I toddled down the center hall, back to the family room. Lo and behold! Moving Camille’s tree—which was now a lime-green fake tinsel model—back there had been a stroke of genius. It shimmered, caught light, throwing it back all over the room. In that milieu, a big-screen television, high-def you know, headphones, a desktop computer, oversize leather couches, recliners, stacks of DVDs, CDs—all that twenty-first-century tangle of wires and noise that usurped family time—well, in that milieu, Camille’s tree was just the perfect thing. In fact, it gave an atmosphere of wacky good humor to the whole room. Perhaps I would suggest they leave it up all year!
Before you could say Robert E. Lee, I could smell roast beef. My stomach started to growl. It had been years since I was as hungry as I had been since Pearl came back. In the next minute, I heard the front door open. They were home. Pearl and I hurried to meet them—she from the kitchen, me from the family room—and we all nearly collided by the front door.
“Hi! Is Santa ready now?” Teddie said, with renewed interest.
“Almost! Come! Let’s hang up our coats,” Barbara said.
“Give me everything,” Pearl said. “Let’s make a quick stop in the dining room!”
No one resisted, not that I expected them to object to any of Pearl’s instructions. They were still somewhat bewitched from last night.
I ladled the eggnog into cups. Barbara put a ham biscuit and a small pimento cheese sandwich on each plate.
“Cheers!” I said to Cleland and to Barbara. We touched the sides of our cups. “Merry Christmas!”
They all drank and drank and drank until the bowl was half emptied. No one seemed anxious to open their gifts. The eggnog was obviously working.
“What’s going to happen to them?” I whispered to Pearl as Barbara listened.
“They gwine say they are sorry and mean it. Then they gwine gain two pounds!”
Pearl laughed so wide we could see that she didn’t have a single filling in her teeth. I had not ever noticed that before. In fact, I distinctly remember that when I knew her as a child, she had a few missing teeth in the back of her mouth.
“Who’s your new dentist?” I said.
“My dentist? That woman is a saint!” she said, laughing again. Barbara looked at me. Still halfway unbelieving of the truth, she laughed, too.
“How was church?” I asked.
“The choir was fabulous! I prayed with great fervor for the quick and the dead,” she said, winking at Pearl. “But I think I sprained my ankle when I skidded on the snow.”
“I caught her so she didn’t fall,” Cleland said. “Thank goodness!”
That was rather noble, I thought. It also meant that they’d gone to church and come home arm in arm! Another good omen!
Pearl said, “I’ll be right back.” In the time it took to walk through the kitchen door and back out again, she reappeared with a walking cane. Naturally, it was white accented, with a mother-of-pearl handle. “This might help the reconciliation.”
Barbara looked at it and laughed. Raising it over her head, she turned to the others. “Y’all better watch out now!”
How do you like that? It seemed that along with confidence, Barbara had developed a sense of humor! I could not have been more delighted!
“I’d like to make a toast!” Cleland said.
Everyone stopped, looking in his direction.
“First, I’d like to thank Pearl for this delicious eggnog. In fact, thank you, Pearl, for all the delicious food we have enjoyed since your arrival. Things have been, well…incredible.”
Cleland’s summation was the understatement of the century.
“Here, here!”
“Most especially, I’d like to thank my lovely wife, Barbara, for many things, not the least of which is tolerating my…well, bad choices and poor attitude. I realized today that I have been wrong about many things. I just wanted to say in front of everyone that I am sorry. Barbara? I ask your forgiveness. Given a second chance, I would like to try to be the model husband you deserve. I don’t want to be on the receiving end of any corporal punishment! Seriously, I would like to be a better father and grandfather, too! I would.”
Honey? You might as well have announced that King Henry VIII was at the front door with a box of chocolates and a Christmas pudding! Stunned, everyone followed suit. George shook his father’s hand, saying something to the effect of let’s start over. Cleland gave George a warm, backslapping hug. I thought they would both start blubbering. Teddie and Andrew put their arms around Cleland’s waist and squeezed before the waterworks could commence. When they hugged George he was so moved that he wiped his eyes with the back of his hand.
Just as Barbara put her arms around Cleland and kissed him right on the lips in front of the entire world, the doorbell rang. Camille answered it. In swept Grayson, who, by the way, was born into this world the color of milk chocolate himself, riding on a frosted white bicycle (yes, it looked like a pearlized finish) that was dripping with red and green ribbons and balloons, tooting the horn that was attached to the handlebars. Andrew ran to him, literally squealing with excitement.
“Daddy! Daddy! Wow! It’s exactly what I wanted!”
“Oh, Grayson!” Camille threw her arms around Grayson’s neck, looked into his eyes, and said, “Merry Christmas, sweetheart! I love you! Things are going to change. I promise! Things are going to change. I am so sorry. So sorry about everything.”
He ran his hand down Camille’s hair, held her chin, and said, “I love you, too, baby! Don’t worry. We’re smart enough to figure this all out. Doesn’t love always find a way?” Grayson turned the bicycle over to Andrew and ruffled his curls. “You probably shouldn’t ride this in the house. Merry Christmas!”
