She bragged on Tallie’s brother, Lionel, how he’d made an obscene amount of money working in finance, how she didn’t really understand the way most of it went down, but he played with other people’s money and somehow that ended up making him a lot of money, too. Lionel traveled back and forth between Louisville and New York City, and even though Lionel and his wife had a nanny, sometimes Judith stepped in to look after her grandson, River. And River continued to be such a blessing to their family, especially after all those years of Tallie unsuccessfully trying to get pregnant.
Emmett watched Tallie’s face melt like ice cream.
“She’s hands-down one of the strongest people I know,” Emmett said, looking into Tallie’s eyes.
“Yes, she is.” Judith nodded in agreement and finished her biscuit. “And she knows how to make everyone feel real special. She’s always been like that.”
“That’s the truest thing I’ve heard all day. And…yeah, we’re excited about the big bash tonight,” Emmett said. He watched Tallie lower her eyes in relief at the subject change.
“Tallie told you I only go every other year?” Judith asked him.
“No, I didn’t know that,” he said.
Judith continued talking. Explained that she and Tallie’s dad, Gus, alternated years so Lionel wouldn’t have to worry about them arguing. She didn’t get along with Gus or Tallie’s stepmother. She’d recently broken up with a man she’d dated for three years. Tallie chimed in to say she’d gotten to know and love him, missed him already. Judith told a couple of stories about Tallie not liking her boyfriends in the past, especially when they turned out to be assholes. She said Tallie had a strong God-given radar for people and energies.
They finished their breakfast while she talked, Tallie jumping in only to keep Judith from going too into detail about family and marriage drama. And Tallie had stopped Judith completely when she began talking about how Joel had them all fooled.
“Let’s talk about something else, Mama,” she’d said.
“Fine. Well, that’s a long way of saying I won’t be at my own son’s Halloween party tonight. I’m playing bunco with my knitting girlfriends instead,” Judith finished.
“Tallie told me she made those blankets on the couch. I’m sure she learned from the best,” Emmett said.
Judith smiled before telling him he was too kind.
*
Tallie’s mother stayed for an hour after breakfast before saying she’d be moving along.
“You really do look so familiar to me. I can’t get over it. Maybe you remind me of an old movie star. Maybe we met in another life?” she asked, noisily popping a rectangle pillow of nicotine gum from its foil.
“Maybe we did,” Emmett replied.
Tallie thanked her for the mums and the pumpkin. Judith told them to have a great time at the Halloween party. Tallie said she’d call her tomorrow and let her know how it went. And before she left, Judith hugged Tallie, and she hugged Emmett, too. Tightly, as if he were her own. He returned it.
“That’s my mama,” Tallie said, curtsying in front of him.
“It was nice to meet her. I didn’t know how much you wanted her knowing about me.”
“You were perfect. And by lunchtime everyone in my family and everyone in her neighborhood will know your name, what you look like, where you’re from, and that you spent the night here last night.”
“And that doesn’t…freak you out at all?” he asked.
“For me to be on the side of her good, positive gossip for once? Not really,” Tallie said.
Emmett smiled, and not one time when Judith was there did he think about dying. The bridge had gifted him the supernatural ability to recognize the smallest moments of light, effervescent with relief. Pretending to be the man Tallie wanted him to be smoothed his mind into a gleaming blank. He could pretend to be someone else who was pretending to be someone else. The cracked husk of his heart inside another and another, ad infinitum. Evidence of how he’d closed himself off out of necessity. Grief. Guilt. And fear.
Scrabbling every day since was the most exhausting thing he’d ever done. Survival was the reason she wouldn’t be able to find him online, the reason it took him an extra breath to recognize his name in her mouth. He could’ve been from Clementine, but he wasn’t. His name could’ve been Emmett Aaron Baker, but it wasn’t. Tallie had easily believed his lies, and he wished the telling had magicked them true.