“O he does! He has the space.”
“It might be a better place to show the images than my garage!”
“I think it’s a wonderful idea.”
“I could even bring the last photos — of my daughter.”
“Well, that would be an absolute privilege. For everyone.”
During their conversation she’d wandered into the yard, and then the garage, where one of the enormous prints of Jerilynn hung in a temporary frame. Now she was staring straight at it. Her daughter looked so beautiful in the slate grey Alexander Wang—& Nikki lay on her chest in mid-squall.
“Because in a way,” said Jacquie. “It’s the showpiece.”
CLEAN [Biggie&Telma]
Search
Biggie’s
operation was a success. The doctors said he would gradually recover “full powers,” though not for a few months.
Telma and Biggie were inseparable. Apart from Brando and the nanny, she was the only one Biggie would interact with. Brando even gave Telma her own bedroom. Gwen was comfortable with it because the children were well-supervised, and Telma did schoolwork with Biggie’s tutor.
Gwen was there a few times a week for lunch and dinner. The story Brando told her about the mother who went away lay heavy on her heart. The father lived in one of the houses on the vast estate but apparently only materialized at night, to pace the grounds. Was he awaiting his wife’s return? Or was it for his own death… Gwen never saw him, tho when she was over for dinner, did find herself doing a little rubbernecking into the dusky sprinklermist. It was all rather gothic — she couldn’t help thinking of the father as Rochester’s mad wife, shut up in secret rooms.
. .
The invitations to cancer galas continued to come in, but Telma evinced no interest. Just before Michael wrapped his movie, he asked Gwen and her to tea but Telma declined. Telma emailed with Aleisha’s mom and phoned the little girl twice a week w/o fail. She accompanied Biggie to the hospital whenever he had an appointment but otherwise stayed away, quietly abdicating her mayoralty. Gwen got all kinds of worried communiqués from the RNs, missing Telma & wanting to know “what was happening.”
Gwen didn’t say it, but something was happening.
Her daughter was growing up.
. .
She took the call in her bedroom at the Brainards’.
Her mom said that she and Phoebe were thinking of going to Hawaii for a week, and might Biggie and Telma like to come? Telma said no, they were in the middle of a big project, but told her mom she should go enjoy herself, that she’d better or Telma would be mad. While they were talking, a picture of Michael Douglas came on the television, & Telma told Gwen to hold on while she turned up the sound. Shia LaBeouf was being interviewed. “Cancer picked the wrong guy when it picked Michael,” he said.
They spoke a while longer, then Telma said she needed to check up on Biggie. Gwen had already expressed her concerns to Phoebe about her daughter’s codependency; she was afraid Telma swapped one obsession for another. Phoebe said she thought the bond with Biggie was a far healthier manifestation of her altruistic spirit than her relationship to cancer was, which was grandiose & doomed to end badly. Phoebe said, Would you try something? I’d like you to try and stop worrying, for 30 seconds at a time.
Before hanging up, Telma surprised Gwen by saying, “Mom, I’m going to marry Biggie one day. I don’t know who’s going to ask who, but someone’s going to ask somebody.”
Telma said an Aloha! & was gone.
. .
For the last week, Biggie was having more problems than usual. The doctors said it might go like that; the up and the down of it, until things settled. Telma did flashcards with him every day but sometimes he got tired. He’d say he didn’t know certain things, but Telma was convinced he did. It could be really frustrating but she knew how to get him to push through.
When she stepped into his room, he was Google Earthing. He was listening to music on his Beats so she was able to kind of creep up & look over Biggie’s shoulder, without him knowing. He was in Slovenia, loitering around the parking lot of the Skocjan Caves. (He’d been hanging there with his little “street view man” all weekend.) Biggie told her the caves were created by a sinking river, half on the surface, ½-underground. The wiki said that the subterranean gorge/waterfalls looked like something out of The Lord of the Rings.
She was about to let her presence be known when he opened Google & typed
mother
There were 1,341,000,000 hits.
~ ~ ~
END
~ ~ ~
David Rosenthal
~ ~ ~
Nothing to Undo
~ ~ ~
Sarah Hochman
Acknowledgments
Lily Burk
& Greg Burk & Deborah Drooz
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