Finding Bluefield (14 page)

“What is divorce?” Paul said.

“When two people who love each other decide that they can’t live together anymore.”

“Will you and Barbara ever divorce?” Paul said.

“No,” Nicky said. “Do you worry about that?”

“When Eddie stays with his dad on some weekends, he gets lots of toys.”

Nicky laughed. She put out her cigarette and stopped in front of the shoe store. She herded Paul in.

*

Two weeks later, Nicky sat in Judy’s kitchen looking through the
New York Times
as Paul and Eddie played in the backyard.

“I’m glad you didn’t cancel,” Judy said. “I’m really sad and I’m kind of nervous about what response this might trigger.”

“There’s a piece here on Robert Kennedy. He was in Indianapolis last night and he had to break the news to the crowd.”

“I hope he gets the Democratic nomination,” Judy said. “Can you imagine how he felt?”

“He must have been thinking about his brother,” Nicky said.

“He must be wondering about his own safety,” Judy said, looking out the window to see what the boys were up to.

1969

Though only June, the day was promising to be another scorcher—not just hot, but humid too—by the time Barbara headed to work. Nicky left Paul at the table to finish his cereal while she loaded the Bel Air for a trip to the lake. Nicky heard a large truck and turned to watch as a moving van came to a stop at the Stanleys’ old house across the street from hers. She went inside to get Paul and they stood in the driveway watching. A few minutes later, a Ford wagon and a Buick sedan pulled up and parked behind the truck. The Stanleys had left when Mr. Stanley accepted a job at Stanford. They didn’t have any children, and she and Barbara hardly knew them.

“New neighbors,” Nicky said to Paul. She took a deep breath and lifted him onto the trunk and leaned against the car.

An elderly man in a white button-down short sleeve shirt stepped out of the Buick, looked at the house, then turned and surveyed the surrounding houses as if they were the competition. When he saw Nicky and Paul in the driveway, he waved. An unlit cigar rested in his mouth, and he pulled at his chin as if there were a beard there. He was soon joined by a man Nicky’s age who was wearing a weathered Brooklyn Dodgers baseball cap, and a woman with a long black braid that reached all the way down her back. They too waved to Nicky and Paul. The moving men gathered around the woman and waited for instructions. Though she stood in one spot, her hands were in constant motion. The younger man entered the house and then came back out and said something to the woman who then turned and started walking toward Nicky and Paul. The two men followed the movers inside.

“Hi,” the woman said as she approached. She held her hand out toward Nicky. “I’m Susan. Susan Schulman.”

“Nicky Stewart,” she said, pushing herself off the car and extending her hand. “And this guy is Paul. Welcome to the neighborhood.”

The woman took Nicky’s hand. She gestured toward the moving van and her house. “That was my husband, Abe, and my father-in-law, Isaac.” She turned to Paul. “How old are you?”

“Four and a quarter,” Paul said proudly.

“My Joshua is your age. He’s five. He’s sleeping in the car. Will you be starting kindergarten in the fall?”

“Yes?” Paul asked.

“And so will Josh. Maybe you’ll be in the same class.”

“There’s only one class,” Nicky said.

“Oh. In Brooklyn there were going to be three classes.”

“You moved here from Brooklyn?”

“You mean you can’t tell? Have I lost my accent already?” Susan said. “It’s all that fresh air. It smoothes everything.” When Nicky didn’t laugh, she continued. “Abe was offered the chair of the astronomy department at the university, so here we are. He’s involved in the Apollo moon landing stuff with NASA. The one that just came back and the one that’s going soon. Abe is very big in space.”

Nicky tried to hold back a laugh.

“Go ahead, laugh,” Susan said. “It’s a joke. It needs the laugh.”

Nicky let out a quiet laugh.

“Do you have any others?” Susan asked.

“Paul’s it,” Nicky said. “And you?”

