“Leo said Silas hopped on the drums for a gig he had the other night with my parents at Duke’s. Is there anything Si doesn’t do? He just stays out here in these streets doing everything? Like, does he sleep?” Rosemarie asked this so aggressively it made them laugh. She posed the question directly to Ada since Silas was her brother-in-law.
“He sleeps, yes. Sometimes on our couch, even though we have two guest bedrooms and he has his own place. He’s just Silas,” Ada said, shrugging. “He’s forever trying to take the boys to do wild stuff, but I don’t always let him. Uncle Silas can chill.” Last time, it was extreme zip-lining in Tennessee, and while Ada （a bit reluctantly） didn’t mind Grayson and Silas taking the twins and Gabriel, she’d said a hard no when it came to their youngest tagging along.
“He doesn’t want to get married?” Kasey asked.
“To someone who isn’t you? No, probably not” was Caroline’s response.
“That’s ridiculous! Trust me, Silas hasn’t been holding his breath for fifteen years hoping I’d pop back up in Goldie one day.”
Ada had already given Kasey the rundown of a few of Silas’s girlfriends he’d had over the years as they happened. He was one of those guys who was very single when he wasn’t dating someone, meaning he seemed content hanging out and not getting serious. All his real relationships seemed to take him by surprise.
“Right, but first love,” Rosemarie said, like it was law.
“Mm-hmm. Like you and Leo?” Kasey said.
Rosemarie scrunched up her nose.
Ada shook her head at them and excused herself to go inside and use the bathroom.
She stopped at her bag first to check her messages and was texting Grayson some hearts when her mom called. Ada picked up.
“Do you know where your dad is?” her mom slurred.
Ada’s stomach sank out of annoyance; she knew That Voice and she didn’t have time for That Voice today.
“I thought Daddy was there at the house? That’s where he told me he was going to be this morning,” Ada said calmly. Through the tall glass door she watched her best friends sitting on the edge of the pool now, their bare feet flicking like fins.
“No. I’ve been looking for him and he’s not here. I’m not crazy!” her mom said.
“Mama, I don’t think you’re crazy. I just thought Daddy was at the house.” She went into the half bathroom in the hallway, pulled the pocket door closed. She balanced the phone between her ear and shoulder.
“No, you think I’m crazy.”
“I don’t think you’re crazy.”
An anticipated standoff. Ada let it linger while she used the bathroom. She was washing her hands when she heard her dad’s deep voice through the speaker.
“Ada? I was out on the deck. Your mom must’ve thought I left. She shouldn’t have bothered you.”
“It’s fine. Tell her it’s fine,” Ada said. “Tell her I’ll call her later.”
“All right,” her dad said.
“Are you coming here soon?” her mom said.
“Maybe tonight, if I have time.”
“Can you come now, so we can talk?”
“About what, Mama? I’m at Caro’s right now. We’re all here.”
“I’m your mother and all I’ve asked is for you to stop by. Is that too much?”
“Mama, it’s not too much—”
“In the next half hour would be good, okay?”
“Yeah. Okay. See you soon,” Ada said, holding in her curses. She scowled in the mirror and turned off the light.
Ada told the girls she’d probably swing back by after going to her parents’ to see what her mom wanted. The day was fairly lazy wedding event–wise, but there was some prep she needed to do for Taylor’s second bridal shower tomorrow. Looking on the bright side, Ada could get that done at the house while her mom talked to her about whatever she wanted to talk to her about.
*
When Ada got to the house, she let herself in. Her dad was on the couch watching baseball.
“Hey, Daddy. Where is she?” Ada asked.
“Sleeping upstairs. Did you not hear your phone? I called you. Left you a message,” her dad said. Ada sat next to him and put her bag on the floor.
“It’s been, like, ten minutes, tops,” she said, pulling out her phone to check the time, flicking away her dad’s voicemail notification. “What did she want to talk to me about?”
“Probably something about Tay’s shower—I don’t know. This game is getting good. Want to watch it with me? There’s a bunch of leftover food if you want too.”
“I’m not hungry, Daddy.”
Ada scanned the room. Most of the decorations from yesterday’s bash were still up. She needed to refresh them a bit even though her parents had hired help to clean and set up again for tomorrow. Tomorrow morning she’d go to the restaurant to get the soft-bread finger sandwiches and salads, bottles of champagne for mimosas; Caro would bring the vanilla buttercream cupcakes.
She asked about her brothers, and her dad told her they were out on the water, fishing. She sat there next to him, watching the baseball game, feeling tissue-paper-thin.
“Daddy, what all is she taking? Her doctors shouldn’t be writing those prescriptions anymore, should they? What’s going on?” Ada asked.
“As far as I know, she needs them for her back, Ada. She says she’s in pain all the time.”
“Yeah, but there’s physical therapy and she never does it; there are other things she can do. Seems like half the people in this town are addicted to pain pills and I…” Her voice got softer and softer until she stopped.
“Well, maybe she’ll listen if you talk to her. She won’t listen to me,” her dad said.
Ada stood and went upstairs to her parents’ bedroom.
Her mom was in a white ruffle sundress, softly snoring on top of the duvet. All three windows were open, breezing the dress fabric and curtains so prettily Ada stopped to watch.
Not even the rest of RACK knew what Ada’s mom had been like lately. Grayson knew, but she’d been keeping some of it even from him. She hadn’t told him about the time last month when she held her mother’s hair back at eight in the morning because she’d taken pills without breakfast. She hadn’t told him yet that she knew her parents didn’t sleep in the same bed anymore. Ada didn’t want to talk about how she resented how much her dad had checked out; her brothers had checked out too. Neither of them lived in Goldie anyway, and soon enough, Taylor—who had been so hyperfocused on her wedding for the past year she barely noticed anything—would be moving a couple hundred miles away too, leaving Ada alone with the burden of looking after her parents, on top of her own family, and the Plum empire.
Ada stared at the curtains and listened to the Goldie street sounds drift up—the church bells ringing, the crescendo of a motorcycle growl, a mockingbird cycling through its song. She planted herself on the corner of the bed and said, “Shit,” under her breath.
2004
8
Ada had proposed they have a big dinner under a white tent in her backyard instead of going to one of the fake-fancy chain restaurants on prom night. The caterers were busy in the kitchen, and RACK was upstairs in Ada’s capacious pink-and-white bathroom getting ready.