From Comfortable Distances (51 page)

“So tired,” Kash said. “Bye
bye, Mom. Miss you, have fun today,” and with that he hung up the phone.

Tess sat cradling the
phone to her chest and smiled. She made her way to standing a bit clumsily,
leaning on the kitchen cabinets. So much for all the yoga, she thought.

The beans were done for
now. She turned off the stovetop, drained the water from them, and poured them
into the casserole with the rest of the stew, repositioning the tofu chunks and
the carrots and celery to make room for the beans. She sprinkled some homemade
breadcrumbs throughout and mixed in a dash of cinnamon and cardamom—a la her
mother’s recipe—and set it on the middle rack in the oven, alongside the seven-grain
bread that she would heat up later on. She would bake the casserole about 30
minutes prior to feeding time. She covered all that needed covering with
aluminum foil—sweet potato pie, homemade cranberry sauce and cabbage and beet
salad, and strategically positioned everything between the refrigerator and the
stove top, so that all that needed to cool and all that needed heating up later
was in its proper place. She took the carrot cake and apple angel-food cake she
had made the night before out of the refrigerator and put those on the counter
to warm up to room temperature. There, everything was all set. Now it was Tess
time.

Tess made her way
downstairs into the playroom area of her basement. She drew the playroom blinds
to the backyard door to let the early morning light in. She unrolled her yoga
mat and positioned it in the center of the room, facing the doors. She began to
focus on her breath and moved into her sun salutes. Shine out, she thought,
opening her arms wide at her sides, and as she flew them up towards the
ceiling, she felt herself soaring toward all that was above and beyond. Diving
forward, she was humbling herself to the world, bowing down in servitude. She
was a warrior, firm and solid, and soft too. Her breath was steadying now,
uniting the movements with her inhales and exhales.

Tess moved into triangle,
right angle, some one-leg balance postures—tree, arda chandrasana, and bow.
Then it was time for her to move to the floor for forward bends and back bends.
She loved being able to be with herself, in her own mind and space, while the
world outside her went on. When it was time for shavasana, final resting pose,
she felt herself melting away, her breath falling in line, the November
sunlight cutting the floor through the blinds, warming her face and body. It
wasn’t until Tess heard bells ringing over and over, that she jumped up. For a
few moments her brain searched where or why until she smelt the food upstairs
and she realized that she had fallen asleep in resting pose. There was someone
at the front door. She hadn’t even showered yet!

Tess clumsily picked
herself up, still lightheaded from the intensity of the rest, the jarring of
the doorbell, and rushed upstairs, to the front door, which she pulled open
with her finger on the alarm, disabling it.

“Lyla,” she said,
unlatching the screen door.

Lyla eyed Tess
suspiciously and shook her head when Tess waved her to come inside.

“I’ve come to drop off
the turkey,” Lyla said. I’ve been busy all morning cooking the turkey for your
party and then had to cook two more turkeys for the home. I haven’t had time to
relax,” Lyla said, eyeing Tess up and down.

Tess imagined her hair
was going every which way from her brief nap. She made an effort to smooth it
down a bit.

“Sounds like you’ve been
plenty busy,” Tess said.

At that moment Buddhi
hopped out of the orchid tree and landed on the porch, his back hunched, his
teeth showing as if he was about to attack. He sniffed at the air a few times
in regard to the turkey Tess was holding, and then scrambled past Lyla and Tess
through the open screen door, darting up the stairs.

“Oh my goodness!” Lyla
shrieked. “That nasty creature does not belong in your house,” she said and for
a moment, Tess felt dread at the possibility of Bhuddi getting at the turkey;
she would have to be careful with it.

“We’ll be back at 1:00 pm
prompt,” Lyla said, and with that she about faced and hurried down the stairs.
Tess stood for a few moments watching her move away from the porch, and then
focused on the car parked by the curb in which Neal sat. He waved at her and
she waved back. See you later, she mouthed, not knowing if he was able to make
out what she was saying, but she could have sworn she saw him mouthing it back
to her.

“I was ringing the
doorbell forever,” Michael said, letting the screen door slam shut behind him
as he followed Tess up the stairs.

“It seems to be a theme
today,” Tess said. She paused at the landing. “Excuse me, but do you think you
could maybe close the front door?” she said. “And your shoes, please.”

“Geez,” Michael said. “You’d
think the host would be in the holiday spirit. The weirdo here? I’d like to see
you ask his mother to take off her shoes.”

“Neal is with his mother,
and for your information, I was chasing a lunatic cat around my home for the
past hour—he ambushed me in the shower and practically tore a hole through my
leg with those claws of his and now he’s vanished,” Tess said.

“And I thought you
answered the door in a robe to turn me on. Ambushed you in the shower, huh?”
Michael said.

“Don’t start with me,”
Tess said. “I have Neal and his moody mother arriving soon, I’m not dressed
yet, didn’t get to do my make-up and I still can’t find that cat who for all I
know could be waiting to attack the turkey that Neal’s mother dropped off, or worse
yet, attack her.”

“Look at you, all
un-yogi-ed out,” Michael said. “The yoga gods might expel you from the kingdom
today if they came for a visit.”

“I can always count on
you to cheer me up,” Tess said. “Ah! Did you just see him dart by? Downstairs,
he went downstairs!”

“Didn’t you tell me you
loved that cat a few weeks back when I told you he was mangy?”

“That was before he
decided to crash my party,” Tess said waiting by the stairs, whispering
here
kitty kitty
.

“Well at least I know
you’re consistent in your loving-something-one-day-and-tossing-it-away-the-next
pattern,” Michael said.

“I’m glad that you can
find a way to compare yourself to a stray cat,” Tess said.

She sat down at the
kitchen table, tightening her robe. “I give up,” she said.

