Nicole had been reading magazines. From time to time she had also been reading Pride and Prejudice, but she thought it was too weird. She read a chapter or two, then got back to the news of Princess Di. She was on the cover of this month’s Good Housekeeping, which was on the top of the magazine pile. Princess Di was shown in profile, the hat she wore indistinguishable from a cow pat except for the spray of feathers.
Jane had told Lucy that what she wanted for a wedding present was for her to make the call to their mother. Lucy had offered to send a silver-rimmed salad bowl instead. Jane had gone into gales of laughter. Stoned. She had made the call stoned.
Now, Nicole was walking around the lawn, aimlessly, like a small child. She was squinting in the sun, and the breeze was blowing through her hair. Standing by the car, she looked small — just a pretty little girl in summertime. She could have been happier, but the truth was that her mother’s phone call hadn’t been the only blow; part of her world had ended the day Ralston-Purina and Campbell’s Soup canceled.
Lucy decided that the best thing to do was to let Nicole be alone for a while. She went into the house and dialed her mother. This was really her summer of doing favors for her sister.
“I have something to tell you,” Lucy said when Rita answered. “It’s not terrible, but I don’t think you’re going to think it’s good news.”
“Say it,” her mother said, her voice almost a whisper.
“I don’t really have the details,” Lucy said, “but a few days ago Jane got married, in California.”
There was complete silence on the line.
“She didn’t tell us right away.”
“Who did she marry?” her mother said.
“Well, it’s embarrassing to admit, but I didn’t write his name down when she told me, and I don’t remember.”
“What does he do?”
“I’m not sure of everything that he does, but he’s a tennis player.”
“If that’s the best thing you can start with, I don’t know that I want to know what else he does,” her mother said.
“It’s her life,” Lucy said. “She can take care of herself.”
“She’ll have to, married to somebody who plays tennis.”
“But it’s just that I’m not sure of what else he does.”
“He wants to be in the movies, if he isn’t already. That’s what he does.”
Lucy said nothing.
“She didn’t invite you to this wedding?”
“No,” Lucy said. “She just called us. Nicole was hurt. I wish Jane had given her the option of being there.”
“Jane doesn’t think about anybody but herself.”
“That isn’t true.”
“I’m not going to argue with you,” her mother said.
“She was afraid to call you,” Lucy said. “Are you going to call her and wish her the best when you get yourself together?”
“Give her my best wishes when you speak to her,” her mother said.
“I don’t want to be the go-between,” Lucy said.
“No one wants to star in a movie that’s already been made,” her mother said.
“Please call her.”
“Couldn’t Piggy stop her?” her mother said.
“Piggy gave her away.”
“What does Piggy say about this?”
“I haven’t spoken to him about it.”
“Is she pregnant again?”
“I don’t think so,” Lucy said. “That wouldn’t be any reason—”
“Your sister doesn’t do anything as the result of reason.”
“I don’t think so,” Lucy said. “Is he foreign?”
“No. Apparently he’s a Wasp. She’s sending pictures.”
“Is he an old man?”
“Quite young.”
“I assume that he isn’t well off, or you would have said so.”
“I assumed that if he was, Jane would have told me.”
“What does Piggy say?”
“We-we-we, I want some.”
Her mother was silent.
“I didn’t speak to Piggy.”
Lucy waited for her mother to continue. There was a long silence.
“How is Nicole?”
“We’re all as surprised by this news as you are. She’s taking it okay. I think she’s having a pretty good time here — better than I thought she’d have.”
“Are you carrying on with Hildon while she’s there?”
“I don’t carry on with Hildon. He’s my oldest friend. We went out on the Fourth of July with a bunch of people, including Hildon and Maureen.”
“God!” her mother said.
“I know that you like Maureen sight unseen because she’s a wife,” Lucy said.
“To feel sorry for her is not to say that I like her. If she stays married to Hildon, I don’t have much respect for her.”
“How is it this has turned into a conversation criticizing me?” Lucy said.
“I’m glad you realize that it’s criticism, instead of just thinking that I’m commenting,” her mother said. “Unless you or your sister are hit over the head, you act like I’m Dan Rather with the news.”
“You know I’m not going to give up a fifteen-year friendship just to please you,” Lucy said. “Try to be nice to me. I don’t find it easy to break news like this to you.”
“Yes,” her mother said, softening her voice a little. “I can’t understand why your sister pretends to be afraid of me. She does anything she wants, and she knows I have no control over her.”
“How are you feeling? Is your hay fever better?”
“I have new antihistamines, but they make me too sleepy.”
“It is her own life,” Lucy said.
“I feel like she’s just thrown it to the wind,” her mother said. “She was that way when she was a baby, of course. She liked to be bought a balloon so she could let go of the string. She never even cried.”
“Well, she’s married him, and that’s that.”
“I’m going to go lie down,” her mother said. “If the pictures are going to upset me, don’t send them. If you talk to Piggy, tell him that he’d better have something good to say for himself when he calls me.”
“Goodbye,” Lucy said. “I love you.”
“I love you too,” her mother said. “Goodbye.”
Lucy felt sadder than she thought she would when she put down the receiver. She could see it from her mother’s perspective — that almost everything they did was strange and upsetting.
She thought about that as she left the house and drove to meet Hildon at the Hadley-Cooper’s. It wasn’t at all what her mother claimed — that she had conveniently found a sort of all-purpose person, a lover-husband-father in one: it wasn’t that, because Hildon wasn’t dependable. She could depend on him to be there, but she couldn’t guess about his mood, couldn’t change it, whatever it was — Hildon was still an enigma, after all these years. His recent good fortune seemed to have made him crazier instead of more stable.
She had asked Nicole if she wanted to go, knowing that it was safe to ask because, as usual, Nicole was sure to say no. She was going back to the house where she had gone to the party not long ago with Hildon. She was glad to have somewhere to go, because she did not want to think about Jane. Hildon wanted her to see the pond, with the carp swimming in it, and a statue of Richard Nixon in the center, pissing.
At the last intersection before the house, she looked carefully at the map Hildon had drawn, that she had kept crumpled in her glove compartment. She found the unmarked driveway without any trouble, and got out of the car and went to one of the stone pillars. The pinkish stone below the lantern on the left was wired so it could be pushed, triggering a device that would make the iron gate rise so she could drive through. She felt like she was in a James Bond movie as she touched the stone and it moved. The gate rose slowly.