Chapter 49

Helen and Scott had finished dessert when Sarah rolled the twins back into the dining room. Sarah’s dinner was still there, and a white box sat next to her plate to put the meal in to take with her. She scooped the chicken and roasted potatoes and green beans into the box, inhaling the delicious herby smell. She involuntarily turned to look at the chef, who again gave her a little salute. She nodded back.

Emanuel came over with a brownie wrapped in a napkin. “Don’t want to forget dessert.”

Sarah thanked him and they walked out of the dining room, now about half full and noisy.

Helen and Scott didn’t speak on the way out and they seemed tense, so there wasn’t much discussion on the short walk. Sarah pointed out the sky, and both of them glanced up briefly without comment. They paused at their door, and Helen went in to get supplies for the twins for the night. A crib was already set up in Sarah’s room. They left Scott alone, and Helen and Sarah went to put the babies to bed.

“Thank you so much for doing this. I think a full night’s sleep will do Scott and me a world of good. I don’t think I’m thinking straight. I’m so irritable and he’s so irritable. It’s got to be lack of sleep.”

“Yes, I’m sure. You guys sleep as late as you want. Come over when you’re ready.”

They changed the babies and fed them and put them to bed. Helen leaned over the crib and patted their backs and hummed a lullaby. They drifted right off, but Helen warned that they’d be up again in a few hours.

“Just like being on call,” Sarah said.

“Without the pager,” Helen said.

“Have a good night’s sleep,” Sarah said. Helen looked again at the twins, tucked a blanket tighter around Emily, and waved good-bye.

As Helen promised, the twins woke an hour after Sarah fell asleep, first Aidan, then, as soon as she’d gotten him fed and back in the crib, Emily. She wouldn’t go back to sleep, and Sarah had to walk her around as she whimpered and flailed. Helen had told Sarah about this, so she wasn’t worried, but it took almost an hour before Emily was sleepy enough to go back in the crib with her brother. Then, an hour later, Aidan was awake and hungry again. Then Emily. The whole night went like that. Sarah lost count. When morning came and Helen and Scott knocked on her door, she was asleep and so were the twins. It was after nine. Sarah felt like it was the middle of the night.

“They were fine,” she said. Helen and Scott were smiling, and Scott had a paper cup of coffee for Sarah.

The babies stirred and Emily started to cry.

“We’ll take them off your hands, and you can get more sleep if you want,” Helen said.

Sarah looked out at the day, bright and sunny and cold again. “No, I think I’ll get up. Maybe I’ll go swimming. That should wake me up.”

Helen and Scott took a baby each and had them diapered and changed into new outfits in no time. “We’ll come back and get you for lunch,” Scott said. “How about noon?”

“Fine,” said Sarah.

Scott wheeled the babies away. Helen clasped Sarah’s hand. “Thank you, again. What a wonderful night.”

Sarah splashed cold water on her face and drank her coffee. She opened the door and squinted at the light. The housekeeping cart was parked outside. There was no sign of Glenda and George. She met them sitting on a bench on her way to the pool.

“Oh, dear, you’re up now. We’ll get to your room right quick,” Glenda said. “We wanted to let you sleep. We saw you had the watch last night. Twins. Can’t be easy.”

How did they know Sarah had the watch? How close were they watching her?

Dylan appeared out of nowhere and joined Glenda and George on the bench. He had a small doll in his hand with a yellow dress dirty from mud.

“Found it,” Dylan said. He brushed at the dress with his hand. George handed him the towel from his belt, and Dylan brushed the mud away, then rubbed the towel over the doll’s face to clean that too. He handed the towel back to George and started off, the doll tucked into his elbow.

“Little girl got that doll for Christmas,” Glenda said. “Dylan found her crying and screaming and got it out of her that she’d lost the doll. He’s been searching for it ever since.”

“Good for him,” said Sarah, thinking she’d misjudged the boy.

“Dylan has a soft spot for Christmas. I don’t like Christmas myself.” Glenda turned toward George sitting silently next to her. “Not George, neither. Too many memories.”

“Oh?” said Sarah.

“George almost died on Christmas.”

“But I didn’t, did I?” This was from George.

“No, but you could’ve.” Glenda turned to Sarah again. “George had a heart attack a few years ago on Christmas Eve. They told me he had a good chance of not making it. Spent Christmas in the ICU.”

“Oh, no,” Sarah said.

Glenda continued. “Dylan had just come to live with us, his dad threw him out and he didn’t have anywhere to go. Took a bus from Pennsylvania, that’s where we all grew up, my brother and I, and George. My brother’s still there. Dylan turned up on our doorstep one day. He was in a state then, just a teenager but doing all kinds of things we didn’t understand. It was very stressful.”

