Elly 2

The phone was vibrating on the table, and Helen looked around, half asleep, wondering where she was. Oh yes, she was on the sofa, and the coffee-table was making a noise. She picked up the phone and asked who it was, not yet quite awake.
“Aunt Helen? Can someone come and get me at the airport? Or I can catch a bus, honest, if it’s too much trouble.”
Elly sounded weary and half asleep herself. It woke Helen completely.
“Stay put, I’m coming. Which terminal are you in?”
“I don’t know … USAir, anyway. It’s sort of red, and …”
Helen asked for the flight number, and told her to wait near the baggage claim. She looked at the time: six O’clock. She stood up, feeling wobbly, and felt mildly nauseous. She smiled to herself. At last, she was feeling like she ought to!
She had to use the bathroom. Picking up her phone, she walked heavily to the little half-toilet under the stairs, and noticed that it had been raining heavily, and was still raining.
The phone rang.
“I thought you might be up,” Maryssa said cheerfully.
“Hey, if I’d been asleep, I’d be pretty upset!”
“But you’re not!”
“Hmm!” grumbled Helen. “I’m peeing, if you have to know.”
“Oh, how awkward!”
“My niece—well, sort-of niece; she’s the daughter of an ex girlfriend—she’s in the airport, and I’ve gotta pick her up.”
Maryssa was instantly alert. “Helen, you shouldn’t be driving around in this weather in the state you’re in. I’ll ask Matt to go get her.”
“But they don’t know each other, Maryssa! She’ll be uncertain whether to go with him …”
“I’ll go, too! Anyway, we’re a little closer to the airport.”
“No, actually I am. There, I’m done. I’m off.”
“Helen, I know: why don’t Matt and I pick you up?” Maryssa asked, excitedly. “I never get to go out at all! I love going to the airport!”
It was true, she did.

Maryssa and Matt Brooks were the daughter and son of Diane Elman, a well-known celebrity photographer, who had done a series on Helen the previous summer. Helen had met Matt quite by accident, and had been invited to their home, and introduced to their mother before it had dawned on either Helen or Diane exactly who the other was. They had thought that Matt had gotten lucky with this beautiful blonde, after all these years. When Helen had been introduced to Maryssa, though, within minutes the woman had identified Helen as THE Helen Nordstrom, musician and TV actress, whom Matt had a smaller chance of settling down with than with almost any other woman in the world. But everything had gone crazy over the summer, and Helen had gotten pregnant, as we know, and was in love with both brother and sister. Perhaps it was their beauty that appealed to her, perhaps it was the fact that they were so innocent, brought up almost completely isolated from the outside world, and now in their early thirties. Matt somehow got around, and was a catalog model, while Maryssa was unemployed. Their family fortune was rapidly dwindling, and it was Maryssa's realization that maybe more hung on her relationship with Helen than just her personal happiness that had triggered off her sudden decision to go slow with their crazy romance. Maryssa wanted their relationship to have a solid foundation in mutual regard, rather than simply sex and passion. And that was why, indirectly, Helen had found herself sleeping on the couch. Now Maryssa wanted to go out to the Airport to pick up Helen's niece whom she had never met.

Helen sighed, and gave in. In no time at all, the brother and sister, looking as if they had stepped out of the pages of an expensive catalog, met her at the doorstep, and they drove off in the Mercedes with Matt at the wheel, while Maryssa fussed with Helen’s hair and tried to make her look halfway decent.
“There,” she said, putting the last touches on Helen’s face, “just a little something to take off the shine. You look so fresh and clean even when you stumble out of bed!” Helen smiled at her indulgently. “Tell me more about this young lady!”
Helen sighed and launched into a brief description of Elly and her colorful life.
“So she’s a musician, too, and … sort of in an ongoing honeymoon relationship with your half-sister! It sounds so interesting!” (That was a reference to the fact that Tommy was, indeed, Helen's half-sister. Sixteen years ago, in Helen's topsy-turvy College days, Helen had been in love with Janet. Helen's mother had died, and to cut a long story short, Old Elly and John Nordstrom had conceived Tommy together. It was romantic, but it complicated everything.)

“She’s had a bad year at college,” Helen said glumly, talking about Elly. “I wanted her so much to do brilliantly. Sis has done well, all As and Bs. That makes it worse, of course.”
“I imagine it would,” Maryssa agreed.
She looked the picture of cool relaxed elegance, reclining on her side of the seat. She looked unreasonably happy, looking Helen up and down appraisingly. Helen tried to imagine them living together, and it seemed rather a stretch. Maryssa’s style was so elegant and relaxed, while Helen was all about running like crazy to keep up with things. She remembered being all in control, some time long ago. She had been ‘together.’ But not for many, many months.
“USAir. We’re here,” announced Matt. He looked intently in through the glass, and murmured, “Is that her, I wonder?”
“Yes, I think it is!”
“She looks like you,” he said, cheerily.
“She’s no relation, Matt, you’re hopeless!”
“I thought she was her niece!”
They all got out, leaving the flashers on. Matt had a way of making security turn a blind eye on the Mercedes. Helen hurried in, and Elly turned just then and saw her.
“Aunt Helen!”

