Bernice gave them a baleful look, as if to say, Are we walking, or are we spending all day apologizing?
“No,I’msorry,” said Daniel. “I need to let you do things in your own time. I didn’t mean to pressure you, or rush you. I understand that our situations are different, I do. I can wait until you’re ready, Rebecca. It turns out that being in a box with you is way better than being outside the box without you.”
“It is? Are you sure?”
“Waybetter,” said Daniel. “Way, way better.”
Just like that, an enormous weight lifted itself from Rebecca’s shoulders and disappeared into the summer morning air.Just like that. Maybe everything didn’t have to be so hard after all.
The Gates of Hell were wrought-iron gates that used to lead to one of the mansions on the property, back when the mansions still stood. There was a rumor that the Gates were haunted, and that late at night you could see the heads of decapitated family members on the spikes, even though no murders had ever taken place on the estate to anyone’s knowledge. Nevertheless, Rebecca shivered and tried not to look at the gates.
“Are you worried about the decapitated heads again?” Daniel asked.
“Maybe a little,” she admitted.
Daniel glanced up. “If we saw the ghosts of murdered people, I would do everything in my power to protect you.” He stepped behind Rebecca and wrapped his arms around her waist and rested his chin on the top of her head. This was one of the things about dating someone new after years and years with the same person: you got to see how your body would fit with someone else’s, and sometimes there were unexpected surprises in that. Peter had been very tall, and would have had to stoop to rest his chin on Rebecca’s head. It was never worth the effort.
Immediately Rebecca felt disloyal for thinking that about Peter. He would have stooped for her all day long if she’d wanted him to.
They passed through the gates and began to walk along the dirt path.
Daniel tapped the side of his thigh for Bernice to catch up—she tended to lag, especially early in the morning. She was not a morning person. Obviously she wasn’t a person at all.
“Oh!” Rebecca said. “Here’s what I wanted to tell you. You’re not going to believe this. I just found out that Alexa has this entire YouTube channel called Silk Stockings. She dresses up in pretty, tasteful clothes, and she sits in this chair in her bedroom, and she explains things. Terms. Economic terms, things about the stock market.”
“Oh yeah?” said Daniel. He stopped and turned toward Rebecca. “Like what sorts of things?”
Rebecca named the topics she remembered: stop-loss orders, crypto currency investments. “Blockchain, maybe?” she said. “Is that a thing?”
“It’s a thing,” Daniel said. He was smiling to beat the band.
“What?” she said. “What are you so cheerful about over there?”
“Nothing. Just thatItaught her a lot of those things.”
“You did?”
“Sure thing. Intro to the Stock Market. Remember I told you I had her in class?” He looked proud, spine straight, eyes eager and alert, like Bernice when she’d done something special and was waiting for a reward.
“Wow,” said Rebecca. “Well, I think you did a really good job. She seems like an actual expert. But—” She paused. “But don’t you think it’s terrible, that I didn’t know about it? It makes me feel like such a bad mother. I found out fromMorgan,of all people. I used to be the one who told Morgan things that she didn’t know, and now Morgan is schooling me. My own daughter.” They continued along the path to where it curved toward the formal Italian and rose gardens, which were part of the original estate and werestill kept up by the park service. In these gardens roses and other flowers grew willfully, abundantly.
“I don’t think it’s terrible at all,” said Daniel. “I think it’s the opposite of terrible. I think it’s fantastic. Really. Teenagers do all sorts of things without their parents’ knowledge. You know that.”
“I know,” said Rebecca morosely. “I was a teenager once too.”
“Much of it way, way worse than secretly learning about the stock market. Believe me. I’ve been teaching high school since the dawn of the Internet. And at the risk of sounding self-referential, I couldn’t be happier. I can’t wait to see some of these videos myself!”
Daniel’s unbridled enthusiasm put Rebecca at ease, and she reached down and unclipped Bernice’s leash from her collar, allowing her to indulge in some illegal off-leash walking. “I guess you’re right,” she said. “No, I don’t guess you’re right. Youareright. You are. There’s no harm done, right? And it’s just for now. She probably won’t keep up with any of this once she leaves for college.”
“Exactly,” said Daniel. “I think that’s exactly right.”
“But what do Ido?Do I confront her about it? Do I put some limits on her?”
She could tell Daniel was thinking long and hard about this because furrows appeared on his forehead. “You know what? I wouldn’t. I’d give it some time, a week or two, maybe more. Does she seem happy?”
Rebecca thought about seeing Alexa and Cam walking pleasantly down Pleasant Street; she thought about how Alexa was helping Sherri out whenever she needed it—sometimes, Sherri had told her, free of charge! “Happier than I’ve seen her in a long time,” she admitted.
“Then let it be, for now. Give yourself some time to figure out howyoufeel about it. When the time feels right, have a talk with Alexa. That’s what I would do. Wait here for a sec,” he said.
