Family Affair

by Saxon Bennett

  "That guy was a total homophobe. You couldn't expect me not to stick up for 'our' people."

  "I'm thinking a twelve-step anger management program might not be a bad idea," Addison said as they exited the waiting room and headed to the parking lot.

  "Twelve steps?" Gitana asked.

  "Addison has me on a ten-step program for my cuticle biting," Chase said, holding up her thumb with the black line around it.

  "You're a good influence on her," Gitana said.

  "I'll talk to Robicheck about my problem with my angry mouth."

  They parted ways. Addison and Gitana were headed for the Albuquerque Art Museum and Chase was off to Dr. Robicheck's office.

  Dr. Robicheck's office was five minutes from Dr. Bertine's office. Seeing as she still had fifteen minutes to spare, she hit the Starbucks on the way.

  "Hey there," Chase said, as she picked up her Chai. Lacey and Jasmine were sitting at a table by the window in a secluded corner.

  "Hi," Lacey said. "Sit down. Jasmine and I were just catching up on old news." She said this quickly and patted the seat next to her equally quickly like she was afraid of slipping up, so that if she got the preliminaries over quickly all would be well.

  "I can't. I've got to see the shrink in ten minutes."

  "How is that working out?" Jasmine asked.

  "Okay, I guess." Chase sipped her Chai and stared at them. This wasn't a polite lie. She honestly couldn't decide if she was a saner person. It hadn't been that long. Maybe sanity was like a twelve-step program.

  "I think you're much better," Lacey said.

  "Thanks for the endorsement."

  "And you are more user-friendly." Lacey held her arms out for a hug.

  Chase obliged. It was painful in front of a crowd, but she did it.

  "Just testing," Lacey said, releasing her.

  "Right, well, off to crazy-land. See you at group, Jasmine."

  "I won't make you hug me," Jasmine said. She did touch Chase's hand.

  As Chase made her way to the door she caught the reflection of Jasmine and Lacey at their table. Jasmine was playing footsy with Lacey who didn't appear to mind.

  Chase wondered if she was already in crazy-land. Why had her life taken this sudden rollercoaster ride once she decided that she could change?

  Sitting on Dr. Robicheck's couch, Chase shifted positions several times.

  "You seem a little agitated," Dr. Robicheck said, making an annotation on her yellow legal pad.

  Chase had noticed when she went to OfficeMax to pick up her composition books that she had developed an aversion to yellow legal pads.

  "Me? I'm fine."

  "Chase, these sessions do not prove useful if you don't relay what is going on in your life. My asking you how you are is not a polite convention." She crossed her legs and stared hard at Chase.

  "A complete waste of my co-pay." Chase crossed her legs at the ankles and leaned back trying to appear comfortable.

  "Was there a lot of carnage?" she asked, referring to Chase's habit of burying roadkill.

  "Only one prairie dog."

  "And?"

  "I think Lacey might be gay and dating one of my writing group friends who now has a lesbian character in her novel," Chase blurted.

  The doctor did not change expression, not even a raised eyebrow. "And you find this disconcerting?"

  "Yes." Chase abandoned her ruse of relaxation and sat upright.

  "Do you feel that you are changing?"

  "A little." Chase uncrossed her legs. Her foot had fallen asleep. The good doctor had purchased a new print of a white calla lily. It was almost erotic.

  "Isn't it possible that your friends might do the same thing?"

  Dr. Robicheck wore a white linen suit with a light green shirt. Chase stared at it.

  "How come you're not wearing brown?"

  "Excuse me?" She looked down at her outfit as if seeing it for the first time.

  "You always wear brown—all brown, today you have white on and you have a new print and two new books on your bookcase and you're using a different pen." Chase's voice had gotten high and squeaky, like she was on the verge of a panic attack.

  "Are you taking your medication?" Dr. Robicheck looked alarmed.

  "Religiously." Chase stood up and got a cup of water from the watercooler. At least that was in the same place in the corner. "Next thing you'll be rearranging the furniture."

  "Chase, calm down. Change is inevitable."

  Chase sat back down. She studied the Dixie cup. The pattern was different. It was a leaf motif. Last week it had been multicolored stars.

  Dr. Robicheck noticed. "Yes, they're a different pattern. It's fine. Did it occur to you that you're suddenly noticing that things change when in actuality things change all the time?"

  "I don't like change. It makes me nervous. I thought my medication was supposed to make me sane."

  "It's not a miracle drug. It won't make you a perfect human being, but it will keep you from having episodes."

  "Like the one I just had?" Chase said anxiously.

  "Perhaps we should up the dose."

  "That might be a good idea."

  After the horrid session, Chase managed to locate Gitana and Addison in the gift shop of the museum.

  "How'd it go?" Gitana asked.

