Kin (31 page)

“Oh, Annie,” Kay cried.

Annie hadn't realized her sister-in-law was in the room. She hurried over, picked up her coat off the floor, and put it around Kay's shoulders. “I'm here. You're going to be fine. Where are the car keys?”

Kay was crying too hard to talk, but pointed to David's keys on the side table.

Annie took Kay by the hand. “We're getting the hell out of here.”

She slammed the door shut and for good measure, opened it and slammed it again. She bundled Kay into the car and then drove her to her mother's house. When they walked in, Mom was in the living room watching television. She stood up. “What's wrong?”

“Mom, this woman needs looking after. I want you to take her upstairs and get her in the tub, then put her in pyjamas and give her some strong tea and a hearty sandwich. I'm going back to my place to pick up Colleen and we'll do the same thing for her. Once they're taken care of, I'll tell you all about it.”

Mom immediately took the sobbing Kay and started to lead her up the stairs.

“That's what I love about you, Mom. You listen the first time.”

When Annie got home, Henry was giving Colleen a bowl of cereal, while Robbie, holding a sleepy Leelee, gave her a
what's going on
look. “Do you know you have curlers in your hair?”

Colleen glanced at her with reddened and swollen eyes.

“Finish your cereal, honey, and then you and I are going over to Grammie's house for the night. Your mother is already there having a bath. You'll be feeling better in no time. That's a promise.”

“I love you, Aunt Annie.”

“Of course you do. I demand it of all my relatives.”

In the end, Annie didn't have to tell her mother anything, between Kay's garbled tale of woe and Colleen's tearful description of the night's events. She and Mom finally got Kay and Colleen into Annie's old bedroom, where mother and daughter held onto each other for comfort.

Annie and her mom collapsed onto either end of the sofa and looked at each other.

“What's going to happen?” Mom asked.

“We're going to call Virginia and Louis tomorrow and they'll come and take Kay and Colleen back to Halifax with them for the time being. Frankie's there and they need each other right now. The movers will do the rest.”

“They could stay here with me.”

“Mom. I know you mean well, but they don't want to be within a hundred miles of David right now.”

“Do you think this is the end of their marriage? Those poor girls. I can't imagine anything more horrible than your family breaking up.”

“I don't know what's going to happen.”

Mom turned her head away and when she did, she absent-mindedly rubbed the deer antlers on Dad's ashtray with her hand. “I can't believe I'm saying it, but I'm glad your dad isn't here to see this. It would've broken his heart. I can't understand it. David was brought up better than that. Do you think I did something—”

Annie put her hand out to stop her dead. “Don't even say it. The blame is his and his alone.”

“And Lila's, I suppose, but she never was a stable girl.”

“We've been giving her the benefit of the doubt her whole life. It's time she grew up. Now let's go to bed before we pass out.”

Kay, Colleen, and Mom were still sleeping at five-thirty in the morning, but Annie was wide awake. And she knew that Ewan would be awake too. She called their number and he answered the phone.

“I've been thinking of you all night.”

“I knew you'd call, Annie.”

“I can't tell you—”

“—don't feel sorry for me. I'm a grown man.”

“As well as the nicest man. I wanted to thank you for taking care of my niece. It was beyond the call of duty. You should've called us to come and get her.”

“No, I think it helped to sit for a while with someone who understood.”

“If you ever need a place to go, Ewan, our door is always open.”

“Thank you.”

“I've had words with David. I can't face her yet, but I think I need to say something to her over the phone.”

“I'll get her.”

Annie waited and waited.

Her soft voice was barely audible. “Hello, Annie.”

“You've betrayed us, Lila. You know that, don't you?”

“Yes.”

“How you could do this to me? Never mind hurting Ewan and Kay and my nieces and Mom. How could you do it to
me
?”

“I wasn't thinking about you.”

“Exactly. You're so wrapped up in your own misery you've forgotten how to think about anyone else.”

“Annie—”

“I have to go, Lila. I've been up all night dealing with heartbroken people, myself included.”

She hung up the phone.

* * *

If Ewan wanted to make her suffer, he was doing a good job. He didn't scream, or yell, or even talk.

He completely ignored her. And he kept it up. It had been six weeks since that terrible night and he didn't even open his mouth when she was around. He'd talk to his animals, and the neighbours, and the families who came to their petting zoo, but not her. He wasn't cross or impatient; he didn't make faces if she came near him. He slept in their bed beside her a
s usual, but it was as if she wasn't there.

Of course, she deserved it, and accepted that this was his way of working things out, but as the months went by, the isolation made her crazy. This must have been how everyone else felt when she stopped talking after Cricket's death.

She sent them all letters of apology, even though she was sure Kay and her daughters would tear them up. It was hard to bear the lack of communication from Abigail, but it was Annie's silence that hurt the most, and she was desperate to see Leelee again.

One day she showed up at Henry's office. His mother frowned when she saw her, and Joy
never
frowned.

“Hi, Joy. I wondered if I could see Henry.”

“You'll have to see him outside office hours. He's much too busy.”

Henry came out and called the name of his next patient before he saw her at the desk.

“I told her, Henry. I said you were much too busy—”

“That's okay, Mom. I'll handle it. Come in, Lila.”

There were a few annoyed glances from his patients before she disappeared down the hall with Henry leading the way. He gestured to one of his examining rooms and said, “I'll be with you in a minute,” before he entered another one and said, “How are we today, Mr. Cathcart?”

Anyone who didn't know Henry thought he was a hen-pecked husband because Annie had centre stage. But Lila knew that Henry was Annie's rock and that Annie relied on him to pull her back when she spun out of control. He was calm and wise and strong.

Lila needed some of that.

