Pretty Hate (New Adult Novel) (36 page)

“Yes, that’s right,” he said. “You’re the friend from Kansas.”

“Um, West Virginia,” I said.

“Yes, of course,” he said and turned and stared down one of the hallways. “Ah, here comes Lucia.”

She walked into the room in a flowing blue chiffon dress. Her hair was in two braids and she looked absolutely beautiful. I felt my mother stiffen as she stood next to me.

“She’s my age?” my mother said under her breath. “I look like I’m her grandmother.”

“No,” I said.

“Oh, dear one,” she said and hugged me. “You poor thing! How was the flight?”

“Fine,” I said.

She put her hands on my cheeks and stared into my eyes.

“I am so glad you’ve come,” she said. “You’re the only one.”

“What?” I said.

“Introduce me to your family,” Lucia said as she stared at them.

“This is my sister,” I said, “Rebel Love, you spoke to her on the phone.”

“Yes, of course,” Lucia said and hugged Rebel Love. “That lipstick is exquisite on you. Is that Russian Red?”

“No, I’m not sure,” Rebel Love said and shook her head. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Zamani, I don’t--”

“Don’t be silly, call me Lucia,” she said as she stared at Ivory-Lou. “And who is this handsome man? You remind me of that sculpture, oh, I can’t think of it, it’s amazing and it is exactly you.”

Ivory-Lou looked at the floor and smiled.

“I’m Ivory-Lou Franklin,” he said and chuckled. “Thank you.”

“A beautiful name for a beautiful man,” she said and smiled.

“Yes, um, thank you, ma’am,” he said.

Rebel Love poked him in the side as I rolled my eyes.

“Anyway, Lucia this is my Aunt Merry-Bell,” I said and gestured toward her.

“Merry-Bell, I love it and that coat is exquisite. I don’t think I’ve ever something that interesting,” she said and looked at the ceiling. “Wait, yes! Santorini, absolutely. That’s chinchilla, correct?”

Merry-Bell took off her sunglass and stared at Lucia.

“No, ma’am, this here’s fun fur,” she said as she shook Lucia’s hand. “Pleased to meet you. Sorry for your troubles.”

“And this is my mother, Tandy,” I said.

“Oh, Mrs. Zamani,” my mother said and walked toward her, “I am so sorry for--”

“Lucia, please,” she said and stared at my mother from head to toe. “I insist that absolutely everyone calls me Lucia.”

“Yes, of course, Lucia,” my mother said. “I just want to say that--”

“Ok, we should get started, before the weather turns sour. We’re on the veranda. Come,” she said and walked away.

“How odd,” my mother said as we followed Lucia toward the back of the house.

“Yeah. She probably doesn’t want to talk about it. Wait until you see some of the others.” I said.

Lucia stopped at the French doors that led to the veranda and smiled.

“Just find a seat where you’d like. My guru sent a CD that we’re going to use for the reabsorption. It’s simply spectacular.”

We followed Lucia out onto the veranda and there were rows and rows of white chairs setup in front of an altar. A large picture of India in an ornate, gold frame sat on the altar surrounded by candles. Lucia sat in between Baron Richter and Adolfo in the first row and Sahara sat on the ground at their feet playing with pebbles.

“Where should we sit?” Rebel Love said into my ear.

“Uh, in the back,” I said. “Family will be up at the front.”

We filed into a row of chairs toward the back and sat down.

“She was so beautiful, Beth,” Rebel Love said as she stared at India’s photograph. “Such a shame.”

“Why is that baby playing with rocks?” my mother said as she stared at Sahara. “She’s gonna choke.”

“No she won’t, she’s an intuitive eater,” I said and smiled as I stared at India’s picture.

Lucia stood up and turned on a small boom box on the altar and classical music played.

“Thank you all for coming,” she said and smiled as she pointed to a man holding a video camera in the corner. “Tony, please?”

“She’s
taping
this?” Rebel Love said into my ear.