Elly saw her favorite aunt, beautifully fleshed-out in the middle stages of pregnancy, her glorious blonde hair more luxuriously shiny than usual, accompanied by a beautiful couple, slim and graceful, their features sharp, almost elfin, the girl’s eyes beautifully turned up, her eyebrows perfectly arched, the man tall and well-muscled, like a model. They were beautifully dressed, with elegant wool overcoats. Helen, too, wore an old woolen coat.
Elly had one big bag and a back-pack. As Helen took Elly into her arms for a warm hug, the couple reached for her bags.
“Oh Elly, it’s so wonderful to see you!” And suddenly Aunt Helen was wiping her eyes. The smile never left her face, so they were tears of happiness, Elly concluded. Impulsively, Elly kissed away the tears. She could never help the deep affection she felt for this eccentric woman. They had so incredibly much in common!
“Elly, I’d like you to meet a very, very special friend, Maryssa Brooks, …” Elly shook hands with the girl, who gave Elly a warm smile and a soft hello in a cultured voice, “and another very special friend, Matt Brooks, Maryssa’s brother!”
Matt gave her a shy smile and shook her hand vigorously, her large bag effortlessly tucked under his arm. “Pleased to meet you!” he said, in a more brisk, masculine version of his sister’s slow speech. Elly filed away all her first impressions for detailed analysis later on. They got into the car, and Elly was given the honor of riding shotgun.
“I thought we’d eat breakfast, and then take you home,” Matt said. “What do you say?”
“No Matt; it’s austerity at the Nordstrom residence, you know. And besides, breakfast is a big event at our house, even if we only have a slice of bread and two glasses of water,” Helen said, her eyes twinkling at Matt in the mirror.
“Oh come on, Helen, we never get to eat out!” complained Matt. Elly decided she liked him right away.
“Matt, she’s coming to dinner tonight, remember?” Maryssa said, smiling.
“Oh, right.”
“And she’s a bit jet-lagged, I expect. Are you still a little drowsy, sweetheart?”
“No, I’m fine,” Elly said, immediately feeling a little drowsy.
Before long, the car drew up outside the rented house, and little Allie looked out, eyes wide.
“It’s a Mercedes,” she announced to those inside, “it’s Mrs Elman’s car!”
Soon she was joined at the door by Erin and Natasha. They all climbed out, and the family met Matt for the first time, and renewed their acquaintance with Maryssa.
“You’re welcome to breakfast,” Helen said to them both. “It won’t be as austere as I made it sound! Please stay!”
Maryssa looked at her brother, and a silent conversation flashed between them.
“We’d love to!” Maryssa said, graciously.

For the first time in days, it seemed, it was a pleasant, even a jolly breakfast. The children were delighted to have Elly, who had completely forgotten her black mood, and once again became the life and soul of the party. Natasha watched with amusement. It was hard to believe what an unhappy household it had been. Even Betsy and her children joined in the party, and Helen and the Brookses were able to watch it all, smiling from a safe distance. James and Allie were in great form, trying to be as clever as the older girls, with hilarious results.
Amy watched the trio of adults with interest. The artificial behavior between Helen and Maryssa of earlier visits was gone. Instead, Amy saw an honest affection between all three of them, Helen, Matt and Maryssa, but moderated by a certain careful graciousness, a courtliness that Amy found herself approving of. She had long since lost the battle for Helen, but this civilized behavior on Helen’s part made Amy lose most of her discomfort.
Betsy’s children, of course, were all eyes. They took time to study the newcomers, and then joined in the general merriment that Elly and Gena generated with their banter.
Gena, too, noticed a great deal. If she approved of Maryssa, she approved of Matt even more. Of course, she was careful not to flaunt her approval before Aunt Amy. But she understood something of Helen’s psychology, and she felt instinctively that Helen and Maryssa were good for each other.
“You both look a little dizzy,” Elly said, grinning at the Brookses later that morning.
“Well, I must say you liven things up quite a bit!” laughed Maryssa, looking very merry. “And you are a lot like your aunt, it’s really interesting!”
“Well, she was my dad, until I was two!” The family was accustomed to this kind of statement, but Maryssa blinked, making them laugh. “My dad had died, and she and my mother were living together,” she explained, “so she was my dad!”
“Oh, I see!” said Maryssa, throwing a smile at Helen.
Elly thought that Maryssa had interesting canines. She’d make a great vampire, she decided, but immediately reproached herself. Something about Maryssa spoke of both innocence and gentleness. The way Maryssa and Elly’s aunt behaved towards each other made her heart stop. Helen was not in as much trouble as Janet had surmised. She just needed a little help with romance.