“You’re surrendering your
love to me?” Michael said.

“You don’t stop, do you?”

“The holidays make me
nostalgic,” Michael said.

“Where’s your spinach
pie?” Tess said.

Michael pointed to the
bag he put down on the counter by the sink. “I wouldn’t leave home without it,”
he said. “It’s quite delicious, I might add.”

“Isn’t someone else
supposed to judge that?” Tess said.

“I made two pies and ate
a hefty piece of one last night and I went back for seconds. I would have had
thirds if I wasn’t middle aged and didn’t have to watch my waistline.”

“Time for me to get
ready,” Tess said.

“When are Lyla and the
weirdo making their appearance?” Michael said.

“You’re coming with me to
get ready?” Tess said, glancing back at Michael who was following her to her
bedroom.

“Should I sit in the
kitchen alone?” Michael said.

“Maybe you want to pick
out an outfit for me,” Tess said.

“My pleasure,” he said,
sitting down on her bed.

“Can I ask you a favor?
Can you please behave today? I don’t want to have to babysit you,” Tess said.

“For your information,
I’m an absolutely charming gentleman and will be nothing less today.”

“Thank you,” Tess said.

“Have you told him about
your moving to Woodstock and trying to stick me with your company yet or is
that topic off limits?”

“Michael. Please. Not
today.”

“You haven’t told him.
You’ve already created a contract for me but you haven’t even told the person
you’re in a relationship with, not to mention your employees.”

Tess dabbed on her burnt
red lipstick, touched up her hair with some conditioning cream and made her way
past Michael into her closet, pulling the door slightly closed behind her.

“Hiding away won’t help
you my dear,” Michael said.

“If you don’t want to
sign the contract then the sooner you let me know the better,” Tess said, going
through her suits—no, it wasn’t a suit day— before scanning her casual rack and
deciding on a charcoal grey cashmere turtleneck and matching charcoal heather
slacks, which she’d accessorize with her black patent leather Gucci belt and matching
loafers.

“So that you can put Best
up for sale?” Michael said.

“So that I can make other
arrangements,” Tess said. “I’m going up to Woodstock in a few weeks as you know
and I’m going to do what’s right for me, regardless of my business, which has
been my life for the last few decades.”

“I’ll assume temporary
leadership,” Michael said. “For a few months. Two or three let’s say. And then
we go from there.”

Tess walked out of the
closet, dressed and messing her hair with her fingers to add fullness. “Are we
playing let’s make a deal?” she said.

“That’s my offer. We can
revisit in March and make more definitive decisions at that time,” Michael
said.

Michael leaned against
the bed’s backboard, paging through the Bhagavad Gita he’d picked up from her
night table. Michael closed the book and focused on Tess.

“It’s a deal,” Tess said.
“And we don’t tell the employees anything other than that I needed to take care
of some out of town business and will be back in a few months.”

“That sounds like a
change of heart,” Michael said.

“Strategic planning is
how I see it. A trial period for you. Meaning, if you should opt to bail out of
our agreement or fail miserably and I need someone else to take over, at least
I can save the team from having to deal with too much confusion in the
transition. I’ll expect you to draw me up an agreement of sorts that we can
both sign off on.”

“Always business,” he
said.

“You’re the lawyer. I
would think that you’d be mandating the contract,” Tess said.

“If I told you I wanted
to go with you to Woodstock—”

“I’d tell you to focus on
your own dreams, Michael. Was that the doorbell?” Tess said.

Michael paused until they
both heard the bell ring again.

“Saved by the bell,” he
said.

“You’ll be fine with or
without me at Best,” Tess said. “And perhaps you’ll be able to get on with your
life without me around.”

“You’re saying that you
don’t think I’ve moved on with my life?” Michael said.

“Michael, we’re divorced
for two years and your sitting on my bed on Thanksgiving while I’m getting
ready,” Tess said.

“And your point is?” he
said.

Lyla stood at attention
when Tess opened the door. She’d told Michael to busy himself in the kitchen by
taking out drinks—white wine, seltzer, water and glasses. Neal was making his
way from the car parked across the street carrying a few red cellophane cookie
platters, which protruded from a large white shopping bag.  Tess noticed the
rainbow streaking the sky and pointed.

“Look.”

Lyla about faced and
Neal, seeing them looking off in the distance, turned around when he reached
the curb. Tess moved out onto the porch. The rainbow seemed to take over the
entire sky, like a backdrop. 

In a moment Michael was
beside them on the porch and Tess noticed that her neighbors on both sides were
also on their porches as were the neighbors across the street on Dakota Place.
Tess imagined unicorns coming into the picture, scattering across the lawns of
Mill Basin. In this surreal moment, anything seemed possible and then she
thought: this is how life works, people gathered, looking beyond at something
better, without noticing what’s right there, within reach. She was guilty of
this. They all were, she supposed, even Neal and his mother with their
religion. Planning for the next life but what about the joy of right now?
Wasn’t that what her mother always preached? To prepare for right now versus
the future.
The other half of the rainbow is beneath the surface.
That’s
what Neal had told her. His mother, who stood beside her now, had told him
that, and it made sense to Tess—there was no pot of gold, but a depth, a
beauty, beneath the surface.

Tess turned to the
cleaning lady neighbor, to wish her a happy holiday, but she was already gone,
back into her home. The Israeli neighbor had fled, too, her son not putting up
any fight that they could hear.

“I think our Hallmark
moment is over,” Michael said.

Lyla’s lips curled up in
a smile and Tess sighed. It was going to be okay. “Mrs. Clay, this is Michael
O’Shay,” Tess said.

“I know who you are,”
Lyla said, looking Michael up and down so that he glanced over at Tess and
smiled. “I see you when I walk past your house—you live in that mansion—and
sometimes I see your car in Tess’s driveway.”