“Rose,” her father said.
“Rose, what?”
“It’s done, it’s over. The house is yours and-“
“You wanted to see if you can’t worm in and get a piece of the profits if and when I sold it?”
“No,” he said. He managed to sound exasperated.
“I’m not selling the house. I can’t.”
“That’s fine,” he said. “Whatever you want to do. We just wanted to see you. Are you okay? With this whole thing that happened to Molly, and what Irene was saying about how she was acting…”
“What was she saying?”
“She was distant, cut off, and she wished she’d done more to help Molly. Look, we made the trip here because we were worried. The phone is disconnected-“
“Yeah, that wasn’t me.”
“Rose,” her mother cut in, stepping close, Ivy in one arm. She reached out with her free hand, seizing Rose’s. “Please.”
Rose didn’t even flinch. Her expression was placid, not betraying a single emotion. “Please what?”
“Don’t shut us out. We’re close, and we’re here out of genuine concern.”
“For the money?”
“No. For you. You’d tell us if something was wrong, wouldn’t you?”
“No,” Rose said. “No, I wouldn’t.”
“Can we work on getting to the point where you could?”
“In the realm of theory? Maybe. In reality? No, I’m not interested, and no.”
“You’re being ridiculous,” her father said.
“No,” Rose said, expression unchanging, “I’m not. You want to start on the road to reconciliation?”
“You’re implying we did something wrong,” he said.
“Yeah, yeah I am. So I was about to make a deal with you, but now I have to amend it. If you want us to get along, I’m going to need you to sign a statement that swears you won’t take any money or profits from sale of the property-“
“What?” her father asked.
“And, I’m going to need an apology,” she said, her voice hard. “Not for all of it, but I’m going to need it worded in such a way that you recognize and admit culpability for some of it.”
“Look,” her father said. “Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying we raised you perfectly, or that I don’t have regrets. A lot of it stemmed from the way I was raised. Our family was so cutthroat, my mother pushed us to fight each other every step of the way, and that was… in a large way, it was the only relationship I knew for a long time. We certainly weren’t allowed to make friends at school. I’ve changed in some ways since meeting your mother, and since I became a father to you- taking you figure skating, or to gymnastics.”
“When I was eight.”
“Like I said, I’m not saying I was right. We made mistakes, and when you started becoming more independent, resisting us when we were trying to put you on the right path-“
“By attacking my cousins.”
“Maybe. Some of it. But that’s the competition I was talking about. It was ingrained into me. I saw you back away from it, and I trusted you to figure out your own path. Your own way to be effective and strong in a very hard, unforgiving world.”
“Well, congratulations,” Rose said. She spread her arms. “This is it. This is me. You want to blame Grandmother for making you into who you are?”
“Shh,” her mother said. “Don’t wake Ivy.”
Rose glared. “You want to blame her? Well, you have only yourselves to blame for who I am, and I’m someone who doesn’t even want to waste five seconds in your company, let alone however many minutes we’ve been talking already.”
Her father clenched his fists. I imagined the expression on his face was very similar to my own when I was angry.
“Rose,” her mother said.
“What?“
“That’s okay. We can leave it at that. But right now, I want you to take Ivy. Because whatever’s going on, between you and us, that doesn’t impact your relationship with your sister, okay? You have to admit that’s the case.”
“Yeah, I don’t want to wake her up.”
“It’s okay. Just take her. Hold her.”
Rose didn’t budge as her mother shifted Ivy around in her grip. Ivy made a small whimpering sound.
“Take her, before she fusses.”
Reluctantly, Rose took Ivy.
“We made mistakes,” her mother said, in a low voice. “I won’t deny that. Help us avoid making the same mistakes with Ivy. That’s all I ask.”
Rose was stiff, holding the sleeping infant.
“Please?” her mother asked.
“Yeah, maybe. How?”
“We just want to see you from time to time. Time and place of your choosing. Next week?”
“There’s a small cafe downtown.”
“I know it,” her father said.
“I’ll maybe call you,” Rose said, “Let you know.”
“Okay,” her mother said. She reached out, and Rose began the process of handing Ivy back.
Her mother, however, hugged her and Ivy both.
Rose, still rigid, allowed her forehead to rest on her mother’s shoulder, eyes still open, moving by fractions, as if she were thinking and calculating about things far beyond the realm where she could see.
■
The scene went dark. For a moment, I was disoriented, and I feared I was blind.
I wasn’t – I was only in utter darkness. The pitch black of being in a cave where the last light source was a twenty minute walk down winding corridors behind me, and the next one was twenty minutes ahead of me.
“If you’re trying to get to me,” I said. “You’re going to have to try to do better than that. Rose has a better relationship with her parents than I did? Good for her.”
I laughed a little. Not loud – only a little. “She’s real. She’s busy plotting? Spooky, when I’ve seen the recent vision, but good for her. I’d hope I’d be taking every chance I get to plot as well. You want to get to me, Drains? Try harder.”