The Champagne Sisterhood

by Chris Keniston

  “And all for one,” Kat and Erin added, Mark only a beat behind.

  Kat stared into her glass. “For a few minutes that day in Napa, I didn’t think you were going to do it.”

  “I still can’t believe I not only did it, I’ve acquired a taste for it.” Anna gave a half laugh that sounded more like a snort.

  “I never understood what the big deal was.” Erin smiled over at Mark.

  “About?” he asked.

  “Green champagne. When we agreed to go wine tasting on Saint Patrick's day it hadn’t occurred to me we’d be served green drinks. One look and I said ‘No way’. I mean - it was green.” Anna raised her glass to him and took the last sip. “But since that day, we’ve celebrated every new endeavor, every success, with the green bubbly.”

  “I have a very vague recollection from the wedding, somewhere between the lampshade and the conga, of seeing all of you drinking green champagne, but I chalked it up to my version of pink elephants.” Mark took a slow sip.

  “Green champagne brings us luck. At the moment I need all the luck the little leprechauns care to share.” Anna set the empty glass on a nearby table. “If I want to keep my job, there’s a very real possibility that I might have to go to Italy to resolve this problem with the new line. Harrison’s first unofficial fundraiser is at the Hobart’s in two weeks and we have to pick Marcia up from your office in...” She looked at her watch.

  “One hour,” Mark answered for her.

  “Yup. All the luck the Irish have,” she mumbled.

  Anna wasn’t sure which had made her more nervous, the ride to pick Marcia up and not knowing what the poor kid would do when they got there, or riding home now, wondering what the kid was going to do when she realized Uncle Mark wasn’t part of the plan for the rest of the night.

  “Luck of the Irish, remember?” Mark slanted her a quick grin from the driver’s seat.

  “Right. Irish.” A bit of Baileys wouldn’t be a bad idea either, she thought.

  “It’s not like you’re going to death row. Once she gets back to her own room, in her own house, she’ll be more like her old self. You’ll see.”

  “You seem to have a lot of experience with children.”

  “Before she moved to San Diego, my sister Rachel broke me in with her three kids. She started young. My sister Sarah has two boys. The youngest is three. The rest of us don’t have kids, but we’ve all paid our dues. I can change the diaper on a squirming baby with one hand tied behind my back.”

  “Good thing someone around here knows how to change diapers.”Anna glanced into the back seat at the child happily entertaining herself, sucking on a colorful plastic inchworm. “I wonder if she knows?”

  “She’s young. Maybe it won’t be too bad.”

  “And bears don’t shit in the woods.”

  Mark shot her a quick scowl then looked at the baby in the rearview mirror. “I don’t mean to be a kill joy, but she’s going to be learning to talk soon and I’m not sure you want the first thing she says to be bears shit in the woods.”

  “Oh, God. I wasn’t thinking.” Rummaging through her pocketbook, she poured out a handful of colorful tablets and popped them into her mouth then let her head fall back against the seat rest. “What was Babs thinking? I can’t do this. Not only don’t I have the time, most people who know me well, won’t even trust me with their houseplants. This is a baby. A real live baby who is going to go through major years of therapy as an adult if I’m the one who raises her!”

  “Don’t be so hard on yourself. Everyone has to learn. No baby comes with a manual. Parents all learn this the same way you will. One step at a time.”

  “For a bachelor, you do okay.”

  “And I learned one step at a time. If you want, I’m sure my sister will be delighted to let you practice on her boys.”

  “Oh good, more therapy bills to be responsible for.”

  Stopped at a red light, Mark turned, studying her. “You’re really scared about this, aren’t you?”

  “Babs was the one with the dream of the house with the white picket fence, the two point five children and probably the measles and mumps. When my sister Angela had her boys I was six and seven, too young to participate. By the time my brother had kids I was away at college. With all the relatives, no one needed me to baby-sit. I don’t want to let Babs down, but babies aren’t something I’m good at.”

  “Right. You mentioned you never babysat. Not even in the neighborhood for other people’s kids?”

