Head Over Wheels

by Diana Morland

  “See? I told you.” Mindy bent to kiss Shayna on the cheek. “I’m sorry I forgot about that, though.”

  Shayna looked up at her and smiled. “That’s okay. I guess I wasn’t complaining.”

  Chapter 13

  Mindy and Shayna had fun on the bus ride to her parents’ house—it wasn’t dark yet, of course, but many of the houses and buildings they passed already had lights on display anyway. Shayna kept making snarky remarks about the different kinds of lights, especially the ones that depicted Santa Claus or something else Christmassy, but Mindy was pretty sure Shayna was enjoying it as much as she was herself.

  The bus ride seemed a lot shorter with Shayna to chat with. Maybe Mindy should try to make every bus trip something they did together. She would get a lot less bored… but she would also have less time to let her mind just wander and come up with design ideas.

  Still, she was in a great mood by the time they reached her parents’ house. They had their lights up in the windows and around the roof—tasteful blue ones—but Shayna said nothing at all about it as Mindy led her up the walk and opened the front door.

  “Mom! Mama!” she called. “Anyone else here yet? I brought Shayna!”

  “Baby girl!” Her mom rushed down the stairs, arms open. She grabbed Mindy in a quick hug and then turned her attention to Shayna. “And the pretty girl! It’s so wonderful to meet you, Shayna. I’m Rachel, Mindy’s mom.”

  “It’s nice to meet you, Rachel,” Shayna said hesitatingly. She held out her hand, going for a handshake, but Mindy’s mom pulled her into a hug. Mindy couldn’t see Shayna’s expression, but she could see the movement of her shoulders as her back tightened. Did she not like hugs? She’d never mentioned that before.

  “Abigail and Sharon are in the kitchen with Lynn,” Mindy’s mom said as she released Shayna. “Tamar and Aaron are on their way with the little monsters. Let me hang up your coats.”

  “I can hang up my own coat, Mom.” Mindy already had her coat off, and she was halfway to the coat closet. “Shayna, I’ll take yours, too.”

  As Shayna handed Mindy her coat, Mindy took the opportunity to whisper, “Are you okay? Do you want them to not hug you?”

  “Hugs are fine,” Shayna whispered back. “I just wasn’t expecting it.”

  “If you don’t like anything, just let me know,” Mindy told her. “I’ll stick with you to make sure you don’t get overwhelmed.”

  Shayna rolled her eyes. “I’ll be fine. I can take whatever your family dishes out.” But she took Mindy’s hand as they walked toward the kitchen.

  There they were greeted with the sight of Mindy’s middle sister, Abigail, at the stove frying latkes; her mama, Lynn, a few feet from her, grating more potatoes; and Abigail’s wife, Sharon, sitting with her feet up and a small plate of latkes next to her, with Mindy’s mom leaning over her. Mindy was a little startled by the size of Sharon’s pregnant belly—it seemed to have grown a lot in the month or so since Mindy had last seen her. Her parents were obviously feeding her as much as she would accept.

  Mindy made the introductions. Her mama hugged Shayna, holding her potato-covered hands carefully away from Shayna’s sweater, and Abigail apologized for not being able to hug. Sharon was the only one who just shook hands.

  Mindy started to ask Sharon questions about the baby, but they were shortly interrupted by the front door opening again, this time to let in Tamar, Aaron, Daniel, and Betty.

  Mindy had to rush back out to the living room to greet them, giving both her niece and nephew big hugs. Shayna hung back shyly, but the kids seemed to ignore her, rushing into the kitchen instead after the latkes. Tamar and her husband Aaron both shook Shayna’s hand.

  Mindy and Tamar were sent to find the candles while Aaron tried to corral his kids, and by the time they had the menorah set up and ready, it was sunset. The latkes were set aside, the lights turned off, and everyone crowded into the dining room to light the candles.

  Mindy thought her family was beautiful by the dim candlelight, singing along to the prayers. Shayna, especially, looked ethereal and haunting, the way the light dramatized the planes and angles of her face.

  With the ceremony over, the menorah was left on a side table, and Mindy’s mama asked her and Shayna to set the table for dinner. Mindy was happy with the ritual of setting out the special tablecloth and silverware, even putting plastic toddler dishes at Betty’s spot. And it was exciting to have ten places to set, though it was a little crowded. They’d never had ten before—when Hannah had left Mindy, Betty hadn’t been born yet.