“We want to welcome our guests from far away to the reabsorption ceremony for India,” Lucia said.

“Sounds like she’s saying abortion,” Merry-Bell said as she leaned forward and stared at me over my mother.

As Lucia spoke about India and how everyone assumed the two of them were sisters and how India was an old soul destined to expire many times over and how Sahara was in fact communicating with India through the rocks she played with, I looked around at all the empty chairs and shook my head.

“No one else is coming,” I said into my mother’s ear. “Not any of India’s friends, not even any of Lucia’s friends. We are the only ones.”

“Yes, Beth,” she said and put her arm around my shoulder, “so sad.”

The music changed from classical to low, guttural chanting as Sahara continued to play on the ground. Lucia periodically halted her speech to ask Sahara what India was saying through the rocks.

I looked over at Ivory-Lou and knew that he was seething because he risked his life to come for this utter nonsense. India was spoken about as if she was still alive, in fact, Lucia said she could see her playing among the hydrangea bushes on the other side of the fence.

“She’s not even crying, Mama,” I said into my mother’s ear. “She’s only looking into the camera and smiling. Wouldn’t you cry if it were me?”

My mother looked at me and covered her mouth with her hand as her eyes watered.

“I would die if it was you,” she said.

And I knew that was the truest thing my mother ever said.

Forty-five minutes after it began, the rocks told Sahara and Lucia that it was time to end the reabsorption ceremony. The five of us sat in our chairs and looked at each other as Adolfo picked up Sahara and walked into the house, followed by Baron Richter and Lucia without a word.

After they closed the door, Ivory-Lou looked at me and shook his head.

“What the fuck now, Beth?”

“I-I don’t know,” I said. “I mean, this isn’t how things usually are here. I thought there’d be a huge group of people, not just...”

“Us,” Rebel Love said and stared at India’s picture.

“Maybe they’re waiting for us to come inside? People grieve differently, you know. We cannot expect them to act like they normally do. This isn’t a party,” my mother said.

We all walked back inside and there was not a soul to be seen or a sound to be heard in the house.

“Maybe they’re in that first room,” Rebel Love said.

We all filed in the room before the foyer and stared at each other.

“Jesus, what do we do?” I said. “I mean, what if the driver isn’t here anymore? I thought Lucia would assume we were staying.”

“Well, maybe you should have asked. Now we’re all standing here like we casing the joint,” Ivory-Lou said.

“Excuse me,” I said, “I didn’t think it would be appropriate to ask what was gonna go down at the after party!”

“Oh,” Baron Richter said as he walked into the room, “you’re still here?”

“Well,” I said and cleared my throat, “we were looking for Lucia and thought we’d say goodbye.”

“Adolfo has taken Lucia to her room. I believe she was very disappointed with the turn out, no offense. So, what is on the agenda for today? Are you going to take your family into the city, Jess? Am I right in assuming they’ve never experienced Manhattan?”

“Um, I don’t know,” I said and looked at Ivory-Lou. “Well, the thing is we didn’t know if--”

“I’m sorry,” he said and stared at us, “forgive me, I assumed Lucia would have explained that the offer of the plane only extended one-way. The plane is now grounded in Montauk for a few months.”

“One way?” I said and shook my head.

“Tell you what, I know it’s difficult for people who aren’t consummate travelers, so I can try and contact my travel agent so she can make arrangements,” he said and looked at his watch. “It’s still very early and I know there must be a great many planes still available to take you back to Kansas.”

“No,” Ivory-Lou said as he stared into Baron Richter’s eyes, “we make our own travel arrangements.”

“That’s wonderful,” he said. “If you’d like, my driver will take you to JFK for less than a hundred dollars. Cabs usually cost a bit more and are often times unreliable. Why not travel back in style, yes?”

“Let’s go, Beth,” Ivory-Lou said and walked to the front door.

“You are a very rude man!” Rebel Love said to Baron Richter and joined Ivory-Lou at the door. “Let’s go, Beth!”

