Sisterchicks on the Loose (23 page)

Elina entered the room and offered to make a pot of tea.

“Sorry to leave you with the dishes,” she said. “There’s a lot going on right now.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Penny stood up, leaving her song at the table along with her invisible pile of high school memories and travel wishes. “I’m the one who should apologize to you for dropping in the way we did. We plan to leave in the morning because we have someone else to visit. If you wouldn’t mind, may I use your phone to give her a call? I’m going to charge it to my phone card, so it won’t cost you anything.”

“Oh. Certainly.” Elina pointed to the phone attached to the kitchen wall. “If you would prefer privacy, you may use the phone upstairs in my bedroom.”

“This phone is fine.” Penny pulled Monique’s number from her pocket and borrowed a piece of paper and a pen.

I could tell by the way Penny spoke into the phone that she had reached Monique’s answering system and was leaving a message.

Elina placed three cups on the table. Mine had a bit of dried food or something on the bottom. I tried to scratch at it without being obvious. Elina noticed.

“Sorry,” she said, reaching for my cup. “Here, this one looks clean. And I must apologize for the tea. Or should I say the absence of real tea. Loose tea. I didn’t get to the market today, and I’m down to my emergency stash of tea bags.”

“No need to apologize. I use tea bags at home all the time.”

“Do you really?”

Penny hung up the phone. “Monique wasn’t home, but we’ll still head up that way tomorrow. We can try her again once we get there.”

“Where are you going?” Elina asked.

“Scotland,” Penny said confidently.

I looked down at my cup and deliberately drowned the teabag, so I didn’t catch the exchange of expressions between the cousins. I also didn’t want Penny or Elina to notice the inevitable splash of disapproval that was washing across my face. I reminded myself this was Penny’s adventure. I was along for the ride. Blazing comets answered to no one.

“Are you taking the train?” Elina asked.

“Yes,” Penny said. “Definitely. We’ll do better on a train than we would with a rental car.”

“I can drive you to the train station,” Elina offered.

“That’s okay,” Penny said briskly. “We’ll take a taxi.”

Elina shifted in her seat, wrapping her hands around her teacup. We all sank into a pocket of awkward silence.

Rescuing my limp tea bag, I placed it in the hollow of my spoon, the way Elina had, and took a sip of the dark brew. I wished we could politely excuse ourselves, go upstairs, eke out a decent night’s sleep, and slip out at first light.

“My mother mentioned that you had some letters you wanted me to translate.”

“Actually,” Penny said slowly, “I thought I’d take them to someone in San Francisco.”

“Do you know a Finnish translator in San Francisco?”

“No, but I thought I could find someone through the university.”

“Look.” Elina set aside her cup. “I don’t think this has been a very good start for us. You and I have gone all these years without knowing each other as cousins.”

Penny seemed to flinch at the word
cousins
.

Elina reached across the table and took Penny’s hand in hers. “Why don’t we start over and try to be friends. Would that not be a better place to begin?”

Penny withdrew her hand but kept her gaze fixed on Elina. “But you see, that’s the thing, Elina. We aren’t friends. We’re cousins. I have enough friends. But I have no other cousins. I have no other relatives that I know of. Only you, your brother, your mother, and your father. That’s all. You are one of four people on this huge planet with whom I share the same blood. We don’t have to be friends, Elina. But whether we want to be or not, we always will be cousins.”

I was stunned at Penny’s directness. I was even more stunned at Elina’s response. She cried. Not the kind of crying that comes with tidy streams of polite tears down the cheeks. She sobbed with her hands covering her face.

Penny didn’t hesitate. She jumped up and wrapped a comforting arm around her cousin and stroked her hair, murmuring gentle words in Elina’s ear. The scene mirrored what Marketta had done at her kitchen table, only reenacted with Penny playing the role of the comforter.

“You’re right,” Elina said, looking up. “We are cousins.”

