Chapter 10 #2
Silas texted several times as we made our way back north but, of course, I couldn’t look while I was driving.
When I approached the house, I realized why he’d been trying to contact me: there was a large, maroon SUV taking up the entire driveway because one of our guests had already arrived. Three hours early.
“I knew you’d need my help,” Octavia announced as we all walked in.
I decided not to answer as Lyra ran to hug my parents and Silas also came out of the kitchen, glaring.
It wasn’t directed at his sister or anyone in my family.
“I’m the second-in-command in the Whitaker Enterprises legal office,” she introduced herself to my parents.
“No, that’s not correct. Mom, Daddy, this is Octavia,” I said, and both my parents nodded. They had heard about her.
For this visit, they would be sleeping in my bedroom, and part of the deal was that Silas would have to help my dad upstairs. He did that now, and Lyra carried a bag and held my mom’s hand. I watched them, smiling, before I sniffed the air and my expression changed.
“I hope that I’m not getting a whiff of herring,” I announced. I was.
But the other good smells of Thanksgiving were enough to mask most of that, and the strength of Octavia’s personality was also somewhat diluted by the presence of other guests.
Mrs. Alford arrived from across the street and she and my coworker seemed to have a lot to talk about—they were both very interested in crime and undesirable elements secretly running our city, and although no one mentioned names, I held my breath in case they started ripping down Silas.
That was not allowed in this house. My mom and dad, wrapped up well against the falling temperatures, went to watch Boris and Lyra play baseball in the damp, grey backyard, and Silas and I were busy in the kitchen finalizing the meal.
“I’m sorry,” I told him. “Octavia is usually a little early to meetings but I had no idea it would extend this far. Was she bothering you?”
He looked over at me and I understood that the answer was yes.
“I’m sorry,” I repeated, he cast his eyes upwards toward the ceiling far above us. I was glad that for a house of this age, someone had decided to build those so high. Maybe the first owner had been as big as Silas.
“She waltzed in here with that dish of smelly cheese and fish and she told me that she was your boss, so she was going to override you about what time the dinner would start and what we would eat. It’s ok,” he told me.
“Maybe it’s karma. I was such a beast of a kid and now it could be coming back to me a little, in the form of Octavia.
No, scratch that. I was a beast as a kid, as a teenager, and also for most of my twenties. ”
“Until Lyra came along.”
“Until the day that I found out that I had a sister and that they were going to hand her over to the state,” he agreed.
“Then I cleaned up my act.” He glanced through the window into the back.
“Your mom must have wrapped a scarf around Ly’s head and now Boris is getting one, too.
I’m going to call them in. It’s too cold for your parents.
” When he returned, he helped me find a bowl big enough to mix the salad for which I’d been endlessly chopping vegetables.
“Octavia is now explaining southern cooking to your mom,” he told me. “That should go great.”
“My mother has a lot of patience and my dad can turn off his hearing aids, the lucky guy. Taste the dressing. I mean, the stuffing.” He took my hand as I held up the little spoon and guided it to his mouth.
“That’s good,” he approved. “Maybe it needs something sweet? Or sour?”
I reached for the salt and pepper instead.
“When did your dad start to lose his hearing?” Silas asked me.
“It was before I came along,” I said. “I’m not really sure.”
“It started before you were born?”
“Maybe. I know that he noticed a deficit when I came to live with them, because my voice was high and he realized that he couldn’t hear me very well,” I explained. “Try it now.” I held up another spoon but he didn’t take the bite.
“What are you talking about? You didn’t always live with them? They’re not your parents?”
“They are my parents, but they adopted me. Try this.” He did take the sample but didn’t seem to notice the taste.
“You never said that you were adopted. I had no idea.”
“It’s not very important to me. Didn’t you notice how much older my parents are, though?” I asked.
“Yeah, but…” He looked toward the living room. “What are they yelling about?”
“Silas!” Lyra ran through the kitchen door. “You have to come quick. I think the other lady and Mrs. Alford are going to fight!”
He did break that up, but the dinner we had only a little while later was tense.
Mrs. Alford made several remarks about herring that Octavia clearly didn’t appreciate and I prepared to step in.
