Chapter Nine #2
“See you soon,” he said, and kissed my cheek.
Aunt Frances shook her head as she watched him walk off. “He never showed me half that affection.”
“Maybe you didn’t show any to him,” I said.
She widened her eyes and handed me my pills and a glass of water.
“I’ll be back to check your vitals. Now I have to settle into my room. Wish I could have brought all my things to make it seem like home.”
“Don’t you have a lot here?”
“Not the things I want since I left,” she said, and walked out.
Anna came hurrying in.
“This just came for you. Special delivery from Bar Harbor,” she said, handing me an envelope that obviously had a card in it. “Well?” she asked immediately.
“It’s… from the new artist at the gallery,” I said, showing Anna the inside of the card, where there was a thin pen drawing of me.
“My goodness. How long were you with this man?”
“Probably less than an hour in total.”
“This picture of you is so amazingly good. How nice.”
I stared at it. On the other side, he had written, “Welcome home. See you soon. Get well. Kyle Wyman.”
“Great artists have special visual memories; their eyes are like cameras.”
“I’ll say. I’ll put it on your dresser here,” Anna said, and did so, so that I could look at the drawing.
Aunt Frances walked in. I didn’t have to hear her say what her expression was saying. “Parasites,” she muttered.
“Excuse me?” Anna said.
“Men when they spot an easy prey, which most women are. They do that sort of thing.”
“Well, I shouldn’t want to measure everyone with the same ruler,” Anna said. “If you’ll pardon the expression.”
Aunt Frances glared. “You were only married once, correct?”
“Yes,” Anna said.
“Not much experience with men, I guess.”
“I didn’t need much to understand that I had a wonderful husband. Unfortunately, he suffered an ailment that took him.”
“So you don’t have family,” Aunt Frances said, which I thought was cruel.
“What? She has family. We’re her family.”
“If that’s true, you got the short end of the stick,” Aunt Frances replied, looking at Anna.
Nobody spoke for a moment, and then Aunt Frances shrugged and went to check my blood pressure.
“Too high,” she said. “Best we leave her to rest.”
Anna glanced at me and walked out. Aunt Frances looked at something else, shook her head, and then just left. Was I supposed to worry? Could she be doing this to me deliberately? I wondered.
She wasn’t in my room most of the remaining part of the day, claiming again that she had to set up her room to make even a few days here comfortable. “So much of how I wanted mine to remain was changed,” she complained, mocking me, I was sure.
Anna brought me my food, which Aunt Frances had to approve. It was ridiculous, as Anna never made anything that could cause an issue.
Daddy finally appeared while I was eating.
“Well, from what I’ve been told, you can finally stop being babied,” he said.
Aunt Frances, standing by, looked so pleased with his comment.
“I don’t think you’ve babied me, Daddy.”
“By your mother and my father, mainly,” he said.
“Like you weren’t babied,” Aunt Frances said.
He glared at her. “At least I wasn’t a whiner.”
“Oh, please, that’s all you did; that’s all you do.”
“Oh, you two will have a great dinner together,” I said.
“I’m here just to change clothes. I have to see our accountant for dinner. I have some questions and recommendations.”
“Without Grandfather? Does it concern the Pantel distributors?”
“He babbles. Don’t worry about it,” he said. “Besides, what do you know about the Pantel distributors?”
I was silent. Of course, it had never occurred to him that Grandfather would give me detailed information about the business. I didn’t want that to start some new argument.
His gaze went to the card and the drawing. “Did your fisher boy draw that?”
“No, he has other abilities.”
“Not anymore. He’ll be campin’ outside our door, hopin’ to marry into this family. Don’t you start gettin’ serious with some handicapped fisherman.”
“That’s a terrible thing to say, Daddy.”
“You just do what I say. I’m still your father and, despite what your grandfather thinks, the head of this household. You do what I tell you.”
Until I’m eighteen, I thought.
“You’re raising her blood pressure, Melville,” Aunt Frances sang.
“Ah, you two deserve each other,” he said, and walked off.
She laughed and started out, then turned and said, “Remember, don’t get out of bed and walk about until Dr. Knox sees you tomorrow. They’ll blame me if something happens to you.”
My phone rang. I expected it to be Jamie, but it was Grandfather.
“I’m at the airport,” he said. “How are things?”
“All right, Grandfather.” I wasn’t going to let him worry while he was away.
“Well, I have some surprising news that might please you,” he said.
“What?”
“I hired that artist at Eddie Doyle’s gallery to do a landscape of the Crest. He’ll work on his days off. He’ll stay at the Crest those days.”
“Really?” I looked at the card. “When did you hire him?”
“About ten minutes ago,” he said, laughing. “He came to the airport to ask me. Mr. Doyle had told him I was leaving for New York when he mentioned his desire to him.”
I was silent a moment too long.
“Is that okay?”
“Yes, as long as he didn’t choose my painting to get the job.”
