“To riches, that is,” said Dad.
“You misunderstand beauty then,” said Cle.
He glanced at her, his smile excited. “In her own stateroom, between dessert—”
Paulie slammed shut her laptop. “Disgusting!”
“It’s okay, Paulie,” I said. “It was before they were married.”
“We don’t want to hear it! Don’t you understand that? Either of you? Don’t you know the first thing about any of us!”
When the door banged shut, one of the framed pictures that Cle had so carefully hung dropped off the wall.
4656534
TWO DAYS LATER, on a clear, windless morning, a rental car pulled up the drive, and Niels stepped out of it, followed by Audra. Then, after a moment, Emmy. Emmy seemed puzzled, staying close to the car and looking down at the sand. She’d been in woods like these before, but she’d never in her life seen her grandfather.
He stood leaning against the doorframe at the top of the stairs, waving.
Niels had never seen him, either. But he trotted forward and climbed the steps. At the top, he held out his hand. “You’re my grandpa,” he said.
“Looks like I am.”
“I’m your grandson, Niels.”
“I figured as much. And who’s this?” Dad moved to the edge of the porch and looked down at the car. “Is this the other young person I’ve been hearing a little about?”
“That’s my sister. We’re late because she forgot her toothbrush and we couldn’t find one at the hardware store.”
“I’d imagine not.”
“It was a general store,” said Emmy. “Not just a hardware store. And I did not forget it. I needed a new one the whole time.”
“Do you have one for her, Grandpa?”
“Well, I might, young man. I might.”
When Audra reached the stairs, Dad bowed and kissed her on the back of the hand. Audra doesn’t blush, but when he did that, her other hand rose to her neck.
Emmy had remained in the driveway, and Audra beckoned her now. But it was only when my mother appeared in the doorway that Emmy finally moved, running quickly up the stairs and sidestepping Audra and Dad to bury her head in her grandmother’s blouse. “Little Miss,” said Mom, “it’s so nice to see you here. Now please say hello to your grandpa.”
But Emmy wouldn’t. She merely looked down, bending and straightening her knees.
—
THAT EVENING, WHEN Dad woke in a bright mood and leaned back on the cushions to talk, Emmy watched him from the kitchen door, twirling a pretzel ring around her finger. Niels was sitting next to him on the couch. Dad beckoned to Emmy, but she still wouldn’t come. He lit a cigarette and smiled through the smoke at her.
“Milo,” said my mother from across the room. “Please put that thing out.”
He drew luxuriously on the end, then slowly lifted his cast to lay it across Niels’s knee. “Why? Does smoke not agree with you, young man?”
“Actually,” Niels said, “I find the smell kind of interesting.”
Paulie laughed from the porch, then glanced at me. “Such an agreeable young gentleman.”
“What about this, young man?” said Dad. He lifted his glass from the table.
“That’s okay with me, too, Grandpa. It smells like cough medicine.”
He chuckled. “Well, actually, it’s a pretty good bourbon whiskey.”
Mom marched across the room then, snapped the glass from his hand, and carried it to the kitchen. A moment later, she came back for the cigarette.
—
“SOME PEOPLE MIGHT say she was a little late with that,” whispered Audra.
“Well, I’m not one of them.”
We were whispering because we were in a room at the Lakeland Suites, and on the other side of the wall, Niels and Emmy were pretending to be asleep. Through the sheetrock I could hear every crack of the bat from what must have been a Yankees highlights reel on TV. This was Niels, of course; but I also knew that Emmy would be going along with it. Sometimes I think that even with all her talents, she’ll always be following him.
“Mom had enough to think about when we were kids,” I said. “She did what she could.”
“Yes, you’re right. I guess she did.” Audra was next to me in the bed, staring up at the ceiling fan. “Still — she might have done something about it. At a time when it could have made a difference.”
At that moment, the Yankees must have pulled off something impressive, because Niels let out a shout, and a second later Emmy followed with a whoop. I tapped the wall. I needed to sleep: in a few hours I’d have to get up in the dark and drive to the cabin to give Dad his shot. Then I’d spend the last half of the night there.
The sound of the TV went off, and we lay there in silence for a while, looking up at the fan.
“It was hard for me, too, you know,” said Audra. “But I did it. I stopped you.”
“Well, you were in a different situation.”
“Was I?”
“Of course you were.”
“I don’t know,” she said. “I still didn’t have any idea what was going to happen. To you or to me or to any of us.”
“What do you mean, what was going to happen? What did you think I’d do — just leave you all and never come back?”
She didn’t answer, just turned over onto her side and closed her eyes.
—
LATER THAT NIGHT, at the cabin, I was jostled awake.
“Did you see?” he rasped.
“What?” I sat up in my parents’ bed: 3:58 a.m. I’d given him the shot an hour ago. “What are you doing up here, Dad?”
“He’s here.”
“Who is?”
“You know.”
“No, I don’t. Jesus, Dad — you climbed up here in the dark?”
“You forgot to lock the door.”
“We always leave it unlocked.”
He leaned down. “Well, he got in.”
“Who, Dad?”
“Erdős.”
“What?” I rose and wrapped him in my blanket. “Let’s get you back down to bed. Here, come on now. I’ll help.”
“He won’t leave.”
“Let’s go take care of him together then. Come on, Dad. He’s a good guy.”
“He took the bed, Hans. He won’t leave.” Dad was shivering. “You go tell him. I’m staying up here. You go down and tell him no.”
—
BUT THE NEXT morning, he was fine again. He slept late, and by the time he woke, he seemed to have forgotten whatever it was. At breakfast, he was cheerful even, and after an egg and bacon, he got up and walked to the window, where he leaned down to look out at Emmy and Niels playing along the shore and said, “How about we take the kids up to the creek?”
“You mean walk up there, Dad? It might be a little far.”
He turned. “For the kids, you mean?”
I glanced at Audra.
It was a beautiful morning. First he led us down the cove to the turn. Then he picked up a branch and turned north into the meadow. I expected the tall grass to tire him, but it didn’t. It was higher than his knees, but he just pushed right through it, taking his time and using the branch as a walking stick, never missing a step. When we reached the rutted path at the top, Audra slid in next to him and hooked her arm through the crook of his cast. I saw him puff up like a bird.
By the time we reached the paved part of the road, the sun was trickling through the leaves, and the lake was sparkling. Dad was walking with a straight back. I was at the rear, and I watched him talking to Audra, saying things that made her nod or shake her head or sometimes laugh. Her arm was still in his. Behind them, Niels ran from one side of the path to the other, picking things up to put in his pockets. Emmy followed at a distance.