.”
“Your mother can really cut a rug—I can vouch to that,” Edmund added gleefully, staring at Ella as she blushed and began to change her expression.
“Oh, I know all about Mama’s dancing,” Tyler said.
“You know nothing of the sort,” she corrected. “You never saw me and your daddy shag down here and at O. D. and Cherry Grove when we were in top form. You were just knee high to a grasshopper.” She paused a long time, as if lost in her recollection. “Lord, we used to dance our heads off, me and Earl, and Bobby Foster, and lots of other boys out on the island, and over at the pavilion, and in the grand hotel, and…It was all so lovely and gracious, and, mercy, did we have fun—good, clean fun with nice people from good families…. The tango and Charleston and shag and slow dancing and…”
Ella now seemed to be laughing to herself and was holding her drink out over the arm of the rocker when, in a split second, her hand began to shake uncontrollably and she dropped the glass on the deck, her eyes blinking rapidly.
“Mama!” Tyler called out anxiously, jumping up and leaning over her while Sal reached down to pick up pieces of glass. “What’s wrong, Mama? Are you okay?”
Ella seemed to be in a trance. Then, as suddenly as the spell had come over her, frightening everyone and leading them to worry that maybe she might be on the verge of a mild stroke, her eyes appeared to focus again. She looked at Tyler as if perplexed, then at Sal squatted on the floor, then at the front of her blouse, then, in her normal tone of voice, declared, “Mercy me, what a clumsy fool I am. Y’all must please excuse my manners. I am mortified, truly mortified.”
“Are you sure you’re all right?” Tyler questioned again, holding her hands.
“Oh, stop fussing over me, Son. Of course I’m all right. Haven’t you ever lost your grip and dropped a drink? And Sal, please stop fooling with that glass. You’re gonna cut yourself, young man. Tyler, go find that waiter and ask him to clean this mess up—and to please bring me another drink.”
All the while Ella was apologizing and dictating, Edmund sat watching her carefully, first with a wry expression on his face, then with a bewitching smile.
“Now, I have a proposal to make,” she announced as if nothing unusual had just happened, glancing over at Edmund. “Tyler’s only here for a few days, and I don’t think any of us want to sit around here on a Saturday night, so what I’d like to do is invite you all to go up to Captain Jule’s at Little River for dinner as my guests—and no wrangling from you this time, Dr. O’Conner. That is, of course, unless you folks have other plans.”
“Or unless I shoot Mama first,” Tyler quipped just as he returned and caught the tail end of her invitation.
“Oh, hush,” Ella said as she reached into her pocketbook for a mirror to check her hair.
“That’s very nice of you, Miss Ella,” Sal said, virtually agreeing to the idea. “We’ve heard about that restaurant.”
“Haven’t been there for ages, but I know it used to be awfully good, and you really can’t beat the scenic atmosphere—right on this charming inlet.”
“Maybe we should get a sitter for the boys this time,” Elizabeth said to Sal, implying that they were both ready for a little break from responsibility.
“You know the boys are welcome to come,” Ella assured them politely.
Tyler, who disliked children any time, any place, and under any circumstances, no matter how well behaved, couldn’t have been more relieved when Sal seconded his wife’s idea. Not that he was so anxious to spend an entire evening with these strangers with whom he had nothing in common and who would no doubt throw dozens of trivial questions at him about his work, and social life, and who knew what else. On the other hand, eating meals with Goldie, much as he liked and admired her, was equally awkward, so, aware that his mother was most probably arranging the evening mainly for his benefit, he had little option but to go along with the plans and try to enjoy himself. What did puzzle him a bit was why, after implying that she had important matters to discuss when she insisted he fly down, his mother wasn’t making more effort to be quietly alone with him. Surely she had more on her mind than minor problems with Earl and Liv and what was going to happen to her silver service and Alsatian glasses.
As it turned out, the early dinner at Captain Jule’s, around a table overlooking small boats in the inlet and dozens of seagulls perched complacently on mooring stumps, couldn’t have been more delightful, and after a couple of martinis, neither Tyler nor his mother were even aware that the distraction was providing the illusory escape that both of them needed for altogether different reasons.
Chapter 17
AWENDAW
“Do you remember the time you caught your first whiting?” Ella was asking Tyler as the two stood together in
the surf on Sunday morning with their lines out in the water while Goldie helped the Mariani boys build an elaborate sand castle a ways back.
“I do. How could I forget? I think that was one of the few times Daddy was really proud of me.”
“Now, why would you say that? I noticed you made a number of cracks like that in the book.”
“Oh, Mama, we all know that I was never exactly Daddy’s favorite, and that, no matter what I did, I could never come up to his expectations. Why try to deny it?”
“That’s ridiculous. It’s simply not true. He cared a great deal about you. He may have had his strange ways of showing it, but he loved you dearly, Son.”
“Yeah, okay, if you insist. Maybe if I’d performed better on the football field, or played golf with him, or wooed a few more gals in high school….”
“That’s just not true, Tyler. He always knew you were different from the others, but there wasn’t a thing on God’s green earth he wouldn’t have done for you.”
“Yeah, like show a little pride in my work, or come to my defense over the mess at Princeton—just a phone call to talk it over. Some father.”
“That’s not fair, Tyler. He tried but simply couldn’t understand things like that. Earl was a good man, and I don’t see why you have to be so negative and hateful toward him now that he’s dead.”
“Mama, don’t you think it’s a little late to argue about a subject that—” He suddenly pulled his rod back forcefully. “Whoa, whatta we have here?”
“I could kill you!” Ella wailed excitedly as he took up slack in the line instinctively and waited. “Is he on? Make sure he’s on, honey.”
Tyler again felt the familiar tug on the line and began reeling like an old pro. “Yep, he’s on, and he’s fightin’.”
“A spot—and a good size,” she exclaimed, happy for her son, as the fish flopped across the wet sand. “You dog.”
Tyler caught a couple more, as she did, but after another hour of fishing and chatting about more pleasant topics pertaining to Charlotte and Amagansett, he said his back was starting to ache and wondered if they could call it a morning and stretch out in the cabana. Once seated, he immediately fell sound asleep, and, not wanting to disturb him, Ella moved over to join Edmund, who couldn’t have been more pleased to have her company while he kept an eye on Goldie and the two boys still constructing their giant castle.