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“I know what you must think of me,” she said. “The scandal of it. But I couldn’t turn her out.”
I hoped she’d say more about Shelly. I wanted to know what had happened all those years ago—and why Shelly’s son was still holding a grudge about it decades later. But Mimi had nothing else to say; she tipped her head back against the chair and fell deeply asleep.
I watched the slow rise and fall of her chest, envying the way she could slip out of consciousness and be immediately at peace.
The rest of us were not at peace. The incident with Jack Dyer had set the stage for a bigger conflict, one that erupted late that night after Mimi had gone to bed and all of us, Adam included, were sitting inthe big living room where a Christmas tree should’ve been but wasn’t. Adam, Diana, and William were playing hearts, Mom was focused on her phone, Richard was announcing for the third time that he couldn’t find the DVD ofHoliday Inn,and I was silently hoping he’d give up and decide to watch literally any other seasonal movie that didn’t have blackface in it. (I was also hoping he wouldn’t figure out that I’d hidden theHoliday InnDVD, for this reason, between the cushions of the couch I was sitting on.)
“What about one of these?” I asked, indicating the Netflix “Holiday” menu, but nobody responded until Adam looked up from his hand and said, “Hey, is thatWhite Christmas? My grandma used to love that movie. She was wild for Bing Crosby.”
Diana laid down a card and snorted. “I’d rather watchLove Actually.”
“And I’d rather put both my eyes out with a hot poker,” Richard said.
“So, how aboutWhite Christmas,” I said, smiling at Adam, who smiled back.
“And then stick the poker up my anus,” Richard said.
Diana twisted in her chair. “Don’t be disgusting. Do you remember that time that Daddy dressed as Santa Claus?”
“That wasn’t Dad, it was Pop-Pop,” Richard said.
“Oh no, I’m sure it was Daddy.”
“It wasn’t.”
“It was!”
“Are you insane? Dad would never.”
“Dora,” Diana said, exasperated, “you remember. It was the year I wore that green tartan, and Richard—”
“I don’t remember,” Mom said, not lifting her eyes from her phone. Her thumbs kept racing over the screen.
“How can you not remember?”
“Because she wasn’t born yet,” Richard said. “Because it was Pop-Pop.”
“I believe my wife,” William said, but nobody, not even Diana, looked at him.
Diana looked at my mother. “We could resolve this so easily if we checked the photo album,” she said pointedly.
Mom’s eyes stayed on her phone. “I told you, I don’t know where—”
“Didn’t you say it was in the attic?” Adam said suddenly, and though Mom didn’t look up, her thumbs stopped moving.
“Did I?”
“Yes,” I said. “I remember, too. You said that the older photos were destroyed in the fire, but a family album might be in the attic.”
Mom yawned. “Oh, I guess that’s right. But let’s not tonight. It’s awfully late and dark—”
“And I’m sure thatHoliday InnDVD is around here somewhere,” Richard chimed in, but Diana was on her feet and heading toward the door.
“I know I’m right,” she was saying. “I’ll just—”
Richard and Mom leaped up at the same time.
“Diana, those pull-down stairs are dangerous,” Mom said, at the same time as Richard said, “For god’s sake, sister, nobody cares,” but Diana kept moving—and then Adam was on his feet, saying, “I got you,” to everybody and nobody all at once, as if it were his job to keep the peace. By the time we reached the stairs he was ahead of everyone, leading the procession as we climbed to the third floor.