  “I lived in a little Italian oasis in the Bronx. Everyone had a big extended family. No. I didn’t baby-sit growing up. I drew pictures of dresses, and suits and shoes.”

  “You designed clothes?”

  “Clothes, accessories, if a woman wears it, I drew it.”

  “What happened?”

  “Reality happened. Getting out of the kitchen is much easier on the merchandising end than the designing end.” She hadn’t wanted to put down the pencil, but she wanted out of her mother’s kitchen more than anything else. She used that same eye for design to sell, and she’d become damn good at her job.

  A flash of color caught Anna’s eye as the striped inchworm flew across the car and hit her in the head. Turning quickly, she spied Marcia giggling with delight before her face crumpled into a crude imitation of a Sharpei. Twenty seconds later a loud wail followed.

  “Oh, dear.” Frantically, Anna reached for the little toy and handed it to the baby, dismayed when Marcia pushed it back and screamed louder. “She doesn’t want it. What do I do now?”

  “Try again,” Mark suggested, watching the interaction from the rear view mirror.

  “Here you go, sweetie. Just like before.” She waved the toy in her goddaughter’s face. Occasionally poking her playfully in the tummy. Marcia only cried louder.

  At the next light, Mark unbuckled his seat belt and turned to the back seat. “Here you go, buttercup.”

  He took the toy from Anna and rattled it in front of the baby. With a grin to rival the Cheshire cat, Marcia snatched the toy back and began sucking with gusto. At the sound of a horn honking behind them, Mark refastened his seatbelt and stepped on the gas.

  Anna glared at him. “Care to explain why that didn’t work when I tried it?”

  “Timing.”

  “Timing?” She wanted to hit him with the stupid toy herself. What kind of an answer was that? Babs had picked her to be guardian of this precious little child and the kid wouldn’t give her the time of day. What the hell was she supposed to do? “How’s this timing going to work when we get to the house?”

  “We’ll find out soon enough.” Slowing down, he turned a corner, then pulled into the driveway. “Honey, we’re home.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  “The phone’s been ringing off the wall.” Erin hung up the receiver and ran to greet Anna, Mark and the baby as they came in the door.

  “It appears there isn’t anyone in San Francisco who didn’t watch the news at lunch today.” Kat stepped into the hallway.

  “Damn,” Mark muttered and moved past the women into the family room. The last thing he wanted was for word of Tom and Barb’s deaths to get back to Sacramento. When he tried to set Marcia on the floor she whimpered and clung to his shirt like a baby monkey to its mother. Without skipping a beat he took a seat in a nearby chair and sat Marcia on his lap.

  “You’ve been saying that a lot lately. Care to fill the rest of us in on the problem?” Anna stood beside him, arms folded.

  His mouth opened, the words ready to spill out, wanting to tell her what worried him when he heard Anna gasp and turn her back to him, her hand pressed tightly against her side.

  He jumped to his feet, setting Marcia on the floor he made it to Anna’s side in a single stride. She was pale as chalk and biting down on her lower lip.

  “Jesus have you eaten anything today besides those damn antacids? You should see a doctor.”

  “I told you it’s just--”

  “I know, agida.�
�� He thought of the handful of antacids she’d swallowed in the car like a fistful of jellybeans. “You should sit down. Eat something.” He looked to Erin.

  “I’ll get her a glass of milk.” Erin turned on her sandaled heel and rushed out of the room.

  Leaning against the chair, Anna took a deep breath, stood a little straighter, and waved him back. “I’m fine.”

  “No you’re not.” He resisted the urge to scoop her up and put her in the nearest chair.

  Erin pushed a half empty glass of milk at Anna. “Here, drink this.”

  “I don’t need that.”

  “Drink it anyway.” Hands on her hips, Kat moved next to Erin, silently daring her friend to argue. “At least it’s not green.”

  “Gee. Thanks.” Anna put the glass to her lips, tipped her head back and guzzled the contents. After setting the glass down on the end table, she shifted her attention to Mark. “Now, what aren’t you telling us?”

