Destined (42 page)

She stared at the sky and raised her
hands, framing the moon in a square between her fingers. “They’d say, what’s
she dreaming up for us to eat tomorrow?”

“What are you dreaming up, Laurie?”

“Roast pork with apples, and
happily-ever-after pie,” she said, making a star of her fingers and squinting.

“That sounds good, what is it?”

“Oh, bees’ dreams and hummingbird
kisses, babies’ laughter and sweet, sweet love,” she said, rolling over to look
at me. “You want a piece of that?”

“Reserve me a whole pie, please.”

“You’ve got it, sweetie!” she said,
and put out her hand. I clasped it in mine and we shook, sealing the bargain. “I’ll
be sure to put your name right on top.”

“Thanks, Laurie,” I said.

The next day around lunch time one of
the boys who worked for Laurie and John came into the shop with a pastry box in
his hands. I took it from him and opened it. Inside was a fresh peach pie with
EMILY spelled out in rolled piecrust across the top. I put it on the counter at
the back of the store, impressed by the amount of effort she had invested.

Toward the end of the afternoon, it
happened just like I knew it would. I was standing in the doorway looking out
into the street, where a little breeze had picked up the fallen leaves and was
spinning them around in circles. Mr. Sorrentino was sweeping out in front of
his store and I had just been over there chatting with him. I turned to look
down the street past the medical building and there they were, Tony and the
woman, walking toward me down the sidewalk. I smiled and waved. Tony saw me and
he raised his arm from around the woman’s shoulders and waved back, smiling
broadly. She smiled too, saying something to him. They crossed Crescent Street
and strode up to the bottom of the steps, where I stood waiting. Tony grabbed
me and kissed me, twice. Then he introduced us.

“Emily, here is your surprise from New
York! My sister, Marika,” he said.

“Hello, it’s so good to meet you!” she
said in that attractive alto voice.

She smiled and we shook hands, then
she pulled me in for a little kiss on each cheek. She was very charming, warm
and friendly. And she did look just like him, in a more delicate, boyish sort
of way.

“I want to thank you for taking such
good care of my little brother,” she said, hooking her arm through mine as we
all walked up the steps. “He has been transformed into a happy man! He used to
be so grumpy.”

“Really?” I said.

“Oh no, no, no,” Tony protested. “Not
me!”

“But not any more. Oh my, what a
wonderful shop!” she said as we came through the doorway, stopping to look
around.

I headed for the coffee bar, where I
had laid out some things in preparation.

“Would you like some tea, or a coffee,
espresso?” I asked Marika, who was studying a collection of jade dragons in one
of the cases.

She was very lithe, flexible, and she
bent over gracefully to examine the pieces on the bottom shelf.

“Oh yes, thank you! Espresso sounds
great. It’s my low energy time of the day,” she called to me, moving on to the
Russian amber display, “Oh, wow! Tony, do you know what this is?”

“What?” he said, coming over to look.

She pointed. “It’s amber from the same
part of Russia where our grandmother came from. This piece looks a lot like
that big amber egg she used to wear around her neck on a chain, remember?”

He peered into the case. “Yes, I used
to hold it when I sat in her lap. I remember.”

Marika walked toward me across the
room, making her way between the tea tables. She smiled and slid onto the bar
stool next to where I stood, tall enough to do so easily.

“What’s this?” she asked, looking down
at my EMILY pie, which I had taken out of the box.

“It’s my magic, happily-ever-after
pie,” I said with a smile. “A friend made it for me. Would you like some?”

“It looks delicious!” she said, “Come
and see it, Tony!”

He walked over and stood between us to
look at the pie, putting one arm around each of us.

“It’s beautiful, just like both of
you,” he said.

Marika and I looked at each other and
smiled.

“But, do I have to cut it myself?”
Tony demanded.

“I’ll do it,” his sister said, “I’m
starved, as usual!”

I looked at her with approval, and
passed her the knife. I could tell already that we were going to be great
friends, and the three of us would enjoy many good times together. Somehow, I
had an intuition about it.

Description: A sun
with a smiling face shines down on a laughing naked child riding a white horse.

Meaning:
 
Energy, revitalization. A return of
happiness and child-like joy. Contentment, good fortune, safety, family.

Tony’s sister stayed for dinner, which we cooked together
in the kitchen at Henry’s house. The four of us sat down together at the table
up in the study. Tree observed our activities from under the reading chair,
where he sulked and twitched his tail, unhappy because he had been forced to
move from Henry’s lap. The two of them had definitely bonded, and at one point
I caught Henry slipping him a morsel of chicken under the table.

