“That’s all right,” Judith told him.
The second ladies’ room was much smaller than the first and strictly utilitarian. Luckily, it was empty. When Judith exited the stall, she was still jittery from her run-in with Lillian, so she took her time washing her hands and applied some clear gloss to her lips. Who had Lillian been engaged to anyway? If Mimi knew the details, Judith was sure she wouldn’t share them.
When Judith opened the door to walk back to the party, she heard shouting coming from around the corner. She recognized her mother’s voice.
“It isn’t easy having someone else tell you how to raise your own child, is it?”
“Stop it. I never told you how to raise Teddy.”
The other voice was Aunt Helen’s. Judith stayed inside the ladies’ room and left the door open just wide enough to hear them. She wanted to know what they were saying.
“She’s your daughter, not mine. That was the deal we made thirteen years ago.”
After that, the voices got very quiet and she could no longer make out what they were saying. Judith heard footsteps coming down the hallway, so she shut the bathroom door. When she poked her head out a few moments later, she saw the back of her uncle Abe turning the corner and walking toward the coatroom. She decided she’d better leave, before any of them thought she was spying, so she exited the bathroom and headed in the opposite direction, back to the party. Her heart was pounding.
What had her mother been yelling about? What kind of deal could Rose and Helen have made? If it had been thirteen years ago, it must have happened near the time when Teddy and Natalie were born. There was something else, there had to be … something she was missing.
Back at the reception, Judith took a piece of the wedding cake the waiters had set out on the dessert table and sat down to think. When Harry waved at her from across the room, she thought about him on that night so many years ago. He had been angry, she remembered, that their mothers had chosen her to stay with them, while he had been given the job of baby-sitting the younger children upstairs.
What was it he had said to her just a few hours earlier? No offense or anything, but Mimi fits in much better with Edward’s family than with yours. He was right, of course. She did. Mimi got along with Edward’s mother just like Natalie got along with Mort. But Mimi had rejected her real family. She had chosen another family that she wanted to be a part of, and just like that, the switch had been made.
She’s your daughter, not mine. That was the deal we made thirteen years ago.
Just like that. The switch …
Natalie and Mort. Oh God. Was it possible? Try to remember, think. Judith’s head was spinning as she tried, for the hundredth time perhaps, to reconstruct that evening. She had followed the cries of the newborns to the bedroom. Her mother had been in bed, holding both of the babies, while the midwife had finished up with Aunt Helen. Then her mother had given her one of the babies to hold and the midwife had left the room. And then, what happened then? She had asked which baby was which. Yes. She remembered that part. The women had looked at each other. Her mother and Aunt Helen had stared at each other for a long time. Too long. And then her mother had answered. She had said Judith was holding Natalie. Your cousin Natalie. She had said “cousin.” Judith had never once questioned it. Why would she? She felt the wedding cake rising up in her throat; she was going to be sick.
“Judith?” Harry was at her side, shaking her elbow. Did he know too? Had he guessed? She opened her eyes. “Judith, listen, my father … they think he had a heart attack. The ambulance is pulling up in front now. I’ll call you when we know something. I have to go.” He was already rushing out the door, running to the parking lot to meet the ambulance for his father. Instantly she was alert, her nausea forgotten, the more immediate crisis taking over. Had Abe had the same revelation, had he put together what she now thought she knew? As the chaos around her shifted, Judith could only wonder what her uncle may have heard or understood. It had taken her thirteen years to piece together what had happened. How long would it take everyone else?
Chapter 56
NATALIE
They wouldn’t let Natalie anywhere near her father after the heart attack, and she wasn’t allowed to go to the hospital with her mother. The groom’s parents told her it was “no place for a child,” and that it would be “too traumatic.” She wanted to tell them she already knew plenty about trauma, but she didn’t want to upset anyone further, so she did as she was told. Uncle Sol went with Helen and Natalie’s older brothers to the hospital, and Natalie was pawned off on Aunt Arlene and Johnny. Uncle Sol called a taxi to take the three of them back to his house. Arlene put her arm around her and tried to be comforting.
When her mother called late that night, she told Natalie her father was going to be fine.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. I promise.”
She knew her mother would never lie to her about something like that, so she allowed herself to relax.
Natalie had no pajamas with her, so Arlene said she’d find something for her to wear. She led Natalie into a giant walk-in closet and poked through a wall of drawers. Natalie had never seen a closet like that before—as big as a whole room and carpeted from wall to wall with fuzzy peach chenille. Her aunt chose a long blue nightgown for her, but Natalie was afraid to put it on because she thought she might ruin the silk. “Don’t worry, sweetie,” Arlene told her, “I’ve got five more just like it.”
Johnny tried not to laugh when he saw her in it. She begged him for a T-shirt and a pair of old gym shorts instead. Arlene didn’t mind, so Natalie changed into Johnny’s oversized hand-me-downs.
Even though Johnny had stayed at her house a million times, Natalie had never stayed overnight at his. As a result, Natalie realized, he knew her parents a lot better than she knew Uncle Sol and Aunt Arlene.
The first thing Natalie noticed about Arlene was how much shorter she was when she took off her heels. The second was how much younger she looked when she took off all that makeup. There were plenty of mirrors in Johnny’s house, so she couldn’t understand how Arlene hadn’t figured that out yet.
Arlene had an elaborate and fascinating nighttime routine. There were at least ten different tubes of cream on the vanity in her bedroom, as well as an enormous box of chocolates. According to Johnny, she used every cream before she went to bed each night. “Do you have chocolate every night too?” Natalie asked, but Arlene just smiled and winked at her. “Sorry, hon, but I never share my beauty secrets with other women.”
The best thing about Arlene, aside from all the candy she kept in the house, was that she seemed to have no sense of time. It was close to eleven when they got home from the wedding, and well past midnight when Natalie’s mother called, but Arlene didn’t even notice. She gave them potato chips and Cokes and left them in front of the television with no mention of bedtime. “Have fun, kids,” she told them. “Don’t stay up too late.” Natalie’s mother would have said it was already past too late and that the kitchen was closed until morning.
“Ever watch The Twilight Zone?” Johnny asked. She shook her head. “I don’t usually stay up this late,” she said. “Do you?”