Prodigal
I found her
picture again today. Who can say how
long it had been there, tucked between the big cabinet and the wall where I
never bothered to clean properly. She
must've been—twelve, thirteen? Thin
face, olive-leaning complexion, slight scowl, and very burgundy hair. Precocious rather than pretty, though in
later years of course she became quite the stunner: even the tabloids couldn't
uglify her that much.
It was in
the summer after that picture was taken that Lily Kyle came to stay with us. Thomas took to her immediately, which was
only to be expected, I suppose. I admit
I liked her well enough, eventually.
Though the circumstances didn't exactly foster trust. “Why is she coming here?” was the question
that remained stubbornly unanswered, up to the moment she followed the crowd
into baggage claim with the violin in tow.
“You're
Kiri,” she said at our first meeting, not really a question.
“And you're
Lilith,” I said, catching her tone.
“Lily,” she
corrected. “I've decided to go by Lily.” Her fingers tightened protectively on the
handle of the violin case as she said it, as if preparing for some kind of
confrontation.
Now was not
the time to argue stage names, I guessed.
“Here, let me get your other bags,” I offered instead, hoping to sound
casual. “Did they feed you on the
plane?”
She snorted
wickedly. “Only for a nominal fee. I chose not to pay.”
“Do you
talk like that around your friends too?” I asked, grinning in spite of myself.
“Measure of
a friend,” she said. “Lead on.”
When one is
hosting one's niece for the summer, one is supposed to ask the normal
prying-aunt questions like how's your mother, how's everything back home, and
so forth, and accept the monosyllabic answers from the passenger seat. Something about Lily stopped me. My own sister had been more than a little
vague about the whole arrangement. I
could only assume it meant trouble, though on whose end I figured on never
knowing.
So of
course it was Lily who broke the silence.
“Do you have any noise curfews?” she asked, still holding onto the
violin like an overprotective mother.
“Not...really,”
I had to admit. “Thomas has his
sleepless nights, and I sing in the shower pretty much whenever I grab one of
those between shifts. Feel free, you
won't disturb us.”
“You
sure?” And there came the look that made
me grasp for a subject change.
“Your mom
says you're pretty good,” I offered.
She
shrugged, but not out of any true humility.
“Yeah, I guess so.”
“Aren't
there summer programs out there?” I wondered out loud.
Now it was
her turn to evade the subject. “Hey, you
think he'll play duets with me?” she asked, looking and sounding younger and
greener than I'd thought she could. “I
mean, I know he's my uncle and all, but even some of the normal kids have heard
of Thomas Morgan. I've got one of his
recordings in my bag.”
I had to
smile a little at “normal,” at how a hint of angry color came into those hollow
cheeks at the word. “I'm sure he'd be
happy to. It's not every day you meet a
fellow prodigy.”
“Mom tries
not to use that word,” she half-mumbled.
“Understandable. She has to deal with the side effects.”
She started
slightly. “What would those be?”
“Sooner or
later, one or both of us will find out,” I prophesied, hoping vaguely that I
would be wrong.
“You know
why she makes you uncomfortable.”
Knew it,
maybe, but damned well wasn't about to admit it.
“You must
be the prodigal niece,” came the voice at the door.
“Thomas
Morgan, I presume?” Lily answered, abandoning all attempts to hide more than a
little excitement from her voice.
“What are
you doing out of bed at this hour?” I demanded.
The nagging wife, as always.
“Sorry, love,” I added sheepishly.
“I guess neither one of us was planning on getting much sleep tonight.”
“Nope,” he
replied with one of his most charming crinkly grins. “So this is Lily Kyle. Good name for a violinist.”
She blushed
bright as her hair and seemed at a loss for words as they exchanged
handshakes. He gave her the musician's
once-over, taking note of the finely controlled motions of her hand muscles,
the calluses on the tips of her long, tapered fingers. Paganini and Liszt, I thought
whimsically, watching the two of them.
Virtuoso hands, practically cliché, but compelling nonetheless.
His hair
had come back darker, I noticed in the garage light, less sandy than
before. His hands were the same, of
course. Could I admit to falling in love
with him for his hands? Never, because
it wasn't true, strictly speaking. But
sometimes I imagined a heaven in which I was able to find him again by those
familiarly beautiful fingers at play on a set of piano keys. Those were usually the daydreams I kicked
myself out of, chuckling afterward at the random melancholic hopeless romanticism
I definitely wouldn't admit being prey to.