“I don’t feed him scraps, Henry! Do
we, Tony?” I scolded.

“No,” Tony said, “Never!” He leaned
over and offered the cat a piece of chicken skin off his plate. Tree sat up
politely on his hind legs and snagged it with his outstretched paw. He ran back
under the chair to examine his prize in safety.

“You are incorrigible!” I said
sternly, looking at Tony.

He raised his wine glass and toasted
me with a devilish grin.

“Oh, just wait and see!” Marika
warned. “He’s actually much worse than you think. Ever since he was a small
child, he’s been the family rebel.”

“Really?” I said, thinking that the
story Henry had told me made him sound like a very responsible, dutiful son,
not a rebel.

“Oh yes, just ask my parents about the
time Tony ran off exploring and got lost inside one of the Pyramids, in Egypt! “
she said. “He was four or five, I think. I remember because my mother and I had
to wait under an umbrella in the hot sun for hours, while my father and some
men searched. When they finally found him, he had fallen asleep. He was totally
unconcerned. He said, ‘Mama, what’s for lunch?’” Marika laughed and looked at
her brother affectionately.

Tony shrugged his shoulders and said, “I
was hungry!”

“He was always running off and getting
into scrapes,” his sister said, “It was very annoying! My parents were relieved
when he finally went away to school, so they could relax.”

“Weren’t you scared, lost in the dark
like that?” I asked Tony.

“Not really,” he said casually, “I
knew Father would find me eventually. He always did! I was looking for the
golden sarcophagus. For some reason, I had the idea there was one hidden inside
the pyramid somewhere.”

“Just the first of many treasure hunts
to come, eh?” said Henry with a wink.

“I remember being dazzled by the
Egyptian relics at the National Museum in London,” Tony said, “I suppose
someone must have told me they’d been found in a pyramid.”

“Remember when we ran away from the
hotel in the middle of the night to find a candy machine?” Marika asked him,
and they both chuckled.

“That was your idea, sister, not mine!”

“I had a craving for chocolate one
night, when we were all staying at Brown’s Hotel in London, and the concierge
told me there were vending machines in the Tube station just around the corner,”
Marika said. “I was afraid to go by myself, so I made Tony come with me. It was
quite an adventure!”

“I can’t believe the staff would let
you leave without calling your parents!” I said, aghast.

Tony and Marika exchanged a sly
glance.

“Well, they didn’t exactly let us
leave,” Marika said. “Tony caused a diversion to distract them, and we ran for
it.”

“I’d been watching American television
and was inspired by my heroes, James West and Artemis Gordon,” Tony admitted. “Remember
how they used to blow things up all the time?”

“Oh, no!” I said, laughing. “What did
you do, you bad boy?”

“It was just a small fire, in a trash
can in the lobby. There was hardly any smoke at all!” he protested.

Marika poked her brother and said, “I
wonder how much Father had to pay to get you out of trouble that time?”

“Well, I believe I paid for it too,”
he said, “I seem to remember scraping and painting the dock that summer, by
myself. And may I remind you, I am not the one with the sweet tooth!”

“That’s true, you did it all for me,
didn’t you, my darling brother?” Marika said. “I only hope that some day, I can
repay you!”

Marika was a commercial photographer.
She told us about a recent fashion shoot in a Canadian nature preserve, where
the models were posed with a herd of live elk in the background. It sounded
very challenging to pull off, but a beautiful visual image to capture. She had
put a lot on the line to bring the whole crew out there, with all their
equipment, and then hope that nature would cooperate. But she won the gamble,
it worked. We congratulated her, and Henry insisted she email him the photos so
we could see them. He shuffled over to the desk and back, to get his business
card for her.

After dinner, Tony drove her to the
train station. Marika had to be back at work the next day. I went outside with
them to say goodbye. They were walking back to Tony’s house, where the Prius
was parked. Marika put both her arms around me in a warm hug, and we stood that
way for a moment. I kissed her on the cheek and we said “
au revoir
,” promising to spend time together
soon. Tony said he wanted to make a trip up there some weekend, to show me
Montreal. Marika said her guest room was waiting for our arrival. They went off
together down the sidewalk looking like two peas in a pod, even wearing similar
black leather jackets and jeans, with the same walk and the same cute rear
ends.

Henry was exhausted and went right to
bed. I did the dishes and cleaned up the kitchen, checking the fridge, making
lists and planning ahead for tomorrow’s cooking. Then I went up to the third
floor and took a shower, turning out all the lights and slipping between the
clean white sheets. I was awakened an hour or so later when Tony showed up,
back from the train station, and began to kiss me. I helped him slide his
jacket off, and he discovered with his hands that I was naked.