“Thank you! Thank you!”
Andrew was out the door and down the street in a heartbeat. No coat, no hat. Who cared?
“I saw it at the bicycle shop in Lenox Square, sitting right up there in the window. I thought it looked like something our boy might like!”
“Wouldn’t you know it? I’ve got another one—a brand-new blue one in the garage!” Camille said. “It is exactly the same!”
“For me?” Teddie said. “Please? Please?”
Grayson and Camille, who, at this point, had their arms around each other’s waist, looked at each other and said, “Sure! Why not? Have at it, sweetheart! Merry Christmas!”
Teddie blew past us. Within minutes, she was zooming down the sidewalk, chasing after Andrew. Her parents’ generosity and their giving her permission to be a child allowed her to become one again.
“Thanks!” George said. “That was very nice of you!”
Lynette said, “And we thought she didn’t want toys anymore! Shows you what we know!”
George and Lynette were standing by the doors to the living room, also embracing, all smiles. Things were finally shaping up. I was so tired from the stress of it all that I felt like I was a thousand years old.
I went to the kitchen to see what Pearl was thinking.
“Didn’t I tell you that they would be all right? Hmmph! O ye of little faith!”
I sat down at the counter and looked at her. She knew what I was going to ask before the words came out of my mouth.
“Pearl? Take me with you when you go. I’m so tired of living. I’m all done here. I want to be with Fred.”
She looked up to the ceiling and then back at me.
“Can’t do it. It ain’t your time.”
“Heavenly days, Pearl. Of what possible use can I be to anyone anymore? I ache from head to toe. I’m so weary. I can’t hear, I forget so many things. I know I’m a nuisance…”
Pearl sat down next to me, took my hand in hers. She closed her eyes as though she was in prayer. I closed mine, too, searching my heart, trying to feel Fred’s presence. I felt warm all over, the same way I had felt as a young girl when I met him for the first time. I was so lonely for him.
“Ms. Theodora? You gots to understand this. When we go ain’t u
p to us. I can do this much…” She stopped speaking, closing her eyes.
I nodded. “What? What?”
“I can try my best to be there when your time comes and I can put out the word that you’re on the way.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s it.”
“That’s not much.”
“’Scuse me? How ’bout the last few days?”
“Extraordinary! Absolutely extraordinary!”
“All right, then, let’s get our priorities straight, ’eah? Let’s go open some presents!”
We gathered everyone toward the living room, except for Camille, who went outside to call for Andrew and Teddie.
Blocking the living-room doors, Barbara said, “We will wait for the children.”
Barbara was absolutely right. I heard them approaching, laughing and high-spirited, delighted with their bicycles. They tumbled through the door, cheeks red from excitement and the cold.
Teddie held the baby doll tightly under her arm.
“Gigi! Look what I found in the manger!” she said. “It’s like a miracle! You can’t get this doll anywhere!”
It’s not like a miracle, I wanted to say, it is one.
“Maybe Santa put it there!”
Teddie looked at me, wide-eyed, with no guile at all. She said, “Do you really think so?”
“You know I do!” I was thrilled to see the light in her eyes.
“Why don’t we see what else there is?” Barbara said, sliding back the doors. “You’ve all been so patient…”
When their eyes swept the room, there was a collective gasp. Then dead silence. I didn’t know what they thought. The time between seeing it and remarking on it felt like an eternity.
“It’s magnificent,” Barbara said. “Isn’t it?”
“It’s beyond words…” Lynette said.
“What happened to my…” Camille said.
“Family room,” Barbara said. “Like the White House? We can have more than one tree, sweetheart, can’t we?” Using her cane with all the poise of a queen, she knelt by the gifts and started handing them up to Cleland. “Want to help me, dear?”
“Absolutely! Here, George! This is for you! Camille? This is for you…”
All the packages were distributed, opened, and everyone shivered with surprise. Beyond the requisite bathrobes, slippers, sweaters, and books, there were mysterious gifts for every member of the family. Barbara received a beautiful pearl-and-diamond ring from Cleland that he had no memory of purchasing. Barbara gave Cleland pearl-and-diamond tuxedo studs and cuff links that she claimed never to have seen. In addition to doll clothes and accessories, Teddie received a page of stick-on earrings that, when applied, made her ears appear to be pierced. Lynette and George, who were sitting on the sofa holding hands, saw the disappointment in her face.
“Come here, sugar,” Lynette said to her. “Daddy just said if you want to pierce your ears next summer, it’s okay with him.”
“Really?”
“Yep, I just want you to be old enough to take care of them, that’s all. If you want your ears pierced…ah, what the heck? Come here.”
Teddie crawled up on to Lynette’s lap. George produced a satin pouch from his pocket, handing it to Teddie.
“I couldn’t tell you where these came from. They were in my jacket pocket after church. They were just there…strangest thing…”
Teddie dumped the contents of the pouch into her palm, shrieking with excitement.
“Pearls! Oh, Daddy!”
She hugged his neck so tight I thought he might choke. But he did not.
