The Silent Sister(65)
There were, however, two guitars and a mandolin resting in cases against one of the living room walls.
“Who plays?” she asked, standing in the middle of the room.
“Both of us,” Celia said. “The mandolin’s mine. I brought it down with me from Portland. I’m not that great on the guitar, but Grandpop is. How about you?”
“I can play a little mandolin,” she said. “Though it’s been forever.”
“We should have told you to bring your violin over,” Charlie said.
It was just as well they hadn’t. She wasn’t sure she’d have been able to resist.
* * *
They ate pasta primavera on Franciscan Ware Apple–patterned plates that were exactly like the ones Jade had grown up with, but she said nothing about that because the girl who grew up using those plates had to be dead to her. Still it was eerie, eating off them.
They told her all about Celia’s family while they ate. She’d grown up in San Diego until she was fourteen, when her father was transferred to Portland, and she finished high school there. She had a brother, Shane, who lived a few hours away in Seattle and they were a close-knit, music-loving family.
“They were kind of shocked when I came out,” Celia said easily, as though she knew it would be no surprise to Jade, and it wasn’t. The Indigo Girls T-shirt. The Robin Flower record. And yet, the way Jade had felt standing next to her in Grady’s—that had been a surprise, and she wasn’t sure what to make of her feelings. She found it hard to look at Celia across the table without feeling that telltale heat rising up her throat to her cheeks again.
“Were they okay with it?” Jade asked. “With you … coming out?”
“Not right away. They thought it was a phase.” She laughed.
“I knew it wasn’t a phase,” Charlie said to her. “I told them they’d better just accept it or lose you.”
“Grandpop likes to think he saved the day, but they would have come around.”
“I saved the day,” Charlie said with certainty, as though he had some insider knowledge about what had gone on.
“They came around pretty quickly, whether it was anything Grandpop said or not,” Celia said. “I think they were just worried they’d never get any grandkids from me.”
They asked Jade about her family, and she ached as she lied. She ached because she loved Charlie and she had the feeling she could easily love Celia and every member of her family just from hearing about them, and everything she was telling them was total fiction. She told them how she’d needed to escape from her terrible parents, and the lie felt simply awful. She wished she could tell them about Riley. About Danny. But the truth was, she no longer knew much about her family. She didn’t even know where they lived. Charlie and Celia looked at her with so much sympathy. How could they even relate to the lack of support she’d described? Did they think it was her fault for not working it out? She didn’t like her false self any better than she did her real self, and that made her very sad. She wanted to tell them how her parents had loved her in spite of her mistakes. How good they were. Instead she turned them into an evil couple bent on ruining her life.
“I’d love to hear you two play,” she said, nodding toward the living room and the instruments as she tried to get the focus off herself.
“Good idea,” Celia said, pushing back from the table. “Let’s clean up and make some music.”
Jade helped Celia in the tiny kitchen while Charlie put the Robin Flower record on his stereo. He had top-of-the-line equipment, which didn’t surprise her, given his love of music. Working in the kitchen, she felt Celia’s arm brush against hers more than was absolutely necessary. Yes, it was a tiny space, but they still seemed to find themselves next to each other more than was needed to wash and dry. And Jade loved it, the touching. She loved it so much that she was disappointed when the dishes were done and the counter clean.
When they joined Charlie in the living room, he was sitting on his futon, taking one of the guitars out of its case. Celia turned off the stereo and looked at Jade. “Why don’t you play my mandolin,” she said, “and I’ll just mess around on the other guitar?”
Jade shook her head. “No, that’s okay,” she said. “I’d love to hear you two play together.”
Celia sat on the other end of the futon from her grandfather as they lit into “Roll in My Sweet Baby’s Arms” on the guitar and mandolin. Jade sat on a nearby chair, grinning. They were brilliant together! They played a bunch of traditional tunes Jade didn’t know, and then a few familiar old Beatles songs.
She listened to them play awhile longer and she clapped and even sang along for a bit … and then she reached the point where she couldn’t take it anymore. She suddenly got to her feet and they looked up in surprise.
“I have to get my violin,” she announced.
“All right!” Celia said.
“Go with her,” Charlie said to Celia. “Too dark to be out there alone.”
It wasn’t really too dark to be alone. Oh, there were parts of Ocean Beach Jade wouldn’t want to be in alone at night, but the three blocks between Charlie’s bungalow and her cottage were perfectly safe. Still, she wouldn’t turn down more time with Celia.
They walked quietly for a while before Celia spoke. “It took real courage to leave your family like that when you were only eighteen,” she said after they’d walked a block. “Do you ever hear from them?”