“Yes, but why are you crying like this, Elina? I know a few things about tears, and I’m guessing these have been wanting to come out for a long time.”

Elina opened up. The women in Penny’s family certainly shared the same propensity toward bursting into tears and blurting out their feelings. “This morning, my husband, Arnie, received a call that some of the men on his shift might be sacked today.”

“Sacked? You mean drunk?”

Alina looked at me.

“
Sacked
means laid off, doesn’t it?” I said.

“Yes. He said he might be given the boot after work today. He was very upset when he left. I didn’t want to bring this into
your visit, but I’m afraid I haven’t been able to think of anything else. If he loses his job, I don’t know what we’ll do. We’ve been living on so little for so long. I had a job for six years, but I was sacked nine months ago. Or what did you call it? Laid off? I was laid off. Nothing has gotten better for us.”

Penny reached for a paper towel and handed it to Elina since no tissue was in sight.

“Well, I guess we picked a pretty awful day to come for a visit,” Penny said with lighthearted tenderness.

“Yes,” Elina agreed, wiping her eyes and pulling herself together. “It’s been a pretty awful day. A pretty awful year, actually.”

Penny reached for a chair next to Elina and sat down. With calm, steady words, Penny said to her cousin, “Life can be messy sometimes. But it’s okay. You’ll be okay. God will work all this out for you. You’ll see.”

“Mummy?” William, wearing his robe, stood around the corner, peeking into the kitchen.

“Yes, William?”

“I’m ready for bed, Mummy.”

“Okay. Good night, son.”

“Aren’t you going to ask if I brushed my teeth?”

“Did you brush your teeth?”

“Yes, Mummy.”

“Good night, then.”

“Mummy?”

“Yes, William.”

“May I have a kiss?”

“Of course. Come here.”

I watched Elina do what mothers all over the world do. She took her son in her arms, kissed him, and buried her nose
in a tuft of his hair. Nothing in the universe smells the same as the head of an eight-year-old boy, fresh from the bath.

I also recognized the pattern of what children everywhere do when they sense tension in the family. William wanted to be close to his “mummy.”

“Good night,” Elina said.

William looked up at her. “Good night. Sleep tight. Don’t let the bedbugs bite. If they bite, squeeze them tight, and they’ll not bite another night. Good night!”

With a kiss for Elina and a wave for Penny and me, Brave William was off to bed.

“You are rich in many ways,” Penny said.

“Yes, but …”

William appeared again. “Cammy and Tara are fighting.”

We heard the sound of the front door unlocking and opening.

“That would be Arnie.” Elina shook her head. “This can’t be good, if he’s home already.”

“Daddy!” William took off for the front door.

“How’s my boy?” the deep voice called from the entryway. We could hear William give a full report of household events including his fighting sisters upstairs. “And the ladies are in the kitchen with Mummy having tea.”

“You go on to bed, son.”

“All right, Daddy.”

Penny turned to Elina and said in a low voice, “Sharon and I can leave so you two can talk. I’ll call a cab.”

“No, it’s okay. Please stay. Arnie won’t mind.”

A dark-haired man with glasses and a brown corduroy cap stepped into the kitchen with a grin on his face. “Are you ready for the news, Elina? I’ve been promoted!” He leaned over and
gave her a smacking big kiss. Looking up, he gave Penny and me a nod. “Hallo.”

“Promoted?”

“That’s right. I’ve been switched to the morning shift, and because of the change, I have off the next three days. With pay. A three-day weekend. That’s the first in a long time, isn’t it?”

“How did that happen?”

“According to Chester, my number came up for the day shift, and they had an opening. If there hadn’t been an opening, I would have been sacked with the other four men on the night shift.”

“I can’t believe it,” Elina said.

“You better believe it! It’s about time something good happened to us.”

Elina glanced over at Penny. “This is my husband, Arnie. Amie, this is my cousin, Penny, and her friend Sharon.”