“Dylan didn’t cause the heart attack. You know that,” George said.

“I know. I’m just explaining,” Glenda said. “My brother, Dylan’s dad, he didn’t know much about raising a boy.”

“He knew about his belt,” said George.

Sarah shuddered.

“Yes, you should have seen Dylan when he first came to live with us. Now look. Anyway, that Christmas, I didn’t think I could do it, take care of George, plus take care of Dylan and all of his problems. I didn’t even know if George would live or die. He almost died. That’s why I don’t like Christmas.”

“Me, neither,” said George. “Like New Year’s, though.”

“Yes, you like New Year’s. And you should.” Glenda smiled proudly at Sarah. “After his heart attack, George made a New Year’s resolution. Get fit. Look at him now. Eighty pounds lighter, off all his blood pressure medicine, doctor says his heart is A-okay.”

“That’s wonderful,” Sarah said. “Very few people can do what you did.”

“I wasn’t ready to die,” George said. “Plus, we had Dylan.”

“Yes. And the next year, they made a New Year’s pact,” Glenda said. “Dylan saw George keep his promise to get fit, he saw how much better George felt. He’d lost thirty pounds by then. Dylan had cleaned up his act, but he was still struggling. They made a pact to get fit together, George would keep losing weight, and Dylan would keep off the drugs and alcohol. George held up his end and Dylan held up his.”

“Yep,” George said.

“That’s amazing,” Sarah said.

Glenda and George headed toward her room. Sarah continued on to the pool, chastising herself for her unkind thoughts about Dylan. As she pulled her sweatshirt off, Dylan himself came in, loping along silently despite a chain with keys dangling from his blue jeans. He and Sarah were the only ones in the pool area. She hesitated, feeling self-conscious and vulnerable. This is ridiculous, she thought. He is Glenda and George’s nephew, he had a tough childhood, he turned himself around, he just did a nice turn for a girl who lost her doll. You are being silly.

Without looking at her, Dylan bent to get a sample of the water. He dipped a strip into the water, shook it out and waited. Sarah dove into the water. When she came up, he still squatted by the edge of the pool with the strip in his hand, but his eyes were on her.

What else was there to look at in here? Of course he’d be looking at her, Sarah told herself. She started her laps. When she was finished, several families had joined her, a mom with young ones splashing in the shallow end and a dad with a girl on each arm, whirling them this way and that in the water. Dylan was stocking fresh towels in the cart. Sarah was happy to have one already, so she didn’t need to pass by him.

Sarah left the pool feeling foolish, until she looked back and saw him standing in the doorway watching her.

Helen and Scott were still in good spirits at lunch. They rolled the sleeping babies over to the half wall, and Helen held up crossed fingers.

They all ordered chicken Caesar salad and sat munching contentedly in peace. The dining room again was not full, and the twins were the only children.

“Sarah, we want to ask you something,” Helen said.

“You might have to think about it, and we’ll understand if you say no,” Scott said.

Sarah looked from one to the other. She steeled herself. She wasn’t sure what was coming.

“Would you consider being their guardian?” Helen asked.

“You know we don’t have any family, and so it would be a big responsibility, taking them on if something happened to us,” Scott said.

Sarah looked at the babies, Aidan sucking on his lips and Emily tucked into her pink blanket. She looked at Scott and Helen, their faces expectant. She thought of herself with only her brother as family.

“Of course I will,” she said.

Scott let out his breath loudly. Helen put her hand over his.

“We’ve been wanting to ask you,” Helen said.

“Thank you so much,” said Scott.

The babies slept through the entire meal. They wheeled them out and walked in the garden. There wasn’t much to it now that it was winter, but the plants were well tended, and one confused bush even had pink flowers.

They sat on one of the benches, the babies still quiet but awake. All of a sudden, Scott let out a yell.

“She smiled! She smiled! Did you see that? Emily smiled.”

They all crowded around, and Emily obliged by smiling up at them, a large toothless smile. Scott took Helen in his arms and lifted her off the ground.

“This place is magic,” Helen said.

They sat there a long time, staring at the babies, smiling themselves.

Sarah looked around lazily. She started suddenly. The pool boy, Dylan, skulked behind the flowery bush. He stood watering the plants, but the water flowed along the sidewalk because he faced toward their group.

“Look, look,” Sarah whispered, motioning with her head.

She looked back. The hose was properly aimed at the shrubbery, and Dylan’s eyes were on the job.