Sybil at Sixteen

by Susan Beth Pfeffer

  “My pleasure,” Sybil said. She walked to the kitchen, and found her mother and Sam’s grandmother engrossed in conversation. “I think we’re ready to start,” she said. “At least everybody’s here.”

  “I’m a nervous wreck,” Meg declared. “How do I look?”

  “Young enough to be a bride,” Mrs. Greene said, giving Meg a hug. “Come on, before we get so teary we flood the place.”

  The three of them walked out the back door and over to the garden where the chupah had been set up. There were flowers all around, roses in full June bloom, and arrangements that Clark had provided. Sybil could hear the ocean in the background. Evvie and Sam had decided its waves were the only music they needed.

  Clark, Schyler, and Scotty walked out together, followed by Bill and Alex Moscowitz. Sybil was pleased for Sam that he had invited his oldest friend to share in the day. Evvie was surrounded by sisters, after all. Sam was entitled to a blood brother. Ronnie and Claire walked out together. Claire immediately joined Schyler, and Sybil was taken, as she always was when she saw them together, by how perfect they looked as a couple, more like twins than half cousins. Thea and the rabbi strolled out together. The rabbi continued walking to the chupah, while Thea stopped and stood between Scotty and Clark.

  Then, finally, Evvie walked out. She and Sam had decided on a small wedding, basically informal, since they both were in mourning for the death of parents. Evvie had even discussed with Meg whether she should postpone the wedding, but Meg had vetoed that idea, much to Sam’s relief. So they’d gone ahead with their June plans, but they’d cut the guest list down, and instead of an elaborate bridal gown requiring veils and bridesmaids, Evvie was wearing a simple, white, waltz-length dress and a big picture hat. Around her neck was a pearl pendant, that Sybil recognized as a gift from Nick and Meg to Evvie on her sixteenth birthday. Sybil had assumed it must have been pawned years before, and congratulated Evvie silently on having held on to it.

  “This is a very joyous occasion,” the rabbi began. “The union of two special people, Samuel Steinmetz Greene and Eve Sebastian. Theirs is not a runaway courtship or a hasty decision.”

  Claire turned to Scotty and smiled.

  “It’s rare for two young people to have made a commitment to each other that has been so severely tested,” the rabbi continued. “And yet their love never faltered, and their desire for a permanent union always shone.”

  Sybil knew she should listen, but her mind wandered. The setting was perfect. Clark had arranged for caterers, and two of them stood at attention while the rabbi continued to speak. There was the gentlest of ocean breezes, not even enough to disturb the tablecloths. No clouds in the sky blocked out the sunlight, which seemed to offer its blessing to Evvie and Sam. Some curious sea gulls flew overhead, but they were the only uninvited guests.

  Sybil looked at her family and Sam’s and those friends so close that they might as well be family. Clark was filled with delight; his pleasure in the event was obvious. Schyler and Claire stood so close together they might almost have been one. Scotty and Thea shared their space companionably. Bill kept grinning, while Alex seemed merely respectful and polite. Every now and again, though, he tossed a look over at Sybil. When she noticed, she blushed. She’d forgotten that boys her age could find her pretty.

  Ronnie, Meg, and Mrs. Greene were all standing together, and of them, only Ronnie was crying. Sybil smiled at that. Evvie and Sam had been worrying for weeks that once their mother and grandmother got together, their tears would drown out the ceremony, but Mrs. Greene was smiling, and Meg simply looked at peace with herself.

  Mrs. Greene and Meg walked up to the chupah, and each of them lit a candle, then handed those candles to Sam and Evvie. The rabbi said something about generations and the passing of love. Sybil wasn’t ready yet to think about generations. It was easier to admire the way the silver and the china glistened in the sun.

  The rabbi read from the service. Much of what he said was in Hebrew, a language Evvie had been taking at Harvard, but still professed to have trouble with. Sybil liked the way the words sounded, so exotic on this New England coastline. Then Sam and Evvie exchanged their vows. They spoke in Hebrew as well. Sam stumbled over a word, and Evvie smiled at him. She had no trouble with hers.

  “Sam and Eve both have things they’d like to say,” the rabbi declared. “Vows that have special meaning for them.”

