Track 46 Firework
Track 46
Firework
The Party According to Beatrix
“How frizzy is my hair?” Bea asked Paul, as she tried to tame the curls with her fingertips.
“You look beautiful.”
She hadn’t been looking for a compliment, but she took it graciously. It was so nice to be loved as a wife, to be stuck together through fat and frizz. She glanced again at the untended bar.
“So typical that this guy is MIA.”
“Here he comes,” Paul said, pointing to Chase approaching.
“Never thought I’d be happy to see you,” Bea quipped on his arrival, before immediately regretting it. She had promised herself on the short walk downstairs that she wouldn’t engage, that it was beneath her and would make it appear that she was still bothered by the past. But she had never had self-control in that way. With her, it was always: in her head, out her mouth.
He looked oddly hurt by her words, almost as if he was about to cry.
They ordered two glasses of white wine and headed back upstairs. It was time for the fireworks. As Bea turned the corner, she saw Veronica hit the bar. She paused, double-checking that her sober sister was ordering plain seltzer. What she witnessed next was possibly more concerning.
Were the two having words?
“What was that about?” she asked when V had reached the top of the stairs, without a beverage in hand.
“Nothing, I’ll tell you later.”
“Tell me now,” she insisted, with adamant older sister authority.
Veronica stood motionless, unable to speak. It was clearly not nothing, Bea thought, as others began to ascend the stairs toward them. She put her hand on her sister’s shoulder and gently shook it.
“What is it?”
In the foreground, Renee and Jake gestured upward, prompting the crowd to erupt in applause. Fireworks boisterously lit the night sky, casting bursts of color on the calm bay and the upturned faces of the wedding guests.
All but two.
“Maggie is your daughter,” Veronica managed above the racket.
On the outside Bea looked expressionless, as if Veronica had said nothing of any importance. She felt lightheaded and her ears seemed clogged. She could see the fireworks lighting up the sky, but she could barely hear them.
She had never felt so confused in all her life.
Maggie was not close enough to hear the words that came out of Veronica’s mouth, but from Bea’s head, cocked to the side and covered in shock, it was easy to figure out what they were. There was no denying the expression on Bea’s face. For whatever reason, Veronica had told her.
“Oh boy,” Matt said out loud. Jason just shook his head, while reaching for Maggie. She stepped forward, unsurprisingly pushing aside both Matt and Jason to go it alone.
Maggie stepped between the sisters, looked into her mother’s tear-filled eyes, and squeezed her own tight, trying to keep her composure.
“Is it true?” Bea asked, rendering Maggie speechless.
Maggie let out a sob and nodded her head.
The color drained from Bea’s skin, and her eyes grew wide and intense. They scrutinized Maggie’s face, as if she were an alien from another planet. Maggie must have mistaken her expression for anger, because she pleaded:
“Please, don’t be angry, Matt is not really my boyfriend, he was just helping me. I came here to find you. I was going to tell you after the wedding, tonight,” she had to shout it over the oohs and aahs the fireworks were prompting from the wedding guests.
Bea felt her shock dissipate, replaced with a feeling she would later describe as pure joy. She leaned in and took her daughter’s face in her hands.
“My baby?” she said, mouthing the words more than speaking them.
“Yes, I’m your baby,” Maggie managed before her mother opened her arms and pulled her into what may have been the sweetest, most welcome embrace either of them had ever experienced.
And it all fell away: the pain, the betrayal, the longing, all instantly replaced by love. They held each other so tightly that Bea felt like she would shatter into a million pieces if Maggie were to let go.
Those who understood what was happening cried too, and in Veronica’s case all-out weeping, miraculously paying no mind to her makeup. Matt and Jason found themselves embracing in a giant bear hug. When they broke away, Jason explained the basics to Paul, whose eyes immediately welled with happiness as Matt panned the crowd for Shep to do the same. He barely got the words out when the old man rushed over and threw his arms around his daughter and granddaughter. The two women broke away, laughing through their tears.
“Can you believe this, Daddy?” Bea managed.
Shep squeezed Maggie’s face, absorbing every inch of it.
“How did I not know?”
He hugged her again just as the explosive grand finale faded in the night sky, followed by a round of applause and then…silence.
“I see my mamma in you, like I see her in Bea,” Shep cried. Which set everyone off again, especially Maggie. Shep wiped a tear from her face as the iconic first notes of Donna Summer’s “Last Dance” echoed from the speakers.
“May I have the last dance with my granddaughter, please?”
“I would love that,” Maggie said, collecting herself.
Beatrix and Veronica watched, arm in arm, along with Paul and the others, as grandfather and granddaughter spun around the dance floor. When the tempo picked up, they all joined in, the celebration turning back to the bride and groom, or so they thought.
When the party was over, Beatrix watched Maggie quietly make her way to the lifeguard / bartender / devil-may-care ejaculator. As much as it annoyed her, she was happy that her daughter had been raised to be such a decent person.
Maggie returned with his number scribbled on a cocktail napkin.
“One thing,” Bea asked, careful not to begin their relationship by prying about the conversation with Chase. “You and Matt?”
“I’ll tell you everything on the way home.”
“It seems like we need more time than that. Do you really have to leave tomorrow?” Bea asked, putting her hands to prayer.
“I really should get back to the store. And Jason definitely needs to go back to work.”
She knew Phoebe Buffay would be happy to cover for her, but she also knew she should be heading home with Jason.
“Can you come to the house for a bit? We have so much to catch up on.”
“Of course,” Maggie said, adding, “There’s plenty of time to sleep when I’m dead,” in her best Shep imitation. Bea laughed, before linking her arm through her daughter’s.
“Good. Let’s go home!”