by J S Hazzard
I was sure I could trump her in the adventure department but couldn’t have spoken if I’d wanted to. Of all the challenges I’d anticipated over the next few days, this possibility hadn’t made the list.
“We left the conference two days ago,” she explained, confusing me further. “And right before sunset yesterday, we were less than a mile from our overnight stop when a deer ran out in front of us.”
I looked at Luigi blankly. “You hit a deer?”
Apparently that did happen, who knew?
He extended his hands in the stance of the innocent. “No, your mother spoke correctly, cara mia. The deer ran out in front of us and I swerved off road to avoid it. The right side of the truck plowed over a tree stump and broke the front axle.”
I forced myself to ask the expected question. “I’m glad you’re okay, but how did you get back so fast?”
My mother picked it up from there. “As we weren’t far from the shelter, we left the truck and started walking.”
“She had to crawl out through my door,” Luigi added. “Hers was too damaged.”
“Luigi helped me out and we packed everything we could carry and dragged it with us.”
“We didn’t care about the clothing or equipment,” Luigi chimed in, “but the food and water would have been very hard to replace.” My mother elbowed him lightly as if to shut him up, but Luigi only grinned at her.
“Anyway,” she shot him a look of fake sternness, “we reached the shelter with only minutes to spare and, what do you know? Half an hour later we heard a knock at the door. And it was a vampire!”
“Are you serious?” Even though I saw they were both fine, I couldn’t help scanning them, checking for injuries. My mom patted my shoulder.
“Stop that dear, we’re fine. As it turned out, they were friendly vampires.”
“Friendly vampires? You let them in? Are you insane?” Okay, maybe that was hypocritical under the circumstances, but I hadn’t had a say in my own introduction to vampires. I certainly wouldn’t have opened the door for one.
My mother laughed gently. “Of course not, don’t be ridiculous. Shortly after dark, two vampires came to the door and called to us. They said they didn’t want to enter and that they worked for Mr. Nickleby.”
I gaped as it sank in. “Your publisher?”
“The very same. They said they worked for Lawrence and had been instructed to stand guard at our overnight shelters.”
“You didn’t know they’d been following you?”
My mother shook her head. “Not a clue. Lawrence offered me an escort when I first wrote him I’d be attending, and I turned him down flat. And believe me,” she spoke primly, “we will be having words about his having ignored my request.”
I looked at her skeptically. “Didn’t he end up helping you?”
She waved a hand airily. “That is hardly the point.”
It sounded like an important point to me, but I’d be wasting my breath to argue. “So what’d they do?”
Luigi smiled indulgently as my mother giggled. “They told us to stay where we were and human assistance would arrive the next day. And the next morning Rory, damned if Immortal Media didn’t send one of those ghastly red helicopters for us!”
My mouth dropped open. Perhaps I’d underestimated my mother’s notion of adventure, though I still thought I’d win in a contest. “My God! And you got in?”
She shrugged artfully. “What choice did we have? The truck was out of commission and we were days away from anywhere capable of repairs.” Then she laughed. “Besides, the drive wasn’t so much fun I was dying to repeat it.”
“Speak for yourself,” Luigi retorted flirtatiously, which made my mother turn a becoming shade of pink. He lifted her left hand to kiss it. And then I saw the ring.
I stared. “Is that what I think it is?”
My mother’s face turned pinker and even Luigi reddened beneath his tan. Then my mother took my hand. “It is. Luigi and I want to get married. I desperately hope you’ll be happy for us, my darling.”
“I am. Of course I am.” I stammered out.
I mean, what else could I say? After all, I was happy for them. I was also shocked.
Luigi beamed, happier than I’d ever seen him, his arm still around my mother. “We wanted to tell you and Nicky together, but that rapscallion of mine appears to have left for his scouting trip,” he added cheerily. “I hope he’s having a good time, but I’d hoped I’d catch him before he left. He’s going to miss one hell of a party.”
