Chapter 13
Ruby arrives at her mother's house that morning to have breakfast with her before she leaves for work at Odette Bergeron's home.
Since breaking up with Amelia and showing up crying that night, Adele has been more attentive to her than after any of her previous breakups.
She calls more frequently and insists that Ruby drop by her house at almost any hour.
"Hi, mom," Ruby says, kissing her mother's cheek.
She avoids her gaze and opens the cabinet to grab a couple of mugs while Adele finishes taking out the toast, but her daughter's evasive movement doesn't prevent her hawk-like stare and maternal instinct from activating as she perceives the sadness her daughter tries to hide.
Adele pours coffee into the mugs and sits across from Ruby while answering the questions her daughter asks about Odette. She doesn't have much new to report; the woman's behavior remains the same, with the only difference being that they now go for walks.
"What about you?" Adele asks. "Have you done anything new these days?" her mother probes.
Ruby shakes her head firmly.
"No. You know, the usual. Being at the bar and meeting up with Jerome the other day."
Ruby grows thoughtful when she remembers Chris Fox's visit to the bar. She considers telling her mother about the problem she and Ellie now face, but that involves talking about Ellie, and right now she wants to keep her out of her thoughts.
"Well, yesterday I saw Amelia. She came to pick up the things she still had at my place."
Adele leaves her toast suspended in mid-air.
"How is she? I really care about her," Adele admits.
Ruby smiles bitterly.
"She's fine. She's moved in with a coworker and bought a ticket to travel to Thailand," Ruby's eyes shine with a mixture of sadness and happiness.
"Oh, I'm so happy for her," her mother says.
"Yeah, me too," Ruby responds, grabbing her coffee mug to drink until she almost chokes.
"How did you feel seeing her?"
Ruby's breathing stops.
"Me?" her throat tightens. "I'm fine, we did what we had to do. I want Amelia to be happy, and with me she was stuck, mom."
"Then, I guess you're this sad because of Ellie, right?" her mother throws out, leaving Ruby paralyzed.
Her lungs close up and words get stuck in her throat. Ruby has never told her mother what she feels for Ellie, but she knows her mother is aware. A mother senses these things, and she, apparently, is an open book in that regard, to everyone except Ellie herself.
She shrugs and her eyes moisten. She doesn't know what to say; at this point, she feels so low that she prefers not to talk about it.
"I've always hoped it would pass, that you'd meet another woman who could make you fall in love as much as she did at some point," her mother says.
"When you brought Amelia home, I thought she might be the one.
She made you shine and you were happy, but then I saw you still looking at Ellie the same way. "
Ruby swallows, biting both lips.
"I don't know how things are between you two, Ruby, but whenever you want to talk about it, I'll be here to listen and support you like I've always done."
"I know," Ruby responds, the only thing she manages to articulate before breaking down and starting to cry.
Adele rises quickly and wraps her arms around her, holding her tight.
She doesn't tell Ruby what she thinks because she knows it would be very hard for Ruby to hear from her mother's mouth that what she should do is distance herself from Ellie, so, for now, she limits herself to kissing her head repeatedly while trying to cheer her up.
Adele arrives at Odette Bergeron's building feeling upset after seeing her daughter break down over what seems like an impossible love.
It hurts her that it's unrequited, because Ellie is a good girl—she loves her like another daughter—and when she and Ruby are together, they light up everything around them.
Darwin opens the door, relieved as always, and Adele finds Odette in the living room, dressed as if she's going to a wedding with a wide-brimmed hat matching her outfit resting on her lap. Ready for their walk.
"Good morning," Adele greets as she enters the living room.
Again, Odette pretends not to have heard her, but today Adele is in a bad mood and isn't willing to tolerate her impertinence, so she puts down her purse and sits in an armchair.
Odette frowns, glancing at her from the corner of her eye. She starts to get nervous seeing that Adele doesn't move, just staring out the window.
"What do you think you're doing?" she asks irritably.
"Sitting and doing nothing, just like you," Adele responds calmly.
Odette blinks as if possessed, thrown off balance.
"I don't pay you to do nothing," the woman protests.
"I know. Your children pay me, actually, and I have permission to do whatever I want. And today I've decided that until you behave like a well-mannered woman and greet me when I come in, I'm not moving from here. So, if you want to go for a walk, you know what to do."
"Darwin!" Odette shouts, but Darwin doesn't appear. "Darwin!" she repeats, exasperated.
"Darwin won't come. Your daughter Marisa asked him to ignore you when I'm here, so you see, it's just you and me."
Adele turns toward the window and continues contemplating the view.
Odette starts fidgeting with her hat, nervous, while looking at the water sprayer and thinking about spraying Adele with it, but then remembers that her caregiver has no qualms about pouring a pitcher of water over her and decides against it.
"Fine," she concedes after a few minutes of desperation.
"What's fine?" asks Adele, turning toward her.
"Good morning, Mrs. Hebert," Odette says in a murmur.
Adele feels tempted to ask her to repeat it, but she knows how proud the woman is and thinks it's quite an achievement to have gotten this far, so she's satisfied.
"Wonderful. See? Two words and not only do you stop being rude, but you get that walk you want so badly," Adele says, standing up.
"I never said I wanted any walk," Odette protests, putting on her hat.
"Of course not."
The route is the same as every day. Adele pushes the wheelchair for a couple of blocks until they reach the park, and Odette continues observing everything as if afraid she might forget it.
They walk without speaking, but the silence no longer feels uncomfortable like in the early days; now it's part of a routine they've both grown accustomed to and need.
They reach the ice cream stand and Adele stops the chair.
This time, she orders one pistachio and one strawberry.
She always orders different flavors and then lets Odette choose the one she prefers.
There are days they like them and others when they end up throwing the cone in the trash without saying a word, but it's part of a ritual they've created together and that, somehow, they want to continue.
They arrive at their usual bench. Adele positions the wheelchair right beside her and, when she finishes her cone, takes out her crossword puzzle magazine and starts solving them.
Time flies by; sometimes they even stay longer than planned because Odette never says it's time to go back and she's not in a hurry either.
She checks the time and decides they can head back, but when she's about to close the magazine, Odette interrupts her.
"You haven't finished the crossword," she says with a head gesture pointing to the open magazine on her lap.
Adele looks at it, surprised because it's the first time Odette has spoken to her without yelling or complaining.
"I don't know that word," the caregiver responds.
"What's the definition?" Odette asks.
"Poetic composition of fourteen hendecasyllabic verses. Six letters," Adele reads.
Odette thinks for a few seconds.
"Sonnet."
Adele checks and sees that it fits perfectly with the two letters she already has filled in.
"Well, look at that," she says, writing it down.