“Let me
help you with your stuff,” he said, and I remembered we were all still standing
in the garage, me with my mouth hanging open, probably. “Kiri got your room all set up this
afternoon.”
She
hesitated with the big rolling suitcase.
“Are you sure?”
He
sighed. “I'm not dead yet. And unless you're planning on making another
Monty Python reference I suggest we drop it and make ourselves useful.”
“Please
tell me you've heard of Monty Python,” I added, rolling my eyes.
Lily looked
from one of us to the other, seemed to come to a decision, and held out the
violin case. “Here, you do the
honors. There are things in my suitcase
that I'd rather crawl under a rock than have spill out on you when the zipper
busts.”
He raised
an eyebrow. “You sure?”
She
shrugged. “If you break it, you owe me
something nicer.”
“I can deal
with that. Welcome to your summer home.”
“Why do you
like her so much?”
“You know
damn well why, Kiri.”
“Of course
I do. But that doesn't mean I don't need
you to tell me.”
Lily could
play. Not that I actually doubted
it. And I was used to coming home and
exchanging antiseptic vapors for wafting notes, though normally not hers.
She was
standing at the living room window when I drove up, by all indications utterly
absorbed in the piece she was working on.
Bruch, maybe. She got this almost
beatific smile on her face whenever she nailed a particularly difficult
passage. That was the first time I
really thought of her as beautiful, framed in the window with her eyes half-shut
and hair flying. I knew what it reminded
me of, recognized the dangerous prickle starting in my throat at the memory.
“Penny for
your thoughts?”
“Like you
don't know,” I muttered, turning around.
“Kiri, no
matter what anyone else says, you are not a screw-up,” he said, resting his
hands on my shoulders as if with the weight of his words.
I caught my
reflection in his eyes and watched them for a while, imprinting the dark gray
irises and long lashes in my mind for the umpteenth time. “I love you,” I murmured. “Does that count?”
“Always.”
The music
stopped abruptly, and we both started a little at the grate of the window
opening. “Hey, what are we doing about
dinner?” Lily called from inside.
Thomas
looked down guiltily.
“Exactly
where is that roast you planned to put in the crock pot?” I asked.
“In the
fridge where I left it to thaw,” he answered with a shrug.
I threw up
my hands in mock exasperation. “You're
not one of those weird kids who don't eat pizza, are you?” I called through the
window.
“Pepperoni
and anything else you want,” she hollered back.
“I'll even eat the vegetables.”
“Well, that
takes care of that.”
The music
resumed, and we cleared our throats and chuckled. “She has your timing,” Thomas pointed out
wickedly.
“Yeah, so
it would seem.”
“I couldn't
get anything out of her either, if you're wondering.”
“I'm not
that surprised. If she's anything like
Sasha, it'd be easier breaking into a top-secret military base.”
“How do you
know I haven't done that?”
“For
starters, the cops haven't come by yet.”
I looked over my shoulder at the figure in the window, once again
absorbed in its bow work. “And I'm going
to leave it at yet.”
“Probably
for the best,” he agreed, grinning. And
there it was underneath the levity, that hint of something darker and sadder
that ebbed and flowed with the past year.
“Do you trust me, Kiri?” he asked, serious again.
“Of
course,” I answered, reaching out a hand subconsciously to trace the gaunt
outline of his cheek, the taut, sensitive play of muscle and bone just under
skin.
He nodded
slightly, caught my wrist and held it there for a moment longer. “You think she means trouble. Sasha might too. She doesn't.
There's more than one way the story ends.”
“How can
you be so sure?”
“Because of
you.”
I raised an
eyebrow. “Me?”
“Yes, Kiri
Curran Morgan. You. Bet you never thought of that.”
“Hey, who's
ordering?” Lily broke in, stopping in the middle of a measure.
We looked
at each other and burst out laughing.
“What's so
funny?”
“I asked
you if you trusted me. You said yes.”
“I
know. And I do. But that's not it.”
“Then what
is?”
She
scrutinized us over pizza and sodas until I had to start wondering if I had
sauce on my chin. Just as I went for the
napkin, she seemed to decide she couldn't hold it back anymore. “Why you two?” she asked bluntly.
“Excuse
me?” I said with my mouth still full.
