Loud Pipes Save Lives

by Jennifer Giacalone

  “I called a few of my more persuasive friends.”

  “Your friends,” Erik repeated dryly. Like Maggie Burnett, Lina had her own Rolodex of shady characters to whom she was careful to never owe anything, but whom she’d also been able to work with from time to time. Frankie Beanbags had been a particularly invaluable resource in that regard. She’d been working with him since long before Tommy’s first campaign, nearly a decade at this point.

  She raised an eyebrow at him. “My friends are the reason that Corey Connolly is our bitch, Erik. Remember that. Christ, I don’t know when the hell you got such a weak stomach.”

  “And I will always be grateful for your help—and theirs,” Erik answered, looking to change the subject. “So, what’s the plan now? Are you going to actually let Tommy do some governing?”

  She swirled the scotch inside its glass and sipped a little. “Of course. I have other things I need to deal with now.”

  After a little more small talk, she gave Erik a peck on the cheek and showed him out, promising to call him later.

  She picked up the phone and called Corey.

  “Why is Detective Sparr at Midtown South?” she asked bluntly.

  Corey hesitated. “Madam Deputy Mayor, I have approximately thirty-four-thousand cops under me. Do you think I sign all of their transfer forms myself?”

  “Thirty-four-thousand cops, but only one of them is named Lily Sparr. You’d think it might be wise to keep a closer eye on that one. The only reason I know about it is that I happened to bump into her at a fundraiser and she mentioned it!”

  Corey paused again. He had the sound of a man who had been getting awfully accustomed to women shouting at him on the phone lately. “Well, I don’t know who requested the move. I’ll look into it. I don’t think we want to abruptly move her back to Queens,” he hedged. “It might raise a flag.”

  “I need to know why she’s there and what she’s working on,” Lina said coldly. “Put eyes on her, Corey.”

  Corey sighed. “I’ll take care of it.”

  “Put eyes on her, Corey,” she repeated, “or I will.”

  23

  Bonds Remade

  It was going to be a proper family gathering. Eleanor had even invited her sister Caroline, though she’d declined. But, it would be the first time in a few years that all the Sparr children had been around the dining room table at 64 Beekman Place at once. Even at Christmases, the last few had been missing one or another of them: either Finlay had been traveling, or Quin had been in rehab, or Lily had been incommunicado.

  Finlay and Jin were the first to come sweeping through the door, their attractive, cross-cultural cosmopolitan selves in dueling his-and-hers Manolo Blahniks and black Dulwich raincoats.

  Finlay carried a bunch of orchids in a simple, elegant ceramic vase. “Here, Mom. For the table.”

  Eleanor took the vase carefully and set it on the sideboard so that she could throw arms around her son. She stepped back and inspected him. “You’re not sleeping enough,” she scolded.

  He shrugged. “I’m running a multinational company. It happens.”

  She turned to Jin. “I’m putting you in charge of making sure he sleeps.”

  Jin laughed. “Why do you think I’m any better?” Jin carried a box of cupcakes from Magnolia Bakery, which she held out to her mother-in-law. “I’m sorry, we should have asked if you had other dessert planned, but I happened to be downtown today, so I brought these.”

  Eleanor was more than happy to take them. “You will never get thrown out of my house if you show up with a box from Magnolia Bakery.” She passed them to Finlay. “Finny, put these in the kitchen, will you?” And as he walked away with the box, she added, “But not in the fridge, I don’t want them cold and hard!”

  “I know, Mom,” he called back over his shoulder.

  Eleanor plucked the vase of orchids off the table. “Jin, is this from the Wanghai Chen exhibit?”

  Jin nodded. “Good eye, as usual. I didn’t think you’d let me in the door if I didn’t bring you back something from that show. So many gorgeous pieces—it’s really a shame you couldn’t make it out to Hong Kong this time.”

  Just then, they heard the sound of keys scraping in the front door lock.

  “That’ll be Quin,” Eleanor murmured.

  Quin and Nadia came tumbling through the open door, sporting their biking gear with helmets tucked under their arms. Quin hugged Eleanor first, and then his eyes found Jin. “Jin! Hey! Mom said you were coming. I haven’t seen you in forever!”