  She hoped that next year there would be eleven, though Abigail and Sharon’s baby might not be old enough yet to have its own place.

  Shayna and Mindy sat at the foot of the table together, then waited for Tamar and Aaron to corral their kids into their own seats. Sharon and Abigail brought in the brisket and onions, Mindy’s mama brought in tubs of applesauce and sour cream, and finally her mom brought in the giant platter of latkes.

  “That looks delicious,” Shayna said. “Thank you so much for having me.”

  Mindy’s mom beamed. “I’m so glad you’re here with us, Shayna. All right, everyone, dig in.”

  Aaron helped Daniel serve himself and gave Betty a latke before passing the platter down to Tamar; Sharon reached for the brisket. They passed the food around, everyone serving themselves as much as they liked.

  “Leave some room,” Mindy whispered to Shayna. “There’ll be sufganiyot later.”

  Shayna grinned at her, the familiar sparkle back in her eye. “You know my taste so well.”

  Mindy preferred the traditional fried potato pancakes and slow-cooked meat, so she piled those on her plate, with a generous dollop of sour cream. Hanukkah had the best food.

  Dinner was long, messy, and noisy, with the kids needing help and complaining, latkes sliding off the platter and onto the tablecloth, and everyone talking and laughing at the same time. Shayna seemed much quieter than usual, so Mindy kept touching her knee or her hand, but she didn’t express any need for help or space. Mindy realized that they’d never really been in a big group before—maybe Shayna just talked less when it wasn’t the two of them.

  Mindy helped clean up after dinner (though there was no hope of getting two-year-old Betty entirely clean), then followed her mom into the kitchen to help bring out the sufganiyot.

  “We bought mini ones this year,” her mom explained, displaying the large box. “Assorted flavors. This way maybe Betty can eat one or two, and the rest of us can pig out on as many as we want. Here, this one is chocolate cream.” She picked one out of the box to hand to Mindy.

  “Ooh, thanks,” Mindy said, taking it. “Shayna will really love this.”

  Her mom raised her eyebrows, but didn’t say anything. They headed back into the dining room with the fried donuts.

  “Mom says we got assorted flavors,” Mindy told Shayna as she sat down. “Here, chocolate cream.”

  Shayna’s eyes widened as she took it. “You didn’t have to…”

  “They bought a ton,” Mindy said, nodding toward the box. Daniel was already being scolded by his father for grabbing. “Pig out. Are any of those regular flavor?”

  “Here you go,” Abigail said, reaching into the box and picking one out to give to Mindy.

  “Thanks!” Mindy popped it into her mouth, enjoying the crunch and sweetness of the traditional deep-fried red jelly donut. Well, it wasn’t quite traditional in this bite size, but that was even better. She didn’t have to feel bad about leaving a half-eaten donut behind. Just one was perfect.

  Shayna nibbled carefully on her sufganiyah, biting it in half. Her eyes widened. “Oh, this is amazing.”

  “I told you.”

  “Have you tried this?”

  “No, but Mom said it was chocolate cream, so I figured that was right up your alley.”

  Shayna winked at her. “Trying to fatten me up again.”

  Mindy grinned back. She was glad Shayna was relaxing a bit with her
family.

  Shayna savored the rest of her donut, then reached for more. Slowly, the amount of sufganiyot in the box dwindled until no one could eat another bite. Mindy was happy with her single donut—she’d filled up on latkes.

  Finally Tamar got up, went to the side table, and pulled out a box. “Time for dreidel. Do we have any gelt?”

  “Yes, of course,” Mindy’s mama said, getting up and wiping her hands on her napkin. “Let me go get it.”

  As Tamar and Aaron showed their children how to spin dreidels—Mindy was sure Betty was too young to have the coordination in her hands needed to spin the traditional, small tops, and this was at least the third year they’d tried to teach Daniel how to do it right—Mindy’s mama came back into the room with an armful of bags.