  Addison was leafing through a book on Frida Kahlo.

  "Robicheck is increasing my dosage." Chase didn't look at her. Instead, she picked up a boxed set of postcards of Georgia O'Keeffe's flower series. Chase preferred these to the bone series which she thought morbid.

  "Why?"

  "I had a little episode in her office. I think I scared her."

  "What happened?" Gitana calmly took the postcards away and set them back on the shelf.

  "She changed some of the things in her office and her clothes were a different color. It upset me."

  "Maybe it upset you because we're going through so many changes," Gitana said, pointing to her stomach.

  "I don't know, but you'd think a shrink would know better than to go modifying things without informing her patients."

  "You're right. She should have sent out cards or a memo or something."

  "It would show good manners," Chase said.

  Addison came over with her purchases. It still freaked Chase out that a nine-year-old had a debit card and was so proficient at using it. She herself had trouble with the keypad at the grocery store checkout counter. It seemed they were endlessly moving the "enter" key.

  "What'd you get?" Gitana asked.

  "A Frida Kahlo book. Look at all the creepy paintings. I love it." Addison showed them a particularly gruesome one titled Self Portrait 1940.

  "Look at the detail," Gitana said, pointing to the crown of thorns around her neck.

  "I just like the blood part," Addison replied.

  "Her paintings give me nightmares," Chase said.

  "Wuss. And then I got this print of Edvard Munch to put over my bed."

  "That's interesting," Gitana said.

  "Don't you think The Scream is an odd choice for a bedroom?" Chase said.

  "No. I feel like that a lot. It's a manifestation of my inner self," Addison replied.

  "Of course," Chase said. She contemplated what her manifestation of her inner self would be—probably a Salvador Dali, either The Persistence of Memory or the Metamorphosis of Narcissus.

  "Can we go to the Atomic Museum?"

  "Sure," Chase said.

  "I might have to beg off," Gitana said.

  "Are you tired?" Chase asked, alarmed that they had taxed her.

  "A little. I told Mama I'd stop by. She's got some unusual relic she wants to give us for the baby. She's been on eBay a lot since we gave her your old laptop."

  "She got Internet access?" Chase said.

  "Mr. Griego, her next-door neighbor, set her up. He took her to Best Buy and they got a router so she can use his ISP. She makes him fresh tortillas in exchange."

  "So now she's bidding o
n Jesus' pinky bone?" Chase asked.

  "Something like that." Gitana bent down and gave Addison a hug. "Watch her," she said, indicating Chase.

  "I know. She'd get lost trying to get out of a paper bag," Addison said.

  Chase kissed Gitana's cheek. "Be careful. The canyon construction makes me nervous. Take the Hummer."

  They watched her go and then Chase asked, "Why do you want to go to the Atomic Museum?"

  "I want to see how they blow things up."

  "You're not looking up bomb-making on the Internet?"

  "Not yet," Addison said as she led them out to the parking lot.

  It was early evening when Chase drove Addison home. There was a car in the drive. Usually Peggy never got home until nine or ten. She knew Addison was spending her in service day off from school with Chase. They looked at each other puzzled.

  Addison said, "My mom's home. How odd is that?"

  "Maybe she made a great sale and wanted to be home with you to celebrate," Chase said as she parked behind Peggy's four-door black Lexus.

  "Gag me. It's more like a slow day and everyone else is busy. Walk me up?"

  "Of course." It was now standard procedure that Chase would come in to say hi to the Russian housekeeper, Olga, and hug Addison goodbye.

  "There you are," Peggy said as they entered the front hall.

  "Sorry. We didn't think you'd be home," Chase said.

  "Slow day."

  Addison smirked.

  "We went to Jacinda's for dinner. Once she found out we had Addison with us there was no putting her off," Chase said.

  Addison smiled sweetly. They both knew that Addison wanted to see Jesus' pinky bone. Jacinda had given her and Addison a tour of the relic hutch. Not only that but a burnished cherry rosary. It was amusing to see Addison smiling and joking with a group of people who were quickly becoming her new family. Chase wondered if Peggy saw this.

  "That's great," Peggy said. She looked tired and distracted.

  "I'm off to bed," Addison said. She looked at Chase as if daring her not to perform their ritual. Chase knelt down and gave her a hug.

  "Good night and don't let the bedbugs bite." She pinched Addison who went squealing down the hall.

  Addison stopped and turned, "What exactly are bedbugs?"

  "I don't really know. So what do we do?"

  "Wikipedia!" they both screamed.

  "I'll text you tomorrow with the answer," Addison said.

  Peggy and Chase watched her walk down the long marble hall, her runners making squishy sounds with her enormous backpack hiked up on her shoulder like a soldier off to war.

