Jubilee's Journey (The Wyattsville Series) (47 page)

They had just stepped off the elevator when Olivia heard the telephone ringing. She hurriedly pulled the key from her purse, unlocked the door, dashed across the living room, and grabbed the phone.

“Good afternoon,” the woman said. “Is this Missus Doyle?”

Olivia thought it might be Anita but didn’t recognize the caller’s voice. “Yes, it is,” she replied cautiously.

“This is Carmella Klaussner.”

“Carmella?”

“Yes. We met at the hospital. You remember, my husband Sidney’s the one who was shot in the same holdup as your boy.”

“Of course I remember,” Olivia answered, “but the Bicycle Ball isn’t until October. We don’t have tickets yet—”

Carmella laughed. “I’m not calling about the Bicycle Ball. I’m calling to tell you the good news; Sidney was released from the hospital yesterday.”

“That certainly is good news,” Olivia replied, wondering why Carmella chose to call her about it.

“Sidney is anxious to reopen the store,” Carmella said, “but before he does we’d like to have a chance to talk to you and your boy.”

“Oh, I don’t know.” Olivia gave a weary sigh. “Paul will be returning to school in September, and I don’t think he should be taking on a full-time job.”

Carmella gave a big hearty laugh. “All the more reason we need to talk. Sidney has something special for the boy.”

“Something special?”

“Yes, but I’m not going to spoil the surprise. I know Sidney wants to be the one to tell Paul about it. ”

Carmella’s voice had the sound of happiness jangling through the words, so Olivia had to assume it was something good. She asked if Carmella and Sidney would like to come to dinner the next evening.

“That sounds wonderful,” Carmella said and hung up without giving the slightest hint about Sidney’s surprise.

The day had brought both good and bad, but in the end there had been no resolution to anything. Olivia served an early dinner, then just after seven o’clock settled down to call Clara. She had a million mixed thoughts troubling her and needed to talk.

Olivia dialed the number and waited. She listened to a dozen or more rings, then finally hung up. Odd that Clara had not stopped by; odder still that she was not at home at an hour when she’d generally be watching the news. Olivia waited a half-hour and called again; still no answer. She tried another five times and got nothing more than a ring in her ear. At nine o’clock she decided that if she didn’t reach Clara by nine-thirty, she would go in search of her. Olivia could already feel an ache in her bones, an ache that meant something was not as it should be.

At nine-twenty Olivia shrugged on her sweater and was ready to walk out the door when Clara knocked.

“Where on earth have you been?” Every word had worry attached to it.

Clara, winded as if she’d run a marathon, answered, “I had a bunch of errands to do.”

“Errands? In the middle of the night?”

“It’s not even nine-thirty.”

Olivia looked at her watch: nine-twenty-five. “It seems much later.” Shepherding Clara into the kitchen, she brewed a pot of chamomile tea. “It’ll calm our nerves.” 

“I’m not nervous,” Clara replied. “Just tired.”

“From what?” Olivia asked. Again she got that vague say-nothing answer, so she moved on to tell of her day. “We went to look at an apartment but it was way on the other side of town, and—”

Clara’s mouth dropped open. “You didn’t take it, did you?”

“I didn’t have the chance. The ad said doghouse and yard, but to be on the safe side I asked if having a dog was okay. ‘Sure,’ this guy says, ‘I got no problem with dogs.’ So then I ask about the schools.  All of a sudden he starts looking at me like I’ve got two heads. ‘Schools?’ he says. ‘Why you wanna know about schools?’ I thought it was pretty obvious, but I answer and tell him, ‘I’ve got three children.’”

“And?”

“He starts yelling about how he can’t stand kids. ‘Dogs is okay,’ he says, ‘but no kids!’”

“Good,” Clara said. “I’m glad you didn’t take the place. It’s too far away, and, besides, you’re rushing things. You don’t even know if Anita is going to let you keep those kids.”

“I think it’s pretty safe to say she doesn’t want them.”

“Wait until you know for sure.”

The conversation went back and forth with Olivia insisting that it was better to be prepared for the inevitable and Clara insisting that the inevitable wasn’t always inevitable. When that subject was worn threadbare, they moved to a discussion of Carmella’s phone call.

“I’ve invited them to dinner tomorrow,” Olivia said. “From the way Carmella was talking, I think Mister Klaussner has some sort of reward for Paul.”

“So you’re going to be busy tomorrow evening, right?”

When Olivia answered yes, Clara sat there with a strange curl pulling at the corners of her lips.

Dinner Guests

I
n the wee hours of the morning, when a chorus of snores was all a person could hear in the hallways of Wyattsville Arms, Olivia found sleep impossible to come by. When she tried to conjure up the image of something pleasant—taking the children to the zoo, a day at the beach, a picnic in the park—it quickly became a flashback to the dreary house she’d visited. If a place such as that didn’t allow children, what, she wondered, could she expect?

By morning Olivia had come to the conclusion that this dinner party might be the last one she’d have in this apartment, so she vowed to make it special. Once the children had gone off to play she polished the silver, shined her very best crystal glasses, and took out the package of Irish linen napkins she’d been saving for a special occasion.

When the doorbell rang at six o’clock, all three children were dressed as if they were going to church and Olivia was wearing a green dress the exact shade of her eyes. Before the door was fully open, Carmella held out a huge bouquet of peonies. “For you.”

“Oh, my goodness,” Olivia gushed, “I’ve never seen anything so beautiful.”