  “I thought I loved you the very first time I saw you,” Sam began. “At my grandparents’ bookstore. But I didn’t really know what love was. I’m still learning about it. Every day you teach me something new about love, about giving and sharing and commitment. It isn’t simply that I can’t imagine a life without you, Eve. It’s that I delight in a life shared with you, day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute. I promise to love you and to grow with you, to wipe away your tears and share your laughter. Whatever I am, I give freely to you.”

  “When I met you, Sam, I thought I knew everything,” Evvie said. “And when I fell in love with you, I was sure I knew everything. But lately I’ve learned how little I do know. That was frightening for me, but having you by my side, knowing that throughout all my pain and confusion, you were there and your love was supporting me, kept me whole, kept me alive. My love for you today could overwhelm the world, and yet I know it’s nothing compared to what my love for you tomorrow will be. I promise you, Sam, that no matter what happens to us, I’ll be there with you. We’ll share the good times and the bad, and at those moments when you feel most alone, you’ll know I’m right there by your side. Whatever I am, whatever I become, I give freely to you.”

  They exchanged rings then and looked at each other with such wonderment it was as though they had never really met, yet were delighted with the prospect of spending their lives together anyway. The rabbi said a blessing over a glass of wine, which Evvie and Sam then sipped from. Then Sam walked over to where a wine glass covered by a napkin was on the ground, and he smashed the glass with his foot.

  “L’chaim!” Clark sang out.

  Everybody stared at him.

  “Did I do wrong?” Clark asked.

  “You did absolutely right,” the rabbi said. “To life! And to Evvie and Sam!”

  And soon everybody was cheering and crying, and Evvie and Sam were too busy kissing to notice.

  “I’ve been to a lot of weddings in my day,” Mrs. Greene declared. “Big fancy ones at all the best hotels. But in my opinion, I’ve never seen such a beautiful one as this. Of course I may be just a little bit biased.”

  “I don’t think we’ve been properly introduced,” Bill said to Thea. “My name is Bill Moscowitz. I’m Sammy’s best friend from way back. But don’t hold that against me.”

  “Of course I’ll marry you, Schyler,” Claire said. “When your net worth exceeds ten million.”

  “I was sure you were supposed to say l’chaim,” Clark said. “I’ve been rehearsing it for weeks, to get that gutteral out right.”

  “And it was right by the gazebo over there that Nicky and I burned my ruffled dress,” Meg said.

  “I don’t know Boston very well,” Alex said. “Maybe you could show me some of its sights.”

  “I want a more formal wedding,” Thea said. “I’ve always imagined myself in a long satin gown. But the important thing isn’t really the wedding. It’s the marriage.”

  “Why ten million?” Schyler said. “Why not the world?”

  “I’m happy to say this wedding brings back no memories for me,” Scotty said. “Not a single vivid flashback.”

  “I still say Grace Winslow must be spinning in her grave,” Ronnie said.

  Sybil listened to all of them, as she wandered around, sharing conversations, making comments of her own. She walked over to Evvie and Sam, who were standing on the beach, posing for photographs.

  “Oh, Sybil,” Evvie said, and she gave her sister a hug. “Wasn’t it perfect?”

  “It sure was,” Sybil said. “You were beautiful, Evvie.”
r />   “I thought so,” Sam said. “She was worth six long years of waiting.”

  “So was he,” Evvie said, and she gave Sam yet another kiss. “Oh, Sybil, don’t go away. I want to give you something.”

  “What?” Sybil asked. “Brides don’t give things. They get them.”

  “No one’s ever accused me of being traditional,” Evvie said. “Sam, unclasp my necklace for me, all right?”

  “Sure,” Sam said. He handed the pendant to Evvie.

  “This is for you,” Evvie said. “I hope you like it.”

  “But Nicky and Megs gave it to you,” Sybil said. “On your sixteenth birthday. Don’t you want to keep it?”

  “I want you to have it,” Evvie said. “Don’t worry. It isn’t because I’m angry at Nicky, or anything like that. But I think he would have wanted you to have it. It’s a feeling I got when I put it on this morning, that it should be yours. Think of it as a gift from him and from me, and when you wear it, you’ll know how much we both love you.”

