Invisible(24)

    He filled Antonia in, writing all their names on a napkin on the flight to San Francisco, and a diagram to show who was related to whom. “Eloise’s boyfriend is John, from Hong Kong. Don’t try to remember all the names. I can barely remember them myself. My parents got divorced when I was three, so I don’t remember a time when they were together. I’ve lived with that insanity all my life, at our house anyway. I was thirteen when my father married Genevieve. I thought she was great looking before, but she’s a work in progress. My mother says it’s a disease. She should have married a plastic surgeon, but my dad thinks she’s great. They’re thinking of having another baby by surrogacy, using my dad’s sperm this time, so that would be more half-brothers or sisters if they do.”

They took a cab from the airport, which Antonia paid for, since she was staying at his house for the next ten days. They were going back to New York on New Year’s Day, after spending New Year’s Eve with his high school friends, whom she was eager to meet.

    He mentioned that his mother had canceled her patients for the afternoon so she could be at the house when they got home. It was a half-hour ride from the airport, and the car stopped in front of a large, sprawling Victorian house that occupied two whole lots, and Jake explained it was a historical landmark his parents had restored. They needed every inch of it now when the family got together, although his father and Genevieve and the twins didn’t actually stay there, but they spent all holidays with them, and always had, so the children didn’t have to be separated. Ian had always been fine with it. He and Bob were good friends. He said his mother, Lea, had had Eloise when she was in medical school herself, and Bob had been a junior sports reporter in L.A. They had moved to San Francisco so Lea could do her residency in psychiatry at UCSF, and they had decided to stay. His father had gotten a job at the local paper, and had worked his way up to publisher.

The house had a dignified beauty to it, like a grande dame. They made their way up the front stairs on Clay Street in Pacific Heights. It was clearly one of the nicer residential neighborhoods, and as they opened the front door, they could smell cookies baking. His mother came out of the kitchen to greet them at the front door in an apron, with a small smear of chocolate on her face, and bright red hair. She put her arms around Jake and hugged him, obviously thrilled to see him. Then he introduced her to Antonia, who felt instantly shy in a strange house, about to be surrounded by people she didn’t know. But his mother hugged her just as exuberantly, and told them to come to the kitchen for a cookie before they went upstairs.

    The kitchen was huge with a big round table in a bay window. It was filled with sunlight and good smells.

“Don’t let this domestic scene fool you, my mother only bakes cookies and brownies, and can only cook eggs. We have caterers for holidays, and we all learned to cook for ourselves.” But the cookies smelled delicious, and they helped themselves to one, while she put the pans in the sink and smiled at her son with pleasure.

“I put the boys in together,” she told him. “Antonia can have Seth’s room. There are clean sheets on the bed, and she’ll have her own bathroom that way.” There were six bedrooms, one for Lea and Ian, one for each of the four children, and the sixth bedroom, on the top floor, was where Ian wrote. It had a spectacular view of the bay, and they’d had it soundproofed for him. Antonia had never read any of his crime novels, but she had heard of him.

Lea said he was upstairs working, but he had promised to finish by dinnertime, and take a break for the next week. She smiled warmly at Antonia, and told them to help themselves to whatever they wanted in the fridge, but they had eaten enough on the plane on the six-hour flight.

“Where are the boys?” Jake asked with trepidation. They were like an explosion of arms, legs, and sports paraphernalia the moment they walked into the house.

“Seth is at soccer practice, and Jamie’s at a friend’s house. They’ll be home at five, so we’ll have peace until then. Eloise and John won’t be here till Christmas Eve. She’s on duty till then.” It all seemed very civilized to Antonia, and cozy and warm. A few minutes later, Jake took her to her room, which was neater than usual, but filled with trophies, and autographed photos of sports figures, most of them from local teams. Her room was two doors down from Jake’s with a bathroom in between. He showed her around upstairs, and the view of the bay from his parents’ room. Everywhere she looked were warm, cozy rooms and inviting spaces. The house appeared well filled and well used.

    She put her clothes in the closet on the hangers they’d left for her. When she visited him, Jake’s room was only slightly more grown up and less cluttered than Seth’s. His older sister still had a room at home too, that was very girly with flowered chintzes and matching wallpaper in dusty pink. Antonia noticed that there was no office equipment in it, although she had left home years before to attend college and medical school. Everyone had their own spaces, the same rooms they had grown up in. It was a house set up for children and the people who lived there, no matter how seldom they came home. The difference with her home struck her immediately.

They took a walk down Sacramento Street, and saw the shops decorated for Christmas. It was a real neighborhood with large comfortable homes. There were children playing in a park across the street. It looked like a wonderful place to grow up, unlike the fast-paced urban life of New York, with cars honking and traffic rushing by. There was no traffic here. All the offices and the financial district were downtown. There were no skyscrapers, and you could see the sky. It felt like a sleepy little city.