The Misfortunes of Others (16 page)

“It’s like a primitive astronomical observatory here.” Snooky tilted his head back.

“My plants love all the light. Oh, God, that’s something I blathered in the interview today. But it’s true.”

“Your kitchen is a lot better stocked than Bernard’s. You understand how to live, Weezy. Bernard would rather be consumed by ants than buy balsamic vinegar.”

Weezy smiled faintly. “We are alike there, Snooks. You and I. We both like to live well.”

“Nothing but the best.”

“That’s right.”

Snooky leaned forward and grabbed her hand. “Then why not be together?”

Weezy flushed a deep red. “Don’t ask me that,” she whispered.

“Why not?”

“Don’t pester me today. Pester me tomorrow.”

“Why not today?”

“I’m weak today.” She withdrew her hand.

Snooky regarded her thoughtfully over his wineglass. “All right.”

“Really?”

“Uh-huh.”

“That’s very gentlemanly of you.”

“Thank you.”

“Some more wine?”

“No, thanks.” He tilted back his head again. “Look at that moon. It’s like being at Stonehenge, having dinner here.”

“You mean cold, dark and unwelcoming?”

He smiled at her and took her hand, in a friendly way this time. “No. Don’t take everything so personally. Just a little chitchat about the moon. Have you ever been to Stonehenge?”

“No. I’m sure you have. You’ve been everywhere.”

“I don’t know about everywhere, but I’ve been to Stonehenge all right.”

“Tell me about it,” said Weezy, and settled back in her seat.

When Snooky let himself into his sister’s house later that evening, he found Maya and Bernard cuddling together in front of the TV set.

“This is all you do while I’m out?” he said, coming in and throwing his jacket down on the armchair. “This is the best you can do?”

“Shut up, Snooky,” they said simultaneously.

“What’s this?”

The TV screen was filled with what looked like blood vessels stretched over a filmy membrane.

“Nova,”
said Maya. “The development of a human fetus. They’re up to two months. Shut up now, Snooky, I’m trying to see what my baby looks like.”

“Did you ever wonder how they take these pictures?”

“Be quiet, Snooky. There, Bernard, where are they now? What’s that, around ten weeks?”

Maya and Bernard leaned forward, their mouths open, drinking in the sight of the fetus floating in space. Its gigantic head nodded at them familiarly. It turned and rotated in its blurry red world.

“Hard to believe,” said Snooky. “Looks like a mutated shrimp. Looks like one of those giant Frisian Island shrimps I thought Bernard was cooking the day I arrived.”

“Go to your room,” said Maya. “Leave us alone.”

“I’m in love with your best friend.”

“What?”

Snooky repeated himself. Maya stared at him blankly.

“You’ve always had a thing about Weezy. It’s nothing serious. You’re always attaching yourself leechlike to somebody or other.”

“I’m in love with her, Missy.”

Maya waved him away irritably. “Go to your room. Clean it up or something.”

“I’m not eight years old anymore, Missy. You can’t order me to my room. Anyway, it’s not my room, it’s your room. Your spare guest room.”

“It could be your room for all the time you’ve spent in it,” rumbled Bernard.

“Thank you, Bernard. And thank you, Maya, for that heart-to-heart talk.”

“I’m sorry,” Maya said later. She came into Snooky’s room and sat down cross-legged on his bed.

“About what?” Snooky put down the paperback he had been reading.

“For not listening to you before. We really wanted to see what the baby looks like.”

“Did you find out?”

“Yes.”

“How does it look?”

“Like nothing human,” said Maya, shuddering slightly. “Like something from outer space. What’s that you’re reading?”

“
Crime and Punishment
by Dostoevsky.”

Maya looked closer at the cover. “In French?”

“I picked it up the last time I was in Paris. It’s not bad.”

“Why not read it in English?”

Snooky shrugged and tossed the book aside. The one thing he had excelled at in college had been his language courses. It had made his older brother William very happy, until he realized that Snooky’s language ability simply made it easier for him to wander the globe as he pleased.

