Among the Living (30 page)

Goldah tried to mask his shock. He took her hand. “What a pleasure,” he said. “I’m … so sorry for your loss.”

“Yes,” she said, the word hovering between them for a moment. “So much tragedy but so much hope — if we let ourselves see it.” She placed her other hand on his and — leaning closer in — said, “I choose to see it, Mr. Goldah. As would have
my late husband and my son.” She pulled back and patted his hand. “I understand yesterday was the first time you met our little Jules. Quite an introduction.”

“Yes.”

“He’s unbreakable, that boy, although I think this might have been his closest scrape yet. Thank goodness you’re such a fine swimmer.” She squeezed his hand and turned to Eva. “Mr. Goldah is far more handsome than in his photograph, Eva. You were quite right.” She turned again to Goldah. “I don’t mean to embarrass you, but … well, there you are.” She squeezed his hand one last time and released him just as Weiss was back from the door. “Walk me to the door, Arthur. Marion, you must teach that grandson of yours not to be so reckless. And when you do I’ll convince him otherwise and then everything should work itself out just fine.”

“Whatever you say, Peggy,” said Mrs. Weiss; Goldah had never heard her sound quite so genuine. “You get yourself home safely, dear. And happy new year.”

Eva stepped over and embraced Mrs. De la Parra.

“You’ll notice, Mr. Goldah,” Mrs. De la Parra said, “this is a very beautiful and fine young woman I’m hugging, and that’s all I have to say.” She let go and took Weiss’s arm. “Happy new year, all. Give that boy upstairs a kiss for me.”

Weiss helped her down the hall, which left Goldah alone to fend for himself. He imagined there might have been a way to get to one of the chairs but, at the moment, human movement seemed beyond him. Surprisingly it was Mrs. Weiss who came to his rescue.

“Would you care for some tea, Mr. Goldah?”

He did, although it took him a moment to answer yes. Mrs. Weiss called for Bessie and Goldah waited for Eva to sit before he found the courage to move himself to the chair
farthest from them. All three waited in this mannered silence before Bessie appeared with a glass and brought it to Goldah.

Even in the short time he had known her, Goldah had felt a certain ease with Bessie around. She was young and very pretty, but it was her candor — perhaps even impertinence — that seemed to relax him, relax them all. It was as if the De la Parras, so secure in their place, could allow her a greater humanity, and that had always been refreshing to him. Goldah was feeling none of that ease from her today.

“I’ll take another, as well, Bessie,” said Weiss, back from the door and sitting next to him. “With a little extra syrup.” Bessie headed out and Weiss said, “Well, here we are. Peggy’s a treat, isn’t she?”

“Yes,” Goldah said almost too eagerly. “She is.” He had nearly finished his glass.

“First woman to drive a car in Savannah,” said Weiss. “Made quite a stir. She even tried to get her pilot’s license at one point. You remember that, Marion? Her husband, Walter, he was a funny one … He said he’d always had enough trouble keeping her feet on the ground so he put the kibosh on that one right away. I think she wore an Amelia Earhart scarf around town after that, but then Isadora Duncan died and, well, that was the end of that. A great lady and she just keeps rolling along. She’s got two older boys … where are they?”

“Atlanta,” said Mrs. Weiss.

“That’s right. And the girl?”

“Helen is in California, Arthur.”

Weiss raised his eyebrows. “Miss Helen De la Parra, artiste of the west. We’ve gotten packages with jewelry and pottery and, one time, a painting, I think. Don’t ask me what of. I believe there was a marriage in there at some point. I remember being invited to something.”

Bessie came in with the tea.

“Bessie,” Weiss said, taking his glass, “did Miss Helen De la Parra ever get married?”

“Yes, suh, Mr. Weiss. She marry a Dr. Robert Epstein, a heart doctor, in Redondo Beach, California, August a 1938. You give them two silver candlesticks and two more when the first baby come.”

“That sounds right,” said Weiss. “Bessie’s mother, Clara, has been with us since … when is it?”

“Nineteen twenty-three, Mr. Weiss. July.”

“My goodness. That’s a long time. Nineteen twenty-three. And Bessie’s been with Eva ever since she got married.”

