Thea at Sixteen (20 page)

“Claire knows best,” Evvie said. “She's the one who's still living at home.”

Claire thought about Sybil and wished she were in Oregon. The thought of spending the holidays cooped up in a ratty motel with her parents had nauseated her, and she'd leaped at Evvie's invitation to visit with her through Christmas, but it hurt to be apart from Sybil. Especially when Sybil was being rammed through yet another battery of tests. The testing always hurt Sybil the most, not just the physical pain, but getting her hopes up, only to have them smashed again, and then living with Nicky's disappointment afterward. The tests were inevitably Nicky's idea. Why not. He wasn't the one who suffered.

“Sometimes she uses a walker,” Claire said. “On her good days, she can get around with half crutches.”

“Oh,” Scotty said. “I would have thought she'd be further along by now. It's been two years.”

“The damage to her legs was extensive,” Evvie said. “Don't forget, at first the doctors didn't think she'd walk at all.”

“This is the third rehab place Nicky's taken her to,” Claire said. “I guess if this one is any good, we'll be moving to Oregon.”

“Nick certainly is devoted to Sybil,” Clark said. “Of course, Meg is as well.”

“Nicky's the one doing the pushing,” Evvie said. “For better or worse. Clark, this mulled wine is delicious. And dinner smells so tempting.”

“I hope you like goose,” Clark said. “I thought we'd have a traditional Christmas feast.”

“Just as I suspected,” Sam said. “My goose is cooked.”

“Not yet, I hope,” Clark said. “We're having one more guest for Christmas.”

“Not Aunt Grace,” Evvie said. “Oh, Clark, please, not Aunt Grace.”

“Not Grace,” Clark replied. “Although you and Claire really should visit her.”

“I do,” Evvie said. “Once a year, I go to the mausoleum and check up on her.”

“Once a year is hardly enough,” Clark said. “You're going to Harvard, Evvie. You live only twenty minutes away from Grace. She's an old woman, and she enjoys your visits so.”

Evvie laughed. “She hates my guts,” she said. “And I'm not wild about hers. But you're right, Clark, Claire and I should see her. We'll go in a day or two.”

“Thanks for volunteering me,” Claire said. She had a fondness for Aunt Grace, based mostly on the fact that Aunt Grace couldn't stand Nicky and neither could Claire. But Aunt Grace couldn't stand Claire, either, because of her resemblance to Nicky.

“I wish you would be a bit kinder about her,” Clark said. “Grace Winslow is the only real family your mother has, except for Nick and you girls. And it isn't as though Nick supplied her with any in-laws.”

“We're family enough,” Evvie said. “Right, Claire?”

“I don't know,” Claire said. “I think a bit more family could come in handy. Right, Sam?”

“Don't look at me,” Sam replied. “I'm down to two grandparents and an aunt.”

“I have family,” Scotty said. “Parents and grandparents and a brother and aunts and uncles and cousins, and with all that, I'm spending Christmas here.”

“Thanks a lot, Scotty,” Clark said. “It's flattering to be twelfth choice.”

Claire laughed, and then so did everybody else. Claire knew she had that power. If she'd wept, she suspected, everyone else in the room would have burst into tears. Scotty, she could see, was admiring her. She would never touch Sam, but Scotty was a different question. How would Thea react if Scotty fell out of love with her, and in love with Claire? Probably not well. Thea was a good deal more territorial than she cared to admit. Claire smiled at the thought. Something amusing might as well happen during Christmas. She was sixteen, and it was about time her life got interesting.

The doorbell rang, and Clark's face lit up brighter than his ever-so-tasteful Christmas tree. “The final guest has arrived,” he said. “This is my wonderful surprise for all of you.”

Sybil? Claire thought, but she knew that was crazy. Sybil was three thousand miles away being pounded on by crazed orthopedic specialists. And not Aunt Grace, either. Perhaps the legendary Schyler Hughes had decided to forego skiing at Aspen to get one last chance at Evvie.

But it wasn't Schyler at all.

“Thea!” Evvie cried, and the two sisters were hugging as though it had been years since they'd last seen each other. “What are you doing here? Why aren't you in New York?”