  “Gelt,” she announced, turning one of the bags over on the table, next to the sufganiyot, to let a pile of mesh bags containing gold-foil-covered chocolate coins fall onto the tablecloth. “Pass those around, one for each, so we can do the betting properly. And… let me see… this one’s for Daniel, and this is for Betty.” She placed a small blue bag in front of each of the children. Daniel’s bulged with some kind of toy.

  “Is it a present?” Daniel asked, staring apprehensively at the bag.

  “Yes, it is,” Aaron told him patiently. “Do you want to open it, or do you want help?”

  “I can open it myself,” Daniel said immediately. He reached up and knocked the bag over, the opening facing away from him, but he was undeterred.

  “They’re so cute,” Shayna whispered to Mindy.

  Meanwhile, Mindy’s mama was passing around the rest of the gift bags. There was one for Tamar, one for Aaron, one for Abigail, two for Sharon, one for Mindy, and one for Shayna.

  Shayna’s seemed to be particularly large and heavy. Mindy raised her eyebrows at it, but Shayna’s eyes went huge and she pushed her chair back, almost in fear. “But…”

  “All our children get Hanukkah gifts,” Mindy’s mama said, patting Shayna’s shoulder. “It doesn’t matter that you’re grown up now.”

  “However,” Mindy’s mom said, “please be aware that this is a one-time-only thing. I don’t know how you did things growing up, but we don’t give out presents all eight nights anymore.”

  “You didn’t give out real presents all eight nights when we were growing up anyway,” Abigail said. “We got socks and underwear at least five nights out of them. We were totally ripped off compared to the kids who got Christmas presents.”

  Everyone laughed except Shayna, who turned to Mindy. Mindy was slightly alarmed to see that Shayna’s face was drawn and she almost looked panicked. She had never seen an expression like this on Shayna’s face.

  “I didn’t get them anything,” Shayna whispered.

  “You weren’t supposed to,” Mindy said. Why was Shayna so upset? Did she think she’d been impolite? “They’re my parents. Do you want to talk about this in private?”

  Shayna shook her head. “We can’t just…”

  Mindy grabbed her arm and stood up. “Excuse me, Shayna needs to powder her nose,” she told her family. Shayna squeaked a tiny protest, but Mindy dragged her into the living room and onto the landing of the stairs. She knew no one would be offended.

  She released her firm grip on Shayna’s arm and put her hands on her shoulders instead. “Hey. What’s wrong? Is this really about the gift?” She kept her voice low so neither of her sisters would overhear and try to meddle in the argument.

  “Of course it is,” Shayna said—she was even better at keeping her voice quiet. “You didn’t tell me there was going to be a gift exchange. I would have brought something.”

  “None of the rest of us brought anything,” Mindy said. “That’s not how it is. My parents just like to give gifts.”

  Shayna shook her head hard. “They didn’t—I’m not one of their children!”

  Mindy bit her lip. “Is that putting too much pressure on you? I’m sorry. I don’t think she meant it that way. If it helps, they’ve treated any date any of us has brought home the same way, even if we ended up breaking up almost immediately.”

  Shayna raised her eyebrows. “You told me they didn’t like Brynn. They treated her the same way?”

  “On the surface, yeah, if you didn’t know the difference,” Mindy said.

  “And what about Hannah? You said they adored her.”

  Mindy couldn’t believe Shayna remembered that conversation in such detail. “Yes, they’ve been treating you the same way they treated Hannah. Is that not okay? Is this not a serious relationship?”

  “Was that a serious relationship?” Shayna said, even more softly than they’d been speaking.

  Mindy swallowed. “Yeah, I thought so. But what difference does it make? Everything obviously worked out for the best. I’ve got you now.” She reached down to grab Shayna’s hand and hold on tight.

  Shayna looked down at their clasped hands. “I don’t like gifts.”

  “You haven’t rejected anything I’ve given you.”

  “That’s different. That’s sharing, and you’ve let me pay more often on dates. I appreciate that.”

  Mindy tried to think back. Maybe it was true. They’d gone on so few dates that involved actually leaving Mindy’s apartment, other than those first two, that she couldn’t remember who had paid when. She hadn’t been keeping track—but obviously Shayna had.

  “They consider you family, even if it’s… even if they don’t know whether it’s temporary or not,” she said. “So giving gifts isn’t one-sided. It’s sharing, too. If you’re still around when they’re old, you can help pick out their nursing home.”

