The Disney Rule
The Jensens had brought a bakery box of treats, which they took into the living room with coffee.
“What was it like?” Liko asked. “Being reunited?”
“Surreal,” the Strong siblings answered together, then looked at each other and laughed.
“Hey, she was prepared,” Dane said. “I had no idea Paul had done reconnaissance. I thought I’d be walking into the gallery cold and introducing myself.
Proving myself. By the time I got downtown, I was convinced all over again this was a setup and I’d be a moron to go into that gallery.
I stalled for time by going to McDonald’s.
” Dane rubbed his face. “Which, you have to understand, was an extremely subversive act. Fast food was verboten. My stomach didn’t have the first idea what to do when I stuffed it with a cheeseburger and fries.
I have no idea why I thought Mickey D’s would stick it to my old man and give me courage. ”
“Hey, you were too young to get a scotch and soda,” Huff said.
“I got to the gallery and was already feeling sick. I pushed open the door and barely had a second to look around when she was right there.”
Maisie touched fingertips between her eyebrows. “Poor kid, I just kind of…grabbed him.”
Dane spread his arms wide, then bent his elbows inward.
“She folded me in. Like an envelope. And I don’t know if I was connecting to her as a brother right then.
Like I didn’t feel this overwhelming recognition of Marizabet, sister, yes, this is she, I remember this hug.
She was a stranger to me, but her energy was amazing.
I didn’t get hugged by too many older women at that time in my life, but Maze held me for a long, long time.
A real Disney hug. You know the Disney rule? ”
“You mean how character actors hug kids and don’t let go until the kid does?”
“Exactly.”
“Did you burst out crying?”
“I didn’t,” Maisie said. “I was too stunned, and my mind was far ahead, making plans.”
“Me neither,” Dane said, “because I immediately realized two things. One, this was the first day of the rest of my life. Two, I was about to throw up. I broke away from her and bolted toward a door, praying it was a bathroom.”
The siblings were laughing now, and they finished together, “And that’s how we met.”
“Oh my God, what a shit show,” Maisie said, wiping her eyes.
“I started crying between heaves,” Dane said. “Even while puking, I hung onto those folders and papers like they were all I had left in the world.”
“Where did you go then,” Liko asked. “To Norwalk?”
“To my apartment that night,” Maisie said. “On West Eighty-Sixth.”
“Oh man,” Dane said. “As if my head weren’t already exploding…”
He told how when he got to Maisie’s place, he was astounded to find Maisie had family pictures he’d never seen before, including a beautiful photograph of Helen deWinter with a three-year-old Dane on her lap.
She was laughing at something off-camera, while Dane looked only at his mother, with his two different eyes and a big smile.
“It was on a little table as you came in the apartment door,” Dane said.
“I didn’t even take my coat off or put down my file folder.
I grabbed the picture and kind of stumbled backward against the wall.
In the space of an hour I was reunited with the two most important women in my life. It was a lot.”
More photographs were framed around the apartment. A shot of Dane alone, playing in a puddle of sunshine. Another picture of Helen, Maisie and Dane sitting on the floor in front of the kitchen fireplace: Helen and Maisie cross-legged, playing some kind of board game, and Dane tucked in Helen’s lap.
Liko’s eyes volleyed between the siblings as he shaped his next question. “Don’t answer if it’s too painful,” he finally said, “but what actually happened to your mother?”
“She died in nineteen eighty-seven,” Maisie said.
Liko barely breathed his next inquiry. “In jail?”
“In one of PHS’s mental health facilities. Ivelaw had her involuntarily committed.”
“I’m so sorry,” Liko said. “I don’t know if there’s an encapsulated version of how Ivelaw Strong finally got his, but maybe it’s enough to know he did.”
Dane dropped his hand on Liko’s leg. He ran it up a little, down a little. Then he seemed to come to a decision and he turned it palm up. Liko slid his against it, folding their fingers tight.
“What if I told you,” Dane said, “that it was Fred who helped bring him down? First by bringing a class action lawsuit against Porto, which opened up a can of maggots in PHS.”
“Dane’s folder wasn’t the only one Paul Goldberg swiped,” Maisie said. “Kudos to him, too.”
“And to Dane,” Huff said, “who provided key testimony.”
“Good on all of you,” Liko said. “And fuck that guy.”
They all reached for cups and glasses and toasted the sentiment.
“Can I request a story?” Huff said.
“Oh, babe.” Maisie curled against him. “I’m sorry, you’ve gotten kind of sidelined during this whole saga.”
He kissed her hairline. “Well, we haven’t gotten to my chapter yet.”
“It’s one of the best chapters,” Dane said.
“Wait, how do you come into all of this?” Liko said. “You said Dane introduced you and Maisie.” He pointed between Huff and Dane. “You guys knew each other already?”
“Huff was one of my counselors at Kingpoint Academy,” Dane said. He and Maisie did a round of finger snaps and Huff bowed his head.
“No shit,” Liko said.
“During the course of our thoroughly professional relationship, I discovered Dr. Jensen was a huge Gideon Perfect fan. I thought to myself, Well, well, let’s tuck this information away for a more opportune time.
Fast-forward to nineteen ninety-three, I’ve graduated, and my sister is having a big show for a young, rising artist named Ethan Hasen.
Gideon Perfect is going to be there, too, so I casually email an invite to my old mentor. ”
“It was an epiphanous event,” Huff said.
Maisie ruffled his hair. “You have a low threshold for epiphanous events.”