Florence Adler Swims Forever(102)

“Do you want us to wait with you or take Gussie home?”

“Certainly, you should take her home,” she said. Then, as if she realized that she wouldn’t be able to order Anna around forever, she added, “Thank you.”

“You’ll stay?” Anna asked.

“Just until I know everything went all right.” Esther’s voice dipped, and Anna watched as Joseph reached behind his wife, rubbing his hand along her back. She was surprised to see Esther fold into the crook of his arm, as if the past several days had laid her bare.

“Gus, give your grandparents a hug and a kiss,” said Anna. “You’ll see them in the morning.”

“Mrs. Adler?” said a deep voice from across the room. “Mr. Adler?” Anna looked up to find Fannie’s doctor descending the stairs into the lobby.

Esther and Joseph stood to greet him, and Anna glanced at Stuart, who seemed every bit as curious to hear what he had to say as she was.

“You have a granddaughter.”

Esther swayed, and Anna worried for a moment that she’d fall over. But Joseph was there, beside her, steadying her as she asked in a quiet voice, “Everyone’s all right?”

“Better than all right,” said Dr. Rosenthal. “Beautiful.”

Esther’s bottom lip quivered, and she sat down in her chair, hard. “She’s fine? The baby, too?”

“Yes, perfectly fine.”

Anna’s eyes watered as she watched Esther let out a choking sob. It was as if, with this news, she were finally allowing herself to feel the full weight of her grief. Joseph bent low, grabbed his wife’s hand, and kissed it, his own tears absorbing into the creases of her skin. “Bubala, you did it,” he whispered. She buried her face in his shoulder. Esther had lost one daughter this summer but she would not lose a second.

Gussie wrapped herself around Anna’s arm. “It’s a girl?”

Anna looked Gussie squarely in the eyes. “You have a sister.”

“She’s named her Ruby,” said the doctor, quietly.

Could Esther hear him over her own sobs? Anna could, barely, and at the sound of such an unfamiliar name, her heart lurched.

In ordinary circumstances, Fannie would have named this baby for Florence. It’s what Jews did. They named their children for the dead, never the living.

Esther raised her head from Joseph’s shoulder. “Ruby,” she repeated quietly to herself.

Calling the baby Ruby—and not Florence—would be a kind of penance, a reminder that the child’s life had begun with a lie.

“It’s a beautiful name,” said Anna, for Esther’s benefit.



* * *



By the time their party emerged from the hospital, the sky over Atlantic City had turned a velvet blue, its edges singed with the glow of the Boardwalk’s carnival rides and blinking marquees. The family moved in the direction of the apartment, and if anyone wondered at Stuart walking a half-dozen blocks out of his way to accompany them home, no one said anything. Not even Esther.

Esther seemed positively buoyant. And why shouldn’t she be? Her plan had worked. Fannie was safe. The baby healthy. Esther held one of Gussie’s hands, and Joseph held the other. Together, they swung their granddaughter into the air as they paraded down Atlantic Avenue. If either one of them were thinking about what the next day would bring—the conversation that would have to take place—it wasn’t obvious to Anna. Even Gussie seemed to be in good spirits.

While Anna was extremely grateful for Ruby’s safe arrival, she reminded herself that the baby’s birth didn’t actually change much of anything for her. Fannie would likely recuperate in the hospital for another week or so. By the time she was discharged and Gussie was returned to her, Joseph and Esther would be back in their house on Atlantic Avenue and Anna would be living in a boardinghouse in Trenton, still an ocean away from her parents but with little hope of seeing Stuart again. She doubted she’d be invited back to stay with the Adlers the following summer—not if Esther had anything to do with it—and she wondered if Gussie would miss her.

Anna glanced at Stuart. When the summer ended, would he resume coaching the Ambassadors? She assumed so. Would he think about her after she left for college? Likely not for long. She wished for one last swimming lesson, the chance to have him to herself in the clear, blue water of The Covington’s pool. She wanted to thank him for helping her find Gussie and to apologize for being so forthright on the beach the other night. It wasn’t his job to solve her problems. He’d already been abundantly kind.

As they neared the apartment, Joseph reached into his pocket and removed his keys.

“Anna, could I speak to you for a moment?” Stuart asked as they watched Joseph fit the key into the lock. Anna turned to look at him, gave him a nod so imperceptible that she was sure he had missed it entirely.

“Mr. and Mrs. Adler,” Stuart said, without taking his eyes off her face, “do you mind if I borrow Anna? I’ll bring her back very soon.”

Anna was too embarrassed to make eye contact with either Joseph or Esther. What must they think? Instead she let her eyes rest on Gussie’s face, which was lit up as bright as the Sherwin-Williams sign on Million Dollar Pier. COVER THE EARTH it read in bright lights. A nice sentiment, Anna had always thought. Gussie clapped her hands together several times before Stuart made a neck-chopping motion at her and she abruptly stopped. “I forgot!” she whispered.