In the Unlikely Event (39 page)

“I never want to see you again.”

“Miri…don't do this.” He reached out to grab her but she was faster. She stopped only once before she got home, to see if he was following, but he wasn't.

Mason

He couldn't stand the idea of losing her. And losing her because of what—some stupid kiss he didn't even want? Damn! He'd screwed up. He'd screwed up big-time. He should have told Polina he had a girlfriend a long time ago. Lately, Polina expected too much of him. She expected him to be the man of the family. She wanted him to quit school and get a job and move in and be a dad to Stash. But he wasn't ready for that.

In another month he'd be seventeen. He'd be able to get his license. He had enough saved for a used car. He just wanted to be a seventeen-year-old guy with a girlfriend, a dog and a car. And he wanted to get out of here, away from Polina. He wanted to go to Las Vegas with his brother, who would teach him not only to be an electrician, but a man. Sure, it was exciting to be with her at first. It was like a fantasy. This grown woman who knew what she wanted and wasn't shy about showing him. At first she made no demands. But now—now she wouldn't leave him alone.
Stashie misses you. I have big new bed just waiting. You come fill me up. I need you fill me up, Mason
. And what guy wouldn't want to fill her up? That was the problem. But he was done with her. Finished. Kaput.

Christina

Christina bumped into Zak Galanos in the hall at school. What was the Sewing Machine Man's son doing at Battin? She tried not to look at him but, too late. He did a double take.

“I know you, don't I?” he asked.

“You went to school with my sister, Athena.”

“Right. Athena Demetrious. And you're the little sister.”

“Not so little. I'm a senior, graduating in less than a month.”

“And your name is…”

“Christina.”

“Right. Christina.” He smiled at her.

She didn't like this. It felt awkward. “What are you doing here?” she asked.

“I have an interview for a teaching position for next year.”

Why on earth would he want to teach at the school right across the street from where his parents died, from the hole in the ground that was once his house?

“What will you teach?”

“History, maybe a few classes of civics. Mrs. Rinaldi is leaving.”

“I didn't know that.”

“She wants to move someplace that's sunny year-round.”

“Who doesn't?” She shouldn't have said that, given the fact that he was here looking for a job. A job in Elizabeth, New Jersey. A job in Plane Crash City.

“What about you, Christina? Are you going someplace sunny after graduation?”

“I'm thinking about it.”

“Can I call you this summer? Would you go out with me?”

This was so embarrassing. And the second bell was ringing. She was going to be late for class. “I have a boyfriend.”

“Serious?”

“Yes,” she said, her voice so soft he had to lean in to hear her. What would he say if she told him she was married? “My sister just had her second baby—another boy. They named him
Ajax
, like the cleanser. They're going to call him AJ. I'll bet she tries for a girl next year.”

“Send her my regards. And to your parents, too. They were very kind after the accident.”

The accident. As if they'd fallen down the stairs.

“I saw it, you know. I was helping Mr. Durkee after school when the airplane…when it came right at us. We thought it was coming through the window of the classroom.”

“I didn't know that.”

“And after, I was there, when the fires and the explosion…” She felt dizzy. She needed to put her head down. She dropped the books she was holding and, as she fell forward, he caught her. Held her in his arms.

“It must have been terrible to see that.”

“Yes.” But no one
she
loved died. She reminded herself to breathe.
Breathe deeply, like when the doctor inserted the speculum. When she recovered she said, “I'm late for class.” She collected her books and started off down the hall.

He caught up to her. “Listen…in case you need someone to talk to, here's my number.” He passed her a piece of paper.

She looked at it and nodded.

Miri

Henry found Miri, limp and exhausted, on the steps outside their house. She had no idea how long she'd been there, only that she was cried out, her chest so heavy she thought she might never get up. Some boy she didn't know had come by on a bike and dumped her books on the front lawn but she made no move to get them. When Henry pulled up and got out of the car she fell into his arms. “I know…I know…” He held her. But he didn't know. He couldn't know. “Come on,” he said, “get in.” He opened the car door for her and she got inside.

