Chapter Four #2
“I’m sorry we never met. I’d have liked to have known her. I don’t know why my mother didn’t tell me about her.” She waited a beat, then asked, “Do you know why?”
His silence told her he did.
Finally, he said, “I do apologize, Mrs. Porterfield, but that’s not my story to tell.”
“Well, I guess I’ll have to see if I can figure it out for myself while I’m there.” She thought about that for a moment. “Do you think there’s any chance that I might?”
“That’ll depend on you, I suppose. I’ll look forward to hearing from you. You take care now.”
“Mr. Banks—” The line had gone dead.
Philadelphia International Airport was teeming at six thirty in the morning, but Kit was oblivious of the crowd, not even curious enough to wonder where all those people were going so early in the day.
She wondered if she’d been hasty to arrange this trip, this flight to Maine where she might discover .
. . what? And how might it affect her life, her memories, her relationship with her mother?
She’d had no clue that Maxine Meadows existed, but obviously Maxine knew about her, enough to tell her attorney Kit’s married name and where to find her.
Someone had to have told her. Since it was most likely not Kit’s mother—then who?
To say that Russ thought this trip unnecessary was an understatement.
“If your mother had wanted you to know about this long-lost aunt, she’d have told you.
You don’t owe Maxine anything,” he’d said when she told him she’d made arrangements.
“You don’t know what’s in that can of worms you’re about to open, Kit.
You may find things you wish you hadn’t.
Are you doing this to spite me? Just because I said you should just sell it, take the cash, and move on with your life? ”
“I’m going to try to fill in a few holes in my mother’s story, Russ,” she’d replied pointedly. “And don’t make this about you.”
He’d stared at her blankly, then left the room. Yet even this morning, he was back at it.
“You know, it’s still not too late to cancel this trip. You really don’t have to go.”
“Just stop. This is about my family. I want to see where my mother grew up. I want to find out all I can about Maxine and maybe even figure out why they had a falling-out. Why is that so hard to understand?”
“Maybe they just didn’t like each other.” He threw up his hands in apparent frustration. “That happens in families, you know?”
“I do know. But I’m also thinking about finding things that belong to us, to Beth, our kids.
Photographs, family heirlooms. Who knows what cool things I might find?
” She lowered her voice to a near whisper and leaned closer to him.
“Maybe some valuable artwork. A previously unknown work by Winslow Homer, for example. Or a Wyeth.”
“Fat chance.”
She’d stood at the base of the stairs. “Abby, I’m ready whenever you are.”
Russ tried a different tactic. “You’ve been Abby’s childcare for the past four weeks. Who’s going to watch Benny if she’s working and you’re gone?”
“Abby’s a big girl. She’ll figure it out.” Kit slipped her arms into her winter jacket and began to button it up. “She’s got her name in at several school districts, but she hasn’t had a lot of callbacks. Maybe she’ll ask you to pinch-hit for her when she gets called in to substitute.”
Out of the corner of her eye, she watched Russ’s face pale just a bit.
Wally waddled over and looked up at Kit expectantly. She knelt down and rubbed behind his long ears.
“Not this time, buddy. When I get back we’ll go for a nice long walk, okay?”
Abby came rushing down the steps, Benny in one arm, her overstuffed bag of extra diapers, snacks, and toys in the other. “Sorry, Mom. I hope we’re not late.”
“We’ll be right on time.” Kit stood and lifted her carry-on, carefully packed with a few days’ worth of clothes and toiletries.
She swung it over her shoulder, then glanced at her husband, who did not look happy.
“Stop pouting. I won’t be gone that long.
Probably a week or two, depending on how much stuff is in the house.
You can take care of things on your own for a couple of weeks. ”
He took several steps in her direction, then paused and planted a dry kiss on her cheek.
“Have a safe trip. I hope you get all the answers you need. I mean it.”
She softened. “Thank you. I appreciate that. I’ll let you know. Seriously, Russ, you’ll be fine. I won’t be gone long.”
“I hope not. My retirement party is coming up pretty quickly. You’ll be happy to know you won’t have to do a thing. HR is handling everything. I only need to give them a list of people outside the company to invite.”
“What people outside the company? You mean, like us? Me, Ned, Abby, Beth?”