Baffled, I forced myself to keep smiling.
Then Gigi turned to my mother. “There are a few new sites we’ve been wanting to check out for a while, out to the East. We deliberately left the last few weeks of summer open so Nicky could check whether any of them were worth a big trip.”
“It’s a shame he’ll miss the party, but at least he cleaned your place before he left,” my mother chimed brightly, looking back at him with adoration. “From everything you said, I was sure you’d come home to a houseful of dirty dishes and mildewed laundry.”
They both chortled as my knees went weak with relief, my frozen smile warming to something slightly more genuine. I’d forgotten Nicky’s intended trip, but it had bought me some more time to search for him. All I had to do was smile and keep my mouth shut for the time being.
“And you!” my mother exclaimed, turning back to me. “You’ve done a wonderful job. The house barely looks lived in.”
I laughed nervously, hoping it sounded okay.
“We were back by noon and looked everywhere for you—the courtyards, Amy’s place, even the vault. By the time we heard you were off tutoring, everyone had seen my ring and Mayor Morrisey decided to combine her community dinner into a welcome home and engagement party. We’ve been hiding at Beverly’s all afternoon.”
“Wait, this party is for you?”
They both laughed and mom squeezed my hand again. “Even though everyone else had already seen us we wanted to surprise you. How did we do?”
She looked so thrilled I could only respond weakly, “Consider me stunned.”
“Excellent!” Gigi clapped his hands decisively, pulling out his keys and unlocking the courtyard door.
Of course he has a key, I thought sourly. Like father, like son.
“And now, my dear Ms. Strong and Mrs. Carriero-to-be, I believe we have a party to attend!” Without another word, he threw the doors open and hauled us both outside—my mom laughing girlishly and me too numb to protest.
CHAPTER
THIRTY-EIGHT
NEEDLESS to say, the party was absolute misery, though not through any fault of its coordinators. In fact, for a party planned in only a few hours it was amazing. They’d accomplished a great deal while I’d put things away and dressed—which reminded me I had to get home before mom to trash the food in the freezer and hide Nicky’s laundry.
The courtyard looked lovely, largely courtesy of Immortal Media and the Frontier Bank of Niagara. Apparently my mother’s engagement had been discussed during her flight home and word had spread like lightning. According to Skipper, a truckload of flowers had arrived shortly after I did, along with another truck filled with sweets—all of which had been flown to Niagara Falls from Toronto by Immortal’s helicopters and transported here in Niagara Frontier vehicles.
I would have attributed everything to vampire efficiency, but having occurred in daytime it was clearly the work of humans. I doubted even Mr. Nickleby had a previous set of orders waiting in the event of my mother’s possible engagement.
Within minutes of our arrival, the party was in full swing.
Diane had arranged an admirable variety of food but Immortal Media had focused on desserts, the crowning glory of which was a massively tiered wedding cake. I couldn’t fathom how it had survived the flight and decided they’d assembled it here.
There were piles of pastries and cookies, several of which contained chocolate. Unfortunately, they reminded me of Nicky, which made
me too nervous to eat them. In addition to the delicacies, Immortal Media had also contributed four casks of wine, which certainly contributed to the festive atmosphere. It was the best party I’d ever seen and every moment felt like ants crawling over my flesh.
On the other hand, Amy was in heaven, gushing to the point of giving me a migraine. It might not have been the bridal gown she’d wanted to design, but Amy was determined to design my mother’s wedding dress whether she wanted one or not. Of course my mother capitulated good-naturedly.
“You win,” she said fondly. “You can make whatever you like, on two conditions. First, anything you make is subject to Rory’s approval. And as my Maid of Honor, she’ll need a new dress too.”
“Maid of Honor?” No one had mentioned this to me.
“Of course!” My mother looked at me as if it was obvious. “You’ll be my Maid of Honor and Dominic will stand as Luigi’s Best Man!”
Oh shit, just shoot me.