He laughed. “That’s my girl. You’ll make a good businessman. I mean, businesswoman. Oops, I gotta go. I’ll call you from New York.”
“Bye, Grand… pa,” I said. I called him that when I wanted him to know I loved him extra.
I closed my eyes and moments later fell asleep.
I was sure it was only a dream, but I had this vision of the ghosts of the Crest gathering at the foot of my bed and watching me.
When Aunt Frances came to check my vitals and enter numbers in her report in the morning, I told her what Grandfather had done.
“He’s going to be here? That’s like inviting the fox into the chicken coop,” she said.
“Maybe you need more foxes going into yours,” I replied.
Her head literally snapped back. She charged at my card from Kyle.
She ripped it in half.
“NOOOO!” I screamed.
Anna came charging down the hallway, yelling, “What’s wrong? What’s wrong?”
I was lying back on my pillow, looking up at the ceiling.
“What happened here?”
“She tore my card,” I said.
Aunt Frances tossed the two pieces onto the bed.
“She needs guidance and discipline, and not from an old lady who has had very little experience with this sort of thing. She’s a patient but still my niece. You work for the family. Go back to the kitchen. This is a family matter.”
Anna moved to the torn card, picked it off the bed, and turned to Aunt Frances. “This isn’t a family matter. It’s a matter of meanness,” she said, and left.
“When we take over the Crest, I’ll give her two hours to pack all her things and get out,” Aunt Frances said.
I didn’t look at her and I didn’t say a thing. I heard her click her lips.
Just as she walked out, the phone rang. I was hoping it was Grandfather, but it was Jamie.
“You don’t sound too good. Were you crying?”
Jamie knew me. Why shouldn’t he? We had spent practically all our lives together. I didn’t tell him about the card, just how unpleasant my aunt was.
“She truly likes dominating people. She’s the female version of my father, for sure.”
My rage was ripping through my voice.
“We’ll be there in an hour,” he said.
They came in a half hour, probably because Jamie was so insistent.
His sister, Edna, understandably was intrigued by the Crest. She hadn’t been here much at all.
She was so nervous she kept talking about her kids, her housework, everything.
Jamie smiled and laughed at her. Then she said Jamie’s father wanted to construct a special chair for him on one of the boats, and he stopped smiling.
“He doesn’t want it,” she said.
“Why not, Jamie?”
“I might as well wear a flag on my head,” he said. “The only handicapped fisherman on Birdlane Island. I’ll be like a kid handed a rod.”
“Oh, Jamie, when I can, I’ll get on the boat with you, too.”
“See?” his sister said. “Don’t be such a downer.”
Jamie smirked and nodded.
Anna came and greeted everyone. I saw what she was holding. Instinctively I didn’t want her to display it, but she was too proud of what she had done.
“This is repaired,” she said, handing me Kyle’s card.
It was amazing. You almost couldn’t tell it had been torn.
“How did you do this?” I asked when she handed it to me.
“Tricks of the trade,” she said.
“What is that?” Jamie’s sister asked.
“A card the new artist in residency at the Doyle Gallery sent me.”
I looked at Jamie, who was staring hard at the sketch of my face. Aunt Frances paused in the doorway, looked in, and kept walking. I looked at Jamie again.
“Did you pose for that?” he asked.
“No. Grandfather and I met with him after my painting was chosen. He’s a nationally known artist.”
“Must do great portraits,” Jamie’s sister said.
He was still staring.
“Not as much as landscapes. Grandfather has hired him to do the Crest on his days off.”
“Wow,” Jamie’s sister said.
We heard the doorbell, and Anna hurried out. I recognized Dr. Knox’s voice.
“That’s my doctor,” I said.
Jamie’s sister stood instantly. Jamie rose. His silence was scaring me a little.
“As soon as I can, we’ll go for a walk here. It will be good for both of us,” I told him.
“Not when the artist is here,” he said. “I don’t want him drawing a picture of me hobbling along.”
“No, he…” I started to speak, but Dr. Knox appeared in the doorway with a different nurse.
“We’ll see you again,” Jamie’s sister said. “Okay?”
“Oh, yes, please do come again.”
They both left.
“This is Judy Warner,” Dr. Knox said. “She will be replacing your aunt as your private-duty nurse for a few more days.”
A short, stocky woman with a jolly, pudgy face and short light brown hair smiled at me. She didn’t look much older than me.
Dr. Knox gave me his exam and then said, “I should have known better than to have a family member be your nurse. Family brings additional baggage, if you know what I mean.”
Of course, I did.
“I think we can move you along a little bit faster. Start taking some walks around the house and in two days start going outside, when the weather permits, of course. Let’s not think about anything else. Okay, Lisa?”
“Yes, thank you, Doctor.”
He left. I was going to call Jamie, but I didn’t. It was as if I knew instinctively why not to.
I was almost back to my room the following morning when the doorbell rang and Anna answered it.
Kyle Wyman stood there looking in at me.