Maryssa, Matt and Helen all left, right after James and Allie had left with Trish. By then Elly was in bed asleep, and Natasha was helping Gena and Erin pack. The previous night they had made cookies, and the house was filled with the spicy aroma of baking.
“Come home early, Helen,” Amy had said, “we must make plans for the Paris trip!”
“Oh, okay,” Helen had replied, a little doubtfully. She knew she should stay and help plan the trip, but she couldn’t stand to be away from Maryssa a minute more than absolutely necessary. “I’ll try and be back around two,” she promised.

In spite of the cut on his finger, Matt stayed and helped cook. There was roast beef, potatoes, a variety of vegetables, a little pasta, and even a batch of home-made rolls, all ready to go in the oven. As the meal came together, Helen’s confidence rose notch by notch. It was a pleasure to know that she could organize a meal for nearly a dozen people even in unfamiliar circumstances, with inexpert helpers. She was able to deal with Matt’s tendency to panic, and Maryssa’s inadequate skills and Diane’s unreliable memory and judgement with tact and calmness, and Maryssa was full of praise.
“You sit there, so calm, so unflappable! I just can’t believe how easy you made it seem!”
“You only need to learn it once, Maryssa, and you never forget it,” said Diane, complacently. “See, I learned all this when I was young, and it all comes back.”
Except that it didn’t. Diane knew some things, but she had forgotten others. Helen held her peace; Diane’s confidence was more valuable now than her expertise.
“We’ll make six of the rolls for practice,” Helen said cheerily, “and then we’ll know exactly what to do with the others.”
“Make six rolls now? ” Matt asked. He was Helen’s right-hand man. Even in the middle of a panic, he would keep working like a machine. “Won’t they be useless at dinnertime?”
“We’ll eat them right away, Matt. They’re just so you can see how it works out.”
“Oh. Oh! I could really use a roll about now, you know!”
Helen laughed.

Maryssa pulled Helen aside after the rolls had been taken out and given to Matt and Diane ‘for inspection.’ Helen let her tug her by the hand, and found herself in the servants’ little hidey-hole. Then Maryssa pressed against her, and kissed her on the lips.
“What’s that for?” blushed Helen.
Maryssa’s eyes were bright. “For being so wonderful!” she said, her face radiant. “Now you have to say how clever and pretty I am, and things like that!”
“You’re wonderful, and I love you very much!”
Maryssa sort of blazed with happiness for a second, and then her face grew serious. She shook her head, and Helen grew alarmed.
“What? What’s the matter?”
Maryssa dropped her eyes, and her hands slipped away from Helen’s arms. “Love is a funny thing, you know. It can disappear like that,” she said, snapping her fingers.
“What’s going on, you two?” Diane called from the kitchen.
“Nothing, mother,” called back Maryssa. “We’re just talking!”
“Uh huh,” said Diane. Maryssa shrugged.
“The only one I ever fell out of love with is—Amy.”
Maryssa’s eyes grew wide.
“What did she do?”
“Nothing. You came along.”
“Oh.” Maryssa studied her face, her eyes dancing over every feature in a fascinating way. “What about all the other girls that went before?”
“They … left me. Honest, Maryssa, I never turned my back on any of them. I had some flings, but I always came back.”
Helen felt soft lips on her own, cutting into her reverie.
“You have to teach me to look after myself and Matt, so that when mother dies, we won’t be such a burden,” Maryssa said in a whisper.
“You’ll never be a burden,” Helen whispered back fiercely. “I love you! Don’t you understand? ” Her chest felt tight, and from Maryssa’s alarmed face she knew she must have looked angry. “When you love someone, looking after them is … something sweet and wonderful!” She smiled, and she could feel her whole body filling with the anticipation of the pleasure she felt. “You can never know what it’s like, until you have someone to look after, and … you know for yourself, Maryssa!”
Maryssa looked into Helen’s eyes and nodded. It was incredible. They found more ways of showing their love for each other now that they weren’t sleeping together, than they ever had before. It had been an agonizing wait until they could get into the room and out of their clothes. Now the love began as soon as Helen met Maryssa for the day.

Matt insisted on rehearsing the procedure one last time, and then he drove Helen home. “It isn’t that hard,” he said, “the hard part is waiting!”
“I know,” Helen said, affectionately.

It turned out that Amy wanted to go to Paris with Natasha and the children, too. That was perfect, because Betsy’s daughters were delighted by the prospect, and Betsy was happy for them to go. She herself insisted on staying, but she recognized that Amy would be a steadying hand.

