Knitting Under the Influence (34 page)

“Okay,” he said and held her hand as they walked out of the house.

As planned, Ellen was waiting for them at Ben & Jerry's, sitting at a table near the front window.

She rose to greet them as they all came inside.

“This is my friend Ellen,” Sari told Charlie. “Say hi to her and shake her hand.”

“Hi,” he said and shook her hand.

Everyone else was introduced and then Ellen asked Charlie what kind of ice cream he wanted.

“Not mint,” he said.

“All right,” she said. “They have lots of flavors that aren't mint. Come with me so you can order for yourself.” They walked over to the counter together. The others could see her prompting Charlie to speak directly to the ice cream scooper.

“So that's Ellen,” Lucy said. “Nice to finally meet her. She's not exactly what I pictured.”

“I thought she'd have short gray hair and wear a tweed suit,” Kathleen said. “But she's kind of a babe. For an old lady.”

“She's not that old.” Sari gave Zack's hand a squeeze. “Hey, guys, do you think in a parallel universe Ellen's my mother?”

“Yeah, and you're my sister,” Kathleen said. “In the perfect parallel universe.”

“What about me?” Lucy said. “Am I your sister, too?”

“Yeah,” Kathleen said. “You're the annoying much older one who's always telling us to get out of her room.”

“That's because you always mess up my stuff.”

“Come on, Zack,” Sari said. “Let's go get you some ice cream.”

“Just stay away from the mint,” Lucy said. “That stuff will kill you.”

Sari took Zack to the counter, while the other two pulled up some extra chairs to a table, and then they all sat down with the ice cream.

“Zack looks pretty comfortable on your lap,” Lucy said to Sari.

“He spends a lot of time here.”

“We all thought it was Jason you were in love with.”

“Nope. It was always this guy.” Sari cuddled him close. He had an ice cream cone, which he was steadily licking in the same spot, over and over again.

“So, Charlie,” Ellen said, “Sari tells me you like movies a lot. Especially science fiction movies.”

“Yeah.” He dug into his ice cream. There was, as promised, hot fudge on top.

“I want to see how much you know about movies,” Ellen said. “I’m going to ask you some questions, okay?”

“Okay.” He didn't look up from his ice cream.

Ellen said, “Who was Luke Skywalker's father?”

“Darth Vader,” he said. “Of course.”

“Good job. Who was his sister?”

Another spoonful of ice cream went into his mouth. “Princess Leia.”

“With the bun-bun hair,” Kathleen said.

“Shush,” said Sari, watching Charlie. He was methodically eating his ice cream, but he was definitely also listening pretty carefully to Ellen.

“What was the name of the elf in the
Lord of the Rings
movies?” Ellen said.

“Legolas,” he said. “And Gimli is the dwarf and Gandalf is the wizard and the hobbits are Frodo, Pippin, Merry, and Sam. Frodo has the ring.”

“Good,” she said. “Do you know this much about a lot of movies?”

“I know a lot more than that,” Charlie said. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Those were easy questions. They were kind of stupid.”

“Charlie!” Sari said.

“No, he's right,” Ellen said “I don't know enough about these movies to ask really good questions, Charlie. I’m sorry. But I’m impressed with how much you know. And there's a reason I was asking you these questions. I have a friend who owns a video store. Do you know what that is?”

“You get movies there,” Charlie said.

“That's right,” Ellen said. “You rent movies there. And my friend told me he needs someone to help him out, someone who knows a lot about movies.”

“Help him out?” Charlie repeated. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, answer people's questions about movies. Like, if someone came in and said, ‘What's that movie with Will Smith where aliens come and try to take over the earth?’ then he needs someone who could say …” She waited.

“ Independence Day,”
Charlie said.

“Exactly,” Ellen said, beaming. “And he also needs someone to help put movies back in the right places on the shelves and to restock things like candy and popcorn.”

“Restock?” Charlie repeated. Sari had never seen him question a word before—he usually ignored things that he didn't understand, but he was following this conversation eagerly. He had even stopped eating the ice cream, though he stayed hunched over it protectively.

“ ‘Restock’ means to put more out on the shelves. So my friend asked me if I knew anyone who could help him, and Sari told me she thought you would be really good at a job like that.”

“It's a job?” Charlie said.

“Yes,” Ellen said. “It's a job and you'd get paid for doing it.”

Charlie looked at Sari. She said, “I think you'd really like working there, Charlie. And you could buy all sorts of things for yourself with the money you made. It would be
your
money.”

“I don't know,” he said. “Does my mom say okay?”

“She will,” Sari said, and her eyes met Ellen's.

“Yes, she will,” Ellen said with a determined nod and Sari thought,
Maybe this could actually happen.
Ellen turned back to Charlie. “Now, Charlie, if you really want to have an adult job, you have to be responsible about your appearance and your behavior. You'll have to take a shower and shave every day.”

“My mother shaves me,” Charlie said.

“It's time you learned to shave yourself.”

“She says it's dangerous.”

“Not if you do it right. I can teach you. And you'll have to dress appropriately. Do you know what that means?”

“Sort of.”

She gestured toward the baggy sweatpants and the too-tight T-shirt he wore over his bulging stomach. “You'll need real pants. Some plain khaki ones would be nice and neat. And you need to wear shirts with buttons. Sari can take you shopping and help you get the right clothes. You'll want to look nice for your job interview.”

“Okay,” he said.

“And when you're at work, you have to be polite to everyone and not get upset about anything. That's very important.”

“Okay.”

Ellen smiled at him. “I like your attitude,” she said. “I think you're going to make a wonderful employee.”

“Yes,” he said. He went back to spooning up his ice cream. Some collected at the corners of his mouth, but he didn't seem to notice.