“You’ve always been good at languages.”

“Ah, well.
Merci.”

“Listen, about Weezy …”

Maya’s voice trailed away. There was a heavy silence.

“Yes?”

“I don’t know what to say. You’ve always had a thing for her.”

“Yes.”

“Ever since you were little, you used to tag after her and look at her funny.”

“Thank you.”

“I don’t think she’s really open to a new relationship right now, Snooks. Not after what happened with Harold. She’s been pretty badly burned, you know. She’s throwing herself into her work instead.”

“I know.”

“Plus, I don’t like it. I mean, she’s my best friend and everything, and you’re my younger brother. It doesn’t seem right. It makes me feel uncomfortable.”

“Gee, that’s too bad, isn’t it, Missy? I would hate to disturb your perfect life in any way or make you feel uncomfortable.”

Maya flushed. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, you have a relationship, maybe with someone who’s very strange, but a relationship anyway. You’re happy. I would hate to disturb you by seeking a little happiness of my own.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“Really? Then what did you mean?”

“I have news for you, Snooks, Weezy’s not interested in you anyway. She’s known you her whole life, it would be incestuous. She’s like your other big sister. She’s told me again and again she’s not interested.”

Snooky reddened. “You don’t know that. You don’t know what she really feels, you just know what she tells you. Did it ever occur to you that maybe she didn’t want to disturb you or mess up your friendship?”

“That’s stupid. You’re just being stupid.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“I would never stand in the way of anybody else being happy. That’s not the point.”

“What’s the point, then, big sister?”

“The point is that even if the two of you go out for a while, then you’ll break up, just as you have with countless
other women, and it’ll be awkward the rest of our lives! It’s a situation we’ll have to live with forever!” Maya was shouting, her face red.

“You mean a situation
you’ll
have to live with forever.”

“Yes, that’s what I mean!”

“Well, I’m sorry if my feelings make you so damned uncomfortable, Maya. I’m sorry if my feelings are disturbing you. Far be it from me to set up a bad situation for
you
by how I feel about your best friend! God knows the only thing Weezy and I should be thinking about in this situation is you, you and you!”

“That’s not what I meant—” began Maya, but her brother was gone. The old rickety door slammed shut, and then bounced open and swung slowly to and fro on its hinges.

“Didn’t you leave here a couple of hours ago, or have you been standing on my porch this entire time?” asked Weezy, opening her front door.

“Can I stay here, just for tonight?” Snooky looked at her forlornly.

“Why? What’s wrong?”

“I had a big fight with Maya.”

“With Maya? The sweetest-tempered person in the world? Over what?”

Snooky shrugged. She looked at his face for a long moment. “Come on in.”

She settled him on the sofa and brought them both cups of tea with honey. “Now tell me all about it, there’s a dear boy. Spill out your heart to your old Aunt Weezy.”

“I can’t.”

“Why in the world not?”

He looked at her woodenly. “It’s too … personal.”

Weezy drank her tea thoughtfully. She had changed from her green interview suit with the black shirt to a pair of worn blue jeans that were so faded they were nearly white, and a yellow T-shirt that said CORNELL.

“Where’d you get that shirt?”

“Old boyfriend.”

“Oh.” Snooky felt more dispirited than ever.

Weezy dabbled her finger in her tea and seemed about to say something, when the phone shrilled outside in the greenhouse. Weezy went into the kitchen and Snooky could hear her talking in a low voice. When she came back, she said cheerfully, “That was Maya.”

“Oh.”

“She figured you’d run over here like the squeaking rat you are, she said.”

“Uh-huh.”

“I told her you wouldn’t talk about it, and she acted all mysterious and strange and said she couldn’t talk about it either, but could I please tell you that she thinks she was wrong. That she thinks you had a point. That she wants you to know she’s sorry.”

“Oh. Okay.”