The children were getting ready when Elly finally woke up around four. They all generously offered Elly the bathroom, and got each other dressed for the dinner. A little after four thirty, Ellie emerged looking really pretty in a very Christmassy green dress and red hose. Her hair had been put up in an interesting asymmetrical style, and she looked radiant and happy. The children surrounded her, and there was a fight about who got to sit next to her. Finally, they all packed themselves into the two cars, and set out.
They were received by a happy Diane and Maryssa. “Matt’s busy with the oven,” Maryssa said, laughing, with a special smile for Helen. “Come on in! We’re starving!” She looked a vision in a dark red dress, her hair beautifully in place. Diane looked quite the lady of the manor in a grey suit that managed to look festive nevertheless, perhaps helped by a subdued red scarf. Helen got James safely up the steps, and gave the children into Amy’s and Gena’s hands, and hurried into the kitchen to help Matt. It wasn’t necessary; her came out grinning broadly, two trays of perfectly browned rolls in his huge arms. “They’re looking great,” he said. “Oh, you all look grand!”
He himself looked like a movie star in a black suit and lovely red and green and gold silk tie. Helen took the opportunity to adjust his tie just a bit, and give him a little kiss of girl-friendl-y affection. The kiss was received with a loud silence by all except Gena and Elly, who cheered and clapped.
They were all ushered into the dining room, where the table was set out with all its leaves, with seats for all eleven of them. There were the three members of the Brooks family, Helen, Amy and the four children, and Natasha and Elly.
Diane insisted that Natasha sit on her right, and Amy on her left. Matt sat at the other end of the table, and Helen and Amy about a third of the way down, facing each other, and Maryssa and Elly a couple of seats further away, and the children spread out in between, strategically positioned for greatest efficiency.
Helen had been on pins for a few minutes, until it became clear that Amy was not only going to be cheerful for the evening, but also that she had made up her mind to be nice to Maryssa, who was duly appreciative.
On the other hand, Helen wondered whether the Brookses, so accustomed to having dinner served, would manage the unfamiliar format of an unserved meal. But Gena and Erin rose to the occasion, and with the thoughtful supervision of Matt and Maryssa, things went as smoothly as such a dinner ever could. Helen had primed them carefully for some of the uncertainties of James's table technique, but he managed beautifully. It was clear that his new love was Elly, and he had eyes for nobody else. Helen realized that he was just the medicine that that young woman needed, and it was beautiful to see Elly manage James through the evening.
“This roast is just perfect!” cried Elly, rarely so complimentary to a meat dish. Apparently she had given up her vegetarianism for the holidays. Indeed, the roast had turned out well. There was a good variety of food, with both familiar and unfamiliar things, and things easy to eat for young hands and mouths. And Helen looked across at Maryssa, and saw the pleasure there, and felt that it was all worthwhile.
Not quite noticing, Helen was stuffing herself, when a few gentle remarks brought her to her senses.
“Goodness, let the poor girl eat,” cried Diane, “She’s pregnant! You wait until you’re pregnant, young lady, and you’ll have quite a different perspective, I’m sure!”
“Hee hee, she talks a bit like Grandma Olive!” said Gena. “Grandma Olive is James’s grandma,” she added, politely.
“I was about to ask,” said Diane, smiling. “Tell me more about this Grandma Olive,” she asked, though Helen had told her before.
“Olive Gibson, from near Reston,” Helen told her.
Diane, thought for a while, then shook her head. “It’s useless, you know. I can’t remember much of anything. If she was involved with ballroom dancing, now, I’d know her almost certainly.”
“Hmm, I don’t know,” said Helen, raising her eyebrow at Gena, who was most likely to know that kind of thing. Gena shook her head.
Helen had left the dessert entirely to the hosts, and they had concocted a delightful surprise, a chocolate cheesecake that looked delicious. Amy smiled sympathetically at Helen.
“I’ve got something sugar-free for you in my purse, she said quietly, and rose to fetch it. Helen was struck by the thoughtfulness in the gesture.
“By all means, Amy, bring it out,” said Diane, “but we had planned …”
“Yes, I didn’t forget,” said Maryssa, bringing out a little individual pie just for Helen. “It’s made without sugar, but there’s a lot of fat,” she confessed.
“Oh, that’s fine,” Amy said, smiling, and settling back down, “I only have some sugar-free peanut crunch.”