“Yes, suh.”

“I think we’d be lost without them.”

“You’d do just fine, Mr. Weiss.”

“Yes … This is Mr. Goldah, Bessie.”

She said coolly, “Yes, suh, I know Mr. Goldah. For a time we was seeing quite a bit a him. Not so much no more. Isn’t that right, Mr. Goldah?”

Goldah thought the whole room was enjoying the scrutiny. “Yes. Not for a while.”

Bessie said, “Well, I think that’s a shame. Anything else you’ll be needing, Mr. Weiss?”

“No,” he said. “I think we’re fine.”

Bessie stepped out and Goldah quickly said, “The prognosis is good on Julian?”

“Oh, the boy’s fine,” Weiss said. “Resilient at this age. Bit of a scare —”

“Arthur,” said Mrs. Weiss, “I believe Mr. Goldah was asking Eva.”

Whatever Goldah might have been expecting, he never imagined to find his surest ally in Mrs. Weiss.

“Oh,” said Weiss. “Of course … Yes.”

Eva said, “He’s doing fine. I’m not sure he knows any better.”

“That’s good,” said Goldah.

“It is, yes … I did thank you, didn’t I?” She seemed almost apologetic. “I’m a little foggy on yesterday.”

Mrs. Weiss was suddenly on her feet; she set her glass on the table. “Daddy and I need to get going, dear. I’m sure you and Mr. Goldah have a good deal to talk about.”

Weiss was mid-sip and quickly brought himself forward. He was not alone in his surprise. “Going?… Oh, that’s right … Yes. We need to be going.”

All four were now on their feet.

“Well,” said Weiss, leaning in for a hug from Eva. “Give him a big kiss from me when he gets up. Tell him he very nearly took ten years off Grandpa’s life.”

“Yes,” Mrs. Weiss said, “I’m sure he’ll find that very amusing, Arthur. Goodbye, sweetheart. Kisses from Granny.”

Weiss said to Goldah, “By the way, I need to talk to you about your latest piece. A couple of big papers are interested. Might be quite an opportunity for you.”

“Arthur,” Mrs. Weiss said with a look thirty years in the making, “we need to go.”

Weiss said quietly, “We’ll talk about it at the office.”

Goldah expected a curt nod from Mrs. Weiss but instead she said no less directly, “I was wrong, Mr. Goldah. I was wrong and I apologize.”

Goldah stood, slightly stunned.

Mrs. Weiss continued, “I believe I said you were a broken man and that was a terribly heartless thing for me to say. I was simply frightened for my daughter — more frightened than you can understand — and such things trump anyone’s feelings, no matter who they might be or what they might have gone through.”

“Mother, I’m sure Ike —”

“Let me finish, dear. Then you can tell me what Mr. Goldah is thinking.” She spoke again to him. “I’m not looking for your forgiveness — my husband and daughter can attest to that. And I’m not saying this because of your supreme act of courage yesterday, for which I shall be eternally grateful. I’m saying it because I now see you deserve to be with someone of equal quality. I don’t dare to imagine what you share with that young woman we witnessed on the beach yesterday but I do know that that poor creature is a shattered person —”

“Mother, please.”

“Eva, dear — I can’t possibly seem more ghoulish in Mr. Goldah’s eyes than I already do so, as I say, let me finish.” She turned to him. “You must think me quite an overbearing person, and I am. I don’t have the genteel graces that so many of my friends possess. I choose not to hide behind kindness and perhaps that’s a callous thing to say as well. I speak my mind because I feel a great deal. Some might say it’s quite remarkable that I’ve managed to raise such a sincere and genuinely warm young woman … and I will not have you thinking for one moment that her father had one iota of influence over that … but you must know that her capacity in that regard is due in full measure to her own quality, which I admire with more wonder than you or she will ever know. And if she feels as deeply for you as she does, then I will now add to your burden by freeing you from any concerns you might have about my reaction to what you choose to do, as principled as that choice might be. If I were my dear friend Peggy I would now take your hand and hold it with great affection, but I am not Peggy. I will simply say that whatever you think you owe to your past, whatever pity it stirs within you, cannot be more worthy than the future you would have with my daughter.” She took her purse.
“I should tell you, Mr. Goldah, that later today my husband and my daughter will be yelling at me for this. Or they’ll be thanking me. Either way, it will be entirely up to you.”