“What’s this all about, Snooky?”

“Nothing.”

“Yeah. It sounds like nothing.” She sat down next to him again and picked up her mug of tea. “You’re all upset and won’t talk about it, and Maya’s nearly in tears, and she’s with child, may I remind you. I’m sure Bernard is happy as a clam right now, too. What’s going on over there with the three of you?”

“I have to go,” said Snooky, standing up abruptly.

“You what?”

“I have to go. Thanks for the tea.”

“Why am I always one step behind in this?” asked Weezy,
following him to the door. “Didn’t you just arrive? I thought you wanted a place to stay?”

“I should get back. I shouldn’t stay here. Maya needs me. Thanks anyway.”

“You’re welcome,” said Weezy, and stood at the door watching with her arms folded as he got in his car and, gunning it, drove away.

Maya enveloped him in a hug as he came in the door.

“I’m sorry, Snooks,” she said in a muffled voice into his shoulder. “I’m sorry. You’re right. It’s none of my business. It’s up to you and Weezy what you want to do.”

“You were right, too, Maya. I couldn’t stay there, it was so uncomfortable to be fighting about it in front of her. I have to get things sorted out about this.”

“Do you forgive me?”

He took her by the shoulders and tilted her chin up. “I don’t blame you for how you feel. I’d feel the same way, I guess. How’s the baby? We shouldn’t be fighting in front of the baby.”

“Will you still stay here and cook for us?”

“Of course.”

They hugged each other again.

“How touching,” said a voice from the top of the stairs. Bernard descended, his face like thunder. “You mean you’re back already? How long did you stay away after upsetting Maya so much? Twenty minutes?”

“I just said I was sorry.”

“Don’t nag at him, Bernard, it wasn’t his fault.”

“I don’t care whose fault it was, I don’t want him upsetting you. I don’t want anything upsetting you right now. I went upstairs and found her crying in your room,” he said to Snooky.

“I really am sorry.”

Bernard came up and put his face very close to Snooky’s. “I don’t care if you are her brother, any more fights and you’re out of here.”

Snooky winced slightly. “I understand.”

Maya was patting her husband’s arm in a vain attempt to get his attention. “Stop it, Bernard. You don’t have to act so protective of me, for God’s sake. He didn’t mean anything. He was right and I was wrong.”

“I won’t have her upset,” said Bernard, breathing heavily into Snooky’s face.

“I understand. Did you by any chance have liver and onions for dinner?”

“I won’t have anyone fighting with her.”

“Bernard, you and I fight all the time,” Maya said crossly.

“That’s different.”

“It is? Why?”

They went off into the other room, still arguing heatedly, while Snooky took the opportunity to vanish upstairs.

After this, things settled bumpily back into their usual routine, with Snooky running the house and Maya and Bernard busy at their jobs. Nothing more about Weezy was said. She came over frequently, to sit at their kitchen table and complain about her art students; but she did not ask Snooky over to her house again. Occasionally he would look up to find her gazing at him, her green eyes narrow and inquiring, like a cat’s. She would give Maya the same curious look; but she never asked about it again. She came and drank their excellent coffee and complained freely about her students.

“It’s driving me crazy, it really is,” she said one day. “I’m going to have to check myself into a spa for a rest cure soon.”

“What’s going on now?” said Maya. “I thought Alice promised to be good.”

“Oh, she did, she did, but she still has her charming little ways of letting people know what she thinks of them. She doesn’t actually say anything, but she gives people looks, and sets up her easel noisily at the back of the room, and so on. The other day she accused Nikki and Jennifer—she wasn’t sure which, she said—of using one of her brushes when she wasn’t there. As if her brush had some magic quality, you know. As if they could paint better with it because it was hers. Really, the sheer, hideous egotism of it, it’s enough to make one despair of the entire human race. I told you I hate artists.”

“That’s awful,” Snooky said. “More coffee?”

“Thanks.”

“No wonder you need a spa vacation.”