Calvin folds his hands and places them in his lap. He might have been praying, except the Shipmans don’t pray. “It’s already listed. It’s done. I signed the papers. When Kara gets here on Tuesday—”
Natalie breaks in first, but they’re all thinking it, ho, boy, they are all thinking it. “Kara’s coming? To our family bonding week?” Her voice rises close to a shriek: “To the first time we’ve spent real time here without Mom?”
Calvin says, “Kara is—” and they take a collective breath, because they all expect him to say,Kara is family, and two of them have their mental fists raised, ready to pummel those words. “Kara is visiting her mother in Cincinnati,” says Calvin. “She’s flying back. She lands at two on Tuesday.”
“That’s a terrible idea,” says Jordan, and her sisters turn toward her, surprised that she could be so bold. “What? She’s flying into Logan at two? You’ll spend the whole day in rush-hour traffic.”
“That’s not the terrible idea!” cries Natalie, going for it. “The terrible idea is that she’s coming at all.”
“She could take the bus,” says Mae. “You could collect her in Portsmouth.”
Calvin shakes his head. “She’s not taking the bus. I’ll pick her up.”
Mae says, “It’s a coach bus. It’s not, like, a yellow school bus.”
“You could put her in an Uber,” says Jordan. “If she has to come at all.”
“Uber’s worse,” says Mae. “She could get murdered in an Uber.” Then, at her father’s expression, “She could. You’re not supposed to take an Uber alone for a long ride!”
“A young woman can’t be too careful in this world,” adds Natalie snarkily. Guns are blazing, thinks Jordan. Leave it to Natalie. (Kara is forty, only four years older than Jordan.)
“None of this is the issue. Why is Kara coming?” asks Jordan. “She’s never been here, right?”
“Correct,” says Calvin.
“Why not just keep it that way?” asks Jordan.
Calvin sighs. “She wanted to see the house once. And she is my wife, so, like it or not, she’s part of this family.”
Natalie huffs and says, “I call not liking it.”
“You’re all missing the point,” says Mae. “The point is that selling the house is like selling Mom. Her ashes are out there!” She pointsto the ocean. Yes, it’s true; on a cold gray October morning, just past dawn, six months to the day after Theresa died, they’d all donned waders and walked across the piles of seaweed cast upon the sand and flung handfuls of ashes into the sea.
“It does feel like you’re selling Mom,” confirms Natalie.
Calvin rubs his eye for many, many seconds. When he stops rubbing it, he says, “I understand your responses. Everything you’re feeling is valid. But I’m not selling your mother. This is a financial decision, not an emotional one.”
“All decisions are emotional,” counters Natalie.
Calvin takes a breath so slow and deliberate they can all see his ribs expand. “This is a financial decision,” he repeats. “You’re all off in your own lives. This house is three hours away from Lenox. I needed to make a plan that makes the most sense.”
“This house has always been three hours away from Lenox,” Mae points out.
Jordan is annoyed—are her sisters being deliberately obtuse? “What he’s saying, you guys, is that Kara doesn’t want to come here.”
“I’m not saying—”
“I knew Kara was behind this,” spits Natalie. “I knew she was making you sell it.”
“Kara isn’t making me sell anything. But obviously we’re not using it the way we did when your mother was alive.”
“I thought you were renting it,” says Mae.
“I was. But that’s a lot to keep track of, from afar.”
“You can hire a property manager,” says Natalie.
“But if something breaks, I could lose the whole rental check on the repair. The roof needs replacing. The washer and dryer are on their last legs. The taxes are high. Flood insurance is through the roof. I’m just waiting for the day when the insurance company cancels it altogether. The cost of keeping a house we’re not living inhas become untenable.” He clears his throat again. “I’m sorry. I know this isn’t something you wanted to hear. But you all have your own homes now.”