“Not why
did Mom send me here, 'cause it's probably something I don't want to
understand,” Lily backtracked. “I mean,
how did you two end up, you know, together?
You do know Kiri and my mom and the grandparents and how they are,
right?” This last she directed at Thomas
like a challenge.
“Oh, you
mean the physicist, the analytical chemist, the cognitive psychologist, and the
doctor?” he recited with the requisite sarcasm.
“Ooh, how
did the nerd girl get together with the famous musician? I got this one,” I volunteered with my hand
in the air. “You've seen our bookshelf?”
She nodded
and looked confused.
I gave her
the brightest smirk I could muster. “Can
you guess whose books are whose?”
“Um...” I
watched her mentally catalog the eclectic collection of classic literature,
mystery, sci-fi, comic books, medical journals, computer manuals, and
historical tomes.
“I'll give
you a clue,” I offered. “Ask Thomas
about his other degrees.”
He gave me
a sidelong look and added, “I think she means extracurricular activities.”
“What did
you and your hacker friends call yourselves again?”
“We weren't
hackers, we were consultants,” he protested.
I rolled my
eyes. “Remind me which federal agency
you pissed off.”
“In our
defense, they offered us jobs afterwards.
It was tempting.”
Lily almost
fell off the beanbag chair. “Wait, when
did you do all that? I thought you
studied at the conservatory.”
He
shrugged. “I got bored sometimes.”
“Most of us
got drunk or high when we were bored,” I chimed in. “Thomas Morgan audited classes at MIT. Same thing, I guess.”
“Was that a
confession, Kiri?” he teased.
“Shut up.”
“Did you,
Kiri?” said Lily.
“Why don't
you ask your mother?”
“Fort
Knox? I'd have more luck getting answers
from you when you're drunk.”
She gasped
and clapped a hand over her mouth. I
stared at her for way longer than it should've taken to act. I could've slapped her for it, if she wasn't
completely right. After a few moments I
gave up and let the giggles take over.
Lily's
shoulders relaxed as she laughed. “Oh my
god, can you imagine what Mom would've done if I said that in front of her?”
she snorted, still blushing fiercely.
“Actually,”
I admitted, “I can't. It's different
being her kid sister.”
“Yeah, I
guess so. Does she talk to you about
me?”
“In a
way. Did she tell you much about us?”
She
frowned. “Not really. I mean, she would mention you, like where you
moved to and what you were doing at your job and stuff. And when you two got married. Thanks for the wedding invitation, by the
way.”
“What did
you care? You were, what, nine? Besides,” I said, suddenly recalling the act
of meticulously sealing the envelope with a sort of savage satisfaction, “we
did send one.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah,
oh. Sasha said you were busy performing
or something.”
“I
guess.” She sighed and did some counting
on her fingers. “It's possible. If you do it again, invite me.”
“What, get
married?”
She thought
about it and looked more upset than I did.
“I didn't mean to bring that up.”
Thomas gave
us a tolerant half-smile. “The elephant
in the room?” he said. “We can talk
about it if you want to. I don't mind.”
“I don't
know if I can,” said Lily. “I'm not like
Mom and Kiri. I don't usually deal with
that stuff. And you two met at the
children's hospital.”
“Yeah, so
we're old pros,” I chipped in sardonically.
“Med student and volunteer.
Heme-Onc ward. Speaking of death
and dying, we practically marinated in it.
Is that it?”
“Something
like that, yeah,” she said a little resentfully.
“Six
months. Give or take. You should be fine.”
She opened
her mouth, closed it, picked up the violin and started plucking chords. He recognized the tune, of course, waited for
the notes to die away before speaking.
“I'm sorry,” he said.
“So am
I.” She stopped plucking but didn't put
the violin away or look up.
He stepped
over to the piano, lifted the lid, and played the first bars like a peace offering.
“Mozart?” I
asked, recognizing the melancholy open intervals.
“One of
Kiri's favorites,” he answered, addressing Lily as she picked up her bow. “Play with me.”
She peered
at him through lowered eyelids. “How do
you know I know it?”
“Because you've
heard it. And because I know her.”
He
did. She did. And I sat and listened to them play the
concerto and wiped the tears from my face and didn't know what to think or
feel.
“What did
you mean, because you know me?”
“Exactly
what I said, Kiri. The sooner you admit
it, the better. For all of us.”
