“Mother…explain to me how you left your makeup bag? You’re the most organized woman I know.”
“Angela, I have told you I don’t know. I had a headache and your father was in a rush. I’ll just pop into Neiman’s and it will take me 10 minutes tops.”
Angie sighed. A big deep sigh.
“I have to pick up Zachary at 2:30. We’ll go by Bloomingdales after we pick him up. I’m sure they sell Laura Mercier.”
“But my lipstick...”
“Mother,” Angie said warningly “I’m not picking Zachary up late so you may touch up your lipstick. When did you start wearing makeup on a plane anyway? You used to preach to Mia and I constantly about the ills of wearing makeup in a pressurized cabin.” she laughed.
Adele said nothing.
“Well?”
“When you’re as old as I am, you don’t have to worry so much about your skin as you used to.”
“Mother you’re only 55 years old. You’re far from old.” She glanced over at her mother, who had always been beautiful to her and she softened knowing how difficult it was for a woman like her mother, who took so much stock in being beautiful…to age.
Her mother’s schedule of facials and peels and scrubs had kept her line free for a long time, but it wouldn’t last forever she knew and when it did it would be traumatic at the least.
“Would you like to try the color I have on?”
Her mother said nothing.
“Mommy…let’s not fight. You just got here.”
Adele patted her leg and smiled. “Drive faster. I miss my grandson.”
Angie’s cell phone started ringing. It was David. She didn’t answer it.
“What’s daddy doing this weekend?”
“What else but play golf?”
“Do you still play with him?”
“Sometimes. Usually when Warren and Elyn play. Not usually so much when it’s just him.”
“So what have you been up to?”
Adele thought about it. What HAD she been up to?
She was saved from answering as they pulled up to Zachary’s school. Angie showed the guard her identification and drove though the gates of Georgetown Day School. By the time she reached the top of the key, Zachary was shifting from foot to foot with the guard on duty.
“Grandmother!” he yelled! and Adele got out of the car and hugged him to her hard.
“How is my baaaaaaaaby!”
“Mmuffhhhhumpphhhfffff.” She was suffocating him it seemed.
She stepped back and held him at arms length. “I believe you have grown an entire two inches since the last time I saw you.”
“I did." he said seriously. "What did you bring me?”
“It’s inside.” They both got in the car and Adele and Angie were silent as they listened to Zachary tell them about his day.
“Moooooom! Why are we at the mall! I don’t want to go shopping!” when they pulled up next to Bloomingdale's.
“Grandmother left her makeup case and needs to buy more. We’ll only be 10 minutes so it’s not really shopping.”
Zachary pouted and crossed his arms over his chest.
Adele turned around and looked at him. “So you’re saying you don’t want to do this one thing for Grandmother?” and she made a sad, pleading face.
Zachary giggled. “Okay…but just 10 minutes…you promise?”
“I’ll try my best sweet pea. I’m only going to one counter in this store and then we’re leaving.”
And they all got out of the truck and went inside.
At the Laura Mercier counter, Adele asked for what she needed and Angie and Zachary roamed to the other side of the floor.
“Mommy…is that word Juicy?”
“Yes precious. What do you think of the bag?”
“That’s ugly.”
She laughed. “I agree.” And she looked down at her son. He had his face all scrunched up something ugly and she laughed again and pulled his earlobe gently.
“Moooooom!” he playfully slapped at her hand. “I’m not a baby!”
“I know precious.”
She was still looking at her son’s beautiful profile when they rounded the corner. Her mother had finished her transaction and was walking towards them and she smiled at her. A woman with a stroller was behind Adele and Angie froze when she saw her face. Her smile wavered and turned into a thin line, her eyes like steel.
Adele stopped, confused, recognizing the look in Angie’s eyes as the same look her husband sometimes gave her. It was a look of hate and disgust and she dropped her brown bag against the venom in her daughter’s eyes thinking it was directed at her. Her right hand automatically up to her heart as if to protect herself from a known evil.
“Mom, mom….” Zachary tugged at Angie’s hand because she had stopped but she didn’t hear him. She was looking at the woman coming up behind her mother. The woman was chatting away on a cell phone and politely stepped to the right of Adele as Adele bent down to pick up her bag.
The woman tossed her blond hair as she laughed and then she saw Angie. She stopped talking and turned around quickly the stroller on two wheels. But not before Angie saw the baby whom she’d heard looked exactly like her husband except he was a blond and blue eyed version with skin the color of the insides of her palm. Her husband...whom she used to laugh with and share every detail of every little thing with. Her husband to whom she was bound because of the child tugging at her hand. Because of the expectations of her parents, her family, because she hadn’t finished the path of education she started…because she gave up her dreams to further his, because she was a housewife in the middle of a city where image was everything.
Adele stopped and followed her glare at the hastily retreating woman. She looked back at her daughter and saw the raw pain that resided on her face. Angie started shaking and Adele squared her shoulders and rushed to her daughter’s side.
A mother knows. A mother knows.