“Where are we going?” she asked, as he started up the car and pulled away.

“How about down the shore? How does that sound?”

She loved the shore and he knew it.

He drove for an hour and a half, stopping once at a phone booth to call Irene to tell her where they were, and not to wait for them for supper.

When they got to Bradley Beach they took off their shoes and socks, leaving them under the boardwalk, while they walked along the shore, letting the waves drizzle out across their bare feet. Rusty called the smell of the sea, the salty air “the ultimate cure for whatever ails you,” but Miri didn't think it could wash away her sadness today, even if she jumped in fully dressed.

“You want to talk about it?” Henry asked.

“I hate secrets,” Miri said.

“I don't blame you.”

“Did you know?” she asked.

“About Rusty and Dr. O?”

Miri nodded.

“No one knew.”

“Until I found them, you mean.”

“I think they wanted to be found—not by you, not the way it happened, but they wanted it known. Otherwise they'd never have been at home that day.”

“Natalie called Rusty a whore.”

“Poor Natalie, if she feels that to defend her mother she has to bad-mouth Rusty. Someday she'll grow up and figure it out for herself.”

“Figure what out?”

“There are two sides to every story.”

“Always?”

“Almost always.” Henry took her hand. “Rusty deserves to be happy,” he said, “and so does Arthur. He's a good man, Miri.”

As if she didn't know. As if she hadn't dreamed of having a father just like him. “How can a good man leave his wife and children?”

“We don't know about his marriage, Miri. We don't even know that he is leaving his children.”

“Do you mean the children might go with him?” That would change everything, and not for the better, now that Natalie hated her. She was glad Steve would be going away to college. She didn't want to live in the same house with him. He barely acknowledged her existence. And Fern? Fern was a noodge but Miri wouldn't mind her that much. They could get a babysitter for her, maybe another Mrs. Barnes.

“You're asking questions only Rusty and Arthur can answer,” Henry said. “I'm sure they're going to sit down with you and explain everything.”

“Oh, no!”

“What?”

“Tonight. Six-thirty. Pizza from Spirito's. I forgot.”

He checked his watch. “You're already late. You should call.”

“Would you do it for me?”

“It would be better if you did it yourself.”

She called from a phone booth along the boardwalk, feeding coins into the box as fast as Henry handed them to her. When Rusty answered, Miri said, “It's me. I forgot.”

“We'll do it tomorrow,” Rusty said. “No excuses.”

“Okay. Tomorrow.”

She didn't tell Henry until after they'd stopped at the hotel where the wedding would be, until after he'd shown her the garden where the chuppah would be draped with Grandpa Max's tallis and a white lace tablecloth brought from the old country by Leah's grandmother. Everything else would be decorated with peonies, Leah's favorite flower, in shades ranging from pale blush to deep pink. She didn't tell him until he asked, “Would you like to bring Mason to the wedding? I know we didn't send him a proper invitation but—”

“We broke up,” she managed to say, holding back tears.
If only she could have a do-over she'd take a different route home from school, or she'd have gone to Pamel's with her girlfriends, or maybe to the library. Then she wouldn't have run into him or seen Polina and Stash
.

“You broke up?” Henry said. “I'm so sorry.”

She leaned against him and nestled her head against his chest. “He has another girlfriend. All this time he's had another girlfriend.”

Henry shook his head. “I can't believe this. Are you sure?”

“She cooks at Janet. She has a little boy. He says he tried to end it with her…”

“But you don't believe him?”

She shrugged. “Do you?”

“I don't know Mason as well as you.”

“Would you ever lie like that to Leah?”

“Never.”

“I don't see how he could have lied to me.”

“Maybe he didn't know how to tell you. He's still a boy, Miri. He has a lot of stuff to figure out.”