  “Oh, Evvie,” Sybil said. She put the pendant on with trembling fingers.

  “It looks perfect on you,” Evvie declared. “Of course, today everything is perfect.”

  “Even me?” Sam asked.

  “Don’t push it,” Evvie said, but then she laughed. “Even you.”

  Sybil kissed them both and walked away, so the photographer could resume taking pictures. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen so many joyous people. Even the rabbi was beaming, and he hardly knew them.

  She stood outside the group for a moment, enjoying the day, enjoying the pleasure they were all sharing. And then time paused, and their happy babblings were silenced by the ocean. Sybil turned away from her family and looked toward the sea, toward the sky. She could see Meg there, on her sixteenth birthday, unaware of her own beauty, uncomfortable in a ruffled dress Aunt Grace had purchased for her. And she saw Nick, walking in with his friends, then stopping, seeing Meg for the first time, seeing his future, seeing his life. Sybil stood still for a moment, witnessing their love, and then they vanished, and the wedding sounds came through again, and Sybil was sorry and glad and suddenly very eager.

  “There you are,” Alex said. “Would you care for a glass of champagne?”

  “I would love one,” Sybil Sebastian replied, and strolled arm in arm with Alex back to her own bright and promising world.

  Turn the page to continue reading from the Sebastian Sisters series

  CHAPTER ONE

  “What a dump!”

  “I know,” Sybil Sebastian said. “But I only got home yesterday. I haven’t had a chance to unpack yet.”

  Claire Sebastian laughed. “Home,” she said. “You’re the only one of us who feels comfortable calling this dive a home.”

  “I call it home too,” Thea Sebastian said. “Maybe not the home of my dreams, but home.”

  “It’s the home of my dreams,” Sybil declared. “And I’ll thank all of you to treat it with respect.”

  Evvie Sebastian Steinmetz Greene smiled. “Fear and loathing is more like it,” she replied. “It’s been what, five years since Aunt Grace died and sort of left us this place, and I still expect to see her every time I walk through the door.”

  “Her memory does linger,” Thea agreed, wrinkling her nose. “Sort of like moldy cheese.”

  “You never gave her a chance,” Claire said. “Sure, on the outside, she was cold and cruel, but inside, she was miserable and rotten. I always liked that about her.”

  “Five years,” Thea said. “Do you remember that first awful Christmas here?”

  “Let’s not remember the awful times,” Sybil said. “There were too many of them that year.”

  The sisters were silent for a moment, thinking of all that had happened five years before, the move to Boston, the big fight between Evvie and their father, Nick, and then Nick’s death.

  “He would have been so proud of you,” Evvie said to Sybil, and they all knew whom she was talking about. “Graduating with honors from Princeton.”

  “I liked it there,” Sybil said. “But I was always glad to come back here for vacations.”

  Evvie laughed. “Thank goodness for Aunt Grace’s nasty will,” she declared. “Leaving the house in trust until the birth of her first legitimate Christian grandson.”

  “Speaking of which,” Claire said. “When are your legitimate Jewish sons arriving? I want to play aunty.”

  “Sam’s bringing them in a couple of hours,” Evvie replied. “If you thought they were monsters before, wait until you see them now. They’re both crawling and they have this terrible tendency to bump into each other. Sam keeps trying to point them in opposite directions, but that means twice as much chasing for us. I think twins were Grace’s curse on me.”

  “I can’t wait to have children,” Thea declared. “Of course medical school came first, and then meeting the right man, which I don’t seem to have done quite yet, but I really want a large family.”

  “You want it all,” Evvie said. “You always did.”

  Thea smiled. “I did, didn’t I,” she said. “I just never thought of it that way.”

  “You have it all,” Claire pointed out to Evvie. “A husband, children, and a career. Almost a Ph.D. What a lousy example you’ve set for all of us.”

  “Sure,” Evvie said. “And that’s exactly the life you’ve made for yourself, Claire. Domesticity. Education.”

  “I took some classes once,” Claire replied. “No, that isn’t even true. I tried three times to take classes, but all three times, something came up right around the second or third session. Shoots in London. Vacations on the Riviera. What’s a girl to do?”

