The Two-Family House(45)

When she saw Teddy and Natalie, Aunt Rose stopped pacing in front of the stove. “Will you eat something?” she asked him. Teddy nodded and took a seat at the table. “Natalie said she brought cookies.”

“You have to eat some dinner first. Then you can have cookies for dessert.” Aunt Rose didn’t bother asking Natalie if she wanted anything. Natalie was used to being ignored by her aunt, but she thought this time it might be different. After all, wasn’t she the one who got Teddy to unlock his door and come out of his room? Shouldn’t that be good enough to earn a smile or at least a hello? Apparently not—Aunt Rose still wouldn’t glance her way. Natalie wondered if she’d be offered a cookie after Teddy finished eating. She hoped so.

After a few moments of silence, Natalie’s father coughed. “Now that everyone’s calmed down, let’s figure out what we can do so this doesn’t happen again.” Natalie didn’t see the need for a long discussion. She got right to the point. “Can Teddy come over tomorrow?” She had taken a seat between Teddy and Uncle Mort, and directed the question to her uncle. He looked over at Aunt Rose, who looked away. Uncle Mort cleared his throat to get her attention, but Aunt Rose ignored him and busied herself with the reheating of Teddy’s dinner. Natalie couldn’t understand why she was being so rude. Or why Uncle Mort needed her approval before he answered. None of the grown-ups said anything, so Natalie decided to ask again. “Can Teddy come over tomorrow?”

“That’s fine by me,” Abe answered this time. “How about you, Morty?” Uncle Mort looked at Aunt Rose again, but she refused to make eye contact. “Yes,” he answered. “He can come to your house tomorrow.”

“Can Natalie come here the day after?” Teddy wanted to know. Aunt Rose put a full plate in front of Teddy. He looked at the food and then looked at Natalie. Before he picked up the fork, he asked again, “Can she?”

Aunt Rose clenched her teeth. “Fine,” she managed to say. “But school starts for your sisters next week and you can’t play with each other every day then. I’ll be too busy.” Natalie felt Teddy kicking her under the table. “But we don’t want to stop going to each other’s houses after school starts,” she said.

“Yes!” Teddy echoed. He looked at the plate and pushed it a few inches away, toward the center of the table. Then he looked up at his mother.

Aunt Rose was staring at the plate. “Maybe you can play once a week,” she conceded.

Teddy pushed the plate a little farther away. “How about I go to Nat’s once a week and she comes here once a week?”

Natalie’s father and her uncle, along with Natalie and Teddy, were all turned to Aunt Rose. She threw her hands in the air, exasperated. “Fine!” she said. “Just eat something, will you?”

Teddy pulled the plate closer and began to shovel forkfuls of chicken and potatoes into his mouth.

“You can go to Natalie’s house on Tuesdays,” Aunt Rose pronounced. “That’s the day I do my grocery shopping. Natalie can come here Thursdays.” For the first time all evening she looked directly at Natalie. “Thursday is meat loaf day,” Aunt Rose warned. Natalie sensed the threat in her aunt’s tone, but she was too excited about the prospect of seeing Teddy to care. “Meat loaf is my favorite!”

“Then everything’s settled.” Natalie’s father stood up. “It’s late,” he said, “and I think we all need to get some sleep. Are we good here?”

“Great!” Teddy said, his mouth full of chicken. Natalie nodded in agreement and got up out of her chair. She wanted to ask for a cookie, but it was more important to leave before Aunt Rose changed her mind.





Chapter 34





NATALIE


(September 1956)

Natalie’s favorite day of the week was Thursday. Most of the kids in her third-grade class liked Friday best. The teacher was easier on them and more likely to forgive them if they forgot their homework or fooled around. If you forgot homework on any other day, Miss Murray would take out her red pen and mark you ten points off in her grade book. But if you forgot homework on Friday, Miss Murray would just tell you to bring it in on Monday.

Friday was also kickball day at recess, which most of the kids loved. The boys would line up to pick teams and the girls would stand on the side of the field and cheer. Natalie hated cheering and she didn’t like watching the boys, mostly because Teddy was always the last one picked for teams. She knew the other boys wouldn’t tease him (she had put an end to that in first grade when she punched Jerry Adler in the nose for calling Teddy a “scrawny weirdo”), but she couldn’t force them to choose him. Besides, if she punched Jerry again, the principal would call her mother to pick her up, and Natalie worried that her mother wouldn’t be as forgiving the second time.

“What did you do to that boy?” her mother had asked on the way home that day. “Did you know his nose might be broken? Even your mashugana brothers never broke anyone’s nose.”

Natalie didn’t respond.

“Honestly, what got into you?”

“He’s a jerk,” she answered.

“What makes him such a jerk?”

“He was teasing Teddy.”

“So you punched him to make him stop?”