  They greeted each other warmly and then Jin stepped back to get a look at his prosthetics. “Those are really cool, Quin.”

  He nodded. “Thanks. I’m really happy with them.” He turned and pulled Nadia over. “And uh, this is my girlfriend, Nadia. Nadia, this is my sister-in-law, Jin.”

  They shook hands briefly. Jin gave Quin an approving nod. “New girlfriend, new legs. You’ve done pretty well for yourself there, Quin.”

  Quin grinned. “Can’t complain.”

  Finlay re-entered the room, announcing himself with, “Holy shit!”

  The last time Finlay had seen his brother had been months ago: before Nadia, before the bike, and before these stunning engineering masterpieces of prosthetic legs that he was walking around on. He bounded over to Quin and wrapped him in a long bear hug. Finlay looked near tears to see how far Quin had come.

  “You’re like a completely new person,” he exclaimed as he hugged his brother. “I can’t believe I turned my back for a minute and you…” He choked up.

  “It’s okay, man, you’re running the world, I get it,” Quin mumbled back.

  “Such sensitive men,” Jin sighed fondly, with just a touch of a smirk.

  Nadia smirked back. “They’re all in their feelings,” she agreed. “Somebody’s gonna start playing the theme song to the Golden Girls or something.”

  Finlay stepped back, brushing a hand across one of his welling eyes. “Guess I can’t call you ‘cripple’ anymore,” he joked.

  Quin punched his shoulder. “Yeah, but I can still call you ‘asshole.’”

  Jin and Nadia shared a little chuckle.

  Outside, Lily and Miri had gotten out of a yellow cab and were standing at the bottom of the stoop. Miri’s nerves were getting the better of her, and she caught Lily’s hand on her way up the stairs. “Lil, are you sure about this?”

  Lily stopped and turned around to look at Miri. Even standing one step up from her, she wasn’t quite eye-level. She took both Miri’s hands in hers and gave her the most gentle smile. “It’s fine. My family isn’t going to be weird, I promise.”

  “But what are we going to tell them, exactly?” Miri fretted.

  Lily shook her head. “Look, we’ll just tell them we’re together. That’s good enough. That’s all they need to know.”

  Miri wasn’t entirely satisfied. “I just want them to…”

  Lily took Miri’s face in both her hands. (How was she both handsome and beautiful at the same time? How did she do that?) “It’s going to be fine. I promise.”

  They shared a long, affectionate look, and in that moment, they didn’t notice Ainsley and Khady stroll up from their parking spots down the block.

  “Oh my God!” Ainsley hollered.

  Lily and Miri jumped apart. “Jesus Christ, Ainsley!”

  Ainsley looked from one to the other. She’d met Miri a couple of times before and recognized her. A look of surprise and amusement broke across her face. “Wait…wait, are you guys doing it?”

  Lily and Miri looked at each other for a moment and then broke out laughing. Lily shook her head. “Well, no, we’re definitely not doing it,” she said, but her hand slipped around Miri’s, almost unconsciously.

  Ainsley had seen the way they were standing a moment ago, though, and didn’t believe her. “Seriously? Because you guys are totally acting like you’re a thing.”

  “Well…we are a thing,” Lily snickered.

  Ainsley shook
her head in confusion, helmet under her arm, looking back and forth. “I don’t get it.”

  Lily had the fleeting thought that she should be as nervous as Miri was, but she wasn’t. “There’s nothing to get. We’re a thing. It’s a good thing. It’s a serious thing… I think?” She glanced at Miri for confirmation, and Miri nodded. “But we just…aren’t doing it.”

  Ainsley gave a slow, thoughtful nod. “Okay…so, you guys are just being…romantically celibate together or something?”

  Lily looked over at Miri, still laughing a little. “I don’t know, baby, does that sound about right to you?”

  Miri thought about it for a second. “Close enough for now, I guess.”

  Then Ainsley paused again. “So, uh…girls for you too, then, huh?” She started shaking with silent chuckles. “Mom’s going to regret breastfeeding us.”

