The Calculating Stars (Lady Astronaut, #1)(94)

As appealing as the martini bar was, after surviving five days of testing, it was probably not a good plan to drink before meeting Aunt Esther. Maybe after that I would have all the martinis they could make.

We made our way through the lobby and back to the restaurant attached to the rear of the hotel. It was intimate, with pretensions of elegance. When we’d been here before, the food had been solid, if uninspired.

The ma ?tre d’ glided forward to meet us, menus in hand. “Two this evening?”

Across the room, Hershel leaned out from a booth and waved.

Nathaniel shook his head. “No, thank you. We’re meeting someone.”

He may have said other things, but I was already past him and hurrying between the rows of tables. Hershel had grabbed his crutches and was pushing up to his feet as I got close. He’d brought Tommy with him, and he looked every inch the young man. He wore his dinner jacket from the bar mitzvah and had his hair slicked down with Brylcreem.

Hershel braced himself on one crutch and held out an arm for an embrace. I hugged him, suddenly shy about greeting the poof of white hair I’d passed. He gave me a good solid squeeze and murmured. “You look beat.”

“Good to see you too.” I thumped his back before releasing him and facing my aunt.

She beamed up at me with the strong Wexler stamp from my father’s side of the family. I don’t know why Aunt Esther never married, but she had a sort of kittenish charm, even over ninety. Her white curls had been pinned into place in a style held over from the 1880s. There was powder caught in the wrinkles on her cheeks, but her eyes were as bright as ever.

She held out both hands to me. “Anselma! Let me look at you.”

“Only if I get to look back.” I sank onto the seat beside her, hoping that Tommy would forgive me for not hugging him yet. “You haven’t changed a bit.”

“Once you hit a certain age, it’s hard to look older.” She reached up to pinch my cheek. “They aren’t feeding you enough at that school of yours.”

“School?” I shot a glance over to Hershel, who was just shaking hands with Nathaniel.

“The tests you were doing.” Hershel put a hand on the back of the booth and lowered himself to sit next to Tommy.

“Oh. That’s not school, really. I’m applying to be an astronaut.”

Tommy perked up at that. “That is just the keenest thing. What was it like? Did you meet Stetson Parker? How do you get tested? And Dad said we’re going to see a rocket launch while we’re here.”

“I’m not sure which question to answer first.”

Aunt Esther had a hand cupped around her ear. “What did he say?”

“He asked how the astronaut testing went.”

She frowned, cocking her head to the side like a bird. “Well, now, that’s what I thought he said. But I have to confess I’m not real clear on what an astronaut is. I keep hearing it on the news, but it just sounds like some sort of story.”

“Um … an astronaut is someone who goes into outer space.”

“Well, that’s the silliest thing I ever heard of. Why would anyone want to do that?”

I’d spent the day trying to explain that to a series of shrinks who seemed determined to ask many of the same questions that Clemons and the gang had. Defending the desire to an aunt I’d just rediscovered lay beyond my abilities. “Let’s just say that I’m sort of applying for a new job.”

She shook her head and said something in Yiddish, but too quickly for me to catch. I’d never really spoken Yiddish, since my parents hadn’t. I used to love listening to Aunt Esther and Grandma and the other aunts kvetch, though. I put my hand on her papery thin one. “Sorry? Can you repeat that in English?”

“Why are you working?” She gave Nathaniel a meaningful look. “Why is your wife working?”

“She likes it, and I try to make sure she has what she likes.” Nathaniel winked at Aunt Esther as he settled on the bench next to Hershel. “You want me to make sure your niece is happy, right?”

“She’s just like her father. And her grandmother.” She pinched my cheek again and I began to see why Tommy was sitting next to his father. I’d forgotten this aspect of Aunt Esther. She was the baby of the aunts, which is a funny term to apply to someone who was over ninety. “I would be dead, were it not for Rose.”

I cleared the tears from my throat. “How did y’all get out?”

She laughed a little and clapped her hands. “We went to church.”

Glancing at Hershel, I raised my eyebrows questioningly, but he shrugged. “Aunt Esther, I thought you said that you drove out of Charleston.”

“Oh … oh. Yes. Later, that’s what we did, but first Rose took us to the church in town—you remember the one with the big steeple? It’s the first time I set foot in a Christian church, but, Rose, she said we had to, and so we climbed all the way up to the top of the bell tower. I’ve never seen so many steps in my life.”

The church with the big steeple … I had no idea which one she was talking about. We’d moved around so much when I was a kid that my knowledge of Charleston was limited to how to get from Grandma’s house to my cousins’, and the synagogue, cemetery, and grocery store. The priorities were clear, at least.