I almost blurted everything then and there, literally biting my tongue to stay silent. It had been hard enough deceiving the general public about Nicky, but deceiving Mom and Gigi felt a thousand times worse.
Fortunately, Amy unwittingly gave me time to recover. “I can handle that,” she agreed. “What’s the second condition?”
Luigi fielded that one. “The second condition is that these feats of fashion be finished by October’s end. This woman will be mine before the first snow falls!”
He snatched my mother up and twirled her around, delighting the crowd.
After several minutes of listening to Amy and my mother talk colors and styles, with Bev and Ms. B. excitedly offering suggestions, I excused myself by saying I needed a drink.
It wasn’t a pretense; I did need a drink. Though I would’ve liked several drinks, I limited myself to one hard cider. The last thing I needed was a hangover tomorrow.
As I emptied my glass in a single gulp, Diane quietly appeared at my side, pressing my house key into my hand.
“It’s done,” she said, her face a pleasant mask of normalcy. She might have been discussing the weather, or our walnut crop.
Deliberately relaxing the grip on my glass before I broke it, I moved in closer. “You mean he’s gone? Just like that?”
She smiled and waved at one of the council members before taking a sip of her own drink. “Not quite just like that, but yes, Robert is on his way to 4111 as we speak. He agreed to leave for the reasons we already discussed, and I agreed that my official announcement would be that he’d already been planning to retire and didn’t want to leave with any fuss.”
Setting my glass down on a makeshift barrel-table, I gripped her hand with my own. “Thank you, Diane. I promise you I’ll never forget this.”
Gently disengaging her hand, she took another sip of her wine. “It was the best thing for the community, Rory, but I’ll need you to remain quiet about it. And now, if you’ll excuse me, I see some people I need to speak with.”
As she wove her way through the crowd, I could only stare as she was swallowed up by the sea of revelry.
Unsurprisingly, everyone else was having a fabulous time. In fact, the party was still so strong at sunset that the entire celebration relocated inside by acclamation. For the first time in my memory, we had drunken singing in the hallways and dancing in the community center. My only bit of luck was that in the race to carry everything inside, no one noticed when I slipped home to empty the freezer.
My hands trembled as I groped for the packages. At this very moment, Ian and Keanu were lying in wait with a clutch of severed fingers in their pockets. My spine contracted in a shiver that had nothing to do with the freezer’s temperature. In less than half an hour, my friends might have Nicky safely in their possession, or they might all be dead. There was nothing for me to do except keep my mouth shut and wait until morning.
And deal with the damn food.
Since this afternoon’s box had been soaked through, I was forced to use more unconventional means of storage, stuffing most of the food under my bed to throw it out tomorrow unnoticed. I sacrificed the majority without a thought, but couldn’t bring myself to allow Ms. B’s seafood to spoil.
After conceiving and discarding several elaborate plans, I finally pinned a bow to the carton and walked straight through the party to leave it in Amy’s freezer. Between the dancing, the raucous laughter, the drinking songs and the couples making out in dark corners, I might have been invisible.
Four hours later, my mother decided she was ready to sleep in her own bed. Bev had wrapped a huge assortment of leftovers for the lovebirds—thank goodness I’d emptied the freezer—which she pressed into our hands before we went home. With an internally raised eyebrow, I realized Luigi was staying for a little slumber party.
I began putting the leftovers away while the lovebirds carried in the suitcases they’d stashed at Beverly’s. Then I dropped a frosted cookie on the floor when I realized I’d left Nicky’s laundry in the washing machine. My voice came out an octave higher than I’d intended.
“Hey mom? Luigi? If you want to leave your luggage downstairs, I’ll start your laundry. After I change out of my dress, I mean.”
“Oh honey, aren’t you exhausted?”
“I need to wind down a bit before I’ll be able to sleep and I already have laundry in the washer. I’ll sleep in an hour or two.” Or tomorrow night, wherever I ended up.
And wouldn’t that be fun to explain.