  “But I’m not interested in breasts!” Lily laughed. She hopped down the steps and landed on the sidewalk, light on her feet. “Come here, dummy.” She hugged Ainsley, and, for a minute, they were just sisters again, eating warm cookies and watching Audrey Hepburn movies, and she forgot about everything else that was in her head.

  Over Ainsley’s shoulder, Lily saw Ainsley’s girlfriend remove her own helmet. Lily was instantly struck by two things: she was very pretty, and she was wearing a hijab. Her mother hadn't mentioned it. She maintained her poise, disengaged herself from Ainsley, and held out a hand to her. “You must be Khady. I’m Lily.”

  Eleanor had set out some cheese plates and crudité, and started pouring off glasses of wine and distributing them. She took quick note of the way Miri helped Lily out of her jacket, brushed cracker crumbs off her sweater, and the warm looks that Lily gave her when she did. Eleanor was so relieved to see that lightness in Lily’s presence that one gets from falling in love, she couldn’t begin to care whether it was with a man, a woman, or a particularly attractive potted plant.

  She smiled as she strolled back to the kitchen, hearing Ainsley’s loud voice above the rest, full of ball-busting mischief: “Lil’s the odd man out. How come you’re the only one to bring home a white girl, Lil?”

  “She’s not white; she’s Jewish,” Quin argued, clearly trying to tweak his sister.

  “Oh my God, Quin, you’re such an idiot.”

  Nadia still hadn’t told Quin she was pregnant. It never seemed like the right time. Now she was feeling panicky and dumb, in a room full of his family, dragging around a huge secret like a boulder. She was meeting his brother and his other sister for the first time. And, because she hadn’t entirely decided what she was going to do about it, she was avoiding alcohol. Just in case. She was trying to be surreptitious about it, but wasn’t sure how well that was going.

  As they all stood around in the impeccably decorated living room, drinking, joking, and munching on appetizers, she noticed that Jin had also been holding the same glass of wine for quite some time now—swirling it, gesturing with it, occasionally appearing to sip from it as she chatted away about how much Hong Kong had changed since the last time she was there, about the Wanghai Chen ceramics exhibit where she’d picked up the vase they’d brought… But in forty-five minutes, Nadia realized she hadn’t seen her refill it once.

  Fuck it, she decided. She set her glass down on an end table and said, as casually as she could, “Hey Jin, can you come to the restroom with me for a second?”

  Jin glanced at the full glass Nadia had just set down, and back at her. “Yeah, sure.” She kissed Finlay's cheek and said lightly, “Girls go to the bathroom in packs, you know.”

  They went into the upstairs bathroom, and Nadia shut the door. “Why aren’t you drinking?”

  Jin looked at her carefully. “Why aren’t you?”

  Nadia sighed. “Come on, same reason, right? You’re pregnant? You guys are gonna tell everyone tonight?”

  “I take it you have similar news?”

  “Well…” Nadia shook her head. “Yeah, I’m pregnant, but…I haven’t told Quin yet, and I don’t even know if I’m going to keep it, and—”

  “Woah, woah, hold on,” Jin interrupted. “You’re not worrying about us stepping on each others’ news? You’re just freaking out and needed to talk to someone?”

  “Pretty much.” Nadia leaned back against the sink. “How did you know you were ready?”

  Jin gave her a sympathetic look. “Well, I don’t know what you’ve got in mind for yourself and your life. For us, it was just… I don’t want to wait till I’m forty, but I wanted to get myself professionally established first, and I’ve done that. I’m thirty-four. It felt like this was a good time.”

  Nadia sighed. “There’s so much I have to sort out. And I don’t think Quin’s ready to be a parent either. And I don’t want Eleanor to think I got pregnant to trap her son into a marriage, because you know the stereotype about Latinas and shit—”

  “Don’t worry about Eleanor,” Jin cut in, quick but gentle. “I know you look at this family and you see all the privilege, but…Eleanor doesn't look at people that way. She really sees them. Finn and I have been married for almost ten years and I don’t know if I’ve ever seen her call someone wrong, honestly.” Jin patted her hand. “Look, you should do what you think is the right thing for you, but…don’t let your worries about her make the decision for you. She’ll be on your side. Besides, she’s dying for grandchildren.”