“I have a girl, Lila. She’s two. She’s also sleeping in the car. But we’ll have plenty of time to talk. You and your husband will come over for cocktails after. In the meantime, I was wondering if I could use your phone to call the phone company. They still didn’t hook up our phone.”

“Sure,” Nicky said and led Susan into her house and showed her to the kitchen phone.

As Susan picked up the phone, she looked around the kitchen. “You must really like cooking.”

“I love cooking,” Nicky said.

“I love what you did with this kitchen. It’s so country. That table is fabulous. The wood is so thick.” Susan rubbed her hand on the hard hickory surface. “This must be an antique.”

“My great-grandfather made it from trees on his farm. He cut and dried the wood himself.”

“See? That’s different around here,” Susan said, pushing the receiver down again. “I don’t have anything from my family. No heirlooms. They came here with so little stuff. Only brought what they could carry. Nothing much of value except their lives and some jewels. Anyway, enough history. Want to show me around the rest of the house? I’d love to see what else you’ve done.”

Nicky wasn’t used to Susan’s pace. She and Barbara had visitors, but they never took anyone upstairs. And she just met Susan. As they climbed the stairs, Nicky was glad that Barbara’s study was set up to look like a bedroom.

“I love it,” Susan kept saying as Nicky showed her each room on the second floor. “I love what you’ve done here. You’ll have to tell me where you shop.”

Nicky figured she must have passed the bedroom check. She was glad to have neighbors who were new in Medford, who came without a local family tree. Susan intrigued her, and she hoped the two families would like each other. It would be a real gift to get good neighbors. It was so hard to break in with the locals. Barbara didn’t socialize much with her colleagues and maybe even had less need to. Having adult company all day, she was glad to come home and spend time with Nicky and Paul.

“I should make that call and get back.”

Back in the kitchen, Nicky listened as Susan demanded that her line be the next to be hooked up. She told them that she was living with her aged father-in-law and that he was ill and that the phone was not a convenience, but a medical necessity.

“Is your father-in-law sick?” Nicky asked when Susan hung up.

“Isaac? No. He’ll outlive us all. I just wanted my phone hooked up.”

“Can I get you a cup of coffee?” Nicky said. “I’ve got a fresh pie.”

“Thanks. We picked up some coffee and doughnuts on the way over,” Susan said. “Tell me, your accent, it’s not from around here.”

“Virginia,” Nicky said.

“So you’re not from here either? Did your husband also get a job here?”

“There’s no husband.”

“I’m sorry,” Susan said. “What happened to Mr. Stewart?”

“I’d rather not go into it.”

“I understand. So it’s just you and Paul?” Susan asked.

“And my friend Barbara. She’s a doctor.” Nicky braced for the response.

“Really?” Susan said.

Nicky tried to gauge Susan’s reaction.

“That’s great,” Susan said. “I feel safer already. Does she make house calls?” Susan laughed and Nicky realized it was another joke. “I’m not used to being this isolated. I lived in Brooklyn my whole life except to go to Brandeis. That’s where Abe and I met. In Brooklyn, there are always lots of people on the block. You know, I never lived in a place without sidewalks or where you couldn’t walk to a store. But Abe got this good job and we figured with the kids and all, it was a good time to get out of the city. But I told Abe that I’m not coming unless they have a synagogue. It’s not that I’m religious or anything, but I figured if the place doesn’t have enough Jews to support a temple, we better stay away. But listen to me going on,” Susan said. “I really should get back. Abe doesn’t know where anything goes. You know how men are about these things. We’ll have coffee together soon. I’d like to meet Barbara the doctor.”

Susan left and Nicky finished packing the car. She made snacks for her and Paul to eat at the lake. On the radio, the DJ was talking about John and Yoko’s Montreal bed-in for peace. Nicky was thinking about what Susan said about her temple and how she could pull into a town and join and be a part of something, be with her people, or not join, but know that they were around. Nicky wished she had a group to join. What do Jewish dykes do, she wondered?