  Shayna looked up at her again. “Is that what you really think is going on? A transaction for care?”

  Mindy shook her head, actually starting to get frustrated. “No, of course not. I think it’s them trying to welcome you and make sure you know they like you, even though you’re dating their daughter. As you may recall, you’re the one who was worried about that.”

  “But they don’t know me. How can they like me? They hadn’t even met me when they got me the present.”

  “They’d heard a lot about you from me. As you might have noticed, I talk a lot.”

  That got a smile out of Shayna. “I’m sorry to drag you away for an argument. I know you care about your family.”

  “I care about you, too, shayna maidele.” Mindy leaned forward and kissed Shayna softly. “I want to make sure you’re okay. If it bothers you to accept a gift more than it will hurt my parents to have you reject their gift, then say thanks but no thanks.”

  Shayna looked down at the floor. “I don’t want to be ungrateful.” She looked up again. “Did you really mean it?”

  “I mean everything I say,” Mindy said with a grin. “Which one?”

  “That I might still be around when they’re old.”

  Mindy’s heart lurched. “Yes, I meant it. I want you to be around. I want to be with you.”

  Shayna smiled. “Yeah, despite everything, I want that too. I love you.”

  Mindy’s heart squeezed so hard that she couldn’t hear her own voice over the blood pumping. “I love you, too.”

  “Okay, let’s get back to the table. I’ll open the gift, and I really want to exploit my aunt status by pinching your nephew’s adorable cheeks.”

  Mindy laughed giddily, squeezed Shayna’s hands again, and then walked back to the dining room with her. The noise level had hardly abated in their absence, though someone had taken away the box of sufganiyot. Mindy and Shayna sat down just as Abigail returned from the kitchen. She walked up to Mindy and squeezed her shoulder before bending down to whisper, “Everything all right?”

  “Fine,” Mindy whispered back. “Let’s see what presents we have.”

  Her bag was extremely light—she had to riffle through tissue paper before she found what her parents had given her, but then she squealed. “A gift card to Dick Blick! Oh, this is perfect. I really need to get some new markers
.”

  “See, I told you it would be markers,” Mindy’s mama said with a grin.

  Mindy’s mom shook her head. “I thought for sure you would want watercolors, Mindy. But we couldn’t agree, so that’s why we went for the gift card.”

  Mindy gave a dramatic, fake sigh. She couldn’t really feel sad—not after what she and Shayna had just said to each other. “Unfortunately, I haven’t been using my watercolors much. They don’t translate as well to digital media, and while I’m still trying to pay you three back, I don’t have time to play around with watercolors just for fun.”

  “You know we’re not in a hurry for that loan,” Tamar said, resting her hands on a large hardcover book on the table in front of her. Aaron darted his eyes at her, but said nothing, instead trying to make sure that none of Betty’s tissue paper made it into her mouth—she seemed to be much more interested in the paper than the soft, floppy dog toy under it.

  Mindy shrugged. “I won’t really feel like I’m on my own two feet until I’ve paid it back.”

  Shayna smiled at her. Abigail patted her shoulder. “Let her have her independence.”

  Mindy nodded, then turned to Shayna, wanting the spotlight off herself. “Let’s see what you got!” She realized that if they had opened their gifts right away, there wouldn’t be so much focus on them because everyone would be paying attention to their own gifts, but she was tactful enough not to say it—barely.

  Shayna’s smile was strained again, but she pulled her gift bag toward herself and tugged the tissue paper off the top. Her eyes widened when she saw what was inside, and she reached in and pulled out two large, heavy books. “The Harry Potter Illustrated Editions!”

  “Mindy told us you were a Harry Potter fan,” Mindy’s mom said warmly. “I hope you didn’t have these already.”

  Shayna licked her lips. “Uh, no, I didn’t. Wow. Thank you so much—this is such a generous gift.”

  She stared almost reverently at the books, setting them down side by side on the table. Mindy had to look at them as well, especially once Shayna started turning the pages. She was only a little bit of a Harry Potter fan herself, but those illustrations were gorgeous. She found herself staring rapt at the spiders that decorated a drawing of Harry sitting in his cupboard at the beginning of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.