Welcome to the World, Baby Girl! (7 page)

Five minutes later she came in the living room with a dejected look on her face, sat down, and looked at Macky. “She’s not coming.”

“Why?”

“She was so disappointed.… You should have heard her.”

“What happened?”

“Well, she said she had planned on coming in tomorrow but decided to come tonight instead. She had made all the arrangements to come on the late flight to Kansas City and was going to call us from the New York airport, so we would be sure and know exactly what time she would be in. She was packed, had her ticket, had already called a taxi, and was headed out the door, was actually in the hall, when the phone rang. And she said she could just kill herself for even going back in and picking it up. Because wouldn’t you know it, it was her boss and he was frantic because there was this very important interview already set up out of the country and the reporter that was supposed to go had a sudden attack of malaria, right at the last minute, and couldn’t go.”

“Malaria?”

“Yes, he got it when he was doing a story in some jungle—and you know that’s recurring—so anyway, she didn’t have a choice because the plane was waiting at the airport at that very moment. Bless her heart, it’s a wonder she had time to call us at all with them jerking her all the way to Siberia. It’s a good thing she did call, though; I reminded her to take a coat. You never know, she could have gotten over there and frozen to death in a snowstorm.”

“Siberia? Who is she going to interview in Siberia, I wonder.”

“She doesn’t know; she said that it was so important and evidently so secret that they didn’t even tell her. Really, though, as bad as it is, it was a blessing she was already packed and ready to go, but she probably just packed her light clothes thinking she was coming here. Well, at least I made her take a heavy coat.”

Macky went over and started pulling down the big green
Colliers World Map and Atlas
book off the shelf. “Norma, are you sure she didn’t say Sicily or Sardinia or something?”

“No, I’m sure she said Siberia. Why do you think I told her to take a coat? I wouldn’t tell her to take a heavy winter coat to Sicily or Sardinia; I can tell the difference between Sardinia and Siberia.” Norma suddenly looked alarmed. “I just thought of something. Aren’t you supposed to get a vaccination when you travel out of the country?”

Macky’s finger found Siberia on the map. “Yes, but I wouldn’t worry. I don’t think a germ stands a chance up that far.”

“What about her passport, do you think she forgot it, being in such a hurry?”

Macky shook his head. “No, honey, with the way they have to go at a moment’s notice, they probably have four or five of those things. She probably keeps one in her purse.”

He was studying the map. “Whoever she’s interviewing, you can bet your bottom dollar he’s a Russian. Come here and look at this, it’s perched right on the border.”

Norma saw where Siberia was. “Oh my Lord! Isn’t that behind the iron curtain? Do you think she’ll be safe? You don’t think they would kidnap her or shoot her or anything?”

Macky shook his head. “No, listen, if anything were to happen to her, everybody in America would know it. They don’t want to fool with a famous television star, believe me. She’s probably safer than anyone in the world. Did she say she might be able to come after she gets back from this trip?”

“No, she can’t, she said this was the only time that she could have taken off.”

“Well, it’s a damn shame the way they work her like they do. She hasn’t had a vacation since she started working there. That girl works too hard.”

A half hour later, when Macky was in the kitchen fixing the percolator for their morning coffee, Norma said, sighing, “Well, I guess I better call Aunt Elner and let her know she’s not coming.”

“She never knew she was coming in the first place, Norma.”

But she was not listening and had already dialed. “Aunt Elner, are you still up? It’s Norma.” She said, louder, “It’s Norma, go get your hearing aid, dear.”

She waited. “Well, now the tale can be told because it’s not going to happen. You will never guess who was coming home for a visit.
And
was going to come over to your house and surprise you. Guess … Well, I know you don’t know … but guess. No, even better than Wayne Newton.”

Macky laughed.