“And now, it’s time for dancing!” said Diane, after they had all eaten their fill of dessert. “We’re crazy about dancing, just as you’re all mad about music!”
“Oh, we know,” said Gena and Erin in chorus, “and we have a surprise for you!”
They had brought a book of four-hands arrangements of waltzes, and a book of dances, hoping there would be a piano. There was, and the evening settled down to watching dances.
Amy and Elly started with a waltz, and Maryssa and Matt danced. The children were absolutely dazzled by the grace and charm of those two. Then Elly handed the piano over to Gena, and danced with Uncle Matt. “It’s so easy with him!” she exclaimed, her eyes still starry after being whirled around by the hunkish uncle. He was asking for more volunteers, and it was Gena next. Even Amy had her turn, though she declared she hated to dance.
Maryssa, after the first dance, had sat near her mother, watching the proceedings with evident pleasure, exclaiming at the performance of the girls. Elly had danced well, but of course she had years of ballet behind her, and it showed. Gena had danced well, too, with her natural grace. Now Helen saw Maryssa approach Amy, and speak to her earnestly in a whisper. She saw her glance in Helen’s direction, and her chest tightened up. The last thing she wanted was a fight between those two. And things were going so well!
“Mom, would you play the lower part? Erin and I want to dance!”
Saying a little prayer of gratitude for her eldest, Helen rose with a smile and went to the piano. Elly was playing the upper parts. She had wanted to play from the outset, but had held back because the children were so happy to play, and indeed were doing a wonderful job.
“It’s really easy, and in easy keys,” Elly said, looking at the music with favor. “I sort of improvise a little!”
“Let’s try something different, like a Tango,” Helen said, turning the pages.
“Yikes!” said Elly, peering at the music. She hummed the tune, and decided that she knew it. “I’ll give it a try!”
“Want the left hand?”
She hesitated only a little, and then nodded with a quick grin to Helen. They switched sides, and announced it was going to be a tango.
“Uh-oh!” said Erin, eyes wide.
“I taught you the tango!”
“Not in front of people! ”
“Oh, be a sport!”
“That’s very good! Practice makes perfect!” said Diane, pleased. She had assumed that it would be a dull evening with Helen, Maryssa and Matt doing all the dancing, but it was turning out really well.
Helen counted out the entry, and they began to play. Everyone was very surprised by how well Erin danced. She had indeed learned to dance the tango, and the two girls were dancing up a storm, with all the mincing steps that the dance required, as seen through the eyes of two young girls who had learned it from other young girls.
Helen was easily the best pianist in the room, and the music sparkled as she and Elly played in perfect synchronization. At the end, the pianists congratulated themselves quite unprofessionally, as Matt and Maryssa walked on the floor and offered to dance tangoes with the two who had just finished.
“Oh no, oh no!” squeaked Erin, with her indelible smile, and her freckles turning red. She had to look up almost vertically to talk to Matt, who was telling her that she danced beautifully, and he wanted to show her just a few pointers. “I caint hardly reach your waist!”
“Aw, it’ll be so much fun for me!”
“Well, okay, but I’m really scared!”
“Would you like Maryssa instead? Maybe that makes more sense!”
“Yeah! Hey, Gena, switch! ”
Gena was only too pleased to dance with Uncle Matt, though she thought Maryssa was too cute for words. Gena and Maryssa were nearly the same height, and it would have made those awkward dips more awkward still.
“Music please, orchestra,” Matt called cheerily, and Helen and Elly started another tango.
Helen was playing with all her concentration, completely absorbed in the music, when she felt a warm hand on her back. Through the corner of her eye, she identified Amy. A warm flush went through her. Everyone was going out of their way to make her feel at ease, and to make her enjoy the evening. Amy quickly turned the page at the right time, and the music went on smoothly.
Helen longed to watch the children dancing, but it was impossible; the music though easy, was unfamiliar. She decided to ask Elly that they should play the same dance again. That way, she could watch the floor.
There was the usual enthusiastic applause from the kids and Diane. Helen watched Allie, whose enormous eyes told her that she could hardly wait to learn to dance. James, in contrast, was playing with his toy laser rifle, something Elly had given him.
Amy bent to whisper in Helen’s ear.
“I’d like to see you dance,” she said.
“Me? With you?”
“If you like,” Amy said, grinning. “But first with Matt and Maryssa!”
So that was what it was all about. Maryssa had made Amy ask Helen. It was a tactful idea.
Helen shook her head. “It would hurt you, and it wouldn’t make me that happy,” she said quietly.
“What?” asked Elly, curious as ever.
“Amy wants me to dance with Matt or Maryssa, and I just told her I shouldn’t.”
“Aunt Helen, that’s what dancing is all about: you get to flirt with people you’re not supposed to be talking to!”
Helen looked at her censoriously, but Amy was nodding, and Natasha was nodding from across the way, and Helen turned to see every eye on her. Somehow, they all seemed to think the evening was incomplete without the sight of Helen on the dance floor.