“Sari?” Lucy said. “I don't want to interfere, and I know you're the child expert here, but I’m fairly certain that if you don't do something soon, Zack's ice cream is going to drip all over both of you.”

“Oops,” Sari said, and caught up Zack's wrist, swiftly bringing his cone up to her mouth. She licked the edge in one long circular motion.

“Wow,” Kathleen said. “Nice tongue moves. That Jason is one lucky guy.”

“My boss is sitting next to you!” Sari said, but Ellen was laughing.

They couldn't stay much longer—if Eloise found out they were gone, there was no way of knowing how she'd react, and no one wanted the guys to have to deal with the fallout.

While Charlie and Zack finished their ice cream, Sari walked Ellen to the door.

“Thank you,” she said. “Oh, Ellen, thank you.”

“Don't be silly,” Ellen said. “Like this is anything but a pleasure for me. Sari, if we can make things better for your brother—”

“I know,” said Sari. “I know.” And found she was crying. Ellen hugged her tightly before saying goodbye. Sari watched her walk away. Even through her tears, she could see that Ellen had a huge run down the back of her black tights and that her slip showed below the hem of her dress.

She was the most beautiful, perfect woman Sari had ever seen.

Eloise realized they were all gone about fifteen minutes before they got back. The men tried to keep her in the dining room, but eventually she insisted on getting up to clear the table, and then started calling to the girls to come help her … and finally went looking for them and realized that they weren't anywhere in the house. And that Charlie was gone, too.

“They're all missing!” she said, with some alarm.

Jason hit himself in the forehead. “Oh, that's right—I totally forgot—Sari said she was thinking of taking Zack and Charlie out for ice cream. They must have done that. I’m sure they'll be back any minute. Want me to call her on the cell?”

“Sari should have asked me,” Eloise said. Her brows had come together. “I don't like Charlie to go out without me. He gets very nervous.”

“I’ll tell her that when she gets back,” Jason said. He took her arm. “But don't worry about it—I’m sure they're fine. Let's go sit in the living room and wait for them.”

The men did what they could to entertain Eloise with their conversation, but she was less distractible now, and her eyes stayed fixed on the front door.

When the girls and Charlie finally walked in, Eloise jumped to her feet. “There you are!” she said. “You didn't tell me you were going out.”

“Sorry.” Sari put Zack down and he ran to his father, who picked him up and gave him a hug. “We went out for ice cream. It was fun, wasn't it, Charlie?”

“Yeah,” he said. “I’m going to watch some movies now. I have to get ready for my job.” And he went into the TV room.

“What did he say?” Eloise whipped her head around. “A job? Sari, what have you been saying to the poor boy?”

“Nothing,” Sari said. “It's just … we ran into Ellen, my boss—”

“Oh, no,” Eloise said, clutching at her heart. She took a staggering step backward. “You wouldn't.”

“We had ice cream,” Lucy said, coming forward. “That was it, Mrs. Hill. And Charlie talked about movies a lot. He really loves movies.”

Eloise stared at her. “I know he likes movies,” she said. “But—”

“He was really happy,” Kathleen said, also stepping up. “Honestly, if you had seen how happy Charlie was, eating his ice cream and talking about movies, you wouldn't have worried at all.”

“We just want him to have fun,” Sari said. “And to be part of something. The job would be at a video store, which you have to admit he'd love. He's so excited at the idea of it—”

“He doesn't know what could happen out there,” her mother said. “I know. I know how cruel the world can be, how vicious people are. And I thought you did, too.”

Jason put a gentle hand on her arm. “Give this a chance,” he said. “Sari just wants what's best for Charlie.”

“I’m his mother,” Eloise said. “I
know
what's best.”

“And I’m his sister,” Sari said. “I love him as much as you do.”

“I can't let him go out in the world unprotected. I can't. It would be like sending a lamb out to be eaten by wolves.”

“I think it's a good idea,” said a voice from behind them all. Everyone turned around. Sari's father was standing in the hallway that led to the back bedroom. “He should try getting a job like other men his age. Why not?”

“You don't know anything about this,” Eloise said.

“I know that grown men get jobs,” her husband said. “I’dlike to see my thirty-year-old son get up off the sofa and give it a try.”

Eloise opened her mouth to say something, but there were too many people circled around her, too many eyes watching her, too many faces waiting. She held up her hands, more like she was warding something off than in surrender. “If he gets hurt, it'll be your fault, Sari.”

“He won't get hurt,” Sari said. “Not this time.”

“We'll be looking out for him,” Jason said, guiding Eloise into a chair and down into a seated position. “I promise.”

She clutched at his arm. “You, at least, I trust,” she said. “You understand me.”

“Of course I do.” He knelt at her side. “We both know what it is to love a child with special needs and to want to do right by him.”

She burst into drunken tears and he stayed there, patting her shoulder, while the others busied themselves cleaning up and getting ready to go.

“And you call
me
a miracle worker,” Sari said to Jason a little while later, after they had said their goodbyes and left. They were all standing together in front of the house. “You were amazing with her.”

“Yeah, that was pretty impressive,” Lucy said. “Let's hope you only ever use your skills for good and not evil.”

“It wasn't bullshit,” Jason said. “I really do know how she feels. I mean, not the religious stuff, but the part about just wanting to keep Charlie safe at home. I get that.”

“So what now?” David said. “Want to go to the pound and make out with the dogs, Luce?”

“Sorry,” she said. “Can't.” She indicated the other two girls. “It's knitting time.”

“No, it's not,” he said. “It's the afternoon.”

“That's because we had to come here first,” she said. “We switched it around.”

Jason looked at Sari. She smiled apologetically. “Sorry,” she said. “Just for a couple of hours, okay? I’ll be back in time for dinner.”