*

Both moon and sun were visible against the July sky as Nicky, Barbara, and Paul stepped outside onto the pavement and headed across the street to watch the Apollo moon landing with the Shulmans. Nicky was delighted at the way Paul and Josh seemed to get along and how friendly Susan and her family turned out to be. Abe the scientist was glad to have Barbara the doctor understand some of what he said.

“I really wanted to put a frosting on this,” Nicky said to Barbara before reaching the other curb, “but Susan said you don’t frost a marble cake.”

“You don’t mess with a marble cake,” Barbara said. “I learned that in med school.”

“But you know how I like to adapt recipes.”

“I always say that about you, you’re very adaptable.”

Nicky stopped and looked up at the moon. “You see the moon, Paul? They’re up there. They’re up there now.”

“You said they were on TV,” Paul said.

“That’s right, sweetie. The TV is showing us pictures from the moon.”

“How does it do that?” Paul said

“I don’t know,” Nicky said. She looked at Barbara.

“Waves,” Barbara said.

“Like at the beach?” Paul said.

“Something like those waves, but you can’t see these waves. The camera turns the picture into waves,” Barbara said, “and a satellite picks up the waves and turns it back into a picture for us to see.”

“Maybe it’s only pretend,” Paul said.

“I guess he inherited your conspiracy gene,” Barbara whispered to Nicky.

“Do you really understand that stuff?” Nicky asked Barbara. “The stuff about the waves?”

“A little. But not so much. Abe can tell us more,” Barbara said.

“I understand even less when he explains things.” Nicky knocked on the Schulmans’ door. “Let’s not ask.”

Susan opened the door. “Come in, come in.” She was holding the baby, Lila. “Look at that cake,” Susan said. “You sure you’re not even a little Jewish? How about you take Lila and I’ll go cut the cake?” she said to Nicky.

“Deal.” Nicky took Lila from Susan and followed Barbara into the den. She settled on the couch. Barbara sat in an armchair next to the couch.

“I feel like a kid,” Abe was telling Josh. “Only better. This totally beats nineteen fifty-five when the Dodgers beat the Yankees.”

“I remember,” Nicky said when they had all settled in, “the first time Paul knew that he was seeing stars. He was almost two and he’d never been outside and awake in the dark.”

Susan came in carrying the cake.

“He wanted to know what those lights in the sky were,” Nicky continued.

“Nicky felt so guilty,” Barbara said, “she went out and bought a telescope.”

“Guilt,” Susan said, “is the universal religion.”

“Kids have a hard time looking through a telescope,” Abe said.

“I learned that.”

“Can we use a telescope tonight?” Barbara asked Abe.

“They’re not on this side of the moon,” Abe said. “Anyway, you wouldn’t see anything, even with the most powerful scope.”

“How are they sending those pictures if they are still inside?” Barbara asked Abe.

“There’s a camera on the top of the Eagle. It’s taking much better pictures than we are seeing because it’s sending those pictures back to stations here on earth and those stations have to convert the images for TV. But they’ll bring back—” Abe realized that Susan was staring at him. “What?” he said. “Too much?”

“I did ask,” Barbara said.

“I would love to be up there,” Nicky said.

“Not me,” Barbara said. “I hardly like flying.”

“I did always want to be a pilot,” Nicky said. “When I was a kid, I begged my dad to let me go up with the crop dusters.”

“Did he let you?” Paul said.

“No.”

“How about giving me a hand with the coffee?” Susan said to Nicky.

Nicky followed Susan into the kitchen. The coffee had finished perking and Nicky poured herself a cup.

“I tried a piece of your cake,” Susan said, putting coffee cups on a tray. “I hate that you can make my own cake better than me. I’m Jewish. This is supposed to be my cake.”

“Yours is good.” Nicky realized that Susan was smiling at her. “What? You’re paying me a compliment, right?”

“Yes,” Susan said.

“I’ll catch on soon,” Nicky said. “Thank you.”