He ignored her questions, his attention drawn to the ping on his phone that signaled an incoming text.
“Why so soon, Dad? I thought you weren’t retiring until June. It’s only the beginning of April.”
“I have a lot of vacation and personal time accrued, so while the official date is June, I can leave this month.” He picked up his phone from the counter and glanced at the screen. His lips twitched in a subtle smile.
“What will you do with yourself then?” Abby asked over her shoulder as she headed for the door.
“Oh, I have plans, child. Stay tuned.” He tucked the phone into his jacket pocket.
I have plans . . .
In the blink of an eye, the look on Russ’s face had gone from glum to glowing. What the heck was he planning?
Once in her window seat, Kit adjusted her bag under the seat in front of her, sat back, and closed her eyes.
She was an uneasy flyer and avoided it whenever she could.
This was the first time she’d ever flown alone, without Russ, one of the children, or a friend.
She’d really wanted her sister to accompany her, but a trip was out of the question.
Scenes from past sister trips played in Kit’s head.
Long weekends at the Jersey Shore the summer after Beth graduated from college.
A week in Savannah before Beth’s treatments began, during which she’d insisted their rental car be a convertible so she could “feel the wind in my hair before I lose it all.” Four days in Saint Denis, Maryland, where they’d explored historic houses and done some early Christmas shopping.
Kit should have been sharing this trip with her sister.
Beth had been as startled and mystified as Kit when she took the documents to Beth’s home and laid them all out on the dining room table.
“I’d love to go with you. I’d love to see this place.
I’m blown away by all this crazy talk of an aunt we never heard of and a campground in the woods.
I can’t imagine why Mom never mentioned her.
” Beth had slumped into her chair. “Now’s not the best time for me.
I don’t know what’s happening with this new drug.
I hope it’s not just my imagination, and I hate to jinx myself, but I do feel a little stronger from one week to the next. ”
“Keep it up, Bethy. Your doctor sounded very positive at your last visit, that your numbers were looking better. I for one believe you will kick your tumor’s ass.”
“God, I hope you’re right. I am so sick of being sick.” Beth’s eyes filled with tears.
“I know you are, sweetie, but you’re going to get through this.
” She was tempted to tell her sister about the dream but thought better of it.
What if that was all it really was, a dream that had reflected her fear of losing her sister, as Russ had said?
Wishful thinking at the very least. Better that she hold that dream close until Beth had proof that she’d bested her cancer or, at the least, beaten it into a corner.
Then they’d have a good laugh about Beth defying their mother, as she had so rarely done when they were growing up.
Kit had always been the one to argue, to talk back, to push the limits.
“From your lips, as they say.” Beth wiped the tears away with a tissue she’d dug out of her pocket. “Let’s not talk about that. Let’s talk about this inheritance of yours and this feud between Mom and her sister. It’s all so wild to think about.”
She paused. “Do you think whatever happened between them happened before I was born? Maxine obviously knew about you. But she never mentioned me. It’s as if she didn’t know I existed.”
“That’s the most likely explanation. Honestly, it’s been bothering me that she left you out.
I couldn’t understand why, but you’re right.
If they stopped speaking to each other before you were born, she wouldn’t have known.
” Of course, that didn’t explain how she knew Kit’s married name and where to find her.
If Maxine had found that information from her sister’s obituary online, she’d have known she had two nieces, not one.
Kit let it go for now, hoping her trip into their mother’s past would provide some answers.
“It’s so nice of Ned to offer to help me at the café while you’re away.
” Beth got up to answer the whistle of the teakettle.
She’d already set out two cups. Kit disliked green tea, but Beth believed it had medicinal properties, so she smiled and drank it in small sips.
“He said the restaurant he’s working for wasn’t that busy right now so he could take a few days off, and other days he could cover for me first thing in the morning. ”
“I’m sure he’s happy for the change. I don’t think he likes being a line cook as much as he thought he might. We keep telling him he has to start somewhere, but he’s impatient.”
Beth laughed. “There’s no shortage of self-confidence in that boy.
He thinks he’s ready to take on the culinary world, be the youngest head chef ever in a Main Line Philly restaurant.
There’s no doubt in my mind he could do it.
He’s amazing. Every bit as good as the chef at that place where he works. Better than him.”