Family Reunion

  “Should I beat him black and blue,” said Aunt Maggie to Grandma and me and Annette, “or join in the hugging?”

  Grandma began laughing. It was that soft, possessive love of people who had always known what Daddy was like, but now they knew again.

  “Annette, did you know all along?” I accused her.

  She rolled her eyes. “Of course. He thought it was funny.”

  How maddening for her, listening to Aunt Maggie carry on. She could have given Daddy away. I bet she wanted to. But she stuck on his side, even though he was being as much of a pain as Angus ever was.

  Aunt Maggie began to laugh, just when I had thought she would never have a real, true laugh again in this world. She and my father went toward each other carefully, miming a fight. “Charlie,” she said to him, “I don't know how yet, but you are going to pay.”

  The guests egged her on, with a dozen suggestions of what could be done to my father. Angus whipped out his notebook and wrote them all down.

  I wanted to race up like Angus and fling myself on top of Daddy and be his special girl in front of everybody. But I didn't. I could feel Annette wanting to do the same thing. But she didn't. It was like opening the door for somebody, where you each step back and wait for the other person to go first.

  Daddy is first for both of us, I thought. And we don't know how to share very well. And Joanna can't share at all.

  But the first one of us Daddy kissed was his mother, my grandmother. He swung her on his arm and then put the other arm around Annette. Grandma slipped free, and I had a turn with the arm she had used. Even Daddy's one-armed hugs are bear hugs. “Daddy,” I said reproachfully, “you made us suffer. We had to listen to Aunt Maggie say bad things about you.”

  Daddy roared with laughter.

  I didn't have to protect him, I thought. Daddy never cared what anybody here thought. Only I cared.

  Carolyn came over for her hug, but she was shy about it. My father is so much more energetic than her father. Daddy shook hands with Uncle Todd, and then finally he said, “Maggie, don't be mad. I had to do it to you. The situation begged for it.”

  Behind her, their friends began singing “For She's a Jolly Good Fellow.” Maggie allowed my father to kiss her cheek. She called him some names, and people with video cameras told her to talk louder so they could immortalize it.

  “Your son,” said Aunt Maggie, as if Angus were a clear and present danger, “has a present for you. Autographs of everybody in town.” She moved into the shadows, letting my father have the stage he was so good at taking, and Uncle Todd put his arm around his wife's waist.

  Angus displayed his autograph collection proudly. He looked with satisfaction at the gathering of relatives. “We're all here now,” he said contentedly. Then he left us, because a latecomer had brought yet another dessert.

  Angus's sentence hit me. We're all here now.

  But we weren't all here. Joanna, our sister, she wasn't here. Mommy, our real mother, she wasn't here.

  All my family reunions will be partial, I thought.

  What will my wedding be like one day? Extra pews for extra families? Double-length inscriptions on the invitations to accommodate all the parents?

  Oh, Brett. Oh, Joanna. Don't fall out the bottom of our families. Come home.

  I thought of Aunt Maggie having to look at the videos and photographs of this party, which was going to be a smashing success and remembered by all. But forever and ever the photographs would remind her that one summer she was missing a son.

  The party changed.

  Laughter was longer and louder, the way laughter is when my father is there, and the stories were funnier, and the food even yummier. The heat did not lessen, but nobody went into the air-conditioning now; everybody gathered around Daddy and told stories and shouted out punch lines and passed drinks and barbecue and extra napkins.

  “Shelley, there's a call for you,” said Carolyn. “It's a boy.”

  “Toby?”

  “No. Weird name. I had to ask three times to be sure of it. DeWitt?”

  “DeWitt!” I said. “What phone did he call on?”

  “Your cell phone, of course. It's in my room. A guest heard it ringing and tracked it down and reported in.” The two of us ran to her bedroom, where none other than Beth, the pre-Celeste girlfriend, was chatting away with DeWitt. “Well, I am just so glad I found out where you got that name from, DeWitt,” said Beth. “Now here's Shelley, at last. I declare, they had to go all the way to Texas to find her.”

