Chapter Ten

After church on Sunday my mother started buttering slices of bread and wrapping them in wet towels and waxed paper. They were so thin you could practically see through them.

Teddy came into the kitchen. For once his nose wasn’t running, but he had his mouth hanging open in a way I hate. He looks like a moron when he does it.

“Mom,” I said, “I thought you promised.” I looked at him hard. “You have anything to do this afternoon!” I asked. “A science project over at your friend’s house, or how about the movies?”

“The movie is one of those movies for mature audiences only,” Teddy said with a smirk. When Teddy smirks I would like to slap his face.

“Dad’s taking me to the hockey game,” he said. “Boy, what a relief it’ll be to get out of this house. What a lot of baloney a tea party is anyway. How come you’re getting so fancy just for old Al and her mother?”

“Good question.” My father came into the kitchen. “Unanswerable, but good. What have we here?”

My mother took a blue box out of the refrigerator.

“Swiss Chalet!” Teddy howled.

The Swiss Chalet is a very expensive bakery where my mother goes only when my grandmother—my father’s mother—is coming to visit, which she does only about once a year. My grandmother, who is little and round and going bald like my father, has a terrific sweet tooth.

“Let’s have a look,” my father said.

My mother opened the box like it was full of eggs or a time bomb or something. Inside were all kinds of cookies and cakes decorated with whipped cream and shaved chocolate. “You can have one when you get back if they’re any left,” she said.

They both looked at her and Teddy’s mouth hung open wider than ever. “I’m hungry,” he whined.

“Please,” my mother said. “Go get a hot dog at the game. Please.” She pushed them gently toward the door.

When we heard the elevator door slam, we each breathed a sigh of relief.

My mother went into her room to get dressed.

“Mom,” I said, “will you wear a little more lipstick than usual? And some of that rouge you have. And don’t forget to hold in your stomach.”

“Same to you,” my mother said. But when she came out she looked very pretty.

“You look pretty,” I said. “Your hair looks nice.”

“I feel as if I was trying out for Mrs. America,” she said.

“You’d win,” I said.

The doorbell rang at three minutes after four. My mother smoothed her skirt and said, “Would you answer it please?”

Al’s mother said, “Hello, dear, how are you?” and my mother said, “Good afternoon, won’t you come in?”

We sort of stood there for a minute.

“What a sweet place,” Al’s mother said.

“Sit down, won’t you?” my mother said.

Al smelled of tooth paste. She even had some around her mouth. “You’ve got tooth paste on your mouth,” I said. She wiped her face on her sleeve.

“You want me to get the tea now, Mom?” I asked.

“Please,” she said, then turned to Al’s mother. “Unless you’d rather have some sherry? Or a drink of some sort?”

“To me,” Al’s mother said, “afternoon tea is one of the few civilized customs left. It revives me.” “How enchanting!” she said as I brought out the tray. My mother’s silver teapot shone and, the way I’d fixed it, the bread and butter looked like a giant pin wheel.

“Will you have lemon or cream?” my mother asked as she passed the cakes.

“How delicious and how fattening!” Al’s mother cried. “I hate to think of how many calories there are in each of these.” She took one and put it on a plate. She only ate half.

“Would you girls get some hot water?” my mother asked. We went to the kitchen and ate a few cookies and listened.

“I want to thank you for being so kind to Alexandra,” Al’s mother said. “I have to be away from home so much of the time, it’s a comfort to me to know she can call on you if she should need to.”

“We like Al,” my mother said. “She is a very nice child. We all like her.”

“Of course,” Al’s mother went on, “she is very self-sufficient. She has been on her own a good deal and I think that tends to make them self-sufficient, don’t you?”

“I suppose so,” my mother said. “Will you have another cup of tea?”

“Thank you. I will. It was so kind of you to ask us,” Al’s mother said. “I’ve been wanting to get to know you better ever since we moved in, but what with my job, I don’t get nearly enough chance to see people.”

“We are so glad you could come.”

They talked about different places Al and her mother had lived and about the store where Al’s mother works.

Then Al’s mother looked at her watch.

“Where has the time gone?” she asked. “I had no idea it was so late. I’m afraid we must run, but before we do, I want to thank you again for all your kindness to Alexandra. It has meant a great deal to her, I know, to be a part of your family fun. I try, but I cannot make up for not being a real family. Just the two of us is hard, sometimes. It is difficult, doing it alone.”

“I can well imagine,” my mother said. “It is often difficult even with the help of a man.”

The front door opened and my father and Teddy came in.

“May I present my husband?” my mother said.

My father took Al’s mother’s hand, and instead of shaking it, he sort of bowed. He bowed low over her hand. He didn’t kiss it, but he looked like he might. Al dug her elbow into my ribs. Teddy’s mouth hung open and Al’s mother said, “How delightful to meet you. Al’s told me so much about you.”

My father smiled. “I wish I could have gotten home sooner,” he said.

“It’s been such fun,” Al’s mother said, and they left.

My mother started to carry the tray out. “Charm was certainly oozing from every pore,” she said.

Teddy crammed a whole mouthful of bread and cookies into his mouth, so for once, it was closed.

“Was it all right?” my mother asked.

“It was great,” I said. “Just great. I think they liked it. Thanks, Mom. Al’s mother is really very nice, don’t you think?”

“Very nice,” she said. “Do you think those fingernails were real?”

My father went over to my mother and bent over her hand, nibbling his way up her arm like he was eating an ear of corn.

“Not on your tintype,” he said.