Page 53 of Winter Solstice
“Actually, I’ve been thinking about the Caribbean,” Mitzi says.
The table grows quiet and then Kelley speaks up. His voice is strong and clear, and for one second it’s like he’s perfectly healthy. “Mitzi doesn’t have to decide right now. Let’s just enjoy.”
“Hear, hear,” Drake says.
Jennifer offers to help clear the table and wrap leftovers. She supposes she should be grateful that Isabelle is the way she is—proud, reserved, French. Certainly there are other sisters-in-law out there who would have seen Jennifer with Norah Vale and then talked about it with everyone else in the family behind Jennifer’s back. But Isabelle doesn’t seem to have told even Kevin. Kevin is his same old self, a bartender at heart, pouring drinks and cracking jokes.
Drake and Margaret are also helping out in the kitchen, but then Margaret says, “I’d love to take a walk through town before dessert.”
Jennifer says, “Please, go right ahead. Isabelle and I have things handled here.”
Drake and Margaret disappear out the door, holding hands. Jennifer returns to the dining room—ostensibly to see if there are any other plates or glasses that need clearing, but really to double-check that the rest of the family is safely in the living room.
Jennifer hears Mitzi say, “Only five hours until midnight. I’m going to get the nutcrackers out of storage. Allegra, why don’t you come with me?”
Ava passes by the dining room on her way down the hall. She has her phone in her hand. She sees Jennifer and says, “I can’t hear myself think with all these people. I’m going to my room.”
Jennifer closes the swinging door between the kitchen and the dining room and secures it with a latch that nobody ever uses. Then she approaches Isabelle at the dishwasher.
“I know you’re angry with me,” she says. “And I want to explain.”
“No need to explain,” Isabelle says. Her English is surprisingly fluent, confirming Jennifer’s suspicions that Isabelle pretends there’s a language barrier only when it’s convenient for her. “Norah Vale is like poison. She was poison to Kevin and she was poison to you. She sold you the pills. Kevin tells me this.”
“Right, I know,” Jennifer says. “But see, the thing is, Norah has changed. She’s going to business school, she has cleaned up her act, she dresses nicely now—”
“How you dress does not change who you are,” Isabelle says.
“No, I realize this, but—”
“When I saw you, you were buying drugs from her, yes?”
“I wasnotbuying drugs from her,” Jennifer says firmly.
“Buying drugs from whom?” Patrick says.
Jennifer whips around. Paddy is looking at her and Isabelle curiously—but not accusingly, she tells herself. He holds up a butter knife. “I flipped the latch. Sorry about that. I just wanted to see if you needed any help.”
“I did not buy drugs from Norah Vale,” Jennifer says. She knows she has some explaining to do. “A few weeks ago when we were here for Bart’s party, I bumped into Norah… do you remember when I went to the sewing center to get that fabric?”
Patrick nods, but Jennifer knows he doesn’t remember.
“Well, I bumped into Norah and her brother Danko on Main Street, and we ended up getting coffee at the Hub.”
“You didn’t tell me you saw Norah,” Patrick says.
“I must have forgotten to tell you that part,” Jennifer says. What this means is that she left out Norah’s involvement on purpose because Patrick had already digested so much and Jennifer didn’t want him to short-circuit. And does it reallymatterwho the producer of the show is? “Norah and Danko are the ones who approached me about doing the show.”
“What?”Patrick says.
“Danko is the producer,” Jennifer says. She can suddenly see that the real problem with the show isn’t going to be that she’s announcing she’s a recovering addict, but rather that Norah Vale is tangentially involved. She appeals to Patrick. “You remember Danko? He pulled us out of the sand up at Great Point that one time…”
“Yes, yes,” Patrick says. “The tattoo artist.”
“He’s a television producer now and has been for years. Norah hasnothingto do with it. She was simply making the introduction.”
“You are now involved with some other… project with Norah?” Isabelle asks. “You are keeping her in our lives, when all I wish is for her to be gone?”
“Norah isn’t a threat to you,” Jennifer says. “Kevin loves you. You have a family and a business and a future.”
