Page 96 of The Singing Trees
“A mother knows best, Nino.” Harry took a sample and handed it to Annalisa. “Why don’t you do the honors?”
With everyone in the store watching, Annalisa said, “Okay, honey, let’s see what you think of ice cream.” She held the tiny spoon close to Celia’s mouth.
Celia’s nose wrinkled as she smelled it. She moved closer, hesitantly. Then her little tongue poked out and licked the green deliciousness.
For Annalisa, watching Celia’s eyes bulge and her cheeks inflate was like seeing blue sky after a month of rain.
“Isn’t that wonderful?” Harry asked. He even started clapping.
Annalisa was too busy processing her own emotions. As Celia tasted her first ice cream, it felt like Annalisa was experiencing her first true taste of being a mother. Before that moment, it had been all about the pains of no sleep and nursing and giving up her dreams, but for those seconds in Harry’s General Store on that June day in 1972, she tasted the beauty of being a mother. She saw a little girl, curious and eager. She saw a being completely in love with her mother, despite her mother’s emotional absence.
She’d gotten so used to forcing her face muscles into a smile that she was caught off guard when her lips turned on their own. Even more shocking was the elation that followed the smile.
Saying goodbye to Harry, Annalisa pushed Celia out of the store with a much-happier spirit. She carried a cone of mint chocolate in her hand. Nino was still inside chatting with Harry and had said he would catch up in a minute.
Annalisa was still on a high, thinking she’d never forget the look on her daughter’s face. As she pushed the stroller past the fried-fish restaurant where Thomas, Emma, and she had watched the draft, the smell of frying food pulling at her, she decided she would race home to draw the image before it escaped her memory.
Then she saw Emma Barnes, and a shot of adrenaline and alarm surged through her body.
At first, she hoped it was just another mirage. She’d been seeing things ever since that day she’d opened up the envelope from Elizabeth. Out of instinct, she pushed the stroller faster, trying to disappear. She risked another look farther down the block.
From outside a little tourist trinket store that sold items like Maine T-shirts and lobster key chains, Emma stared at her. Unless Harry had slipped something in her ice cream, Annalisa was not imagining this sight.
Emma stood frozen on the other side of the street. She wore brown washed-denim bell-bottoms and a formfitting cream top that showed that she’d become a young woman since Annalisa had last seen her. It looked like a couple of Emma’s friends were a few steps ahead of her. Despite everything telling Annalisa to run, to push that stroller as fast as she could, she stopped.
Emma looked down at the stroller and then back up at Annalisa. Fresh pain rose within as Annalisa was reminded of the strong camaraderie they’d found in their shared pasts, and she would have loved to continue to be in her life, to help her break out of the darkness.
She considered a dash across the street to say something. Perhaps she should beg her not to tell her brother. Emma certainly knew of Annalisa’s trip to Hawaii. Maybe Emma had surmised in those few seconds that Annalisa had moved on and married someone in the Mills and had a baby.
If Emma did tell Thomas, would he even care? The more time swallowed the past, the more it seemed like a silly high school affair. Annalisa knew different, though, and she realized as she looked through the eyes of his family member that Annalisa still loved Thomas with everything she had. And she loved Emma too.
As if Emma could sense Annalisa’s thoughts, she frowned, and a flash of pain glimmered in her eyes. Annalisa was a second away from calling out to her when Emma turned and walked away.
As if someone had handed her a sip of oxygen while trapped underwater, Annalisa breathed in desperately. She looked down at a yawning Celia and then back across the street.
Just like that, Emma was gone.
“What’syourproblem?” Nino asked, coming up from behind.
With her hands on the stroller and questioning if she should have chased after Emma, Annalisa turned.
“Holy moly,” Nino said, “you look like you’ve seen Elvis.”
“I wish.” She searched down the opposite sidewalk, wondering if she’d made it all up. Maybe she’d lost her mind.
“Can you take us home?” Annalisa asked. “I’m not feeling well.”
“Yeah, sure. Did something happen?”
“I...I...I saw Thomas’s sister.”
His lower jaw jutted forward.
“I’m almost positive it was her,” she told Nonna back home. Annalisa had just put Celia down for a nap and was helping Nonna put away the clean dishes.
“Don’t worry about it. You have enough going on.”
Annalisa set a casserole dish into the cabinet with a bit too much force. “How can I not worry about it? If she tells Thomas, who knows what could happen?”