“Kip's drinking again,” Thea said, taking her coat off so she might hug Evvie again. “I told him I wasn't going to put up with that, and if he wanted me there, he was just going to have to stop.”

“And what did he say?” Scotty asked from his chair in the living room.

“He poured himself another drink,” Thea admitted. “Oh, well. I called Clark in tears, and he told me to take the next shuttle out. So here I am. Clark, thank you. This is so sweet of you, to have us all here like this.”

“I couldn't be happier,” Clark said, placing his right arm around Thea and his left around Evvie. “To have you and Evvie, and you too, Claire, here with me for Christmas.”

Claire glanced at Sam and realized he was looking at her with some strange expression—pity, maybe, or compassion—until he realized she was looking and grinned sardonically instead. “The eternal outsiders,” he whispered.

“I like being outside,” Claire whispered back. “It's less suffocating.” She turned away from Sam and checked out Scotty. He had his traditional mushy-about-Thea look. The very sight of him made Claire smile. With Thea around, this was definitely a Christmas to make things interesting.

C
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“I wish Sam would get here,” Evvie grumbled as she stared out the window of the apartment she shared with Sam.

“Relax,” Thea said. “He'll be here on time.”

“I know,” Evvie said. “But he's going to forget to buy the bread. I keep telling him to make a list and take it with him, but he claims he doesn't need to, that he can remember what has to be bought. And then he always forgets.”

Claire laughed. “You sound like an old married couple,” she said.

“Nicky and Megs don't sound that way,” Thea declared.

“They don't have to,” Claire replied. “There's not enough grocery money for either of them to forget.”

“How bad are things?” Evvie asked. “I always get the feeling Megs is telling me half-truths, and Nicky, well, he isn't even that close.”

“Nicky and Megs don't lie,” Thea said. “They just don't want us to worry.”

“They lie,” Evvie said. “Claire, what's it like, really?”

Claire shrugged. “It's okay,” she said. “We're not starving.”

“I didn't think you were,” Evvie replied. “But I'd still like to know just how things are.”

Claire thought about it. Her family had had times when they were very rich, mostly when Claire was too young to appreciate it. They'd had times when they were one step away from disaster, with last-minute moves from state to state. They'd had times when Nicky's deals were just starting to go through, and everything was full of promise, and they'd had times when Nicky's deals fell through and everything was full of despair. From birth to age fourteen, Claire figured, she'd survived every financial situation imaginable. But the past two years were beyond any nightmare she could have imagined.

“Look,” she said. “Things are bad. You know that. You've seen the place we're living in now. You saw what we had for Thanksgiving dinner. The money Clark and Aunt Grace send me for Christmas and my birthday goes to clothes, because otherwise I wouldn't get anything new. I like clothes. I miss buying new shoes. I don't remember the last time Megs got anything for herself, and even Nicky's looking a little ratty. But it's okay. It's for Sybil.”

“That doesn't sound like you,” Thea said. “Why aren't you complaining, or blaming Nicky?”

“There's no point in complaining,” Claire replied. “Besides, I don't intend to be poor a minute longer than I have to. And sure, some of it is Nicky's fault. He keeps pushing Sybil, moving us around the country, going from rehab center to rehab center, trying to find the one with the miracle cures. If he'd just pick one, so we could settle down, he might start making deals again, and maybe all of this would end. But none of them is good enough for him, so he keeps on hunting. Sybil hates it, but he's doing it because he loves her. Even I know that. Sybil's always been his favorite, and he wants her walking again, no crutches, no canes, no limps. So does Megs. So do I. So does Sybil. And maybe one of the places will be the miracle place, and it'll all be worth it. What do you care? You have your scholarship, you have your life. What difference does it make to you?”

“I care because I love Sybil,” Thea said. “And Nicky and Megs, and I worry about them.”

“We worry about you, too, Claire,” Evvie said. “I know how bad it is for you to be stuck there. I know how obsessed Nicky can get. I wish I were older. I wish I were through with school, so I could do something more to help.”