“I told him I never want to see him again.”

“That's a strong message.”

“I mean it.” Was this her punishment for her fantasy about Dr. O marrying her mother? To lose her boyfriend, the best boyfriend any
girl could have? No wonder he'd never tried to get beyond first base with her. All the time he was doing it with Polina. How could she, a fifteen-year-old girl, compete with that?

“I don't know how I can keep going,” she told Henry.

“Miri, sweetheart—life is hard,” Henry said, “but it's worth the struggle.”

“Are you sure?”

“Very, very sure.”

“
I BROKE UP
with Mason,” she told Rusty that night, “and I don't want to talk about it.”

“Oh, honey,” Rusty said. “I'm so sorry. Is it about Las Vegas?”

“I
said
I don't want to talk about it, and
no
, it's not about Las Vegas. End of conversation.” Let Rusty tell Irene. Let Rusty tell the whole world.

Henry

Leah said Miri would learn from this experience. She said it wasn't realistic of them to think puppy love could last. But learn what? Not to trust? Not to believe? Not to love? He didn't agree with Leah. He wished he could make Miri's sadness go away. But there was nothing he could do except be there for her.

Christina

Jack was beside himself. They were in his room at Mrs. O'Malley's. He paced up and down, punching his fist into his open hand while she sat primly on the edge of the bed. “And now Mason won't come to Las Vegas because of that little bitch.”

“Do you know why Miri broke up with him?” Christina asked. “No. Do you?”

“Because he lied to her. Because he's been…” She tried to put it delicately. “He's been sleeping with Polina, the girl who cooks at
Janet, the one Daisy took in after she lost everything in the Williamson Street crash.”

“Mason?”

“Yes, Mason. Polina told Daisy and Daisy told me. She thought I should know because of our…closeness.”

“My little brother?”

“Yes, your little brother. Polina said Mason broke up with
her
right after Miri found out he was cheating.”

“This is crazy. We're talking about kids.”

“Polina's not a kid. But she has one.”

“
Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
How do we know this is really true?”

“Why would Daisy lie to me? She's not a gossip. But you should ask Mason yourself.”

“Jesus, Mary and Joseph!”

“I wish you'd stop saying that.”

“What should I say?”

“I'm sorry, Jack.” Christina softened. “It must be hard for you to hear this.”

“What's hard is that he thinks he can't confide in me, that he thinks he can't come with us.”

“Give him time. Let him cool off. I'll bet you anything he'll change his mind. If not right away, then as soon as he finishes high school.”

“But that's another year. Who's going to be around to watch over him, make sure he's okay until then?”

“Any boy who can run into a burning plane, not once, not twice, but how many times?”

“I lost count,” Jack said.

“Well, any boy who can keep his head straight through all of that is going to be okay.”

“But you can't be sure, can you?”

“If you want to stay…”

“I didn't say that.”

“Because if you don't want to leave him…”

“I didn't say that, either.”

“All I mean is, I'd understand. And my parents would be over the moon.”

“Until you tell them about us.” Jack took a couple of practice swings with an imaginary baseball bat. “When are you going to tell them, Mrs. McKittrick?”

“When the time is right.”

Fortunately, he didn't question her about when that would be. Because she hadn't the faintest idea. “Are we having our first fight?” she asked.

“We're never going to fight.” He fell back on the bed and took her in his arms.

Miri

Miri found out from Dr. O that Mason refused to go to Las Vegas with Christina and Jack.
He's not going because I'm going
, she thought. Well, guess what? She'd decided to stay home with Irene and Henry. Henry and Leah could have Rusty's upstairs apartment and she'd move in with Irene, downstairs. So Mason could go with Jack and she'd never have to see him again. Until Henry broke the news that he'd accepted a job with
The Washington Post
and he and Leah were moving to D.C. after the wedding. Just like that. He promised that when she visited, he'd take her to see the White House and all the other sites.