He said, “A young woman has to have a little bit of jewelry, right? Promise me not to grow up too fast…”
Teddie kissed her father on the cheek and then Lynette too.
“Promise! Keep these for me, okay, Mama? I gotta go play with Jackie!”
Jackie was the name of the new and highly coveted doll. It appeared that for the moment Teddie was more than satisfied to be treated as a little girl.
The gifts of pearls continued. Lynette received a strand of white baroque pearls. Camille opened a double strand of smaller cultured ones. George and Grayson opened wristwatches with mother-of-pearl faces and leather straps. I found mother-of-pearl eyeglasses for me and a beautiful coffee-table book about pearls. I was the only one who was not surprised besides Barbara, who had come to accept that anything was possible. In fact, we were all coming to accept that anything was possible.
In addition to the simple laptop for Andrew and a basic photo printer and digital camera for Teddie, a last minute ingenious gift from Barbara to encourage collaboration, there was a signed first edition of John Steinbeck’s The Pearl for Andrew that came with special instructions on a card.
It read: Andrew, This is a priceless possession. You will have to give it to your parents for safekeeping. Read it together with your whole family. There’s a lesson in here for everyone. Merry Christmas! Santa.
“Dinner is on the table,” Pearl said from the doorway of the living room.
“Then let’s go!” Barbara said, leaning on the cane to rise from her chair.
I put my arm around her for extra support. “What in the world did you say to Cleland?” I whispered to her. “He’s a changed man!”
“I told him if he wanted me to wipe his drool when he was an old man, he had better be nice to me now!”
“That’s all?” Cleland had been whipped into shape with the threat of poor geriatric care? I didn’t believe it! Did I drool? Heaven forbid!
“Honestly? I forgave him for everything. I told him that I loved him with my whole heart, that I always had and always would.”
“Mercy! What happened?”
“You won’t believe this. He started to cry. He said he thought he had hurt me so badly that I would never love him again.”
“And?”
“I told him the past was in the past, that I wanted to spend the rest of my life making him happy. I suggested he do the same for me. So we called a truce. You know what?”
“What?”
“He told me he thought I was beautiful. Do you know when the last time was that he used that word in reference to me?”
“Oh, my darling girl! When was the last time you were this confident and happy?”
“Touché!”
Barbara gave me a little squeeze around my shoulder. We went into the dining room together to have our Christmas dinner.
This time Cleland’s offering of grace was heartfelt and everyone bowed their heads sincerely. There were so many miraculous things that had occurred, it was impossible not to become emotional.
Pearl sliced the meat and served the dishes. To my surprise, my precious Andrew got up and went over to the Bible. In our family, it was understood that once you were seated for a meal, you did not leave the table without permission. Everyone, or at least it seemed that everyone, stopped and took notice. Was Andrew going to read aloud? The day had gone so well! I didn’t want him to be humiliated or for the mood of reunion to be eclipsed by his reading problems.
“Come back to the table, sweetheart,” I said.
“In just a minute,” he said. “Listen! This is exactly what they read in church today.” My great-grandson, that sweet child who had suffered so much ridicule, proceeded to read in perfectly enunciated English the following verse. “‘And the angel said to them, do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which shall be to all people; for today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you, who is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign to you; you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace among men of good will.’ How cool is that? This book matches the one in church!”
We were astonished for many reasons, mostly because for the first time we were witnesses to Andrew reading without one stutter or error. Camille jumped up, b
roke into tears, grabbing him by the shoulders.
“That was simply beautiful, son! Simply beautiful!”
Grayson lifted him in the air and deposited him back in his seat. He kissed the top of Andrew’s head. “Well done, Andrew. I am so proud of you I could just burst my buttons!”
Even Grayson choked up and a tear or two escaped.
Everyone held up their glass in recognition of Andrew’s accomplishment, saying something complimentary. I caught Pearl’s eye.
“That was a little something extra from me,” she whispered as she put my plate in front of me. “That boy’s gonna be fine from now on! He’s my favorite.”
“We are all going to be all right,” Camille said.
“Honey?” Barbara said. “All anybody in this life wants beyond good health and enough money to live is love and respect. I don’t know about you…”
“We’ve got plenty of everything to go around,” George said, finishing her thought.
Cleland chimed in with, “Yes, we certainly do.”
You might imagine that everyone ate their dinner, relishing every single bite, and you would be right. As soon as they could be excused, the children went back to their Christmas toys. I could see them from where I sat. They were getting along better than they ever had.
The adults lingered at the table, talking about how important this Christmas had been, how glad they were that they had all aired their differences and confessed to one another. Most importantly, how grateful they were to one another to have been given another chance. I looked up to see Pearl in her red coat with her suitcase in hand. She put her finger to her lips, asking me to be quiet. She slipped out to the hall. I saw her say something to the children, who got up and followed her. I watched the children’s faces, their expressions as awestruck as my own, as Pearl walked straight into the hall mirror and disappeared. They ran to the mirror, touching it. My tears began to flow. I got up from my chair and went to them. They were quivering with doubt and fear.
“Gigi? Did you see that?”
The Christmas Pearl Page 9