“I
know. But I hate it when you remind me
why.”
“Gah, start
over!” Lily's voice shrilled over the wrong notes that came to an abrupt stop.
“Bow-tied?”
Thomas teased. “Come on, you picked this
one.”
“Very
punny,” she shot back. “Anyone ever tell
you you suck? Besides, no fair, Mozart
wasn't a violinist.”
He raised
his eyebrows at her. “Technically he
wasn't a pianist either. The modern
pianoforte wasn't invented until the end of his lifetime—”
“—so
technically he wrote for harpsichord and organ and fortepiano and blah blah
blah it was Beethoven who wrote for piano blah blah blah,” I interrupted,
dropping my bag and keys on the counter.
“How many times has he given you that lecture now?”
“Um, about
eight, I think,” she answered.
“Got it
memorized yet? He might quiz you.”
“I thought
I wasn't supposed to be in school.”
“If this
was school,” he corrected her, “I'd be telling you to get back to work.”
She made a
face. “You're on.”
It would be
a flat-out lie to say I wasn't a little jealous. They spoke the same language, after all. When they played like that, I felt like I was
the interloper, not Lily. Only when they
played. But when the old bitterness came
welling up, it was hard to choke it back down.
The notes
flew across the room, ricocheted off the walls, soared around the ceiling fan,
and enveloped them in their own frenetic bubble. She tossed her hair back and laughed, a
giddy, happy sound she reserved for just those moments. He acknowledged it with a nod and a smile,
his concert-hall equivalent. All the
while the music kept on, seeming to laugh and joke along with them. She hit the sixteenths again with a
confidence I hadn't heard before, let out a surprised squeal, and launched into
the cadenza with renewed gusto.
“Hey, slow
down!” Thomas protested.
“Never!”
she giggled.
He hit the
closing chords a little stiffly and winced.
“Seriously, slow down,” he gasped.
“What?”
But he
wasn't listening to her anymore. The
music seeped away once their fingers stopped, and what came in even more
all-encompassing was the silence. For a
few drawn-out seconds she paused with the bow a few millimeters above the
strings, staring uncomprehendingly.
I already
had the kit out, gloves on, syringe drawn.
By the time Lily put down the violin and bow, the worst was over. He took a few deep breaths like a drowning
person finding the first gasps of air and relaxed a little. “It's okay,” I whispered, smoothing his hair
back from his face. “Just close your
eyes and count to thirty, slowly.”
He opened
his eyes and gave me a bleary grin. “I'm
a musician, Kiri. I don't count that
high.”
“Five
measures of six-eight then, smart-ass.”
“Okay,
doc. Whatever you say.”
I waited
the interminable minutes while he did as I asked and the drugs kicked in. “Same as before?”
“I think
so. It feels the same. Not as far apart though.”
I kissed
his forehead. “Poor darling, it's not
going to be easy.”
“For you
two especially,” he murmured. “Where's
Lily?”
For a few
seconds, a very few, I was angry. Then I
looked up and saw the discarded instrument.
Lily never left her baby lying around on the floor like that. No vintage Stradivarius had it better. “Stay,” I commanded him. “I'll go look for her.”
She wasn't
in her room, which didn't surprise me all that much. One thing she and I didn't have in common:
she kept the place meticulously picked up.
No clothes on the floor or carelessly thrown over chairs. Papers neatly stacked. Bed made—heck, it practically looked like it
had never been slept in. No, this
wouldn't be where she ran to. If it were
me...
Down the
street there was an old-fashioned metal swing set that someone had put up for
the neighborhood children. She was
sitting on one of the swings and smoking something I strongly suspected wasn't
a cigarette. One arm was hooked around a
chain, the other wrapped around her opposite knee, which she'd pulled up in the
half-slacker, half-contortionist pose only an adolescent girl could pull off
without looking completely ridiculous.
She looked up briefly when I sat down on the other swing and the metal
jarred with my presence. “Want one?” she
offered.
“Might
consider it,” I said. “How'd you know?”
“Don't
worry, Mom knows about these. Says it's
the least of her worries about me.”
“I figured
that. Still isn't good for you.”
“Didn't
stop you,” she pointed out.
“Yeah,
well, I'm kind of an idiot. Especially
when I was your age. Just ask your
mother.”
“You know
she doesn't snitch on people.”
“I wish she
would sometimes.”
