Mr. Fenton said, “Shouldn’t Nora be a witness?” and her father said, “I think we could use an endorsement from the little lady,” as if he had never seen her before. To the best of Nora’s knowledge, all the information recorded was true, and so she signed her name to it, along with the rest.
Her father sat down where Vince had been, brushed away some crumbs, and ran a cream-colored document into a big clackety typewriter, older than Nora, most likely. When he had finished repeating the names and dates in the ledger, he fastened a red seal to the certificate and brought it back to the counter to be signed. The same witnesses wrote their names, but only Nora, it seemed, saw her father’s mistakes: he had typed “Nell” for “Neil” and “Frenton” for “Fenton” and had got the date of birth wrong by a year, giving “Nell Frenton” the age of fifteen months. The men signed the certificate without reading it. If she and her father had been alone, she could have pointed out the mistakes, but of course she could not show him up in front of strangers.
The doctor put his fountain pen away and remarked, “I like Neil for a name.” He spoke to Mr. Fenton in English and to Ray and Nora not at all. At the same time he and Nora’s father seemed to know each other. There was an easiness of acquaintance between them; a bit cagey perhaps. Mr. Fenton seemed more like the sort of man her father might go with to the races. She could imagine them easily going on about bets and horses. Most of the babies Ray was kind enough to find for unhappy couples were made known by doctors. Perhaps he was one of them.
It was decided between Ray and Mr. Fenton that Nora would be called for, the next morning, by Mr. Fenton and the doctor. They would all three collect the child and take him home. Nora was invited to lunch. Saying goodbye, Mr. Fenton touched her bare arm, perhaps by accident, and asked her to call him “Boyd.” Nothing in her manner or expression showed she had heard.
That evening, Ray and his wife played cards in the kitchen. Nora was ironing the starched piqué dress she would wear the next day. She said, “They gave up their own baby for adoption, or what?”
“Maybe they weren’t expecting a child. It was too much for them,” her mother said.
“Give us a break,” said Ray. “Mrs. Fenton wasn’t in any shape to look after him. She had her mother down from Toronto because she couldn’t even run the house. They’ve got this D.P. maid always threatening to quit.”
“Does he mind having his mother-in-law around the whole time?” said Nora.
“He sure doesn’t.” Nora thought he would add some utterly English thing, like “She’s got the money,” but Ray went on, “She’s on his side. She wants them together. The baby’s the best thing that could happen.”
“Maybe there was a mistake at the hospital,” said Nora’s mother, trying again. “The Fentons got some orphan by mistake and their own baby went to the home.”
“And then the truth came out,” said Nora. It made sense.
“Now when you’re over there, don’t you hang out with that maid,” Ray said. “She can’t even speak English. If somebody says to you to eat in the kitchen, I want you to come straight home.”
“I’m not leaving home,” said Nora. “I’m not sure if I want to go back to their place after tomorrow.”
“Come on,” said Ray. “I promised.”
“You promised. I didn’t.”
“Leave your dress on the ironing board,” said her mother. “I’ll do the pleats.”
Nora switched off the iron and went to stand behind her father. She put her hands on his shoulders. “Don’t worry,” she said. “I’m not going to let you down. You might as well throw your hand in. I saw Maman’s.”
3
Obliged to take the baby from Nora, Missy now held him at arm’s length, upright between her hands, so that no part of him could touch her white apron. Nora thought, He’ll die from his own screaming. Missy’s face said she was not enjoying the joke. Perhaps she thought Mr. Fenton had put Nora up to it. His laughter had said something different: whatever blunders he might have committed until now, choosing Missy to be the mother of a Fenton was not among them.
“You’d better clean him up right away,” said Mrs. Clopstock.
Missy, whose silences were astonishingly powerful, managed to suggest that cleaning Neil up was not in her working agreement. She did repeat that a bottle was ready for some reason, staring hard at the doctor.
“The child is badly dehydrated,” he said, as if replying to Missy. “He should be given liquid right away. He is undernourished and seriously below his normal weight. As you can tell, he has a bad case of diarrhea. I’ll take his temperature after lunch.”
“Is he really sick?” said Nora.
“He may have to be hospitalized for a few days.” He was increasingly solemn and slower than ever.
“Hospitalized?” said Mr. Fenton. “We’ve only just got him here.”
“The first thing is to get him washed and changed,” said Mrs. Clopstock.
“I’ll do it,” said Nora. “He knows me.”
“Missy won’t mind.”
Sensing a private exchange between Mrs. Clopstock and Missy, Nora held still. She felt a child’s powerful desire to go home, away from these strangers. Mrs. Clopstock said, “Let us all please go and sit down. We’re standing here as if we were in a hotel lobby.”
“I can do it,” Nora said. She said again, “He knows me.”
“Missy knows where everything is,” said Mrs. Clopstock. “Come along, Alex, Boyd. Nora, don’t you want to wash your hands?”
“I’m feeling dehydrated too,” said Mr. Fenton. “I hope Missy put something on ice.”
Nora watched Missy turn and climb the stairs, and disappear around the bend in the staircase. There’ll be a holy row about this, she thought. I’ll be gone.
“It was very nice meeting you,” she said. “I have to leave now.”
“Come on, Nora,” said Mr. Fenton. “Anybody could have made the same mistake. You came in out of bright sunlight. The hall was dark.”
“Could we please, please go and sit down?” said his mother-in-law.
“All right,” he said, still to Nora. “It’s O.K. You’ve had enough. Let’s have a bite to eat and I’ll drive you home.”
“You may have to take Neil to the hospital.”
Mrs. Clopstock took the doctor’s arm. She was a little woman in green linen, wearing pearls and pearl earrings. Aunt Rosalie would have seen right away if they were real. The two moved from the shaded hall to a shaded room.
Mr. Fenton watched them go. “Nora,” he said, “just let me have a drink and I’ll drive you home.”
“I don’t need to be driven home. I can take the Sherbrooke bus and walk the rest of the way.”
“Can you tell me what’s wrong? It can’t be my mother-in-law. She’s a nice woman. Missy’s a little rough, but she’s nice too.”
“Where’s Mrs. Fenton?” said Nora. “Why didn’t she at least come to the door? It’s her child.”
“You’re not dumb,” he said. “You’re not Ray’s girl for nothing. It’s hers and it isn’t.”
“We all signed,” Nora said. “I didn’t sign to cover up some story. I came here to do a Christian act. I wasn’t paid anything.”
“What do you mean by ‘anything’? You mean not enough?”
“Who’s Neil?” she said. “I mean, who is he?”
“He’s a Fenton. You saw the register.”
“I mean, who is he?”
“He’s my son. You signed the register. You should know.”