CHAPTER 14

The next day as Sean walked home from the Confectionary through the sprinkling rain, it was all he could do not to swing around lampposts like Gene Kelly. Chrissy Stillman had come in. They had bantered a bit, and this time Sean had had the presence of mind to notice that she wasn’t wearing a wedding ring. Chrissy Stillman was not married.

They made plans to have lunch the next day. After she left, fantasies fluttered constantly through Sean’s mind, quickly turning him into the most inept employee Cormac had ever hired.

“I love you like a brother,” Cormac said, “but if I have to do one more void on this register, I’m gonna can your ass.”

“Have pity,” Tree taunted. “He’s got a crush-induced learning disability.”

The two of them laughed their caffeinated hyena laughs, but Sean didn’t care. Lunch. Tomorrow. With Chrissy Stillman.

Back at the house, Kevin lay slumped on the love seat in the den watching TV, clicking through channels every few seconds. “Can we get a PlayStation?” he asked. Sean wasn’t sure what that was, but he didn’t like the sound of it. What kind of kid needed a “station” to play at?

Later when Deirdre buzzed in from Carey’s Diner, Kevin wandered into the kitchen. “Any syrup?” he asked half-heartedly. She grinned and pulled a couple of tiny bottles from her purse with a flourish. “You remembered!” he said.

Sean gave Deirdre a what’s the deal look. “If people ask for real maple syrup instead of the corn syrup junk, we give them those,” she explained. “Half the time they don’t use them all, and he likes to drink them.” Kevin was gleefully lining up three little bottles on the kitchen table. He picked one up, unscrewed the cap, and took a sip.

Aunt Vivian came in from the backyard, her straw gardening hat slightly askew on her head. She held the door for George and then turned to survey her kitchen. Suddenly she banged her hand down on the counter and yelled with surprising strength, “By God, I told you if I caught you with that again you’d be grounded for a month!”

Her wrath seemed to be aimed at Kevin, and he stared back at her, his green eyes round with concern. “But . . . it’s just . . .” he stammered.

“Don’t tell me ‘It’s just.’ I know what nip bottles are, Hugh. I’m not as naïve as you think!”

Sean looked at Deirdre, whose face revealed as much shock as he felt. “Auntie Vivvy,” he said. “That’s not—”

She turned on him. “And don’t try to shield him from a well-­deserved punishment, Sean! He’ll never learn, if you continue to defend him as you do.” She shook her head in exasperation. “Go to your room, both of you!”

The dog started to bark, and Sean was worried his aunt might fall if she became any more agitated, so he took Kevin by the arm and steered him from the kitchen. As the door swung behind them, he heard Deirdre say, “Can I get you a glass of water, Auntie?”

In the hallway, Sean turned to Kevin, hoping some reasonable explanation would occur to him, but all he could come up with was “That was really . . . weird.”

Kevin nodded. “She does that sometimes. Calls me Dad’s name. Or sometimes Martin. That’s your dad, right?”

“When did she start?”

The boy’s brow wrinkled in thought. “Um, I don’t know. A while ago. But not too long.”

Deirdre came through the door. “Jesussufferingchrist,” she murmured.

“Has it happened before?” Sean questioned her.

“No. I mean, she’s been off her game for a while. Doesn’t always seem entirely with it. But nothing like that. Could it be—?”

“Very rare to have it crop up this late in life. And she doesn’t have the chorea.”

“What’s that?” asked Kevin. Sean had almost forgotten he was there.

“Huntington’s chorea. It’s a symptom of a disease that makes people kind of jerky and uncoordinated.” He looked at Deirdre. “It could be anything. It could be Alzheimer’s.”

“She needs to be checked out.” Deirdre gave him a pointed look. Then she glanced at her watch. “I have to go to rehearsal.”

Sean sighed. Of course you do, he thought.

* * *

Later that night he tried to talk to her about it. “Auntie,” he said. “Remember this afternoon when you got so mad at Kevin?”

She neither answered nor met his gaze, but he could tell she was listening. “You thought he was Hugh,” Sean said gently. He watched her eyes blink as she took in this information. “He says it’s not the first time.” She glared at the kitchen cabinets as if they were the ones accusing her. It reminded him of a time when he’d had to tell a teenage boy he’d contracted HIV. The boy had been silently furious with Sean simply for saying the words.

“You don’t seem surprised,” he said. Still she wouldn’t respond. “Aunt Vivvy, I think you know you’ve been slipping here and there.”

“Well, I’m seventy-eight years old,” she retorted. “In my dotage, as it were.”

He smiled. “You’ve been sharp as a tack your whole life,” he said. “Smarter than the rest of us combined.”

“Don’t placate me.”

“My point is, you’re smart enough to know that even an elder statesman like yourself doesn’t forget who she’s talking to for no good reason. We need to find out what that reason is, Auntie. It’s time to find a new doctor.”

“Not for all the tulips in Holland,” she said.

The conversation went on for a bit, Sean attempting to reason, sweet-talk, and intimidate her into a doctor’s visit. She held firm, saying only that it was her decision, and she chose not to. Eventually she said, “Sean, the world abounds with calamities much greater than mine, and I know you’re nearly ready to run off and find one. You’ll go, and I’ll have my way. Why don’t we save ourselves the trouble of a disagreement?”

“Because Deirdre’s leaving, that’s why! She’s planning to move to New York next month. I’m sorry you have to learn about it like this—she should have told you herself by now. But if Deirdre and I are both gone, who’ll take care of things? Who’ll be there for Kevin?”

She stared at him unblinking as she analyzed this new information. “Well,” she said finally, “apparently you will have your way. At some point I’ll be too dotty to know if I’m taken to a doctor or not. Either way, Kevin will be your charge. Yours and Deirdre’s. The two of you will have to decide what’s to become of him.”