With a smile stretched clear across his face, Sidney stood there balancing a stack of giftwrapped boxes. “We’ve also got a few things for the kids.”

“A few things?” Olivia exclaimed. “Why, it looks like Christmas!”

Sidney gave a big, hearty chuckle, the kind of laugh that could make a person feel happy even if they had no idea what he was laughing about.

Once they were seated in the living room, Olivia went in search of a vase large enough for the flowers. She pulled three vases from the kitchen cupboard, but not one was large enough. Surely one of her friends had a good-sized vase. Dialing one number after the other, Olivia first called Clara, then Agnes Shapiro, and finally Jen Hemmings. Not one of them was at home, which was not only annoying but also odd. Stuck with no other alternative Olivia put half of the flowers in one vase and the remainder in the other, then carried the two vases into the living room. By then the floor was covered with shredded bits of wrapping paper.

“Grandma, look at this!” Ethan Allen held up a Dick Tracy Junior Detective Kit. “It’s got a decoder ring!”

“I got a present too.” Jubilee cuddled a Betsy-Wetsy doll that drank and wet its diaper, something that apparently pleased Jubie no end.

Paul, far more reserved than the other two, was wearing a baseball cap from the College of William and Mary.

“There’s more to come,” Sidney said. In a little less than two weeks he’d gone from a nearly-dead man to a man so filled with life it almost burst out of him. In fact, Sidney’s happiness was so contagious that before two minutes had passed Olivia was laughing like a woman with not a care in the world.

In addition to the gifts the children had already opened, there were comic books, paper dolls, and a book on the history of America for Paul.

“All this,” Olivia said. “You really shouldn’t have. There’s no need—”

“Of course there’s no need.” Sidney chuckled. “But not having to do something is what makes doing it fun.”

“You’re going to spoil the children.” Olivia’s mouth curled into a smile that began to resemble Sidney’s.

He laughed even harder.

“There’s no way we could ever really make amends for all we put your family through,” Carmella said softly. “But we were hoping this would be a start.”

Olivia assured them no harm was done, and now that Paul was free to go about life they were looking toward the future. She mentioned nothing about the need for a larger apartment. When the oven timer buzzed, she announced dinner was ready and led everyone to the table. Sidney sat next to Paul. Carmella sat alongside Jubilee.

“I’m glad you like those paper dolls,” Carmella said. “I had ones just like them when I was a girl, and they were my favorite.” Carmella went on to tell how she created a world of flat paper furniture and voices for each of the paper people. Jubilee eyes glistened as she latched on to every word.

“Would you show me how to make flat furniture?”

“I sure will,” Carmella answered. Then she hugged the child to her chest. “As long as your grandma doesn’t think I’m making a pest out of myself coming here.”

“Grandma don’t mind at all.” Jubilee looked for confirmation from Olivia, but by then Olivia had bustled to the kitchen to get the casserole.

When she sat the oversized dish on the table she announced, “This is my favorite chicken noodle casserole. I hope you like it.” That’s when she noticed the apprehensive look on Carmella’s face.

“Is something wrong?”

“Well,” Carmella said, “Sidney doesn’t really like chicken.”

Sidney cut in with a loud chuckle. “I used to not like chicken,” he said and scooped a double-size portion onto his plate. He then turned and scooped a like amount onto Paul’s plate. “Eat up, son. You’re a growing boy!”

When Olivia looked across at the two of them, she could swear Paul’s grin was starting to resemble Sidney’s.

Olivia had doubled the recipe so she’d be sure to have enough, but when the conversation slowed and everyone stopped eating not a morsel of chicken noodle casserole was left in the dish. Sidney had not only polished off that first large helping, he’d gone back for seconds. Olivia smiled proudly as she cleared the dishes from the table.

“I’ll start coffee and get dessert,” she said and disappeared into the kitchen.

With a number of conversations going back and forth and laughter rolling out with the words, Olivia didn’t hear the knock on the door.

Ethan Allen did.

He scooted from his chair and opened the door. Anita was standing there, looking ragged and red-eyed. “Uh oh,” he muttered, then yelled, “Grandma, you better get out here!”

The alarm in Ethan’s voice sent Olivia scurrying from the kitchen. Still wiping her hands on a dish towel, she crossed over to the open door. Upon seeing Anita’s face she turned to Ethan. “Where on earth are you manners?” she asked. She then turned back to Anita. “I apologize for my grandson’s manners. Please come in.”

Anita followed Olivia into the living room. When she glanced across and saw the people crowded around the table, she gave a rather pitiful sigh. “I’m sorry if I’ve come at a bad time but there’s something I’ve got to get off my chest, and it can’t wait any longer.”

Olivia grew nervous as to what Anita might have to say. If she was ready to let go of the kids, she’d be smiling. It would be a burden lifted from her shoulders, two less things to tie her down and keep her from the life she was living. Olivia’s thoughts flashed back to the memory of Jubilee crying because she didn’t want to live with Aunt Anita.

Not ready to hear Anita had decided to reclaim the children, Olivia sputtered something about how decisions should never be made on an empty stomach. “We were just about to have cake and coffee. Please join us.”

Anita glanced at the crowd warily. “I don’t know. What I’ve got to say is rather personal.”

Sidney stood and walked over to Anita. “We’re almost family,” he said and clamped a well-intentioned arm around her shoulder. “So come on over here and get yourself a piece of cake.” He looped his arm through Anita’s and pulled her to the table.

Although she allowed herself to be moved along, Anita did not look happy. She had the pained expression of a woman with kidney stones.