  “DeWitt?” I said into the phone.

  Beth grinned at me and said, “Carolyn, let's go have a dessert,” and all of a sudden I thought, Daddy's pre-Celeste girlfriend was pretty good too.

  “It's me,” confirmed DeWitt. “How are you doing?”

  “Is it an emergency?” I asked him. “Did our house burn down? Or yours? Are you all right?”

  “I just wanted to say hi. See how it's going. And if Annette sagged and Toby turned out to be your brother.”

  “Oh, DeWitt, you won't believe it. Toby's not my brother, but he is the son of Daddy's first wife, except his father of course was the second husband. I know, there are a lot of husbands and wives in my story, you don't have to remind me, they play my family here like a board game. Toby is really nice. I went on a roller coaster with him.” I could see DeWitt, his shaggy hair, his face with too much forehead until his smile equaled it out, like an equation in math. “DeWitt, I don't think I gave you my cell phone number.”

  “You didn't. I asked the Frankels. They have about sixty-two numbers for you guys. Five cell phones, New York home phone, Vermont home phone, Paris home phone, Barrington home phone. In case of emergency, they'd probably be on the phone two or three days just trying to break through.”

  I was grinning all over my entire body. Especially my nice bare midriff. I wished DeWitt could see me in my wonderful yellow dress. “How was the hike?”

  “It was good. I held up best. I was strongest. We didn't meet anything scary, though. No bears. And guess what. The Lake Association hired me to paint docks for the rest of the summer, so I'll be here when you get back after all.”

  “That's wonderful! And my cousin Carolyn is coming back with us. And then I think for a week I'll go to France to visit my mother. I can't wait to see you. My whole life has changed in this visit. I'll tell you everything when I get back.”

  “Great,” said DeWitt hesitantly, as if he had something else to say.

  I waited, but he didn't say it. “Bye,” I said, and the syllable was lame and pitiful, and it needed other things on both sides of it.

  “Bye,” said DeWitt, and there was another pause full of things we meant to say, and then we both hung up. I stared at the phone in my hand as if it were as special as the necklace Grandma had given me.

  Carolyn flung herself back into the room. Only Beth had gone downstairs.

  “Was that your boyfriend?” Carolyn burst out. “You didn't tell me you have a boyfriend. I can't believe you've been here all this time and you didn't tell me about your boyfriend.”

  Ail this time.

  I had been in Barrington two days.

  “Why didn't you tell me?” demanded Carolyn.

  I didn't want to say that I had not mentioned my boyfriend because I had not known that he was one. “I guess we hadn't gotten to that yet,” I said. “You know. We would have. Later.”

  Carolyn sighed happily. “It was too intimate to talk about until you knew me better and trusted me completely. Will you tell me absolutely everything later on?” She leaned forward and stared into my eyes in a meaningful way. “I want to know how, Shelley.”

  I kind of wanted to know how myself. I didn't think a description of DeWitt's hands on my knees was what Carolyn had in mind.

  We floated back into the party. DeWitt had gone to the trouble of getting my phone number from the Frankels, all because he wanted to make sure I knew he was going to be at the lake after all. I would have two more reunions, one
with DeWitt and one with my mother.

  Carolyn was floating along for other reasons. She thought I was going to tell her all about sex. I had a good book to recommend to her, but it was back in New York.

  The party was over.

  The guests had gone home.

  It was three in the morning.

  Angus had fallen asleep on the grass, and Daddy maneuvered him to bed. Grandma had hardly stayed up at all after Daddy arrived. I couldn't imagine being tired just when the party really took off, but Grandma said when you were eighty, you could even be too tired for parties. Carolyn and I dragged huge black plastic garbage bags around the yard, stuffing them full of used paper napkins, paper cups, paper plates and plastic spoons. Annette covered miles of uneaten spareribs in plastic wrap while Daddy was having an argument with Aunt Maggie.

  “Why are you mad at me?” he said. “I thought it was funny. I swore Annette to secrecy, and I didn't even let Angus and Shelley in on the joke.”