She must've
built up a tolerance, since the look she gave me was still completely coherent,
and oddly perceptive. “You don't get
along, do you?” she inquired. “Mom does
this kind of recoil thing when she talks about you. Like you slept with an ex-boyfriend or
something. Did you?”
I
started. “What do you think?”
“Who was
it? Someone I know?”
“Nice try,”
I said, grinning lopsidedly. “You can
see why I'm wondering why she sent you out here, though. Most sane sisters would be afraid I'd corrupt
you.”
She laughed
dryly. “Like that could ever happen.”
I
chuckled. “Spite, then?”
“Who
knows? Look, can I trust you not to tell
him I'm scared to go back there just now?”
“You can,
but I'm pretty sure he knows.”
She looked stricken. “How do you do it, Kiri? You're so calm and collected about it. I mean, if it was me, I don't know if I could
stand it.”
“I must be
a better actress than we all thought then,” I said wryly. “It's okay to be scared shitless, you
know. I am, when I think about it.”
“Then how?”
she demanded, tossing the half-smoked joint on the grass and stomping on it
like she meant to eradicate it from existence.
“Not how,”
I corrected. “Why.”
She looked
up, confused. “Okay, why?”
“Love. Plain and simple. So simple it took me about thirty years to
figure it out.”
“But you
figured it out,” she said wistfully.
“Maybe there's hope for me then.
Hey, did you know Mozart only lived to be thirty-five?”
“Yeah,
Lily, I know.” It was awkward, the feel
of her bony shoulders against my arm, but it also felt awkwardly right. “It's going to be okay.”
“Promise?”
“No. But it will be anyway.”
“Are you
going to tell her?”
“Hell no.”
“She
deserves to know the truth.”
“I know,
love, but I'm not ready for her to find out.
Not just yet.”
“You okay,
Kiri?” Lily called as I dashed past her and straight to the bathroom.
“I don't
know. Tell you in a few,” I called over
my shoulder. “Right now I really need a
shower.”
No matter
how many times it happened (hell, I worked in a nursing home, so it happened a
lot), I couldn't avoid the waves of almost physical revulsion, the need to wash
away the taint of death and disease. It
wasn't until I'd been standing under the stream of hot water long enough to
turn my skin a few shades of pink that my brain cleared sufficiently to allow
me to take in my surroundings. Clean
tiles. Soap and shampoo foam. Steam wafting from the faucet and rising from
skin and hair. Slightly too-hot water,
remedied with a small adjustment of the knob.
“Who and
what?” Thomas called from outside the door.
“Mrs.
Johnson,” I called back, barely remembering to give the alias. “Complications of Alzheimer's.”
“Want to
talk about it?”
“Not
particularly.”
“Want to
sing about it?”
Lily's
confusion was practically palpable, but she didn't comment.
“Maybe in a
bit,” I said, mulling it over, already feeling a little ridiculous.
I turned
off the tap, toweled off, and put my hand on the knob, hesitating for reasons I
couldn't come up with. My reflection
wasn't something I usually paid that much attention to, but on a sudden impulse
I peered into the still-foggy mirror and wondered—what? How much of myself there was in Lily? Same small nose and mouth, same nondescriptly
brown eyes and hunted expression, with the imp that lurked beneath just barely
visible to those in the know. And I
wondered if, and how much, she knew.
The notes
were out of my mouth before I realized it.
Gershwin's Bess, coming to terms with her own destructive desires. Why not?
Not forgetting I had an audience so much as not caring.
Moments
later, he joined in at the piano, floating the accompaniment over intimately as
a kiss. I couldn't help smiling and following his lead,
letting the underused high notes come out into the light of day and savoring
the release. Arias I hadn't remembered
learning at fourteen spooled out like a taut fishing line. It wasn't a conscious choice anymore, to
sing. More a matter of staying alive.
“Oh, Kiri,”
Lily breathed when I finally opened the door.
“I didn't know.”
“Neither
did I,” I admitted.
“I did,”
said Thomas.
I've never
been ashamed to kiss my husband. Not
even while wearing nothing but a towel, with Lily watching two steps away. Which was why in the moment I didn't realize
what she was staring at, not until she gave a small gasp of recognition and
something like horror.
“Lily, what
is it?” I asked, following her gaze to the scars on my bare wrist. “Oh.”