  At least some of the color had returned to her face, but even so, what good would telling her about them do? Maybe he should call Sid? Sidney Spitz was a gifted lawyer. He could make the whole sordid mess go away. Telling Sid would mean breaking his word, his confidence, but wasn’t that better than adding another burden, something else on her long list of worries to trigger her agida and maybe next time send her to the hospital?

  On the other hand, he had no way of knowing if the news had reached Sacramento. If they never found out about Tom and Barb, then no one else would need to know and he could keep his promises. Yes, as long as he could handle the situation alone, he would keep things the way Tom wanted.

  “It’s nothing.” Mark spun around and lifted Marcia into his arms. “I didn’t want any publicity. Tom wouldn’t have wanted it.”

  “You don’t look like it’s nothing,” Anna finally said, her hand still gently kneading her side.

  “Nothing worth worrying about.” At least he hoped not.

  Several uncomfortable minutes passed as Anna continued to stare at him. His palms actually began to sweat under her silent scrutiny. For a brief instant he wondered if she could possibly read his mind, see his fears, when the sound of the doorbell broke her steady gaze.

  “Are we expecting anyone?” she asked on her way to the door.

  “Make sure it isn’t a reporter,” Mark called to her, not that he could imagine what they might want, but he hadn’t imagined they’d care enough to report Tom’s death on the news either.

  “Two guys in t-shirts.” Anna looked through the peephole. “Don’t look like reporters to me. But one of them looks a heck of a lot like you.”

  “Me?” By the time Mark reached the door, Anna had already opened it.

  “Oh. You didn’t tell me there were more like you.” Kat whispered over his shoulder, an impish grin on her face.

  “What are you guys doing here?” Mark shifted Marcia to his other arm and slapped his brother Kevin on the back. He hadn’t expected seeing them to feel so good.

  “I thought you might need some moral support so I rearranged my schedule. You might want to consider turning your cell phone on.”

  Mark pulled his phone from the holster and flipped it open. “Dead battery.”

  “Figures. When I called your office Pat mentioned you were playing musical cars. Thought you might need some help. When Mom heard I planned to drive down and give you a hand, she insisted Brad come too.”

  “Like I wouldn’t have come anyway.” Brad reached around and gave his brother the closest thing to a bear hug possible with Marcia between them, then handed over the spare keys. “We stopped to pick your car up from the office. It’s in the driveway behind Tom’s.”

  “Don’t you have classes?” Mark frowned at his youngest brother. Graduate school wasn’t easy and he didn’t want Brad falling behind on account of him.

  “Hey, even Mom thought this was more important.” Brad turned, smiling at the women standing in the foyer and elbowed his brother. “Didn’t Mom teach you anything?”

  “Sorry. Anna, Kat, Erin, these are my brothers, Kevin and Brad.” Mark waved an arm between the crowd, a little surprised at how Brad was subtly sizing each of the women up. He wondered if they noticed how swiftly Brad scanned their left hands. He’d have to have a little man-to-man talk with baby brother later, alone.

  “Nice to meet you,” various voices mumbled as they all exchanged handshakes and moved into the family room.

  “Boy, she sure has grown.” Grinning at Marcia, Kevin reached out and pulled her onto his lap and began playing an odd version of patty-cake. Gurgling with delight, Marcia slapped and patted Kevin’s hands and face without rhyme or reason.

  Anna, Erin, and Kat stared at each other slack jawed.

  “How did you do that?” Kat asked.

  “Do what?” Kevin asked, still focusing on his game.

  “That?” Erin pointed to Marcia.

  “Here, let me.” Brad lifted Marcia into the air blowing raspberries on her tummy. His grin widened with every burst of baby giggles.

  Anna threw her arms up in the air and flopped back into her chair. “So you’re all baby experts!”

  Kevin frowned at his brother, then looked back to Anna. “Excuse me?”

  “I told you. We’ve all paid our dues. Five nieces and nephews, remember?” Mark leaned forward, keeping an eye on his brother as he raised Marcia over his head before swooping her down like a toy airplane and nuzzling her bare tummy.