  “Keep looking beautiful,” Thea said. “You’re on the Riviera beaches while I’m memorizing bones.”

  “That’s the difference between bones and bone structure,” Claire said. “I knew from birth high cheekbones were my way out of this madness.”

  Sybil tossed some clothing off her bed and stretched out. “What about Schyler?” she asked. “Any change in that relationship?”

  “Schyler wants to marry me,” Claire said. “And I’m not opposed. I am twenty-three, after all, and it’s about time I made my first marriage.”

  “Are you going to marry him?” Thea asked. “Two weddings this summer? Can I stand it?”

  Claire shrugged, and the sisters smiled at the familiarity of the gesture. “I keep telling him he just isn’t rich enough,” she replied. “I know he’s gorgeous, and he’s doing well enough, but shouldn’t my first husband be somebody just terribly rich? Then after that doesn’t work out, I can marry for love.”

  “Do you love him?” Thea asked.

  “I don’t know,” Claire said. “You’re the love expert around here. You tell me.”

  “Evvie’s the expert,” Sybil said. “I wish I could have been at your anniversary party.”

  “Five years,” Evvie said. “It feels longer somehow.”

  “It is longer,” Claire said. “You and Sam have been together what, ten, eleven years?”

  “Something like that,” Evvie replied. “It’s gotten so I can’t remember a time without him. It was a funny kind of a party, Syb, with none of you there.”

  “I’m sorry,” Thea said. “Interns cannot call their lives their own. You wouldn’t believe the maneuvering it took to get this weekend off.”

  “They insisted on a screen test,” Claire said. “I begged them. I said, ‘My oldest sister is celebrating her fifth anniversary and she’s married to the last decent man in America,’ and they said, ‘Shut up and act.’ As though I knew how.”

  “Have you heard anything yet?” Sybil asked. “I can’t imagine you a movie star.”

  “Oh I can,” Thea said. “Claire was born to be one.”

  “I, of course, agree,” Claire said, but then she giggled. “That’s a first. My agreeing with Thea. My agent’s optimistic, but that’s the nature of agents. I don’t care. If the movie comes through, great. If
it doesn’t, I still have a lot of good years of modeling left, and there’s always Schyler, and what’s his name. Donald. He asked me to marry him a couple of days ago, and I said I’d see if the wedding this weekend put me in a romantic enough mood. Of course if it does, I’ll still never marry him. Donald’s certainly rich enough, but that’s where his charms begin and end.”

  “You wouldn’t marry him just for his money,” Thea said.

  “Well, on second thought, why not?” Claire asked. “Isn’t that what Megs is about to do?”

  “Claire!” Evvie said sharply. “That’s not true.”

  “You’re not about to tell me it’s love,” Claire said. “Not after Nicky.”

  “There are different kinds of love,” Evvie replied. “Besides, you of all people wouldn’t want Megs to fall in love like she did with Nicky. All that grand passion you kept mocking.”

  “I had my doubts too,” Sybil said. “When Megs first told us. But I think she’s going to be very happy. She loved being married, you know. She loved all that domesticity.”

  “She’s loved her job too,” Evvie said. “I’ve never been so proud of her as when she went back to school and got a degree in physical therapy. And I’ve lived close enough to her to see the difference it’s made in her. She’s more self-confident. She’s proud of herself for the first time. She was always proud of us, and of Nicky too, rightly or wrongly, but the past couple of years have been different. Her face gets that glow when she talks about her work, and how well she does it.”

  “So what are you saying?” Claire asked. “Are you happy or not happy with this marriage?”

  Evvie took a deep breath. “I can’t really say,” she replied. “I know it’s been five years, but there’s a part of me that still hasn’t accepted Nicky’s death. Maybe because the end was so ugly. I don’t know. Things aren’t resolved for me yet, but at least I’m in therapy where my doctor and I work on it. I alternate between guilt and anger. That isn’t even true. Sometimes there is so much longing for him. When Rob and Mickey were born, I wanted him there. I wanted him to see his grandsons. Mick looks like him. You can see the Prescott side in him.”