Arnie wasn’t a large man. He was rugged in a way that suited a man who had made an honest living stuck in the middle of the working class.

“Nice to meet you both. Elina told me you’ll be staying with us for a few days.”

“Actually, no,” Penny said. “We’re leaving in the morning.”

“The morning? Nonsense! You only arrived this afternoon, did you not? Why don’t you stay and keep Elina company for a few days? She could use a bit of a holiday.”

“They have plans,” Elina said.

“Then you make yourself some plans, love. I’ll take over here for a day or two and give you a break.”

Elina pulled back and scrutinized her husband. “Have you been drinking, Arnie?”

“Only a pint. I had to celebrate with Pete and the boys.”

Elina shook her head. “I can’t believe you were promoted.”

“Believe it.” Arnie pulled up a chair and said to Penny and me, “It’s been a rough time for us lately. Did Elina tell you about the new medication the doctor put her on? Ever since the operation she’s been on a spin.”

“Arnie, I didn’t tell them any of that.”

“Oh. I thought women always told each other about their female problems.”

Elina stared into her empty teacup.

“Hysterectomy?” Penny ventured after the pause seemed to have siphoned all the air from the room.

Elina nodded. “Three months ago.”

“Four,” Arnie corrected her. “Time for her to feel herself again, wouldn’t you say?”

“Not necessarily,” Penny said. “A friend of mine from work took a full six months before she was feeling normal, and that was after some creative hormone therapy.”

The air didn’t seem to be returning to the room because none of us had anything to add to Penny’s comment.

Except Penny.

“I have an idea.”

I closed my eyes and waited. I didn’t even have to check her eyebrows to guess what she was going to say.

“Why don’t you come with us, Elina? If Arnie is going to be home for the next few days, why don’t the three of us head up to Warrington in the morning?”

Elina said, “You can’t be serious.”

“Of course I’m serious. A train ride to Warrington would do you good, don’t you think? If we feel like it, we might go on up to Scotland.” Penny tapped my arm. “What do you think, Sharon?”

I honestly thought it was a good idea. Not necessarily the part about flitting off to Scotland, but the idea of including Elina. After the way Elina had opened up to us, I felt sympathy for her. She was a mom. Everyone depended on her. I knew what that was like. She had been through a lot during the past few months, including surgery and a job loss. If I were Elina, I’d want to get away from home for a few days.

I leaned forward so that Elina looked me in the eye. With a smile I said, “I think it’s a great idea. Come on, Elina. Come with us. Just for a few days.”

Penny graciously let it be known that she was, of course, paying for the train, meals, and all accommodations. After that announcement, Elina entered into the moment with more animation and sparkle.

“This is crazy!” Elina grinned from ear to ear.

“Yep!” Penny said. “Crazy like a daisy!”

I laughed, knowing oh so well the feeling of having Penny swish into your life and take you on an unexpected escapade. That was Penny’s gift to me, and now it would be her gift to her cousin. Elina was being scooped up from the ordinary and catapulted over the moon.

This time, I was the little dog laughing to see such sport.

P
enny, Elina, and I
stayed up until almost midnight discussing our options. Arnie lasted for the first half hour and then went upstairs to bed. Penny tried to call Monique again around ten o’clock. She got the answering machine but didn’t leave another message.

“I don’t have a problem just heading up to Warrington tomorrow morning,” Penny said. “If Monique is home, great. If not, we can get back on the train and keep going until we hit Scotland.”

Elina turned to me. “Is this the way the two of you planned your trip over here?”

“Pretty much,” I said.

“We’re at God’s mercy,” Penny said.

Elina didn’t comment.

“It’s not as scary as it sounds,” I assured her.

“Have you ever been to Warrington?” Penny asked Elina.

“No.”

“What about Scotland?”

“Yes, I’ve been to Glasgow and Edinburgh twice.”

“What about Greece?” Penny suddenly popped out.

“What about Greece?” Elina asked.