Phillip made me feel safe. He treated me gently. And you thought he was boring!”
“I never said Phillip was boring,” Eleanor said. She smiled, just a little. “Although, he is boring.”
Alicia cried, “You see! I’m not what you wanted in a daughter. You wanted Janis Joplin and you got Jane Austen. You let us go to concerts where there were all kinds of drugs and slimy people. You were so cool, so lenient.” Alicia fell back onto the sofa, tears exploding from her eyes, sobs wrenching her body. “Phillip isn’t boring,” she said. “I’m boring. That’s why he’s having an affair.”
“Oh, my dear,” Eleanor said. “I’m afraid I was trying to be a better mother than my mother was to me. My mother was a strict authoritarian. She had rules for everything. How to hold a fork. When to speak to an adult. Why I needed to improve my posture. I couldn’t even seem to breathe correctly for her. She was mean. She made me feel trapped. I wanted to be a happy mother, a friend to you. I went through my life feeling like a disappointment to my mother. I wanted you to enjoy being with me.”
Alicia wiped her face and calmed down. “You must have hated it when I loved Phillip’s mother so much.”
“I did,” Eleanor said. “I still do.”
“I’m going to make some cocoa,” Ari said. She wanted to leave the room to let her mother and grandmother have some privacy, and because she needed to think her own thoughts. This would not be a good time to tell her mother she was pregnant.
But when she returned to the kitchen, she found that her mother’s emotions had moved from sorrow to anger.
“Who is she?” Alicia asked Eleanor. “Is she an island girl?”
“We don’t know who she is,” Eleanor told her daughter. “She has a blue convertible. She lives on Dionis Beach Road.”
Alicia whipped around to face Ari. “You saw her. Who is she?”
“Mom, I don’t know her name. She’s young, not as young as I am, but young—”
“Younger than I am, right?” Alicia ignored the cocoa. She rose and stalked over to the window, looking out at the sea and the gray sky.
Ari set the tray of cocoa on the coffee table. Eleanor gave Ari a slight nod as she took her mug. They had done what was necessary, and it was terrible. But they weren’t the ones who had betrayed Alicia.
“Maybe you should call him, Mom,” Ari suggested. “Maybe call and tell him you’re on the island and you’d like to see him.”
When Alicia turned from the window, her face was composed again, although her carefully blushed cheeks were tracked with tears. She was quieter now, and somehow shut off, somehow emotionally shielded. She returned to the sofa, picked up her cocoa, and sipped.
Ari and her grandmother waited.
“I’m not going to call him,” Alicia announced. “I’m going on a trip.”
“What?” Ari asked.
“Where?” Eleanor asked.
“I don’t have to tell you.” Alicia had regained her poise and slipped into her Queen of England mode. “I’m going on a fabulous trip. I’m going first-class. I’ll be gone for weeks.”
“Mom,” Ari began.
Alicia arched an eyebrow and sweetened her voice, which meant she was totally furious. “Why shouldn’t I go on a trip? My own mother won’t discuss selling this rattrap of a house so that I can enjoy life. No, she sits here with millions spread around her and doesn’t think of me. My husband is enjoying life with another woman and my daughter prefers to live with her grandmother. Where am I in this family? Who respects me? Who cares for me?”
“My darling,” Eleanor said quietly, “don’t make any quick decisions that you’ll regret.”
“Why not?” Alicia asked. “Everyone else does.”
“Mom,” Ari cried. “We love you!”
“I don’t want to be with you,” Alicia replied. “I don’t want to be with any of you.”
Ari was shocked. “But what if there’s an emergency?”
“You’re an adult,” Alicia said coldly. “I’m going to use the bathroom and then I’ll call a taxi.” She went out of the living room and down the hall.
“Wow. I didn’t see that coming,” Ari said to her grandmother.
Eleanor smiled. “I didn’t, either. But you know, I hope she goes through with this plan. It will do her a world of good and give Phillip the slap in the face he deserves.”
“But what about me?” Ari whispered.
“How helpful do you think your mother would be, especially now?” Eleanor asked gently.
Ari smiled ruefully. “She wouldn’t greet my news with