Something She's Not Telling Us - Darcey Bell Page 0,46

Twice he nearly falls asleep. By the end, the French guy seems to be back with his wife, and they seem happy about it.

Over the credits Ruth says, “I couldn’t bring myself to admit I didn’t work there anymore. Not even to myself. I couldn’t process it until I’d figured out some answers. How could I not have known? How could I not have picked up a signal that things weren’t what they seemed? I would have told you eventually, I swear. I would have admitted defeat.

“Except . . . you know what? I don’t feel defeated. Right now I have this idea for an indie feature film: A woman gets fired from a shady start-up and sits in Union Square and feeds the pigeons and becomes friends with all the unemployed people, male and female, old and young, black and brown and white, also hanging out and feeding the pigeons.”

It’s the kind of movie Rocco would like someone to make, if not the kind that he wants to see. It’s interesting that Ruth would try to explain her being newly unemployed by making him watch a film with one pathetic star on Netflix. How did she even find it? Did the movie give her the idea? Or did she have the idea first and find the film and wait to show it to him until he figured out the truth?

Ruth says, “People do stupid things, and then they admit them. That’s what it means to be human. And then we try to do better.”

That’s what Rocco believes, what he wants to believe. He wants forgiveness for everything he’s done: Forgiveness from the crazy girlfriends he’s mistreated in ways in which he is determined not to treat Ruth. Forgiveness for what he did when he was drinking. Forgiveness for nearly attacking his mother . . .

Why not let Ruth make this one mistake and pick up where they left off? Or start over? She would be more careful. More trusting, poor thing.

That’s what he decides to do. And they go back to bed.

IN THE MORNING, he wakes up, and the first thing he thinks is how sorry he is that he agreed to let Ruth come to Oaxaca. What if she lies about something . . . and Mom catches her in a lie?

Lately, Rocco sees his mother two or three times a year. Mostly she flies up north to visit Daisy. She stays with Charlotte and Eli, and she drives them crazy. But she prefers her family to come visit her. She has also, it’s turned out, made some wise investments, wise enough so that if she adds the interest to the income she cobbles together from her various jobs, she can live simply and even hire a maid, the sweet-tempered, endlessly patient Luz.

Her house is big enough for them to stay. When he goes down there (Mom pays for his ticket), she seems happy to see him, though she soon grows bored with him. It annoys her that Rocco has quit drinking, and though she knows that for him sobriety is a matter of life and death, some part of her thinks it’s self-righteous of her son to spoil everyone else’s fun.

Ruth has offered to pay for her own ticket to Mom’s birthday celebration. They’re flying separately. Because of a difference in fares, Ruth will be arriving a few days after Rocco and Charlotte and her family, and they’ll all fly home together.

At least, Rocco hopes, Mom might be interested in Ruth even after she’s lost interest in him.

Part Two

Our Mexican Adventure

14

Charlotte

This will be the first time that Charlotte and Eli have brought Daisy to Mexico. Charlotte’s not sure why they’ve hesitated before, especially since Mom always assumes they’ll bring her, and it always takes her days to get over her rage at them for having left her granddaughter at home. Charlotte and Eli aren’t worried about drug crime and kidnappings, which are uncommon in Oaxaca. But kids get sick . . . Maybe they just fear that they’ll feel more . . . vulnerable with a child.

Besides, there’s Daisy’s asthma. Charlotte has asked their doctor, who says she’ll be as safe in Mexico as she would in New York, or almost as safe. But he warns Charlotte to keep Daisy’s inhaler readily accessible in the Mexico City airport.

Seven thousand five hundred feet in the air with some of the world’s worst air pollution are not words guaranteed to reassure the anxious parent. Is Daisy an actual person