The Weird Sisters - Eleanor Brown [76]
“You’re getting flour on the bed,” Rose said. “Are you baking again?”
Cordy peered at the spread. “It’s white. It doesn’t show. And yes—I’m making challah.”
“It smells good,” our mother said.
Rose squirted some lotion into her palm and rubbed her hands together before stroking them up and down our mother’s arm. She could feel the muscles beneath the gentle droop of age. Cordy sat up and held out her hand, and Rose poured lotion into her palm so we could rub her arms together.
“Now this is the life,” our mother sighed. “If I’d known I’d get treated like this, I’d have gotten sick years ago.”
“Gallows humor,” Rose said.
“No, if this were the life, we would be cabana boys and you’d be on a beach somewhere,” Cordy said.
“I could hardly keep up with a cabana boy nowadays,” our mother said. “I feel like all I’ve done for the past six months is lie around. I’m going to have muscle atrophy by the time this is over.”
“We’ll get you some servants to carry you around in a palanquin,” Cordy said. The phone rang, and she flopped backward into a seemingly impossible position, her pants slipping down to reveal her belly as she reached above her head for the receiver. Our mother gingerly stretched her arm up as Rose put on the new bandage.
“Hel-LO,” Cordy said. “Hi, Jonathan! How’s my favorite brother?” Rose’s eyes flicked to the clock. After midnight there. Unusual. A little flicker of panic zipped through her.
Cordy paused, wiggled her eyebrows at Rose. “We’re good. Getting Mom ready for bed.” She tucked the receiver against her shoulder and helped Rose as we pulled our mother to a sitting position, grabbed the white nightgown and tossed it to Rose, who pulled it over her head. “Uh-huh. She’s better. What’s up in England? Had any good tea lately?” There was a pause again, and she giggled. “Totally. Hey, isn’t it like a million o’clock there?”
Our mother gasped as Rose pushed her arm slightly too roughly into the sleeve of the nightgown. “I’m sorry.”
“Here, let me give you to Rose before she breaks Mom’s arm. See ya!” Cordy handed the phone to Rose and then tugged our mother’s nightgown down over the towel before pulling it out, like a magician pulling a cloth from a table.
Leaving Cordy plumping up the endless pillows our mother could never be without, Rose stepped out into the hallway.
“Are you okay?”
Jonathan laughed. “That’s my Rose. Always looking for the disaster.”
“Stop. You know it’s past your bedtime.”
“You always call me when it’s the middle of the night there. Turnabout is fair play.”
“I’m glad you called, actually. I was trying to get you last night, but you weren’t in. Can’t you get an answering machine?”
“I could. But that would spoil all the fun. I was in London at that conference, remember? Presenting my paper?”
“Oh, of course,” Rose said guiltily. She’d been so excited that she’d completely forgotten he was presenting. “How did it go?”
“It was great. I was awfully nervous, but once I started reading, it got much easier. And there were some wonderful questions afterward. Got to go to some good sessions, too. So why were you trying to call?”
Excitement swelled up in Rose and she forgot all about her careful wording. “I’ve got some really exciting news.”
“Do you? I do, too. Who goes first?”
“Me,” Rose said. “I’ve been jumping up and down since I heard.”
“There’s a mental image.”
“Metaphorically.”
“Disappointing. So what is it, love? It’s nice to hear you so happy.”
Rose went into her bedroom and closed the door, lay across the perfectly made bed. “I ran into Dr. Kelly at the pharmacy yesterday. Do you remember my telling you about her?”
“Sure. She was your favorite professor in college, right? Supervised your honors thesis? How is she?”
“Yes, that’s her. She’s fine. She’s getting ready to retire, actually, at the end of next year.”
“Oh.” He inhaled slowly on the other end of the line, and if Rose had been in any state of mind to hear it, she would have known that her plan was about to fall apart.
“She wants me to apply, Jonathan. She says they’ll take an internal candidate