“It's okay,” Claire said, already regretting having told them so much. It didn't matter with Thea, who never understood, anyway. But Evvie had a way of seeing through her, a way of caring about her, that Claire wasn't especially comfortable with. The way Sam had connected the night before. They couldn't do anything to improve matters, so who cared what they felt. “Actually, it's better than that. Sybil is getting stronger, and Nicky and Megs have less time to make gaga eyes at each other. You know, Megs is almost bearable nowadays. We all take turns doing the physical therapy with Sybil, and Megs is the best at it. I like her for that.” She felt again as though she had revealed too much, but she didn't know what else to say. Evvie and Thea were Sybil's sisters, too, after all, and they loved her and worried about her almost as much as Claire did.

“I wish I had the money for another visit,” Evvie said. “I wanted to go while Sam's visiting his grandparents, but I couldn't take the time off from work. And who can afford the airfare to Oregon. So I'll be stuck here, while Sam's on Long Island. I can't tell you how much I'm going to miss him.”

“Why don't you go to Long Island with him?” Thea asked. “At least for the weekend.”

“No thank you,” Evvie said. “Sam isn't looking forward to going home, either. The Greenes have never been crazy about me, and things have gotten worse since I began the conversion lessons.”

“I'd think that would make things better,” Thea said. “Do you want me to start cutting up the vegetables for salad?”

“Yes, please,” Evvie replied. “If the Greenes were sane, that might improve things. But they're so protective of Sam, worse than Nicky is with Sybil, if you can believe it. They kept hoping we weren't really serious, that it was just puppy love. We've been together for four years, and they still keep hoping we don't mean it. But with me converting, it makes things official. I become Jewish, we get engaged, and then the minute I graduate, we get married. Sam wants us to get married this year, after he graduates, and I'd like to, too, but his grandparents are insisting we wait until I have my degree. They worry that I'm just with Sam for his money, that he'll be stuck with my debts the minute we get married. And they're also hoping that he won't be able to get a job in Boston, so we'll have to spend next year apart. I know it's nothing like what Nicky and Megs went through, but sometimes I just want to scream. Only I can't. It isn't like Sam has any other family. They're what he's stuck with and Nicky and Megs are what I'm stuck with, and in a minute I'll start crying, and I just know he won't remember to buy the bread.”

“So we'll bake some,” Thea said. “You know, the way Megs always seems to bake a loaf just when you really want one.”

“She doesn't anymore,” Claire said. “She baked for Thanksgiving, but that's been it. We buy day-old at the supermarket. She says it's cheaper.”

“Now I really am going to cry,” Evvie declared. “Merry Christmas, everybody.”

“Claire's exaggerating,” Thea said. “Aren't you, Claire? You know how Claire loves to complain.”

“I'm not exaggerating and I'm not complaining,” Claire replied. If Thea hadn't been armed with a vegetable knife, Claire might have gone after her. “I don't mind store-bought bread. I never understood why Megs went around baking all the time. All I'm saying is between tutoring Sybil, and doing her exercises, and living off the trust fund checks, we buy day-old bread. Big deal. Do you want me to set the table?”

“Please,” Evvie said. “Don't forget a setting for Scotty.”

“I won't,” Claire said. It had been her idea to invite Scotty over for supper. She still had to decide whether to sit next to him, so they could talk more easily, or across the table from him, so he'd have to look at her. Next to him, she thought. He already knew what she looked like. It was about time he got to know her.

Of course Thea would probably sit on his other side, and Scotty, fool that he was, would want to talk with her. But knowing Thea, all she'd talk about was Kip and his problems. Not a topic Scotty would want to discuss over dinner or anywhere else.

“I hope spaghetti with meat sauce isn't too much of a cliché,” Evvie said, stirring the pot. “It's the only thing I know how to cook, and with Sam out all day, working on the school paper, I figured I'd better make something safe.”

“It's a feast,” Thea said. “Sometimes I go to Kip's apartment and make it for him and his roommates.”

“How many roommates does he have?” Evvie asked.

“There are four altogether,” Thea said, “sharing three rooms in a neighborhood that Nicky would kill me for walking in. But sometimes I think if I don't take care of Kip, he won't take care of himself.”