How to Make an American Quilt (42 page)

S
OMEHOW
, T
HEO INHERITS
M
ARGOT
. She sits beside her at the movies (Margot’s love-scattered mind is incapable of following any plot, and she often asks Theo to explain it, irritating Theo and everyone around them); sharing meals that only Theo eats; dancing in clubs (though neither is a particularly good dancer). All the while Theo is
spinning endless theories regarding Roy’s behavior (though Margot still sees him every morning across the kitchen table).

Gracie, busy planning their camping trip, presses Theo to keep company with Margot, saying, You be my emissary.

T
HE SUMMER DAY IS SO RARE
in its beauty that when Theo climbs the inside stairs of the second-floor flat she shares with Gracie, she does not think to call out to her. Who could remain inside on such a day? When Theo reaches the landing, she notices a man’s jacket casually tossed over the banister. In the kitchen are two empty cups and a tea bag, wet and crushed near one of the saucers. Cigarette butts mingle with the roachlike remains of a pair of joints. And still Theo does not call out Gracie’s name.

Instead, she walks over to the bay window in the dining room, searching up and down their street until she finds what she is seeking: a 1959 black Hillman Minx. No one owned a Hillman Minx except Roy. The car was as distinctive as a fingerprint.

She turns to walk down the hallway to her bedroom, only to see that Gracie’s bedroom door is closed. Without taking another step, Theo collects her thoughts, then turns around, walks back down the stairs, leaving as silently as she entered, out onto the street lit by the exquisite day. She tells herself that Roy and Gracie, old friends, are at the movies, strolling the Japanese Garden and the arboretum. Taking a carriage ride, renting a paddleboat at Stow Lake. Trying to lure the buffalo that live in a paddock in the park to come a little closer.

Then Margot comes to mind and the impending camping trip. Thinking of all the time Theo has unwillingly (ungraciously also comes to mind) spent with her. As Gracie edges back into Theo’s thoughts, she thinks,
How could she?
then wonders if she means
Gracie’s treatment of Margot or Gracie’s treatment of
her
. And Margot being Gracie’s friend. Although it is really Roy who is Gracie’s friend and Margot simply came along by way of Roy, so what does that make Margot with regard to Gracie?

Now Theo’s distance from Margot is considerably decreased and she feels the discomfort of conflicted loyalties. They weren’t even friends until Gracie thoughtlessly pushed Margot toward Theo these past couple of weeks.

Unless it wasn’t thoughtless.

She remembers saying good night to Margot the other night on the phone and Margot saying, with all the faith of friendship, “Theo, you have been so good to me.”

Theo closes her eyes.

I
T IS MUCH LATER
when Theo returns. She bangs the front door shut, steps heavily on the stairs. She can hear Gracie on the phone. All traces of Roy have now vanished. Gracie catches Theo’s eye, mouths “Margot,” agrees with something said on the other end of the line, nods, then says, “It’ll be fun. Promise.” She hangs up.

“I told Margot we’ll leave on Friday, after work.”

“For what?” asks Theo.

“The camping trip.”

“Oh. The camping trip.”

Gracie heads for the kitchen, with Theo behind her. Gracie takes leftovers from the fridge, pans from the bottom drawer of the old stove, and begins dumping the contents from various containers.

Gracie stops to light a cigarette.

“You know,” says Theo, “you two could go without me.”

“What would I say to Margot? You’re just as much her friend as
I am.” Gracie adjusts the temperature on the oven. “I thought I’d make some biscuits. They don’t really belong with anything else we’re having tonight, but I’m in the mood.”

“That sounds fine.”

“Margot will be all right.”

Theo says nothing. She lights a cigarette of her own, stubs it out by the second puff. “So, what did you do today?” she asks, trying to control the tone and cadence of the question.

Gracie, engrossed in measuring and mixing the biscuit batter, as well as stirring the heating leftovers, says, “I had a real lazy day. I didn’t do a damn thing.”

“Were you by yourself?”

“As a matter of fact, I was.”

Gracie looks up at Theo. And that is how they end the day: with Theo watching Gracie watching her.