But her response was uncharacteristic: she snubbed our neighbor by giving her the silent treatment, and the rest of us were really grateful.
Silas spent his time at the table eating plenty but not speaking as much as he usually did, not even when Mrs. Alford made a few snide remarks about his grandmother.
The only people who were totally content were Lyra and Boris, who didn’t notice any disagreements as they stuffed themselves, and my dad, who had left his hearing aids off.
Immediately after Octavia put down the fork that had held her last bite of pie, Silas told her that it was time to go.
“Let’s put some foil on your casserole because you’re bringing it with you,” he said as he ushered her toward the door.
He was putting his skills as a bouncer to good use.
“Got it? Got your coat? We don’t want you to forget anything so you have to come back here.
Hurry up, your lizard’s probably waiting for his dinner. ”
“Actually, adult monitor lizards don’t eat every day, and Grosvenor had a hearty meal on Thanksgiving eve,” she informed him.
As he directed her into the driveway, I heard something about frozen rats and fatty liver disease, but I wasn’t interested in the details of that.
Mrs. Alford half-heartedly offered to help with the dishes, but I said that her contribution of saltine crackers had been more than enough for the day, and she took back the paper plate she’d brought them on.
It was one less thing to clean up, I supposed.
Lyra and Boris made plans to play baseball the next day and then the house was empty of our neighbors, too.
“Well, Cammie, that was a delicious meal,” my dad said happily. He started to help but I talked him into sitting down in front of the new TV we’d bought so that he could watch football. It had been a long day for him with the car ride and all the arguments, or what he’d heard of them.
My mom joined me in the kitchen and then Silas did, too. “Octavia wouldn’t leave the driveway,” he explained. “At the club, I would have picked her up and moved her. I didn’t,” he assured me when I looked over quickly, but I heard him mutter, “I wanted to.”
“Camille, what made you invite those particular guests?” my mother asked as he took his place next to mine at the sink.
“The Alfords were Lyra’s choice,” I answered. “I felt sorry for Octavia but there might be a reason that she’s not close to any family and doesn’t have friends to visit, either.”
“’Might be?’” Silas echoed. “It seems like her lizard likes her. That animal has an amazing diet.”
He looked ready to share more about that, but I shook my head and waved my hands, too. “Please, keep it to yourself.”
He laughed. “Give me that bowl and I’ll wash it. The thing weighs more than my sister.” We swapped places and I took the towel off his shoulder.
“You two work so well together,” my mom said, and she sounded very happy. “Lyra is a little joy, too. I’m so glad that Cammie has both of you in her life.”
I looked over at her, feeling the first glimmer of concern.
“We’re glad to have her in ours,” Silas answered, and my mom’s smile grew.
I had told her that he and I were housemates, and I had explained that I had moved here to help with his sister.
Apparently, she was now extrapolating that relationship into something more and she was going to be disappointed.
I had to set her straight and maybe I also needed to let him know that I wasn’t thinking along those lines myself.
But he didn’t seem perturbed, and my mother was off and running on the latest news from home, which she hadn’t wanted to share over the meal because she thought it would bore the other guests.
That hadn’t stopped Mrs. Alford from presenting a monologue on different glass cleaners or Boris from giving us all a lesson on the luster of various minerals (which had led some guests to remember diamond simulants).
Now my mom told me about my former teacher, who had been widowed while I was in high school but had recently found love again on a dating app.
She was moving to North Carolina to pursue her new relationship.
“We’ll miss her, but we’re all so glad. Bless her heart,” she said, her palm over her own chest. “And did I tell you about Cheree from the post office?”
I hadn’t heard, but it was a true love story, almost better than all the movies that had been playing pretty much nonstop lately. The new TV wasn’t only being used for football.
“Oh, I’m so glad for her!” I said. I planned her life in my mind: she and her boyfriend would live in a house with…
with an apple orchard where they pressed cider and made fritters that everyone in the neighborhood would love.
I didn’t remember Cheree as a big gardener, but she might want to learn.
I used the towel I’d been using to dry the dishes to dab my eyes.