“Baby Girl, that’s who. No, she’s not coming now. I know it would have been wonderful, but just at the last minute when she was headed out the door, her boss called her and she had to go and interview somebody and fly all the way to Siberia to do it. Siberia.” She spelled it out. “
S-I-B-E-R-I-A;
yes, that’s the one. Macky thinks she’s going to interview some big Russian mucky-muck. I feel so sorry for her I could just cry. They just send her hither and yon but the news waits for no man, as they say. Oh, yes, she was; disappointed is not the word. Heartbroken is more like it. She was trying to be brave but I could tell by her voice that she was on the verge of tears. I mean, we are all terribly disappointed but just imagine how horrible she must have felt. Here she had her bags all packed and ready to walk out the door headed for Missouri and winding up in Siberia instead.”

When Norma and Macky returned home after visiting Dena in New York, the first thing they did was to go over to Aunt Elner’s house and give her the souvenirs they had brought for her knickknack shelf. One was a little bronze Statue of Liberty and another an Empire State Building paperweight with fake snow inside. Two hours later she called Norma with the paperweight in her hand.

“Norma?”

“Yes, honey?”

“You might have to come over here and take this paperweight away from me.”

“Why?”

“I can’t stop myself from shaking it up; it’s just like a little winter in there, isn’t it?”

“Well, I’m glad you like it. We didn’t know what to get you.”

“Oh, I’m just getting the biggest kick out of it, you have no idea.”

“Good.”

“And Baby Girl really seemed like she was getting along all right?”

“Oh, yes, but we didn’t get to spend nearly enough time with her. They have her working morning, noon, and night.”

“Is she still too skinny?”

“No, she’s filled out and has quite a nice shape.”

“Did she like her fig preserves?”

“Oh, yes, she was tickled pink to get them. She probably never gets anything homemade; they all eat in restaurants up there day and night.”

“Well, bless her heart. Do you reckon she might like some hickory nuts? I’ve got a barrel full out on the porch. My tree just went crazy on me this year. Maybe I’ll make her one of my hickory nut cakes with the caramel icing; do you reckon she’d like that?”

“I’m sure she would.”

“It’s still hard to believe Baby Girl is a grown-up woman! Last time I saw her she wasn’t no bigger than a minute; what was she, four?”

“Four or five.”

Then Aunt Elner asked the same question she did every time they discussed Dena.

“Did she mention anything about her mother?”

“Not a word.”

“Well, what would you say if she did?”

“I’ll just answer whatever questions she has as truthfully as I can, that’s all I can do. As it is, she doesn’t say anything and neither do I. I will have to follow her lead on it.”

There was a pause. “That’s got to be a hard thing for her to come to terms with, don’t you think?” said Aunt Elner. “You know it must prey on her mind.”

“I don’t know, Aunt Elner, but I imagine it’s hurtful for her to even think about so I just don’t bring it up.”

“Yes, that’s probably best. Well, honey, thank you again for my present. I sure am enjoying it … and tell Macky to run over here for a minute, will you? My back door’s stuck again.”

“OK, I’ll tell him.”

Aunt Elner hung up and turned the glass paperweight upside down one more time and watched the tiny pieces of fake snow swirl and settle around the miniature Empire State Building and said out loud to herself, “Look at that … it’s like it says, a winter wonderland.”

Fame is a funny thing. It knows who it wants and starts stalking people at an early age. Dena was only fifteen when it went after her. A photographer from
Seventeen
magazine came to her school and she was one of ten girls chosen to be photographed that day. She had never considered herself to be pretty, and she was getting to be too tall, but they had requested several blondes and she was one of the few in her class that year. Albert Boutwell, the makeup man, had been putting makeup on giggling teenage girls all over the country and when the slim, lanky kid walked in she was just another one in an assembly line of faces he was to make up that day. She sat down and he put a smock on her. He noted that she was particularly pale so he used a slightly darker base and a little more eyeliner to bring out her eyes. When he had finished, he glanced up in the mirror for a last-minute check. What he saw was astonishing. Looking back at him was what had become, at a touch, one of the most beautiful faces he had ever seen. Dena, who had never had on makeup before, was as shocked as he was. He asked her what her name was. “Well, Miss Dena Nordstrom,” he said, “look at yourself. You are a knockout!” The next girl came in and took Dena’s place.