The longer he kept her waiting, the more nervous she became. She didn't want to get into trouble and was afraid of what he might say. This was probably a stupid idea, but she had no one else.

Entering the room with his white coat on and stethoscope around his neck, Henry appeared taller than he really was. He almost frightened her, but when he sat on the stool beside the examining table he smiled. “How are you, Lila?”

Immediately the waterworks started. He reached over and gave her a box of tissues. It all came out in a rush.

“Everyone hates me and I hate myself and no one is speaking to me—not that I blame them—but it's almost October now and Ewan hasn't said two words since this whole thing happened, and I miss Annie and Leelee!”

“You don't miss me?”

She waved her tissue around. “Of course I miss you and the boys when they're home and especially Annie's mom. I'm so ashamed and I know she hates me. She's been like a mother to me and I miss her. I don't know where David is. It's like I'm all alone in the world and I know I did a bad thing but I didn't mean to hurt anyone. It was separate. It was private. It was nobody's business and now everyone and his dog know how horrible I am…”

Henry held his hand up. “Okay. I think I get the picture. First of all, no one hates you. We all love you, as a matter of fact. And we love David. People make mistakes. You made a mistake. You've apologized and done as much as you can.”

“But no one is listening! No one is calling!”

Henry looked away as if to gather his thoughts. “I seem to remember someone who didn't talk to us for two years. And we all understood. Lila, you're going to have to be patient and let people come to you when they feel like it. I'm not suggesting that the two situations are even remotely similar; I'm saying that you need to believe that all these people that you miss so much will come back to you. But in their own time.”

Lila gave a big sigh and blew her nose. “You're right. I'm selfish…”

“I didn't say that. You're lonely, that's all.”

She blubbered once more, “I miss Annie!”

Henry waited for her to calm down. “And Annie misses you.”

She grabbed onto that glimmer of hope. “She does?”

“Of course she does.”

“Will you tell her I love her and I'm sorry?”

“I'll tell her.” He rose off the stool and gave her a hug. It was the first human contact she'd had in four months. She didn't let him go as he patted her back. “I better get out there or there will be a revolt in the waiting room.”

“Thank you, Henry.”

“Take care of yourself, Lila.”

* * *

Annie washed her face and brushed her teeth, then gave herself a close look in the mirror. Some sprouts of grey hair, a few wrinkles, especially around her mouth, which Henry said was from smoking, and a few small age spots, but all in all she didn't look bad for forty-two. Her skin was still tight and she still had her slim body. As a matter of fact, she sometimes worried about being too bony.

She shut the bathroom light off and sat with her back to Henry on her side of the bed. He was still mired in hospital reports, his reading glasses at the end his nose. Annie gave the bottle on her bedside table a few pumps and began to rub the lotion onto her elbows.

“I'm taking Lee to the hearing clinic tomorrow. There's another test they want to do.”

“Okay.”

“Next it will be the eye doctor. I practically live in that office.”

“Okay.”

“I was talking to Mom and David is coming home soon.”

“Okay.”

David had sold the house in Glace Bay soon after that awful night and given the money to Kay and the girls. Then he'd left the country to do some “soul-searching,” as he called it.

“Apparently he's going to live with Mom when he gets home.”

“Okay.”

Annie turned around. “Are you listening to me?”

“No, I'm reading.”

“I don't want to see David when he comes home.”

Henry took off his glasses. “Don't be ridiculous. Are you never going over to your mom's house again? It's time to let this go…speaking of which, Lila came to my office today to cry her eyes out and she wanted me to tell you that she loves you and she's sorry.”

“I love her too, and she
should
be sorry.” Annie paused. “Don't worry. I'll be in touch when I stop this round of medical appointments with baby girl.”

“You've been not talking to your brother long enough. I wish I had a brother I could talk to.”

“That's over and done with. The reason I don't want to see him, if you want to know the truth, is that I was a little hard on him the night I went over to get Kay.”

“Oh,
now
I get it. You didn't just get Kay and leave.”

“No.”

Henry sighed. “What did you say?”

Annie plumped her pillow before she got into bed and then pulled the covers over her head before she spoke.

“I called him a no-good, dirty rat, a selfish bastard, and a goddamn loser. I also said I didn't want to see his stinkin' face.”

“Oh, Annie.”

“Well, at least I didn't call him an asshole.”

Annie and Leelee stopped into Mom's the following week to get her large cake plate. The twins, who now worked in Halifax, were coming home for their twenty-first birthdays, and Annie and Henry were having a big barbeque in their backyard.

There was an unfamiliar car in the driveway. David was home.

Annie didn't usually get nervous, but once a younger sister, always a younger sister. She wondered what he'd say, so she let Lee in the door first. As usual she ran straight for her grandmother, who bent down to give her kisses. “How's my big girl?”

“I gots a sucker.” Lee pulled out the lollipop from her mouth and showed her grandmother her red tongue.

Annie put her purse on the table. “I swear that eye doctor has a deal with the dentist in that building. He's forever giving her candy.”

Mom straightened up. “David's home.”

“I see that. Where is he?”

“In his room. I'm making him a sandwich.”

“Didn't take him long to make himself at home.”

“Don't be like that. Go see him; I'll keep Lee with me.”

Up the stairs she went, almost reluctantly, because it was going to be awkward and she had too many things to do before the boys arrived. His bedroom door was open and he was lying on the bed reading. She went as far as the door frame.

“Hey, you.”

He put down his book and smiled at her. She had to admit, he looked ten times better than the last time she saw him. He looked rested and the constant worried expression on his face was gone.

“Hi, Annie.”

“So, where the heck did you go? I could use some of that relaxation.”

“To hell and back. Sit down.”

She sat on the end of the bed. His big feet were only inches away, which reminded her of the time he'd made her smell his feet as punishment for taking his baseball glove without permission.