Finding Isadora(40)

My parents’ apartment was just a couple of miles from mine, so I snapped my fingers at Pogo. “Want to go see my folks?” Grace and Jimmy Lee’s cats wouldn’t be impressed, but Pogo would love the walk and was usually happy to doze on an old blanket in the kitchen.

I packaged up some of my freshly made squares and Pogo and I were off. We walked down to the seawall, then along the paved path onto the Burrard Bridge. The bridge afforded a fantastic view, and we stopped at the mid-point to watch a sailboat put out to sea, kayakers in brightly colored life jackets, and a couple of teams of dragon boat rowers getting in their practice.

Over the bridge, we shunned the sidewalks and hiked along by the ocean, through Vanier Park, past the kite flyers, and down to Kits Beach where the fine weather had brought sunbathers out en masse. There was nothing like the rear view of a chubby man in an orange thong bikini. Much more appealing were the fit young people playing beach volleyball. Assessing them with a keen eye, I thought Richard’s physique would have stood up quite nicely, even in this athletic company.

Fit and attractive, yes. So why didn’t I find him hot? Well, I didn’t find any of the volleyball players hot either. In fact, in my life, the only person I’d ever thought was hot was Gabriel.

I shoved that troubling perception out of my mind and tugged Pogo away from the beachside park and up into Kitsilano. At a Korean grocery I stopped to buy kim chee, the pickled vegetables my family loved. Huge, bright oranges attracted my eye and I tossed a half dozen of the heaviest into a bag.

Grace and Jimmy Lee’s apartment building stood in a block of mostly similar ones. Built in the fifties or sixties, each was a simple rectangular box four or five stories high. My parents’ had a tacky blue-green fa?ade, small rooms, and a tiny balcony per apartment. They’d chosen it because the rent was cheap and they liked the neighborhood. I was afraid the building—the entire block—would soon be demolished in favor of expensive townhouses or condos, but when I mentioned the possibility to my parents they merely shrugged and said they’d cross that bridge when they came to it.

They were fatalists and I was a planner. Sometimes it really was difficult to believe I was their child, but Grace wouldn’t lie to me.

I used my key to open the front door of the building, then Pogo and I took the painfully slow elevator to the third floor, where I knocked on the door of the apartment. Time and again my parents had told me to walk right in, but after twice catching them naked together, I now stuck with the formality of knocking and waiting for someone to call “come in.”

Today it was Jimmy Lee’s voice. Juggling groceries and leash, I let myself in. Grace was just hanging up the phone and said, “Leave the door open, hon.”

“But the cats will get out.”

“Gabriel’s right behind you.”

I jumped like a startled doe, and spun around. Grace laughed. “I mean, that was him downstairs. He’s on his way up.”

Gabriel. I’d come to my parents for peace and instead they were giving me the person most designed to disturb me. Feeling betrayed, I grumbled, “What’s he doing here?”

She studied me, her eyes narrowed. “What’s up with the two of you?”

“What?” My voice squeaked. “What do you mean? Nothing’s up.”

“There’s a weird vibe between you. A tension, energy, it’s—”

Before she could speculate further, I jumped in, knowing my cheeks were flushed by now. “He and Richard aren’t on the best of terms. It makes things awkward.”

“Hmm.” Before she could go on, a timer went off in the kitchen and she hurried away.

I breathed a sigh of relief, then squared my shoulders as I turned to my father. Was he going to pick up where Grace had left off? To distract him, I thrust the groceries into his arms, saying, “I got kim chee.”

“Great. Thanks, Izzie.” He gave me a hug, his beard tickling my cheek. “You were asking why Gabe’s here. We gotta talk about the case.”

And they couldn’t do that at Gabriel’s office, like normal people? “Then I should go.”

“Don’t be silly. You should hear what’s going on.”

I did want to know. And my thumping heart told me that, for some reason that didn’t bear thinking about, I wanted to see Gabriel. A quick glance downward confirmed that today I was respectably covered, and even wearing a bra.

“Let me take those into the kitchen and get Pogo settled.” I grabbed the bags back from Jimmy Lee and scuttled into the kitchen, hoping to get myself under control before I faced Richard’s father.

Grace was pulling a couple of loaves of multigrain bread, studded with nuts and seeds, out of the oven. “Did I hear you say kim chee?” she asked over her shoulder.

“And oranges and squares.”

“Terrific. That’ll round things out nicely. Jimmy Lee made this bread and I’m going to grill vegetables.” She dumped the bread onto a rack and turned to me. “Everything’s all right? With you and Richard and Gabriel?”

“Of course. Just, you know, a little awkward. So, you invited Gabriel for lunch?”

“Sure. Work’s always more pleasant over food.”

Though my parents never had money to spare, they’d always been generous about feeding people. They believed just about anything went better with food. “But you can’t discuss the case with Gabriel while Alyssa’s here.” I found Pogo’s old blanket in the bottom of a cupboard and spread it for him, settling him in the least busy corner of the small kitchen. “Where is she anyhow? I’m dying to meet her.”