Passion, Betrayal and Killer Highlights (18 page)

“No ice cream for me but I would like some tea if you don’t mind and maybe something to nosh on?” Mama gave me a quick once-over. “You should eat something, you’re too skinny.”

Of all the backward compliments Mama consistently doled out the “too skinny” one was my favorite. I got up to help Mary Ann with the snacks. “So is Leah hiding in the bathroom, too?”

“No,” Mary Ann said. “She called about a half hour ago to say she had some shopping to do and that she’d be back by six-thirty.”

I checked the clock above the oven. It was already five-forty-five. “How’s her hair?”

“I don’t know.” Mary Ann dug into her Häagen-Dazs with a soup spoon before tearing open a tea bag for Mama. “When I left her, Marcus was just getting started.”

I felt the subtle flutter of nerves. “I thought you were going to stay with her at the salon.”

“I was, but Jack got bored and he tried to dip his hand in a bowl full of bleach so I got him out of there. He’s actually been pretty good ever since.”

I brought out a plate full of Egg and Onion Matzo and a prepackaged container of hummus to Mama and glanced down at Jack who was now ripping up my latest issue of
Elle
. “Mama, you’re letting Jack rip up my magazine.”

Jack grinned up at me. “Jack ’ike to wip.”

I narrowed my eyes. It was tempting to show him what the word “wip” really meant.

“Let him have his fun,” Mama said, clearly amused. “I looked through that magazine and there’s nothing but pictures of skinny girls dressed up in fancy schmancy clothes. There was a bathing suit in there and you know what they wanted for it? Four hundred dollars! Who pays that kind of money for a piece of fabric that could fit in a wallet?” Mama shook her head. “Trust me, it’s better that you use it to keep Jack busy than waste your time reading such nonsense.”

I gritted my teeth and went back for the tea.

“Just put my drink in one of those little cups,” Mama called after me. “I’ll wait for Leah for a few more minutes and then get out of your hair. It’s not like you need three women to take care of one little baby.”

“Yes we do!” I dropped the tea kettle back onto the stove and bolted to Mama’s side. “Jack needs you and Leah’s under a lot of stress right now.” I put my hand on my mother’s shoulder just in case she planned on bolting right away. “I really think it would help if you took Jack for the night. It’s been a while since you’ve done that, right? And I know you have extra clothes for him and that porta-crib thing, so it would be easy!”

Mama looked uncertain.

“Did I tell you he said a new word yesterday?” I asked, struggling to keep the desperation out of my voice.

“Really?” Mama brightened. “So tell me the word already.”

“Baba.”

“Baba! He wanted his grandmother!”

I nodded enthusiastically. “That’s what he said. ‘I want my Baba.’ It was his first grammatically correct sentence. And whenever he sees a lady with white curly hair on the street he cries. So I think we should ease his suffering and let him spend some time at your place, don’t you?”

Mama laughed. “All right, I’ll take him but don’t think I don’t see what you’re up to. Jack doesn’t really cry when he sees little old ladies, does he? You’re just making up stories because you want some time away from little Jack, no?”

I smiled sheepishly. “You got me.”

“You and your elaborate stories and excuses,” she said again. “You’re lucky you don’t have a nose like Pinocchio. What would have happened if you had just asked me to take Jack home so you and Leah could get some rest. Would the world end if you told the truth once in a while?”

“I
do
tell the truth…once in a while. I guess I just like to make up stories and excuses, too. I am an author after all.”

“But when you start using those stories for your real life, that’s what gets you into trouble. Remember that time you offered to watch Brandon’s pet snake?”

“Oh, come on, Mama, I was thirteen years old.”

Mary Ann came out of the kitchen, still holding on to the pint of ice cream that she apparently planned to finish off herself. “Who’s Brandon?” she asked eagerly. “Did he go to high school with us?”

“Brandon was my first real crush. His family moved to Oregon right after junior high graduation. You know, Mama, we don’t really need to tell this story.”

“Even at thirteen my Sophie was a real beauty,” Mama continued, dismissing my objections. “And those brains of hers. Any boy would have been lucky to have her on his arm. But she had to get Brandon’s attention by making up stories. As soon as she found out he had a boa constrictor she went on and on about how much she loved snakes. She even told him that she planned on breeding them and raising little snake babies when she grew up!”

