When We Were Sisters: An unputdownable book club read about that bonds that can bind or break a family. Emilie Richards
me again what she does? Something to do with flowers, right?”
I managed not to wince. “The garden’s more of a hobby. She’s a photographer, a photojournalist.” I realized he needed a little more, and I’m not ashamed to brag about my wife. “That’s how we met back in 2000, during the Gore-Bush election recount. She was there as a freelancer taking photos. One of them made its way to U.S. News & World Report. She’s had others in Time, People.” That last, of course, was a photo spread of Cecilia.
“You have young children.” It wasn’t a question.
“Not that young. Ten and twelve. I may be working from home a bit more than usual in the next few months, but we’re hiring the housekeeper to take up the slack.”
“Slack doesn’t begin to cover it, Kris. If I was lucky I saw my children on weekends. Then, by the time they hit puberty, they weren’t around on weekends anymore. Now I have grandchildren I rarely see.” He paused, looked wistful just long enough, and then grinned. “Truth is, I never did like little kids all that much.”
I laughed, because whether he liked kids or not, the story, like all Buff’s stories, was purely for effect, one of his friendly little object lessons. They worked especially well in a courtroom.
“I need you for that call,” he said, getting back to business. “And you need to be there for your own reasons.”
“I’ll call Robin and let her know.”
He clapped me on the back. “Good man.”
In my office I loosened my tie, a Father’s Day gift last summer from Pet and Nik. If you look closely you see that the pattern is actually hands clasped, dozens in each row, but from a distance it looks like just another geometric exercise. Last week Robin told me the tie is like life. You have to examine both carefully to see how closely woven we humans are, but the truth is always right there if we look for it.
Robin isn’t particularly philosophical, or at least she wasn’t. Nothing is quite the way it used to be before she began the slow crawl toward her fortieth birthday. How much of that was a factor in her decision to follow Cecilia around the country? How much was Talya’s death or her own brush with it? I guess it hardly matters.
I dialed our home phone and let it ring repeatedly. If she was in the garden it might take her a few moments to get to her feet and inside, find where she’d left it and answer. I was about to try her cell, even though she rarely remembers to carry it, when she picked up.
“Kris? Are you in the car?”
That was becoming as common a salutation as “hello.”
“I wish. I got caught just as I was walking out. I doubt I’ll get out of here in the next hour. Can you go ahead without me? I’ll just have to trust your judgment on who to hire.”
She ignored that. “I just hung up with your mother.”
I put the phone on speaker and my head in my hands. “I was going to tell you about that tonight.”
“You canceled the trip to Prague? Without talking to me first?”
“I wanted to make sure I could actually get most of our money back before I told you. By the time I talked to somebody at the airlines it didn’t make sense to do anything but cancel. The rep was willing to bend a few rules and help us, and I wasn’t sure the next one would be so accomodating.”
“Ida says you have to prepare for a trial? She’s very unhappy. She called me to see if there was anything I could do.” Robin gave a humorless laugh. “That was the only funny part of the call.”
I let that pass. “If everything goes well maybe we can get over there in the spring for a few days.”
“But Lucie’s whole family will be there at Christmas. Last week your mother emailed a list of places she and your father want to take us while we’re all together, places your family came from, elderly relatives we’ll only meet this once. This means everything to them, especially Gus. He’s seventy-two, and he needs you to see him as a success, Kris. He left everything behind when he fled, including his best chance to be an artist people will remember. Now he’s getting a little of the recognition he deserves at last. He needs you to see that before he dies.”
For a woman who had once refused to express herself, Robin had come a long way. “Do we have to do this over the phone?”
“Please reconsider.”
“It’s not just the trial. With you leaving I’m going to be out of the office more. I can’t afford ten days away, even over the holidays.”
“You’re blaming this on me?” She sounded incredulous.
“No, it’s just a fact. If you go, even if we hire Mary Poppins, I’ll still be away from my desk more than usual.” I thought about the conversation I’d just had. “And now it’s more crucial than ever for me to perform at top speed.”
“If I go?”
“The timing couldn’t be worse for me.”
The line was silent a moment. “Let me ask, then. Are you saying that if I stay, you’ll take the time at Christmas, and we’ll fly to the Czech Republic to be with your family the way we planned?”
I’ve had to make a lot of decisions I don’t like lately, and I’m not always happy with the man I’ve become. But one thing I’m not is a blackmailer.
“I’m not saying that. I can’t go away no matter what. It’s true your leaving would have made going harder, but it’s the trial that makes it impossible.”
“Glad to hear it. For the record, I wasn’t going to accept the blame and stay home.”
“Are we done?”
“Not quite. I’ve been waffling. I got the tentative filming schedule today. No matter how much I don’t want to, I’ll have to miss Pet’s big piano recital. And neither of the housekeepers I’m interviewing is interested in attending Nik’s soccer games.”
“Welcome to the too-busy-at-work club.”
“But the difference between us? I would never, under any circumstances, miss an occasion as important as the Christmas trip. This is one of the most memorable moments in the life of your family, and you’re not going to be there to share it.”
“You know what? You’re blowing the whole thing out of proportion because you never had a real family of your own or memorable moments.” The moment the words emerged, I wished I could crawl under the desk and bang my head. “Look, that sounds a lot worse than I meant it to. I just mean I had lots of memorable moments when I was growing up, and this is just one more.”
“Oh, I heard you. I was waffling a little, but now, you know what? I’m not. I have your permission to hire the housekeeper I like best?”
“Do what you want.”
“I’d suggest eating dinner before you come home because I’m not cooking tonight. I’m going to let the kids sit in on the interviews, and we can make our choice over dinner. See, I actually do have a family, and I’m going to make a memorable moment with them on my own. Without you. You have a nice evening.”
She hung up and I stared out the window that had been my reward when I made partner the first time. How much bigger would the next one be?
Would it be worth everything I would have to do to earn it?
Robin
Of the two women I interviewed for the second time, Elena Martinez was my favorite, and the hands-down favorite of Nik and Pet. I offered her the job, and she accepted.
Elena is young and attractive, with curly dark hair that bounces over her cheeks and eyes the color of cocoa.