The Two-Family House(56)

Judith looked over at her mother and father. Pale and silent, they stood at least four feet apart from each other. Each was lost in a place of personal grief, and Judith wondered if either of them would ever be able to console the other.

In a few moments, the rabbi cleared his throat and announced that it was time to begin. Obediently, they followed him out of the chapel and into the main room for the service.





Chapter 42





NATALIE


Natalie threw up on the way to Teddy’s house from the cemetery. She asked her father to pull over first, and she managed to avoid her clothes, so it wasn’t as bad as it might have been. Mostly she was relieved she hadn’t vomited at the cemetery because she thought that would have been disrespectful.

Back at Teddy’s house there were crowds of people she didn’t recognize. She looked for a drink to take away the bad taste in her mouth, but all she could find in the dining room was wine and a large urn of coffee, so she wandered into the kitchen to find a glass of juice. Mimi and Dinah were in the kitchen too, sneaking cookies from one of the dessert platters, while Mimi’s friend Josie rearranged the leftovers to make them look like nothing had been touched. Josie was the chubby, freckle-faced girl who lived next door. Her navy dress was well made but too tight, with buttons that pulled around her waist. Like Mimi, Josie was sixteen, but with none of Mimi’s easy beauty. She tended to follow Mimi around, hoping some of her glamour would rub off. It didn’t.

“Want a cookie?” Dinah asked Natalie. But Natalie couldn’t eat. She shook her head. “Do you have any juice? They only put out wine and coffee.”

Dinah opened the refrigerator and took out the orange juice. She handed Natalie a glass from the cabinet.

“Thanks,” Natalie told her.

Mimi said something to Josie then about sneaking a glass of wine, but Josie said they might get in trouble, so Mimi just sighed and sat down at the kitchen table. The other girls sat down with her.

“This is so sad,” Mimi said, looking up at the ceiling.

“So sad,” Josie echoed, with too much enthusiasm.

“The rabbi said it was a tragedy.”

“An awful tragedy.”

“Jeez, Jo! Would you stop repeating everything I say?”

“Sorry,” Josie mumbled, reaching for another cookie. Mimi gave her a dirty look, and Natalie felt sorry for her. “Do people usually call you Jo?”

The girl seemed surprised Natalie had noticed her. “No, mostly just Josie. Short for Josephine.”

“I figured,” Natalie told her. “Like in Little Women.”

“Yes.” Her face brightened.

“I remember that book,” Mimi interjected. “The really poor family with the four girls. And then one of them died. If Teddy was a girl, that would have been exactly the same as us.”

“Not exactly,” Dinah said. “In the book Beth dies, but she isn’t the youngest.”

Mimi was annoyed. “The point is there are four children and one of them dies. It doesn’t matter which one.”

“That’s true,” Josie was quick to agree.

Mimi went on, “If I were one of the sisters in that book I’d be Amy. She’s beautiful and she gets to go on a trip to Europe. She’s an artist, like me. And she marries the really rich boy from across the street.”

Dinah chimed in, “I’d be Meg.”

“Who cares?” Mimi rolled her eyes and sulked. “This is so boring. I can’t believe we have to do this for a whole week. Dad covered up all the mirrors in the house and this morning Judith started yelling at me just because I lifted the cloth up a tiny bit to check my face.”

Josie was Catholic and had never heard of the custom. “Why do you cover the mirrors?”

Mimi was busy examining her nails, so Natalie tried to give an explanation. “When someone close to you dies, you’re not supposed to care about what you look like. So we cover up the mirrors.”

“Oh,” said Josie. “That makes sense.”

“It’s stupid,” Mimi snapped. “And even if it isn’t, Judith still didn’t have to be so mean about it. Just because she doesn’t care what she looks like doesn’t mean the rest of us have to go around looking hideous.”

Natalie thought Judith was pretty, but she didn’t want to say so and start something unpleasant with Mimi. “Thanks for the juice,” she said. “I’m going to go find my mom now.” She put her glass in the sink and went looking for her mother in the living room.

Natalie’s mother hadn’t said one word on the way over to Teddy’s house. Natalie knew she was upset, so she wanted to check on her. Her mother was the only one who truly understood how important Teddy was to her, who knew that he wasn’t just a cousin or a friend. Her mother thought Teddy was special too. She knew it.

The living room in Teddy’s house was large but dull. It was decorated in monochromatic shades of beige and none of the couches or chairs was comfortable. Over the years Natalie had tried sitting in every spot, so she knew from experience just how uncomfortable all of them were. Once she and Teddy had gone from chair to chair and couch to couch like Goldilocks in the Three Bears’ parlor. “This one is too soft,” she would say after sitting on one. “And this one is too hard,” Teddy would rumble after resting on another. But there wasn’t a single place that was “just right” in the whole room.