Perfect Little World(106)
Dr. Grind thought for a second, debating something, and Izzy tensed, waiting for whatever he said next.
“With Jody, who was such a beautiful boy, so sweet and open to the world, I gave him everything that he wanted, even before he knew that he wanted it. I know part of it was because of my own upbringing, and I didn’t want him to ever feel the lack of something, but I spoiled him, we both did. Even when my own research and my work with children said otherwise, preached limits, I couldn’t do the same with my own son. And he was wonderful. He turned out to be a perfectly well-adjusted child.” Dr. Grind pulled up short, obviously recognizing the fact that Jody was no longer alive and was forever that child Dr. Grind remembered. Izzy let him contemplate the loss.
“So maybe I just did the same for these children, knowing it would be okay,” he said, wincing in a way that mixed happiness and sadness, a look that Izzy understood well.
“Still,” Dr. Grind continued, “the outcomes of the experiment were a sore spot for us. So today we gathered the children and we performed the test again.” He paused, looked over at Izzy, who smiled.
“How did they do this time?” she asked.
Dr. Grind smiled, but there was little emotion behind it. Izzy could sense that he had started this conversation because he needed to talk about it, but he had wanted to talk to Jill, not one of the parents. But Izzy was the only one here, and so he continued.
“They were able to wait the full time. Every child easily waited in order to get the second marshmallow.”
“Well, that’s great,” Izzy said. “It’s progress.”
Dr. Grind paused for a moment and then said, “When we gave them the second marshmallow, to go with the one already on the plate, I noticed that a few of the kids didn’t eat either marshmallow. So I asked them why, and they said that they wanted to hang on to them. That, since they were leaving the complex soon, they wanted to save everything for when they might really need it.”
“Was Cap one of those kids?” she asked him.
“He was,” he replied.
Izzy kept herself from crying by sheer force of will; she reminded herself that this was her kitchen, her space, and no one else had more power in here than she did.
“He’s losing so much,” she admitted to Dr. Grind. “I guess I understand his thinking.”
“I suppose I do, too,” Dr. Grind said. They stood in silence, and then, just before Izzy once again made a fool of herself, Dr. Grind nodded and then walked out of the kitchen.
The week before Christmas Eve, Carmen had visited Izzy with some real estate options printed out from the computer. She seemed to be vibrating with excitement, which was a marked difference from the atmosphere in the complex. “I’ve got something good,” she said, opening Izzy’s cabinets. “Do you have any booze?” she asked, and Izzy produced a bottle of vodka and they made screwdrivers and Carmen laid out the pages on the coffee table.
“There are two houses for sale,” Carmen said, “right across the street from each other. They need some work, but they’re in a good neighborhood and they’re affordable, which is rare in East Nashville right now.”
“Okay,” Izzy said. “Are you going to buy one?”
“I talked to Kenny about it. We’ve got the money to do it. We’re buying this one,” she said, pointing to a cute one-story house with a nice yard. “And,” she said, smiling as she pointed to the other house, a two-story cottage, “we think you should buy this one.”
“Really?” Izzy said.
“Wouldn’t it be perfect?” Carmen said. “We’d stay together. At least a small part of the family.”
“I’d love that,” Izzy said.
“I think of you as family,” Carmen said. “I want us to stay close. Maxwell and Cap, they’re closer to each other than actual brothers. I cannot imagine a world where Maxwell doesn’t see Cap every single day.”
“You’ve looked out for me the whole time we’ve been here,” Izzy said.
“Yeah, but that’s nothing special,” Carmen said. “Family, right?”
“I didn’t think so before this place,” Izzy said.
“That’s why we’re here,” Carmen said, and both Izzy and Carmen realized that in less than two weeks the entire complex would be empty.
Once the tree was decorated, Izzy returned to the kitchen and made a batch of eggnog and started to bake the cookies that the children had cut into festive shapes earlier that evening. By now the children had wrapped the popcorn strings around the tree and were checking over the presents, identifying the recipient of each package. Now that it was almost nine o’clock, the remaining parents, as well as Jill, began to wander into the dining hall, ready for their last enactment of the complex’s Christmas tradition. As the clock rolled over to nine o’clock, the kids perked up at the sound of jingle bells coming from the hallway. They ran to the door just in time to meet Dr. Grind, dressed as Santa Claus, weighed down with a sack of presents. Izzy brought out the cookies and eggnog, spiked with even more rum than usual, and watched as each child waited for their turn on Santa’s lap to receive their one gift on Christmas Eve, a special treat to hold them over until the morning. The parents sipped from their cups and used their phones to take pictures as each child stepped up to Dr. Grind, the festivity of the situation finally easing some of the tension in their bodies.