Mary Ann’s eyes widened with horror. “You like snakes?”

“I don’t
hate
them,” I said. Jack was now toddling over to my music collection. I quickly snatched him up before he could use my U2 CD as a Frisbee. “You want to mess with my stuff, Jack?” I asked sweetly. “Why don’t we find you something over here?” I went over to where I kept my old VHS tapes and checked to see if I had anything that I didn’t watch anymore.

“No, Sophie isn’t so afraid of snakes, but I am and so is her sister,” Mama said, shaking her finger in my direction. “So you can imagine my reaction when she comes home with the boy’s snake and tells me that she’s going to be taking care of it while this Brandon and his family are off caravanning around Disneyland for the weekend. I let her know right away that there would not be any snakes in
my
house. What was I running, a zoo?”

“The boa wasn’t even fully grown yet and he had his own enclosure!” I protested. I pulled out a yoga exercise video that I had bought with the best of intentions six years earlier but had never actually gotten around to putting in the VCR. “Here, why don’t you take this apart,” I said to Jack. I sat him on the ground and he quickly started unraveling the tape. Mr. Katz looked at him with alarm. Clearly he thought Jack was a lot scarier than a snake.

My mama on the other hand didn’t seem bothered by Jack’s need to destroy and continued with her story. “It’s true what she says. The snake had a little Plexiglas home all his own. That’s why I said it would be okay for her to let him stay in the garage. But the snake wasn’t so happy about this and he made a run for it.”

“But snakes can’t run,” Mary Ann said.

“She means he got out,” I explained. “I fed the snake but I didn’t want to actually hang around and watch it eat.”

“What did it eat?” Mary Ann asked, although by her tone I wasn’t at all sure she really wanted to know.

“He ate mice,” I said. “Very cute, very alive mice.”

“Oh!” Mary Ann put her hand over her mouth and looked away.

“I know,” I said, “so I just dropped the mouse in, dropped the lid back on the enclosure and hightailed it into the house. But here’s the thing…I didn’t take the time to make sure that the lid was really closed.”

“It was a real to-do,” Mama said, clearly amused by the memory. “All weekend I walked around wearing three pairs of socks so that I wouldn’t get snake bites on my ankles.”

“Boas don’t bite, Mama,” I said. “But it
was
a ‘to-do.’ Mama wasn’t the only one who was upset, Leah was beside herself. She sat up awake all night that Friday and Saturday with all her lights on clutching a pair of Dad’s old shoes that she planned to throw at the boa if he should make an appearance. And of course I was freaked out about how I was going to explain everything to Brandon when he got back.” I shook my head. “To make matters worse our neighbor had this little shih tzu and I was sure that it was only a matter of time before he became snake-lunch.”

“Finally this Brandon character shows up with his mother, all ready to take their pet home,” Mama said with a giggle. “I told Sophie she was going to have to tell them. I watched her greet them at the door and I thought she was going to cry, and as you know it takes a lot to make my Sophie cry.”

Mary Ann looked at me sympathetically. “You must have felt terrible. How did they take it?”

“There was nothing to take!” I plopped down next to Mama and leaned back into the cushions. “I was all ready to confess when I hear Leah clearing her throat behind me and there she was, holding the enclosure with the boa safely inside. You could tell she didn’t want to be holding it because she looked like she was going to throw up any second, but she held it nonetheless. She had spotted the boa in the garage next to her bike just moments before, and rather than force me to admit my failure to my current heartthrob she mustered up all her courage and put the animal back in it’s enclosure so we could give it back to Brandon without his ever being the wiser.”

“But…she was afraid of snakes!” Mary Ann cried.

“Yes,” Mama said, “but she loved her sister more.”

A warm feeling filled my stomach as I recalled that moment. “She saved me,” I said softly.

Mama patted my knee. “And now it’s our turn to save her.”

I heard a key jiggle in the lock of the front door and a moment later it sprung open and Leah bounded in followed by Dena and Marcus. Leah was wearing a new knee-length leather skirt, spike heels and a very burgundy cotton top. The streaks in her hair matched the shirt.

The warm fuzzy feeling I had been experiencing evaporated. “Oh. My. God.”

Leah spun around, with what seemed like a kind of manic exuberance. “You like? It’s the new me!”

I turned to Marcus. “She’s supposed to be in mourning! How could you give her burgundy highlights?”