  Nadia nodded uneasily.

  “But you really need to tell Quin, and I don’t think you should wait. This is clearly driving you crazy.”

  “How can you tell?”

  “Because you met me forty-five minutes ago and you just dragged me up to the bathroom for life advice.”

  In the kitchen, Khady helped Eleanor heat the trays of food and pull out place settings. “The rack of lamb looks delicious,” Khady commented, peeling the foil off of the large catering tray.

  Eleanor smiled. “Yes, I… Well, I didn’t know how strict you were about the dietary part of things, so I just went ahead and found the best Halal caterer in town.”

  Khady blushed. “You really didn’t need to go to so much trouble. Ainsley knows I’m not that strict.” To relieve her awkwardness at being so graciously accommodated, she checked the oven, which was still preheating.

  “You really don’t need to help,” Eleanor said.

  “I’ll feel like a bad guest if you don’t let me. Please, what can I do?”

  Eleanor chuckled a little. “All right then, if you wouldn’t mind counting off the forks for the place settings, that would be helpful.”

  As Khady quietly counted, Eleanor asked her, “So. What do you think about the new marriage law?”

  Khady lost count, surprised. “Uh, well…I think it’s a good thing,” she answered carefully. Eleanor was referring to the state legislature legalizing gay marriage recently. It was about the last question Khady was expecting.

  Eleanor nodded. “Yes, it is. Graham and I actually donated frequently to those campaigns, since about the late 80s.”

  Khady looked at her awkwardly. “I… Why do you ask?”

  Eleanor took out a pitcher of iced tea and several trays of ice cubes from the freezer. As she bent the trays and popped the cubes out, she spoke in careful, even tones: “Khady, I don’t want you to receive this as pressure, because it’s not. But…Ainsley has changed a great deal in the last several months, and I can’t help feeling it has to do with you.” She dropped the ice into the pitcher and then sat down on a stool next to her. “I just wanted you to know that you’d be welcome in this family if you…ever felt that you wanted that.”

  Khady bit her lip and blinked back some warm tears pooling up behind her eyes. “Thank you, Mrs. Sparr.”

  “And that’s another thing. You’re not a teenager. You can call me Eleanor.”

  Nadia came down from the bathroom and dragged Quin out to the porch. “Quin, I’m pregnant,” she blurted, then stood there anxiously.

  To her surprise, he looked pleased. “That’s great…
” He surveyed her anxious face. “Isn’t it?”

  She shook her head. “I don’t know. I’m not ready. I don’t know if you’re ready either.”

  He tangled both his hands into her curls and smiled at her. “Look, it’s okay. Whatever you want to do.”

  She bit her lip. “Are you sure?”

  “Of course. But… I’m in love with you, Nadia. I…well…” He fumbled in his pocket and pulled out a tiny velvet box. “I was planning on asking you this tonight anyway.”

  “Oh my God, Quin,” she whispered. “You can’t be serious.”

  “Nadia…” He took her hand. “If you’re not ready for kids, that’s okay. But I…” He opened the box and there it was. The diamond twinkled in the streetlamp light. “I want to marry you, okay? I didn’t know about this; I just bought this because I was going to ask you tonight, so…will you?”

  She leaned into his arms and started to cry. “Quin, I want to. I want to say yes, but…let’s deal with the other thing first.”

  He held her tightly. “Okay. However you want to do it.”

  Her voice was tight in her throat: “And there’s all these assholes outside the clinics now since the law changed. I never thought I’d have to deal with that in my life…”

  “You won’t be alone,” he promised.

  Over dessert, Finlay nudged Jin and they quickly muttered back and forth for a moment before Jin spoke, addressing the table: “So, one or two of you with sharp eyes this evening noticed that I haven’t been drinking.”

  Eleanor didn’t even need her to finish. She gasped. “Oh, tell me it’s what I think it is.”

  Finlay nodded. “Yep. Mom, you’re going to be a grandma.”

  Eleanor’s eyes welled up with joy and she covered her mouth with one hand.

  “She didn’t think it was gonna happen,” Quin joked.