“Dor-is!” came a call from the kitchen. “The oven dinger went off, and I can’t be everywhere at once!”
“Excuse me,” Doris said.
Joey said, “Go right ahead. I want to see if there’s another chess match going on.”
Doris’s face cleared, and she moved away.
Joey stepped back, his reward a glimpse of her straight shoulders and her charmingly round form as she walked toward the kitchen. She moved so neatly, yet could change into someone else in the blink of an eye. He still remembered Oona, on Bird’s terrace.
What a remarkable woman his mate was!
Doris was in and out several more times, during which Joey tried to stay out of the way. Because he often was ducking aside as people went to and fro, he couldn’t help but notice the folding table stashed in the alcove beyond the phone. That, added to the prep table in the center of the kitchen, would surely seat everyone. At least, everyone he’d either met or heard of, so far.
He hadn’t met Brad face to face. And the man the kids called Uncle Isidor was also unmet—apparently in charge of the kids in a back room somewhere, though Joey suspected he might be avoiding the rest of the family. But there didn’t seem to be any others. He was very good at estimating how many people he could fit into a room after years of hosting gatherings, and he knew it would be tight, but they all could fit. So why weren’t they all eating together?
He stood by the folding table for a while, in case Doris was sent to fetch it. But no one came, and presently Doris appeared, wearing a long, loose costume that looked vaguely Biblical. “Come and fill your plates, everybody!”
The wind howled around the eaves while people filed through the kitchen, loading their plates and then going off in different directions.
The children reappeared in the den wearing their superhero costumes, which had been adapted with scraps of fabric and bits of string—Lon earnestly said he was Mordecai the Hero, and little Pink patted her round tummy and announced, “Keen.”
“That’s Queen,” her brother whispered. “Queen Es-dur.”
“Keen-es-der,” said Pink obediently.
A tall young woman with brown curls flapping on her back and Sylvia’s wide brown eyes, wearing a costume made up of floating scarves and spangles, followed them. That must be Nicola. A fixed and desperate smile tightened her face. Despite Doris’s whispered, “It’s okay, the kids are doing great,” she led the children away, whispering, “We’re playing Purim games in the back room. The kids can be loud and jump around if they want to.”
And she vanished, kids in tow.
Joey wished he could help—he sensed tension in Doris as well as her niece. Doris clearly served as anchor in her quiet way, but anchors are weighty. He had to sit by and watch her running back and forth, but finally she came to him, and gave him a quick grin. “I realize your young niece and nephew probably are disappointed not to be camping, but I’m so glad they were with you.”
It hurt Joey to hide the truth from his mate, but now was not the time. He forced himself to say, “There will be other opportunities.” Even that felt like a lie.
Doris leaned toward him, her mind clearly on other things. “Ever since my niece hit high school, she leaves the table the minute she can, and ret
reats to the back room to watch horror flicks, like a hibernating bear. But when I checked just now to see if she needed anything, she and the twins were playing Twister and laughing up a storm.”
“Already fershnikit?” Joey asked, wiggling his brows.
Doris laughed, a happy sound. Then her brow creased. “Is it all right?”
“They’re not driving, and they know when to stop. I’m glad they’re having fun.”
Her face cleared, and he was glad to see her finally sit down with a plate on her knees as she joined him, Xi Yong, Doris’s parents, Sylvia (lovely in a costume that evoked ancient Persia), and Granny Z regal in a black gown and tiara. Things were a little stiff at first. But plates of delicious food and especially the Queen Esther Cocktail (rose, vermouth, and orange juice), soon turned the evening merry.
The kitchen door swung to and fro as people helped themselves to seconds. Joey glimpsed Elva loading seconds onto plates held by a small Queen Esther and Mordecai in a curiously furtive manner. But then Elva reappeared without the children, and resumed her seat as if nothing had happened, while Granny Z detailed her triumph over the scam caller.
The conversation shifted to the plays Doris and Sylvia had put on as children, Elva recollecting them fondly. Sylvia took over, dramatically relating the history of the plays, embellished with details as her cheeks got rosier. Joey noticed that in those plays she invariably played Esther, while Doris took the other roles, including the male ones.
Xi Yong smiled, listening with his eyes half shut, and Joey wondered how much of the pleasant party atmosphere was due to his qilin influence.
The appearance of dessert caused a general movement. The teenagers reappeared, apparently ravenous though dinner had been only an hour or ago. Drunk Twister had clearly burned calories, he thought, laughing to himself.
When Doris came back in after serving the dessert, he moved to a couch, hoping she would join him, but she dropped into an ugly old chair close to the kitchen.
Instead, Sylvia sat down next to him. “You moved to Playa del Encanto recently?” she asked with a little smile.
“I’ve lived there a number of years,” he said, with a glance at Doris. “But I’m at the eastern edge of town. My routine tends to keep me moving between my home and the university.”