“What can I say?” Marcus lifted Jack into his arms and directed his comments to him. “I took one look at your mommy’s coloring and all of a sudden I just knew we had to go burgundy.”

“Really, Sophie,” Dena said, walking to Leah’s side. “I don’t know what your problem is, it’s all earth tones.”

“You look very pretty,” Mary Ann said hesitantly. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you wear an outfit so…um…fitted.” She turned her attention to me and it was clear she was picking up on my frustration. She’d have to be deaf, dumb and blind not to. “I think I’ll be going,” Mary Ann said quickly. She gave Mama’s hand a goodbye squeeze and then rushed out before anyone could thank her for watching Jack and well before I had a chance to explode.

Mama shook her head. “Since when did you start wearing leather skirts?” she asked Leah. “If you’re not careful people will think you’re as sex-obsessed as your sister.”

“I like the skirt,” Leah said defensively. “Dena picked it out for me.”

I pressed my fingers into my temples.

Marcus put Jack down and leaned over to give Mama two air-kisses. “Mrs. Katz, it has been so long since I’ve seen you. I’m loving this little floral print top of yours. It’s just so retro.”

“Thank you, deary.” Mama turned to Jack and smiled. “Did you hear that? Your Baba’s a hip cat!”

“Leah, you’ve got to show Sophie what else we did.”

The twinkle in Dena’s eyes left me with a sense of foreboding.

Leah obediently lifted up her shirt and displayed a sparkling gem strategically placed inside her belly button.

With a high-pitched squawk I lunged forward and pulled Leah’s shirt back down.

“I don’t understand,” Mama said, staring at the part of Leah’s stomach that she had just flashed us. “How does it stay in there?”

“It’s a body piercing,” Marcus explained. “Dena wanted to take her to this place called Body Manipulations, but there was a wait, so we went to my friend on Polk.”

“Your friend on Polk?” I whispered weakly.

“He goes by the name Warlord and, girl, if you could see this man…” Marcus pretended to fan himself off with his hand. “That boy can ransack my village any day of the week.”

“You let some guy named Warlord stick a needle into my sister’s stomach?”

“Mmm-hmm.” Marcus tapped his finger on his chin. “I think his last name is Goldberg.”

Mama perked up. “A nice Jewish boy! Is this Warlord single?”

“That’s it.” I made a silencing motion with my hands. “Maybe you’ve all forgotten, but Leah’s a prime suspect in her husband’s murder. She needs to maintain the image of an innocent, grieving widow. That image is going to be hard to pull off with a cubic zirconium in her navel!”

“Oh, give me a break.” Dena crossed her arms over her chest defensively. “It’s not like she’s going to be wearing midriff shirts into court. Besides, no one in their right mind is going to believe that Leah is a murderess.”

“Really? I’m not sure the police or the D.A.’s office will agree with you.”

“Well, they’ll just have to talk to me.” Mama stood up and put a hand on each of my sister’s cheeks. “Such a face. Like an angel you are. I’ll show them the pictures of when you were a little girl and they’ll see.”

I gritted my teeth. “Mama, I think you should take Jack now, okay? Dena and Marcus, you need to go, too. I need to talk to Leah alone.”

“
Oy gevalt,
I’m being dismissed by my own daughter.” Mama picked up Jack and gave Leah a loud kiss on the cheek.

“So, you’re really going to take Jack?” Leah asked hopefully. “For how long?”

“Your sister here thinks I should take him overnight, if that’s all right with you.”

Leah didn’t even pretend to think about it as she eagerly handed over Jack’s diaper bag.

Mama turned to Marcus and Dena. “So who’s going to take me home? I don’t want to ride with one of those crazy cabdrivers while I’m with my only grandchild.”

From the kitchen I tossed Marcus one of my spare keys. “You can get the car seat out of the Audi. It’s parked on Lexington and Pacific.”

“Will do,” Marcus sang. “You know, Mrs. Katz, we should really do your hair next. Why be gray when you can go platinum?”

Marcus and Mama walked out first and Dena turned to follow, but I stopped her right outside the door. “I know this was your idea,” I hissed. “I know you don’t like Leah, but you’re messing with her life here, not to mention mine.”

Dena’s jaw set. “I’m not messing with her life—I’m trying to help her get one. She was so fucking depressed yesterday that she even had
me
feeling sorry for her.”