“Until I say you have to stop. Hurry, go, before I change my mind.”
“Calvin and I will wash the dishes,” says Kara. “In fact, I’ll clear what’s left.”
“I got it,” says Natalie. Kara is trying to get the last mouthful of pasta in before Natalie takes her plate too.
“Well, Natalie,” says Calvin, when she returns from the kitchen, “thank you for making dinner. I give you credit for everything you’re doing. Little kids are a lot of work.”
“Confirmed,” says Natalie.
Calvin continues: “I forgot how tiring this stage of parenting is. I must say, watching you, I’m glad it’s behind me.”
“Is it?” challenges Jordan.
“Geez, Jordan,” says Mae, adding a string between Jordan and her father.
Jordan turns to Mae. “What? It’s not like we all haven’t been wondering. All three of us, not just me. I’m just the one with the nerve to ask.”
“To askwhat?” Calvin looks truly bewildered.
With a dramatic flourish of the wine bottle, with which she’s refilling her glass, Jordan says, “To ask if you and Kara will be attempting to produce a male heir.”
“Oh my god,” says Mae. “Jordan! Too far.”
Jordan fixes Mae with her fiery gaze. “I’m only saying out loud what we said in private.” She casts a glance around the table, her eyes locking onto Mae’s. “What weallsaid in private.”
“I didn’t,” says Mae quickly. “I didn’t say anything.” She glances at Kara, willing her to understand: she is not her sisters.
“If you and Kara have a child, you’ll be eighty-eight by the time that kid goes to college,” says Jordan.
Natalie joins in. “But the kid may one day have a nice little nest egg tucked away from selling this house. So that’s something.”
Kara stands up so fast she almost knocks her chair over. They all turn toward her. “That’s not why your dad is selling,” says Kara.
“It’s okay,” says Calvin, and slowly Kara regains her seat. “We don’t need to get into it.”
“I think we do,” says Kara.
“Why else, then?” challenges Jordan.
“He’s selling to pay back the loans he took out to pay for your mother’s treatment.”
They all turn to Calvin, shocked. Jordan says, “What?”
“You never told us that!” Natalie says, her voice full of sound and fury.
“What treatment?” says Mae. “Like, was there a treatment we didn’t know about?”
Calvin’s face has turned somber. He says, “There was. About sixmonths before your mom died, we flew to Switzerland for her to receive a treatment that wasn’t available in the US. It was very expensive and very experimental. None of it was covered by insurance. We took out a second mortgage on the Lenox house to pay for it. And it wasn’t successful, obviously.”
“When?” cries Jordan.
He takes a deep breath. “The time we said we were taking a bucket-list trip to Paris.”
“How come you didn’t tell us?” demands Natalie.
“She didn’t want you to know. She didn’t want you to get your hopes up.”
The Shipman sisters absorb this. Mae imagines her parents boarding the plane, checking into some Swiss hotel room, lying quietly together either before or after the treatment. She doesn’t know what to do with this image.