  “Yeah, I remember.” Anna nodded. “But I didn’t realize...” She waved her arm in a vague gesture of surrender. “I don’t know.”

  “Maybe she just prefers men,” Erin suggested.

  “Am I missing something?” Brad blew one more time into Marcia’s tummy, then set her down on his knee and handed her the inchworm to chew on.

  “We haven’t been able to get near her, never mind touch her,” Anna explained.

  “That doesn’t sound right.” Kevin leaned forward and wiggled his finger in Marcia’s face eliciting a broad grin, then leaned back. “Did you do something to her?”

  “Of course not!” All three women chorused at once.

  Kevin slanted Mark a questioning glare. Mark gave a short shake of his head, assuring Kevin he needn’t worry about the women. For some reason he hadn’t figured out yet, Marcia simply didn’t seem to want anything to do with them.

  “She’s a little skittish after the accident,” Mark explained.

  “She’s not skittish with your brothers.” Anna smiled at the baby and Marcia’s grin disappeared. “See what I mean. This is not going to work.”

  “I’m sure everything will be okay. She probably can sense how tense you are.” Mark looked across the room at Kat and Erin. “All of you are.”

  Anna kicked off her shoes, crossed her legs, and let out a heavy sigh. “We’re in big trouble aren’t we?”

  “Isn’t the day after tomorrow a little fast for the funeral? Shouldn’t there be a wake or a viewing or something?” Brad leaned back against the railing on the back porch.

  “It was the soonest we could arrange it. I think it’s best to simply get it all over with.” Mark stood next to his brother, glancing up at the few stars he could see. Kevin was inside with the baby, hoping maybe without Mark in the room Marcia would be more willing to accept her mom’s friends.

  He wouldn’t have asked his brothers to come, but it was good to have them here. Since he’d moved to San Francisco ten years ago, he didn’t get to see the family nearly as often as he would have liked. After law school Kevin turned down an offer with the Marin County DA to stay closer to home. Brad had just returned from a stint with the Peace Corps and was getting his masters in Biological Conservation from Sac State. He could have gone to any of the East coast schools, but like Kevin, he’d wanted to be close to home for a while. With everything going on, close to home sounded pretty good.

  “Not an ugly one in the bunch,” Brad said quietly.

  “What?”

  “Barb’s friends.” />
  “Don’t go there.” Mark held up a hand.

  “Tell me you haven’t noticed? The blonde, Kat, she’s so hot you’d probably get burned if you brushed against her. And Anna, those eyes are like warm honey. The kind a man could drink in all day--”

  “Brad...”

  “I didn’t see any rings. They are all single?”

  “Yes, and now is not the time to go into Don Juan mode. The last thing they need is a hot shot kid making the moves on them.”

  “Kid? I’m twenty-nine. A man has to start thinking of settling down sometime.” Brad turned around and leaned his forearms on the railing.

  “Right. You’re thinking of settling down,” Mark scoffed.

  “Yeah, I am.” Brad looked up at the sky.

  Mark leaned back, his hands still gripping the railing, and turned to look at his brother. “You’re serious?”

  “Why shouldn’t I be? It’s not like the thought never crossed your mind.”

  “No, you’re right,” Mark said on a sigh. “But I’ve given up on finding the kind of woman I could marry. It’s easier to stick to the long legged blondes who think marriage is a four letter word.”

  “Sounds pretty cynical.”

  “Yeah, well, a few years ago I might have said the same thing. I know better now. Most times I feel I’m the last guy on the planet who wants my kids to have what we had, an old fashioned family with a full time mother. If we got sick Mom was there to take care of us. If we forgot the final science project Mom saved our ass and brought it to school.”

  “Hey, don’t bring me into this. I carried my own Science Fair project.”

  “You know what I mean.” Mark glanced down, pushing a tiny piece of paper around on the deck with the tip of his shoe.

  “Yeah, I do.” Brad slapped his brother on the back. “So now what?”

  “Now everything’s changing. I need to help the girls with Marcia.”

  “Why is that? I thought all women knew how to take care of kids. Where are they from anyhow, Mars?”