She leaned in and kissed him on the cheek — an unnatural gesture to be sure but one she managed all the same.

“That was my exit, Arthur. You need to come and take my arm so we can go.”

“She played Ophelia in the tenth grade.”

Eva stood with Goldah in the hall and listened as her parents’ car pulled out on the street.

“She calls it her great triumph,” she said, “although today’s performance might deserve an honorable mention, don’t you think? My father played Laertes, which was a bit strange as they were dating at the time, but Mother says it helped her with the mad scene. I’ve never fully understood why.”

Goldah thought: Even now she has such strength, frantic strength. But it made his own silence seem all the more frail by comparison.

He said, “She kissed me, I think?”

Eva managed a smile. “Yes — I think that’s what that was.”

“May I hold you?”

He had caught her unawares. Remarkably she kept her smile. “What would be the point?”

He took a step toward her and she said, “You should see Julian. I think it would be good for him to get up. He needs to thank you, as well.”

“It’s not necessary … Yes. If you think that would be all right?”

At the top of the landing they heard a sudden scampering of feet just the other side of one of the doors, the telltale squeal of box springs as the boy dove back into bed. Eva
kept her ear pressed to the door, waiting until she thought the silence might be too much for Julian. She then slowly pushed the door open and stepped inside.

The boy was lying on his back, his head tilted to the wall, eyes closed and his small chest breathing heavily from the exertion.

“All right,” she said, “I know you’re awake. I never said you had to stay in bed. I want you to say hello to someone.”

The eyes remained shut; the boy was playing his moment to the full.

“Julesy,” said Eva, “this is Mr. Goldah. He’s the gentleman who pulled you from the water.”

The boy instantly turned his head and opened his eyes. He stared for a few moments. “Hello,” he said.

Goldah tilted his head so as to match the angle of the boy’s. “Hello.”

Julian seemed puzzled though intrigued by Goldah’s strange posture, so much so that he began to move his head deeper into the pillow to see how far Goldah might go. When the boy began to enlist his shoulders in the effort, Eva said, “Come and shake Mr. Goldah’s hand, Jules.”

The boy straightened up — as did Goldah — and slid himself down to the floor. He was in a cotton bathrobe tied neatly at the waist, which he wore over his pajamas. He inched his feet into his slippers, rubbed them briskly against the carpet, and then bounded to his mother’s side. With equal animation he extended his hand. Goldah leaned down and took it.

Julian said, “Thank you, Mr. Goldah, for jumping in and saving me.”

“It was my pleasure. I’m glad you’re all right.”

“I should probably take some swimming lessons. Would you teach me?”

“I … don’t know … maybe.”

“Really? You think so?” The little hand released with a sudden enthusiasm. “Did you hear that, Mother? Mr. Goldah said he might teach me to swim.”

“I thought we had Grandpa signed up for that?”

“Oh, yeah, Grandpa. Well, maybe we could all do it together?”

Eva said, “Are you hungry, Jules? I know Bessie’s got something down in the kitchen. Pie and lemonade. You can go if you want.”

“All of us?”

“In a minute.”

He put his hand out again. “Good to meet you, Mr. Goldah. Thanks for getting me. I almost gave my grandpa a heart attack.”

He was hurtling down the steps before Goldah could answer.

“Careful,” Eva shouted after him but it was Bessie’s “Don’t need no wild animals tearing through this house” that bellowed from downstairs and brought Julian into line.

Alone with Eva, Goldah said, “He’s a fine little boy. And very well behaved.”

“Today — yes.”

He reached out and took her hand.

She said easily, “I’m not sure I want you doing that.” He tried to let go but she held it all the same. Flipping the hand over, she began to examine it, rubbing her thumb across the black stains she now discovered between his second and third fingers. “You’ve been writing.”

“Yes.”

“They should get you a typewriter if they want your pieces. I’ll tell my father.”