  Aunt Maggie was crying. This had been a very tear-filled reunion so far, and we were only at the top of day two.

  “It was the best party ever,” protested my father.

  Aunt Maggie continued to cry.

  “Okay, I'm sorry,” said my father. “It was juvenile. It was dumb. I admit it. But that's the kind of family we always were, Maggie. I was always getting into trouble, and you were always having to handle it, and I figured it would be like old times, and you'd laugh about it, and—”

  “You are such a conceited person, Charlie Wollcott. If you think I have time to worry about your inconsiderate stupid pranks, you are wrong. I am worried about my son. The Camerons told him to leave and he did. But he didn't come home. He's not here. He could be anywhere. Hitchhiking, getting picked up by mass murderers or rapists of young boys. And you're playing silly games.”

  Uncle Todd sighed. “Maggie, you're getting melodramatic. I'm sure Brett just moved on to another friend's house. He's popular, you know. After he wears out his welcome at one place, he can just move on to another.”

  “That's even worse,” cried Aunt Maggie. “There won't be a street in town where I can drive without wondering if my own son is living there.”

  “In the morning we'll find him,” said Uncle Todd.

  “You're not even worried!” she accused him.

  “I'm worried about us,” said Uncle Todd. “I'm worried about putting this family back together. But I'm not worried about Brett. He's not going to do anything foolish like vanish across the horizon, Maggie. He has another ball game to coach and he has to be at work. I'll just go down to the warehouse in the morning and have a talk with him.”

  Aunt Maggie stared at a vast tray of leftover foods Annette was preparing to squeeze into the refrigerator. “This was supposed to be such a wonderful week. All spring I planned a celebration of our anniversary and Charlie's welcome home and a family reunion. But it's my family that isn't together.”

  I turned quickly to help Annette shift things in the refrigerator.

  I couldn't look at my aunt.

  I had wanted something like this to happen to them, so they wouldn't be Perfect anymore.

  I began my e-mail to Joanna shortly after breakfast. It was the longest e-mail in the history of the Wollcott family. It was more like an encyclopedia entry.

  … so Daddy comforted Annette that she is still very important and probably the major cause in my coming to terms with Mommy and Jean-Paul, and Annette being so stable is probably the most vital part of our family right now. Annette liked that, and luckily Angus didn't argue. I could have, but I didn't, which I feel was mature of me. You have to give Annette another chance, Jo. She really is very decent. And then I told Daddy and Annette how DeWitt had telephoned and wants me to go out with him once I'm back in Vermont. And Annette told Daddy about the engagement necklace Grandma gave me and how we're going to shop for a really special dress for the dance, and Daddy said, “What dance?” and Annette explained, “There isn't one yet,” and Daddy said, “Perhaps we should give the dance!” and Annette said, “No, the lake is not the kind of location for the kind of dance for the kind of dress that would suit the engagement necklace.” Daddy said he gave up. Angus said if DeWitt and I get married, I have to promise not to name our son DeWitt because there is such a thing as going too far.

  I stopped writing.

  What would Grandma give Joanna that could possibly be the equal of my necklace? Joanna is the oldest grandchild. Grandma couldn't have left Joanna out, could she? Was there a family rule that if you skipped the reunion, you didn't get a good present? Would Grandma send Joanna a pair of socks from the discount mall?

  “Who are you writing to, sugar?” asked my father, coming up behind me and kissing my hair eleven times.

  “Joanna. I'm telling her about the necklace and the party and DeWitt and how I'm going to France now too, which reminds me, Daddy. Telephone Mother right now and let her know the dates I'm visiting.”

  “Your mother would be a lot more thrilled if you made the call.”

  “If I call now, I've wasted my entire e-mail.”

  Daddy laughed. “Finish the e-mail. Send it. Then we'll both call. I knew when you finally took off, it would be like a volcano, Shell, but I didn't think it would happen in only two days while I wasn't here to see it.”

  “I haven't told you about the real explosion.”