She stood, and in a minute, Amy and Natasha were at the piano, with Maryssa conferring with them about music.
Matt was right there at Helen’s elbow, and he guided her onto the floor with a charming smile. Unbelievably, the sounds of “My favorite things” sounded from the piano, and Helen looked up slightly into Matt’s eyes.
They bowed to each other, and were off. Helen had worn one of the nicer maternity gowns, with a shirred bodice and a pretty, lace-edged half-flared skirt. Before she could settle in to enjoy the dance, it was over.
“Play it again, and we’ll sing the words!” she yelled, and they played it again. Helen sang, and the children joined in, including James, who knew the words to it already. She could feel that her voice sounded different, with all the extra weight on her chest and in her belly.
“It feels nice when you sing!” Matt said, smiling. “Your whole body vibrates!”
“That’s how the sound comes out,” Helen said, when she had a chance.
“May I cut in?”
It was Maryssa.
Helen turned to her, and Maryssa stepped into her arms as if she belonged there. It was like holding a feather, and she felt light and buoyant. She didn’t cling to Helen, but stood away, not putting pressure on Helen’s belly. She danced a textbook performance of the waltz, and then of the two-step that followed. The kids cheered, and Helen could hear everyone’s complimentary remarks. Amy alone was silent, and Helen turned to see her reaction. She was looking at them, and Helen knew that Amy was seeing how they fit together, and despairing. She cursed Maryssa silently for having made it happen.
Everyone was getting tired. Diane produced a basket of gifts to be put under the tree, and Helen explained that Amy, Natasha and the kids were heading for Paris for the holiday. “Well, take them with you,” Diane said. “But you’re not allowed to open them before Christmas!” James looked at his package dolefully.
Helen thanked Maryssa and Matt while Diane was handing out her presents, with detailed instructions about when and how to open them.
“It’s been perfect!” Helen said, eyes shining. “I knew the food was going to be fine, but …” she gestured at everything and shook her head, smiling. “You guys really know how to put together a fun evening!”
Matt shook his head vigorously. “We didn’t do anything,” he protested, “It just happened. The kids are delightful, and your niece is a jolly young lady!”
Maryssa just floated several inches above the floor. Helen needed to say nothing to make her happy! She just smiled her happiness, and Helen just squeezed her arm. Already they were developing the kind of rapport that Helen missed having, more than love and desire, a kind of mysterious understanding that was so satisfying. Helen simply had to give her a hug—or to get one from her, what was the difference?—and this time they hugged with all the tenderness they had refrained from expressing during the dancing.
“Oh, I needed that,” breathed Helen, as they clung to each other, reluctant to let go.
“She’s watching,” Maryssa whispered, and Helen sighed. It was so impossible to do anything tactfully, because Maryssa gave it all away with her body language.
Helen turned to Matt, and got a hug and kiss from him, and a few cheery words of encouragement.
The rest of the evening was rather a blur. The family seemed to believe that Helen was tired, and they must have been right. Helen only remembered being seated in the minivan, and she awoke again when they arrived at the house, and then she was upstairs in her bed, being undressed by a patient Amy.
“I guess I can stand you for one night, you overgrown hot water bottle,” she grumbled, as she undressed herself, and slipped under the sheets. “Turn to your side,” she commanded, and when Helen complied, put her arms round her.
Helen sighed in satisfaction, slipping into sleep already.
“I thought she’d be all over you,” Amy muttered, as Helen battled her drowsiness to catch what she said.
“Hmm?”
“Maryssa!”
“Hmm-hmm?”
“Oh, never mind!” said Amy, pounding her back. She knew it was hard to hurt Helen, and with her additional weight, Helen was completely insensitive to what Amy was doing. Tears leaked out from Amy’s eyes as she cuddled with her old friend, the human furnace. She hated herself for knowing precisely what Helen saw in Maryssa. Helen needed to be adored, and Maryssa’s innocent adoration was like a tonic for Helen’s bruised ego.
The problem was that Amy adored Helen, too. She had adored Helen for twenty years! But something in Amy seemed to keep Helen at arm’s length. They could have sex, but they couldn’t seem to fall into that emotional boil that was romance. They never rose beyond a gentle simmer.
Whatever would happen when Amy was gone, let it happen. It was clear that Amy would have to help with the children, or take complete responsibility for them. Anyway, she preferred it that way. The children loved Helen, but they looked to Amy for answers to their daily problems. She tenderly stroked Helen’s warm back as she mulled over what would happen the next few days. She had already put her troubled love to the back of her mind. Absently she played with a tendril of golden hair that had escaped the two braids. The back of Helen’s neck had always excited Amy. She reached forward to bite it gently. But Helen was fast asleep, dreaming.

