Love And Miss Communication Part 15

"Wyatt is my son," Susan said, and she lifted the baby from his snug car seat.

Evie was stunned. She had to be hallucinating.

"Aunt Susan," Evie said, speaking cautiously as she focused her eyes on the baby nuzzling her aunt's neck. "Wyatt is black."

"Well of course he's black, Evie. I adopted him. From Ethiopia. I know. It's very Angelina Jolie of me. But I swear I had the idea first."

"I don't think adopting a kid from Africa can be patented," Evie said, still unable to take her eyes off the tiny child curled up against Susan's body as though it was the most natural thing in the world. "Wow, Susan. Just wow."

"I know," Susan gushed. "And don't you just love the name? It had to be Wyatt."

"As in Wyatt Earp?" Evie asked, naming the only famous Wyatt she knew.

"As in Sheryl Crow. She named her adopted son Wyatt. I've always felt that she and I are kindred spirits. His full name is Wyatt Ocean Rosen. It's perfect, isn't it?"

Why not? The kid was already destined for therapy.

"Perfect."

"And what a gift for my mom. I'm making her a grandma! That's got to improve her spirits," Susan said.

Evie was aghast. "She's already a grandma. I'm her granddaughter, remember?"

"Oh right, I'm so silly. It's just you're already so old, I forgot you're someone's granddaughter. Well, now Bette has a boy and a girl." Susan laughed giddily. "Evie, I can't wait to catch up. Your mom agreed to put me up in Connecticut, but the truth is that I wish I were staying with you. I miss life in the big city." Before heading west, Susan had lived in the East Village and sold pottery on the corner of Avenue B and Twelfth Street. She'd probably be horrified to discover how gentrified the once-beatnik enclave had become, with doormen-attended high-rises and, gasp, a 7-Eleven.

"Yeah, that's too bad. But you wouldn't want to disappoint my mom by changing plans, right?" Evie said, adding in a silent prayer.

"No, no. Of course not. Plus Wyatt will have his own room at Fran's. She said your place is tiny." So Fran knew about Wyatt. Interesting.

"It is. Minuscule, really." For what may have been the first time, Evie delighted in her apartment's limited square footage. If not being able to afford the larger apartment meant not putting up Susan and her imported child, then perhaps not making partner had a bright side after all.

After they got the rest of Susan's things and piled into the parked car with Wyatt strapped up tight in his infant carrier in the backseat, Evie turned to her aunt.

"So Grandma has no idea about Wyatt?"

Susan fiddled with her handbag, a crocheted monstrosity overflowing with baby paraphernalia.

"You know my mom and I aren't close. I could never give her what she wanted. She wanted me to marry a nice Jewish doctor, have kids, a white picket fence, the whole nine yards. Your dad, on the other hand, gave her exactly what she wanted. Which was easy for him, mind you, because it was exactly what he wanted too. Anyway, the point is, I felt like I was always disappointing her. The whole East Coast pace just wasn't for me. I needed someplace where I could be freer, so I moved out west. You know all this."

"And?" Evie asked, because she felt there were things that Susan wasn't saying.

"And I think that was the right thing to do," Susan said, still playing with the seams of her bag where the strings had started to fray. "But, in some ways she was right. About having a family. Which is why I adopted Wyatt. I did really start to feel like something was missing. I suppose telling Bette about Wyatt would sort of be like telling her she was right all along, and I wasn't ready to make that phone call yet. Make sense?"

Evie nodded but kept her eyes on the traffic. Susan was actually making sense.

"So, I guess she'll be in for a big surprise tomorrow when I show up at the hospital with Wyatt."

"Aunt Susan, don't take this the wrong way, but tomorrow is a nerve-racking day for Grandma. I think maybe Wyatt should stay home and just you come to the hospital. We don't want to shock her or anything."

"But I have no one to watch him."

Evie pictured Caroline's fleet of nannies and housekeepers.

"Don't worry, I've got just the place you can leave him for a few hours. He'll be perfectly safe and well looked after."

"Okay, you're probably right," Susan said.

Evie put on the radio and they listened for a while to the oldies station in silence. In the rear-view mirror, Evie could see the baby had fallen asleep sometime after "Crocodile Rock."

"So how old is Wyatt?"

"Seven months. He's an Aquarius. You know I'm a Virgo, which normally would clash, but in our case I think it's why we have such a good yin-yang dynamic going."

Evie looked at the road signs. Only eight more exits and she could deposit Susan in Greenwich.

Susan started twiddling with the tuner just as Evie's cell phone rang from inside her purse.

"Would you mind getting that, Aunt Susan?"

Susan picked up the phone.

"Hey Fran, I think we're almost there." Then she was quiet for a whole minute. "Okay, then, I'll see you first thing tomorrow instead."

Evie's intestines formed a pretzel.

"Evie, honey, your mom said Winston thinks he hit a gas valve while he was doing some renovations. They're all staying over at a friend's house tonight. Looks like Wyatt and I need to camp out with you instead," Susan said, smiling broadly.

If that gas leak turned out to be a false alarm, Evie vowed to never speak to her mother again.

"I like your place, Evie," Susan said, when they finally arrived after circling back to New York and dropping the car in Tracy's garage in h.e.l.l's Kitchen. "Good taste runs in the family. My place in Santa Fe looks kind of similar."

"Thanks," Evie said, relieved she'd already decided to redecorate.

"So, where do you want us to bunk?" Susan asked, lifting Wyatt into the air.

Greenwich.

"You can take my bed. I'll sleep on the couch."

"Thanks, I was hoping you'd say that. Wyatt is a real screamer if he's not comfortable. If it's all right, I'll start unpacking and give Wyatt a bath."