  He hit his head in mock horror. “Are you going to take over Angus's slot in life now? You're going to be the one to start things?”

  I nodded.

  “Well, whatever it is, you look pretty happy about it. Tell me.”

  “I have a date for a drive this afternoon.”

  “A date! Who on earth have you met and gotten that close to in forty-eight hours?”

  “Toby. He's wonderful. We got talking because I hadn't understood the gossip about him. In fact, Daddy, you omitted to tell me that he even existed to start with, which, I have to tell you, hurt his feelings very much. I comforted him. Angus and I had thought maybe Toby was actually your son, and therefore our brother, and—”

  “Toby?” said my father, thunderstruck. “You have a date with Toby? Celeste's son? That Toby?”

  “Of course that Toby.”

  “No!” shouted my father. “No, you can't do that. You certainly can't go around in a car with him offering him comfort.”

  “Daddy! He wants to meet you. You'll like him a lot.”

  “I'm not ready for this.”

  “Sixteen years and you're not ready?”

  “You can't go for a drive with him. Now or ever. Shelley, I know better than anybody what happens when—” He was too appalled to finish his sentence. “Well… when Celeste and I went for drives—and this is her son—and you're my daughter—no. Never. Forget it. I'm putting you on a plane for Paris right now.”

  “Daddy, I hardly know Toby, and really and truly, all we're going to do is go for a drive.”

  “One thing leads to another.”

  “Not that fast. Don't look so sick. He is a great person.”

  My father really did look sick. “I don't want you making every mistake that I made. This is too close to home. My daughter dating the son of my first wife? Shelley—no.” He looked at Annette for backup. She gestured with hands, face, eyes and elbows that this was his problem, not hers.

  “All my life,” said my father, “I've coped with Joanna and with Angus, and before them I coped with your mother, and before her I coped with Celeste. But Shelley, you're my easy one. You're my stable one.”

  “I hate that word stable.”

  “I know a person gets tired of the concept, but still—” “I hate being counted on! I want to be the one who does stuff you don't expect. Grandma explained the chemistry to us. A stabilizer keeps a mixture from being changed by new additions. I'm sick of being the stabilizer.”

  My father said gloomily, “I don't see anything good coming of this.”

  “Daddy, you were the one who was so nice to Toby. You paid
to take care of him when he was little and Celeste was going to law school, and you were totally wonderful, and I'm proud of that, and Toby turned out to be a wonderful person too. And he asked me to go out with him. So there.”

  Actually he had not asked me to go out with him. He had asked to continue our conversation, except in a car with him driving. I thought that Toby probably just wanted to discuss family history in detail, and I really thought Toby was just hoping my father would be standing in the driveway, and they could meet at last.

  … and then, Joanna, Daddy began telling me about Sunday school. They're really into Sunday school around here. Daddy says you're not supposed to let your right hand know what your left hand is doing. I said, “What on earth does that mean? If you're driving and your right hand doesn't know that your left hand is turning the steering wheel, there's going to be an accident.” Daddy said real charity does not brag, even to itself. He said when you're doing a kindness, boasting ruins it. So with one hand, you write the check, and with the other hand, you block your own sight of it. Isn't that neat?

  So I said, “How come you never took us to Sunday school when you learned so much important stuff there?” He said when he left Barrington, he really left Barrington, and that included things like Sunday school that symbolized Barrington.

  “You don't like Barrington?” I said to him. I wished he could see Barrington the way I used to, with front porches and lemonade and hugs, a time of summer and happiness.

  “I'm starting to like Barrington again,” he said. “I went through a long, heavy-duty rebellion. It lasted for years. I didn't actually want this reunion. Not that I wasn't glad to get together with my family again, but I didn't much want to remember the details of my teenage years again.”

  “But everybody was so glad to see you, Daddy! You were the star of the show!”

  “It's tough growing up, Shell. Or haven't you noticed?”

  “I noticed.”

  “It takes most people a couple of years. Took me a couple of decades. Nobody really wants to go back and stand where he was jeered at and mocked when he was a kid.”