The flight was early the next day, at seven. Helen was not quite awake when they all left her at the security gate. These days hardly anyone recognized Helen, and the few who might have, kept quiet. Suddenly, Helen and Betsy were all alone, walking back to the cars.
“You could ride back with me, and we could get the cars later,” Betsy said.
“Oh. No, I’m sort of waking up,” said Helen. To Betsy’s eyes, Helen was the most beautiful pregnant woman she had ever seen. She was still big and tall and commanding, but there was a cuddliness, something that aroused the protective instinct in people. Right now, she wore soft contrasting blue pants under a pale green tunic, with no coat or jacket of any kind. Helen’s eyes this morning were a warm hazel, and she was, all in all, a sight to warm anyone’s heart.
Betsy led the way out to the parking lot, helped Helen get in and strap down, and followed Helen out, and back to the house.
They both went to bed. The next item of business was welcoming the Powers family when they arrived. Elly would get her own breakfast when she woke up. She had slept through the bustle of the departure of the troops, and would be out of sorts when she woke up to find them gone.

“Hey, Aunt Helen, answer the frikking phone, woman!”
“Wha-at?”
“The phone! ”
“Oh. Hello? David! Goodness … I’ve overslept … where are you? Oh, great, you’re nearly here. OK, I’m up.”
Helen got downstairs like an agitated hippo, and got settled in the sofa, ready to guide the Powerses in. Elly promptly settled next to her with her plate of breakfast, turned on the TV, and turned down the volume. She tried to figure out who was on the phone, but it was too much trouble. She snuggled up against her favorite aunt, and felt Helen’s fingers comb through her long chestnut locks.

The barrier Elly had erected against the world had begun to crumble when she had gone out to play the organ back in Ferguson. The old organ had seemed to embrace Elly, telling her that she was all right, everything was all right, and the world simply needed time to adjust. Meeting Helen had continued the process, as she forgot to be cool and distant, and simply went into Helen’s arms, to become the favorite niece again. Then the children, her kind-of cousins, had eaten into her defenses, lavishing their admiration and their adoration on her. She realized that achievement and success wasn’t everything. The younger kids would have adored her no matter how terribly she did at College.
And she had been a hit with the Brookses. She had figured that Maryssa was Helen’s new girl, and she had made a shrewd guess as to who had made the baby with Helen. She felt wanted and loved and happy.

She wished that Tommy were more like Helen, more volatile, more exciting, more … more exciting. She could fall in love with aunt Helen. Aunt Helen was the best. She gave the hand that was fussing with her hair a little kiss, and got a cross between a chuckle and a giggle for her trouble.
“Who is that?”
“Oh … it’s this really cute guy … a vet … I think you’ll like him!”
“Another guy!” Elly was amused. “So which one is junior’s dad? This David, or Matt?”
Helen laughed. “I’ve been rather busy this year, I’m afraid. It could be Matt, or … someone else. It might be tactful not to say who it is, exactly.”
“Whoa. I’m out of my depth, here!”
“Keep it that way. Maybe it wasn’t the smartest thing to do. But … I was half crazy at the time, hon; I just switched off the brain, and let it happen.”
“Aha. The old insanity plea!”
“Uh huh. Matt is so cute, though; they’re both so irresistible.”
Helen looked at Elly, and Elly could tell that she wanted to talk. She took a deep breath, and switched off the TV. “Wanna talk?” Helen nodded, and there was a glint in her eye that made Elly smile in sympathy. “Okay,” she said, “the doctor is in!”

