It was no wonder, therefore, that his Easter plans caused a stir. Lily first told her father, whom she found in the stockroom. “Is that so!” was all he said. （But fixing her with a stare, meanwhile, giving the news his full attention.） Then she called her mother at the studio. Still no answer there. So she called Alice, who was home by now and reacted quite satisfyingly. “What on earth!” she said. “Did he say why? Did he say something like ‘meet the family’？ Like ‘want you all to get to know this person’？”
“He just said he was bringing a friend.”
“Maybe she is just a friend.”
“Well, but…and then he asked if everyone would be available. Also, he said ‘we.’ There was something about the way he said ‘we.’？”
Alice was silent a moment. Then, “Greta,” she said musingly. “Hmm.”
“I wonder if she’s foreign,” Lily said.
“It’s fine with me if she’s foreign.”
“Yes, of course; I’m just trying to get a—”
“We’ll have the lunch here, obviously,” Alice said.
“What! At your house?”
“Where else?”
“But if he’s bringing this Greta home, so to speak,” Lily said, “shouldn’t it be at his actual family home? Isn’t that the point?”
“Get serious, Lily. How long has it been since Mom’s cooked a meal?”
“Well, but,” Lily said, “I mean…Okay, then you should all come to my house. I’m right here in town, after all.”
Alice herself was not in town; she and Kevin had moved out to Baltimore County. The rest of the family found that incomprehensible: how she could choose to live so far away, how isolated she was, how her children were bound to grow up with no sense of real life. But Alice said, “If it’s warm enough we could eat on the terrace, even.”
They had a flagstone terrace as big as their house. An entire outdoor kitchen-dining area was attached, complete with cabinets. Lily thought that was show-offy. She didn’t say so, of course. She said, “It’s bad enough they’ll have to deal with the holiday traffic; why make them drive to your place?”
“Because we have room for them?” Alice answered. “Because we’ll be two, four…because we’ll be eleven around the table, counting the kids? And you have just that teeny little dining room.”
Alice and Lily didn’t talk very often—only when there was an issue involving their parents or some such. And they almost never got together. Now Lily was remembering why. （Mostly they just saw each other when David came to town. In fact it seemed ironic that he, of all people, should serve as the family’s connector. David, who was the very opposite of connected!）
“I could do it buffet-style,” she said.
Alice made a laughing sound that wasn’t actually a laugh. “No-ho-ho,” she said. “Lily. Never serve buffet-style when children are involved.”
“But I would—”
“And we have the rec room, besides,” Alice said. “So if it happens to be cold, the kids can hang out down there. You know how they all get when they’re cooped up.”
“Well, anyhow, this is probably beside the point,” Lily said, “because I’m pretty sure Mom will say that for something this important—”
“She’ll say that for something this important, she just can’t think what to serve,” Alice said. Alice loved to finish Lily’s sentences for her.
“Well, I’m going to ask her,” Lily said. “Just as soon as I get hold of her.”
“Lots of luck with that,” Alice said.
* * *
—
Mercy said that for something this important, she just couldn’t think what to serve.
“But I could help you,” Lily said. “I could bring the main dish, say, and the salad. All you would have to do is fix one of your special desserts.”
“It’s not only that,” Mercy said. “The food is the very least of it. There’s all the cleaning and the fixing up, arranging the flowers, ironing the tablecloth…I have to admit I’m not keeping up with the housework nowadays.”
It was bizarre, Lily’s husband always said, how something so obvious was never, ever talked about: her mother had left home. Sometimes Lily would say something extremely pointed, like “Mom, I think you should know that Dad has this racking cough and I can’t talk him into seeing a doctor or even taking off work a few days. I think it might be pneumonia.” Then her mother would say, “Isn’t he exasperating?” as if she had known about his cough all along, although it could easily have been a couple of weeks since anyone in the family had laid eyes on her. “Well,” she’d say, “I’m going to give him a talking-to; how’s that.” And sure enough, Robin would phone Lily that evening and say, “Your mom is making me go see Dr. Fish tomorrow, so you’ll have to open for me. Hate to ask, but you know how she fusses.” His shyly boastful tone filled Lily with pity. He was so proud to have a wife who cared about his well-being.