  "What does she have in that thing do you suppose?" Peggy asked.

  "Her life from what I can tell. I've never been privy to its complete contents."

  "You're so good with her," Peggy said.

  Chase could almost feel Peggy's longing like a tug at her coattails. "Ah, it's just the newness factor," Chase replied. "I'll be on the old hat list before you know it."

  "I don't think so. I really need to spend more time with her. The problem with real estate is that it's so spur of the moment. One minute we're going to the museum and next I've got to go sell a house. It's been very frustrating for Addison." Peggy pursed her lips like she might honestly be considering the point.

  No wonder Addison wanted to go to the museum. She's never been, Chase thought.

  "But there's the money thing—her schooling, this house, the tennis lessons—it all takes money," Peggy said.

  "I suppose it does." Chase awkwardly shifted from one foot to the other.

  "Then there's clothes, shoes, entertainment."

  "The debit card allowance," Chase added.

  "Exactly."

  Chase refrained from asking how much a child of nine needed in her account. When she got home she'd grill Gitana about their expenses. She had absolutely no idea what it cost to run their lives. She hadn't thought about schools either. She should send for brochures. Good God, she was horribly behind and she hadn't even known it. "Well, I better get going."

  "Thanks again, Chase." Peggy touched her arm and smiled placidly.

  She wanted to tell Peggy to go sit with Addison and listen to her tell about her day, but Chase knew it was already too late. Both of them were past that. Chase wondered when the disconnect had occurred between herself and Stella.

  Later as she lay in bed stroking Gitana's belly all her worries resurfaced—money, schools, quality time and Bud's future.

  "I hope Bud grows up to be just like Addison," Gitana said, staring at the ceiling.

  "Except that Addison despises her mother," Chase said. She put her ear on Gitana's belly to listen to Bud's heart beat.

  "Bud won't hate us until she's thirteen. Then, we'll send her to boarding school," Gitana said.

  "Or him."

  "Or him. You want a girl."

  "Not necessarily," Chase said, not meeting her gaze.

  Gitana gave her the look.

  "All right. I'm just worried about the peeing thing."

  "What?"

  Chase crawled up next to her. "You know, how you hold it."

  "Chase, it's not that hard. Besides I've got lots of cousins and uncles. I think they could help."

  "I guess you're right. Do we have a lot of money?"

  "What do you mean?"

  "Peggy says she has to work a lot to pay for all Addison's expenses," Chase said.

  "I think we can fit Bud into the household budget. Besides, by the time Stella and Owen get done with the suit Bud will be a millionaire."

  "Still, I think we should set a budget and see if we can trim anything. I stopped by Office Max and got the Quicken program. I want you to save every receipt. I got a basket for that purpose— so even if it's an ice cream cone, get a receipt."

  Gitana groaned.

  "I don't think you're approaching this in a positive manner."

  Gitana sat up and whacked her with a pillow.

  Chapter Nineteen

  "What's with the black marks?" Nora asked, referring to the Magic Marker rings around Chase's fingers.

  "It's part of my ten-step program," Chase replied as she was reviewing the order to the supplier for orchids that Gitana had given her. She was doing a lot of reviewing lately.

  "For?"

  "Cuticle biting." Chase chewed on her pinky, one of her last remaining fingers that wasn't blacklisted or bandaged. "Do we really need all of these?" She pointed to the order.

  "Yes. We sell orchids—hence we must have orchids in stock. You don't seem to be doing well with your cuticle program," Nora said, taking the order form away from Chase.

  "This one is still available. Give me a break. I've given up the other four."

  "Oh, I get it. A black ring around the digit means it's been freed from the savagery of your teeth."

  "Willy couldn't have said it better."

  Chase left off the orchid order and moved on to logging the household receipts into her Quicken program. She'd taken to lugging her laptop around. Her rewrite was getting behind and her editor kept asking for progress reports. She took advantage of down times at the nursery to do a little catch-up. She pined for one of the new smaller and lighter laptops, but it wasn't in the budget and this one was only two years old and it appeared light compared to the one she'd given Jacinda. She was currently stockpiling diapers instead. She had enough to make an igloo so far. It wouldn't be fair to Bud to sit in poopy diapers because she desired a new laptop when she had a perfectly good one.

  "Willy?" Nora inquired.

  "Shakespeare."

  "I hated Shakespeare," Nora said. She got them both more coffee. Chase poured hers into a Java Juice cup she kept for that purpose.

  Nora smirked. Chase conceded, "I know, but it's a small deception. I can't do without it."

  Gitana waddled in. She added two more orchid types to the order list that Nora was inputting. Without looking up she said, "Yes, we need them." She reached over and grabbed Chase's Java Juice c
up.

  "You don't want that," Chase said.