Her hands
shook a little as she rolled up her sleeves to show me. “You knew, didn't you?” she accused me.
“No, but I
suspected. Paring knife?”
She
nodded. “You?”
“Thread
snips. Mom kept them in her sewing
basket. Anything serious?”
“No,” she
protested. “I just...”
“Needed to
feel something? Yeah, so did I. That's what the drugs were for, and the
men. 'Cause sometimes even the music
wasn't enough. Right?”
Her mouth
dropped open for a few seconds as we stared at each other. Then she glared. “Why should I listen to you, anyway? Just 'cause we have that in common doesn't
mean I'm going to end up like you.”
“Like me?”
I asked quietly, knowing exactly what she meant, feeling Thomas's arms tighten
around me and resenting it.
“I...I
mean...” She turned on her heel, went to
her room, and shut the door. Only
instead of the teenage drama queen stomp-and-slam, she did it quietly,
tentatively, as if she were literally walking on eggshells. From behind the door came the sound of the
violin, playing Gershwin. Lily didn't
cry, not ever. The infernal instrument
did it for her.
“Well, that
went smoothly,” I muttered, gritting my teeth.
“You're not
screwing it up.”
“How can
you be so sure, every time?”
“Because I
believe in you. And because one day
she'll come to you for help.”
“Why would
she do that?”
The voice
on the line was close to hysterics, and I felt horrible asking her to repeat
herself. “Lily, please calm down and
tell me,” I said, trying to sound as soothing as possible and probably failing. “You're where?”
“Kiri, I'm
sorry, I panicked,” she almost sobbed.
“Please come. I don't know what
to do.”
I made my
abject apologies at work and followed her directions as fast as I could.
The scene
pieced itself together in my mind from what she hadn't said as much as from
what she had. I saw them in their usual
spots in the living room, him at the piano bench and her standing with the
violin. It was one of his good days: he
thought he could handle a simple piece, and it had been too long since he'd
heard that laugh of hers. The Mozart
concerto again, maybe? I could almost
hear them at it, the long notes of the slow movement, and then the pause, the
gasp, the clatter of wood and wrong notes, and Lily's choked scream.
She didn't
care that neither one of us was a hugger.
The ambulance ride must've taken it out of her: her face was practically
bloodless, and she shook so much her teeth chattered. “Where?” I asked simply, and she pointed
rather than trusting her voice.
I flashed
back to that day almost a year ago, watching through the sliding glass doors
and hearing the shrills as they worked.
He'd made me promise afterwards, when the machines and drugs and noise
and funny smells and tastes (“Why do the smells and tastes even matter?” I'd
asked exasperatedly) were only a bad memory: never again. “It's not Lily's fault,” I whispered into the
glass and plastic that separated us, as if he could hear me. “It's not her fault, love.”
“Please,” I
said a little louder. Repeated it over
the cacophony until my throat burned.
“Please stop. He never meant for
this to happen.”
“Clear!”
somebody called, and I looked away at the jerk-thud sounds and tried not to sob
out loud. The monitors shrilled back
their erratic answer like some demonic call-and-response. I put my hands over my ears, as if I could
drown it out if I put enough pressure on my eardrums. There might have been blood on my fingers
when I pulled them away.
Lifetimes
later, it seemed, the figure at the head of the bed stopped calling out
instructions and looked up. “Kiri?”
“Yes,” I
answered.
He nodded and
held up a hand. “I'm sorry, Kiri,” he
said quietly. “Do you want a moment?”
“Yes.”
They turned
everything off and took out the tubes more silently and efficiently than I
would've thought and left us alone.
“Lily,” I
said to the girl huddling wordlessly in the corner. “It's okay, Lily. You can come closer if you want.”
She stood
up, still shivering, and walked toward us.
“I...”
“Shhh. You don't have to say anything. We know.”
He looked
more peaceful than I'd imagined. His
lips were still warm against mine, forehead too. “Goodbye, my love,” I whispered. “Oh, my darling, good night.”
Lily put
out a hand, tentatively, rested it for the briefest of moments on his cheek,
pulled it away. “I loved you too,” she said.
“But you knew that.”
“Come on,
let's get you home,” I said after a little while longer. “They know where to find me with the
paperwork and red tape.”
“Do you
think there's a place up there for people like us? For me, I mean, and for Lily?”
“I'll make
a place for you, Kiri. Always.”