Ivory-Lou and Rebel Love went outside and Baron Richter stared at me. I looked at my mother and she shook her head as she grabbed my hand and we walked outside with Merry-Bell in tow.

“I don’t understand,” I said as we stood in the driveway and waited for Ivory-Lou to finish negotiating with the limo driver. “Did we just get bounced from a funeral?”

“Reabsorption ceremony,” my mother said and shook her head. “I have never seen anything more superficial in my life.”

“Come on,” Ivory-Lou said. “Jeeves here is gonna take us to JFK. Grab Smurfette.”

Merry-Bell stood in the middle of the driveway and held her hands up.

“What the fuck is going on? Was that it? Not even a piece of fucking cake or a cup of coffee?” she said.

“Get in the car, Merry-Bell,” I said as I walked toward the limo.

“Say goodbye to the house, Beth, I don’t think you’ll be back.” Rebel Love said.

Ivory-Lou argued over the phone with a Delta agent as he bought plane tickets back to West Virginia.

When he hung up, he stared across the limo at me and shook his head.

“Fifteen hundred dollars!” he said and took a beer from the mini-refrigerator. “Five plane tickets, goddamn it!”

“I’ll pay you back,” I said and stared at my shoes.

“Oh yeah?” he said and took a sip of beer and nodded. “Did your quarterly bonus come in?”

“I’m sorry,” I said.

“This is not Beth’s fault,” my mother said. “She had no idea that Baron Asshole would be so rude. I mean, really, he literally threw us out of the house like we were garbage.”

“Because he thinks we are garbage,” I said and looked out the window.

“I’m starving,” Merry-Bell said. “Hey, Chives, you got any food in this frig?”

“We can get you something at the airport,” Ivory-Lou said. “We have five hours to kill before our flight.”

“Aren’t you glad now, Beth?” Rebel Love said. “Those people are soulless.”

“I should have known better,” I said and closed my eyes.

“Beth, wake up! Look at the sign,” Rebel Love said an hour later.

I opened my eyes and looked out the window.

“Brooklyn,” I said. “Man, I hate to admit it, but I was kind of hoping he’d be there.”

“I know you were,” she said and smiled.

Rebel Love turned in her seat and knocked on the glass divider.

“Excuse me,” she said as the driver lowered the window, “how long does it take to get to Brooklyn from JFK?”

“Thirty minutes, give or take,” he said.

She looked over her shoulder at me and winked.

“Rebel Love?” I said and shook my head.

“Would it be possible to drop us off first and then take my sister there and then back to the airport? She needs to deliver something.”

“Uh, sure,” he said and looked at me in the rearview mirror.

“Perfect, how much?” Rebel Love said.

“Call it even with fifty bucks,” he said.

“Perfect,” she said and turned to Ivory-Lou. “Give the man fifty dollars, baby.”

“What?” Ivory-Lou said.

“He’s gonna drop us off at the airport, take Beth on to Brooklyn for a bit and then bring her back. Fifty dollars,” she said and nodded.

“Rebel Love, I don’t even know if he’s there!” I said.

“Then you will leave the photograph and the book on his doorstep. You have his address, right?”

“Yeah,” I said and sighed. “I confirmed it with the I-Spy Network months ago.”

“Then it’s settled. He will drop us off, you will go there and the driver will take you back,” Rebel Love said.

“Ivory-Lou is gonna tell me no,” I said and stared at him and nodded. “He won’t let me go.”

He looked at me and smiled.

“Nah, I think it’s a perfect idea. What’s not to love? Showing up unannounced at a guy’s doorstep, hundreds of miles away from where you live after not speaking to him for months because you insulted him by saying some nasty, ignorant shit
and
broke up with him over the Internet? I only wish this was gonna cost me more than fifty dollars, Bethy,” he said as he handed Rebel Love a fifty dollar bill.

“God, I love you,” Rebel Love said and kissed him on the cheek. “You are the sweetest man!”