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
WITH no hope of sleep, I washed six loads of laundry in an effort to make the hours pass. In between sorting and folding laundry, I raced around making up for lost time.
Between the first and second loads of laundry, I filled my duffle with clean clothes and repacked Nicky’s knapsack, stuffing both bags beneath my desk where the chair blocked them from view. Unfortunately, the stash of frozen goodies beneath my bed had begun to melt, and I spent the delay between loads two and three mopping my bedroom floor and praying the food wouldn’t stink up the house before I could trash it.
The lull while the third load washed was occupied by some quick cooking. Worried about refrigeration, I managed to bake two loaves of walnut quick-bread, and mix an enormous batch of trail mix before it was time for load number four. Hopefully Barb would have something hearty I could buy tomorrow as well.
Unfortunately, at that point I ran out of things to do and was left with pacing as my only option. I paced until my body betrayed me right after I’d started the sixth load.
* * * * *
I awoke in the dark, despite having never turned the lights off. In what had become my go-to reaction to almost everything, my brain promptly hit the panic button and I leapt off the sofa with an unnecessary adrenaline rush.
Two seconds later, the clinking of silverware and an off-key humming from the kitchen informed me my mom was already awake, and a more genuine fear took over. How late had I overslept? More importantly, how could I possibly sneak thirty pounds of melting garbage, a loaded duffle bag, and a knapsack that both mom and Luigi would recognize out of the house?
I’d banked on being able to creep out before anyone woke up, but once again, my luck had failed me. I now had no choice but to wait until my mother was occupied elsewhere.
Accepting my fate, I composed myself and walked to the kitchen, hoping I could speed her along. As I adjusted to the increased light I happily realized I hadn’t overslept. There was still nearly an hour until the exterior doors would open, and for some reason my mother was up ungodly early.
She sat at the kitchen table, drinking a glass of juice and nibbling squares of candy. She was a million miles away and didn’t even acknowledge my presence in the kitchen. After a moment’s hesitation I sat beside her, pulling her out of her sugar induced reverie.
“Good morning, baby! I’m sorry if I woke you.” My mother was all sweetness and smiles.
“Don’t worry about it, I didn’t mean to fall asleep down here. You’re up awfully early thoug
h.” I covered my mouth as I yawned.
She giggled. “I woke up thirty minutes ago and couldn’t fall back asleep remembering all the food down here. I did more dancing than eating last night and the food situation at the conference was grim at best—next time we’ll be better prepared. Anyway, never mind me, how late did you stay up?”
There was no point in saying I’d slept as the piles of folded laundry would tell the truth even if I didn’t. Fortunately, my mother had inadvertently provided me with a perfect excuse and I smiled. “I did more eating than dancing, and all the sugar had me bouncing off the walls. Still, it looks like I didn’t see all the offerings. What type of candy is that?” I asked, gesturing at her plate.
I didn’t care about the candy, but it was better than her asking about my summer. I wasn’t ready for that yet.
She smiled and gestured for me to help myself. “They’re not candy,” she explained, breaking one in half to show me. “Evidently they’re called petit fours, and each piece is a miniature frosted layer cake. The pink are strawberry, the white—vanilla, and the brown—chocolate. Oh, and there were yellow ones yesterday—lemon—but they’re all gone now.”
I picked up a petit fours and examined it. They were clever little things, though I wasn’t hungry. I set the tiny cake back down. “The thought of more sugar makes me nauseous, but you’ll have to save me one.”
As another strawberry petit fours disappeared, my mom grinned. “I make no promises.”
Laughing, I gave my mother a quick, hard hug. “It’s great to have you home.” It was only an illusion of calm, but I had no objections to enjoying it until sunrise.
“It’s wonderful to be back, darling. I can’t begin to say how much has happened this summer, or how often I turned to tell you all the news.” In a rare show of gluttony, my mother popped her third petit fours in as many minutes into her mouth.
A crazy thought popped into my head as she chewed. “Mom, are you pregnant?”