“But
how? How can you know that?”
“Doesn't
matter, does it? Because no matter what,
I'll always find you.”
She stayed
a few days longer, until we could make arrangements. It wasn't a big or drawn-out affair, and
anyways she kept to herself, barely left her room and almost never spoke when
she did. I don't remember much about the
drive to the airport or the actual parting.
But in those first raw, antiseptic-smelling moments, it came out of her
in a flood that, for us, seemed more appropriate than tears. Why she'd come. What she'd done to earn this sentence. The choice that wasn't a choice at all.
“She was
going to make me quit. I told her I'd
rather die, and I meant it. I would've
done it too.”
“You
weren't in control anymore, Lily,” I murmured.
“That's the point. That was
always the point.”
She grabbed
a fistful of hair and tugged, looked absently at the strands coming away in her
hand. Like a caged bird pluming
itself. I let out a low inward whistle
at my sister's nerve: it was a hell of a gamble.
We sat on
the couch with our blankets and tea, reflecting each other's hollow-eyed
haggard expressions, the calm after the storm now, and I thought about why
Sasha had sent her to me. “You wanna
know about these?” I asked finally, holding out my arm. “Might distract you some, and he'd want you
to know.”
She looked
up and gave me a wan little smile that wasn't really a smile. “Sure, why not?”
“Summer
before high school. I'd just turned
fourteen and was the youngest person from my school to get accepted to the
summer music program at the conservatory.
I spent the summer living with Sasha and her fiancé. I was a piece of work, and everybody knew
it. Sasha did her best about the drugs,
but that wasn't the worst of it.”
“What was?”
I sighed,
trying and failing to find the best words for it. “I tried to seduce Jeremy, her fiancé. He was cute enough, and about to graduate
from law school, and honestly I don't have a clue what was going on in my head
at the time. He didn't fall for it or
anything, just went to her about it. You
don't know what your mother was like in her early twenties. She was pissed off, and rightly so. Called me an attention-seeking whore and said
I needed to be thrown out on my ass or dumped off at the nearest mental
institution. Which was true. I retaliated by hiding out in my room and
downing a bottle of sleeping pills.”
Lily
frowned at that. “Pills? What about the cuts on your wrist?”
“Oh,
right,” I chuckled. “Those happened a
few months before that. I wasn't serious
then. Mom knew about them too, come to
think of it.”
“What
happened after the pills?”
“What do
you think? Sasha thought I was being too
quiet and picked the lock. If you've
never had your stomach pumped, I don't recommend it. I don't recommend involuntary committal,
either. Anyway, no more summer program
after that. I spent high school trying
to get my head screwed back on straight.
Part of that was no music. You
know how it speaks to you, makes you feel things you sort of can't completely
control? Music was my first drug, so as
part of giving up the substances, I gave that up too.”
Lily seemed
to be trying to figure something out.
“Wait,” she brought out slowly.
“Mom was only engaged once. She
married my dad after he graduated from law school, and then they waited until
they were both settled before they were willing to bring a kid into the
world. Dad's name is...”
“Jeremy
Kyle. Yep.”
“Wow.” She stared at me for a while and repeated
it. “Wow. No wonder Mom became a psychologist.”
“Yeah,” I
said. “And no wonder she sent you here,
this summer of all times.”
“Revenge?”
she asked
“Depends.”
“On what?”
It was
harder to get out than I thought. “When
I said I met Thomas on the wards...I lied.”
She raised
an eyebrow. “Which part?”
I played it
again in my head: that hot, sticky season of commuting between Sasha's
apartment and the conservatory. Singing
Violetta's arias in the subway stations for extra cash. Playing hooky in the college bathrooms, doing
things I'd rather have forgotten.
Sneaking into the practice rooms after class and hearing the Chopin
Nocturne, pausing to make sure my ears weren't playing tricks on me, then
admiring the cleanness and sweetness. He
wasn't handsome, exactly, at our age: apple-cheeked, sandy-haired, and a little
awkward, but with beautiful hands. “I
know you,” he said solemnly, turning around to greet me. “The little soprano with the voice of an
angel.”
“Who do you
think you're calling little?” Smiling a
bit even at the perceived insult.
He
shrugged, because it was true. “I'm
Thomas,” he said, holding out one of those wonderful hands. “Thomas Morgan. If you ever need an accompanist...”
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