Helen tried to censor it, but she wound up telling Elly everything. All about how Amy had come back into her life and organized her, and how she met Matt and Maryssa and Diane, and how she loved Maryssa desperately.
Helen shook herself. “They’ll be here any minute,” she said. Helen finally met Elly’s eyes, and expressed her regret at burdening her without a word.
“Thanks for listening, darling,” she said, her voice barely louder than a whisper. “At least, I’m making things clearer for myself.”
“I’m sorry, Aunt Helen! I understand completely, and I can’t see how you could have done any better!”
“Oh, Elly!” Helen tenderly squeezed Elly’s hand. She remembered how devastatingly beautiful the youngster had been just a brief time ago, in her early teens. Now she looked very ordinary; though her eyes, her hands, her hair, her legs were individually perfect, she looked awkward and poorly put together. But just now, her eyes radiated a comforting warmth, a tenderness that was totally unfeigned.
There was a knock at the door, and Elly jumped up to get it. Helen heard noises up the way, and knew Betsy had heard it too.
“Hello!” Helen heard Elly call out a cheery greeting, and from the tone of her voice, Helen knew she had seen little Ruth. She hadn’t said a word about the little girl, leaving her as a surprise for Elly. When Helen got to the door, Elly was coming up the steps with someone snuggled in her arms.
“Look what I found!”
The little girl’s face was wreathed in smiles. She looked a little untidy from the trip, but the golden hair had been braided with care into two pigtails, and she looked beautiful.
She immediately reached for Helen, calling her mama, as she always did, and Elly surrendered her reluctantly, smiling. Helen took her with a hearty greeting and a nice wet kiss, and turned to greet David. She was getting quite good at hugging people with Ruth in her arms.
David felt and smelled wonderful. She murmured a soft welcome to him, and exchanged a brief kiss.
“David, this is my niece Elly, my namesake, and Elly, this is David Powers, my friend, and this is Ruth! And she thinks I’m her mommy!”
David laughed, and briefly explained. “She was barely seven months old, back then,” he said, “but she could walk, and she spotted Helen, and walked right up to her!”
“I guess she knew what her dad liked!” Elly said, slyly.
“No, her mother did look remarkably like Helen,” David said seriously.
Helen nodded. “She was lighter built, but the hair and the coloring was very similar,” Helen confirmed. “I saw only one photograph, but it was uncanny. Like looking in the mirror!”
Betsy came up, and after a lot of hugging and shaking hands, they gravitated towards the kitchen, and Helen began to put together a lunch for them all. It was a few minutes before she realized that David was helping her, and Elly was playing with Ruth, and Betsy was cleaning the table from breakfast. They made a great team, she thought, the way one appreciates in strangers what one takes for granted in one’s own family.
After the meal, they sat in the little TV room, with Helen on the floor near the sofa, and little Ruth climbed all over her, crooning her love of Helen.
“Where’s everybody?” David asked.
“Gone to Paris,” Helen explained, feeling guilty. “I knew if I told you, you might not come, so I selfishly kept you in the dark!” she confessed. “But I’m so glad you’re here; we need your company desperately!”
“Well, why didn’t you go to Paris with them?” asked David, not too enthusiastically.
Helen smiled, almost flirtatiously. “Well, for one, because you and little Ruth were coming, and because Jan and Tom will be here later on.”
“And there are other attractions as well,” Elly added, with a straight face, and Helen scowled at her, but then smiled at David cheekily.
Studying David, Elly knew that both the father and the daughter were crazy about her aunt. So this was Helen’s quandary. She had settled in with Aunt Amy, a match the family had rooted for for many years, only to find herself attracted to two men, a beautiful woman, and a little girl.
David and Ruth made a nice little package, but Elly realized that, though Helen hadn’t spelled it out, that Maryssa and Matt were sort of a package, too.
Helen’s pregnancy was an added complication. Once the baby was born, who knew how Helen would feel? She would be completely absorbed in the baby, probably, and quite content to settle down with Aunt Amy. Elly thought it would be wisest to keep her thoughts to herself, in case she should jinx the turn of events. There was no point in planning anything until the pregnancy was over. The trick was to keep all the options open, so that she had good choices when things settled down.
Elly felt great sympathy for the vet and his daughter. How could Helen resist them? Elly was determined to make the holiday bright for them. She would ask Helen for money, and finish decorating the house, so that it would be as Christmassy as she could possibly make it. Actually, she thought, Betsy was the one to enlist. They could do it without distracting Aunt Helen, and it might be fun for Betsy, too.

Helen had firmly taken charge of housekeeping, insisting that it was beneath Betsy’s dignity to be fooling around with linens and groceries. She insisted that Amy had given her full instructions, and she knew what she was doing.
“Well, guess what I’m in charge of,” David said grimly.
“What?”
“Your medicines.”
“Oh. Okay. I’ll show you where they are, and you can remind me!”
“Exactly,” said David, as Helen took them up to the room she had set aside for him, with little Ruth’s room right next to it, all ready with a cot Betsy had found in a used furniture store and cleaned up for her. “Oh look, Ruthie,” David said, “a nice bed just for you!”
Ruth laughed with pleasure, and stood on tiptoe to look inside. “Mine?”
“Yes, it’s yours, sweetheart!”
Ruth laughed again, and simply gazed into Helen’s eyes, lost in them. “Oh Ruth,” Helen sighed, “you’re such a happy kid! Yes, you are!” she said, picking her up. “I can barely stand to put her down for a minute!”
“You’ll spoil her rotten,” David said, severely.
“Yes, I’m going to spoil her for the entire holiday. We’re going to have a great ol’ time!”

Once the excitement of meeting Helen wore off, Ruth’s fatigue set in, and soon she was fast asleep in her bed.
“Would you like to take a nap?” Helen asked David, quite openly. “I have to lie down, and I want to talk.”
“Yeah, sure, leave the niece all alone, why don’t you.”
“Just for maybe an hour, sweetheart. I think Marika will be back this afternoon, and then there’ll be all sorts of things to do!”
“Oh, go on!” Elly said, grinning. “Can Betsy and I go out and get some holiday decorations?”
“Certainly! That would be lovely, Elly. She has money.”
So, while Helen reacquainted herself with David, Elly hauled Betsy off on a mad shopping spree.


K.