Once Evie heard the bathwater running, she called Caroline to ask if Wyatt could stay at her apartment tomorrow while Bette was in surgery.

"Fine," Caroline said. "But you owe me for this. I have no help tomorrow, so I'll have to watch Grace, Pippa, and your aunt's baby by myself."

"You have no help?"

Caroline grunted. "Hey, don't forget who's asking who for a favor."

"I know, I know. I'm sorry." Evie's call-waiting buzzed. Bette. "Listen, thanks a million. My grandma's on the other line. I gotta take this."

Evie clicked through.

"Hi, Grandma," she said. "You feeling okay?"

"I'm fine, bubbela. I just vanted to make sure zat everything vas okay vith Susan. I hear she's staying vith you now."

"Yup, everything is fine."

"How does she look? I can only imagine," Bette said.

No, actually you can't. Evie thought of Wyatt. That sweet little infant, who did nothing but coo and smile and rock his precious baby clothes, had no idea where he'd landed.

"She looked happy."

"Vell, zat's good to hear. It's so embarra.s.sing in front of ze doctor zat my only daughter is first coming to see me now."

"Who cares what Dr. Gold thinks about us? He's not going to botch the surgery because Susan is a little kooky," Evie whispered. "Is there anything else, Grandma? You need your rest tonight."

"Yes, Evie-le. I know zis is going to sound odd to you, but it's so unusual I have you and Susan together in one room. I vas hoping to take a nice family photograph tomorrow. So I vanted to ask you to dress up, vear something beautiful, put on makeup. Do everything to look special so I can get a nice picture of ze three of us."

"But you're going to be in a hospital gown," Evie protested.

"Ve'll do it before I change. Please. It's important to me."

"Okay, Grandma. Whatever you want."

"Vonderful. You're going to look beautiful, I'm sure. Just vear a dress. Don't be afraid to put on a little extra blush."

Evie a.s.sured Bette she'd apply her bronzer and blush tomorrow with a heavy hand and wished her a good night's sleep.

After what seemed like hours of crying, rattling, and Susan bopping around Evie's apartment with Wyatt balled up in a tie-dye sling, he fell asleep.

When the apartment was finally quiet, Susan approached Evie.

"Can I ask you something, Evie?"

"Sure," Evie said. "What's up?"

"You certainly seemed taken aback by Wyatt today. I know it's shocking, but I did e-mail you about a dozen photos of him a few weeks ago. I was surprised you never even wrote back. Maybe I had the wrong e-mail address."

"Actually, I never got your e-mail. I stopped using the Internet about four months ago. Haven't checked my e-mail since the end of June. Just kind of couldn't take it anymore-the social media rat race, if that makes any sense."

"Evie, that's wonderful," Susan said. "I totally get that whole off-the-grid thing. In my community, lots of people don't even have cell phones, let alone computers. We're all about personal interaction. Not letting the Information Age overtake us. You should come visit me. I think you'd really connect with the people out there. Especially now that I know you're part of the ant.i.technology movement. We're more alike than you think, Evie."

I'm not part of any movement, Evie thought. But she didn't dare let her conversation with Susan devolve into anything bordering on philosophical.

"Yes, you should definitely come," Susan said, getting more excited about the idea. "You'd get to bond with your nephew more."

"Again, he's my cousin," Evie said to her aunt, who just couldn't seem to grasp family tree fundamentals.

Walking the halls of Sloan Kettering at 6:00 A.M. in three-inch heels, a shimmery dress, and bronzer applied like war paint, Evie felt like a prost.i.tute targeting sickly men. Caroline nearly pa.s.sed out when Evie and Susan dropped off Wyatt at the crack of dawn. "You going clubbing after the surgery, Evie?" she asked. Evie couldn't even wear the trench coat she grabbed on her way out the door because it just intensified the hooker look.

The operating wing of the hospital was freezing, and Evie's bare legs were goose b.u.mped, the hair on her arms standing at attention. Thank goodness Susan's appearance took some of the attention away from her. Evie's aunt was robed in her own version of dressed-up-an extra turquoise necklace topping what must have been her nicest housedress, and yes, Birkenstocks with socks.

"Okay, my mom said we're supposed to meet in the preop room. Bette should already be there." Evie was annoyed she had to shepherd her aunt, who was visiting the hospital for the first time. "I guess that's where we'll take the family photo."

"Okay." Susan shrugged, and continued to trot alongside Evie. "Feels strange not to have Wyatt in the photo, don't you think?"

She treated Susan's question as rhetorical.

"I just want to get this picture over with and put my normal clothes back on before someone sees me," Evie said, trying to rush Susan along, who insisted on pausing in front of each hospital room to sneak a glance at the inhabitants.

"All these infirm people. Wedded to traditional medicines. I wonder how many of them have tried naturopathic remedies. You should meet my holistic healer, Evie. He grows a root hydroponically that I swear cured my arthritis."

"Let's not get into any of that today, Aunt Susan," Evie said. "Grandma's a traditionalist, and today is her surgery, so probably best not to mention your herbalist to her." They were about twenty feet away from the room where they were supposed to find Bette, and Evie wasn't sure she'd make it that far without strangling her aunt.

"I agree with you, Evie." Evie spun around when she heard Edward Gold's voice.

"Dr. Gold!" Evie turned beet red. He was garbed in teal medical scrubs and his sandy hair was pushed back by a surgical mask. Instead of the Crocs she'd seen him in before, he had on white Converse sneakers. The getup was almost too perfect, like he was playing doctor on a primetime show. It was all too easy to picture him saying, "Nurse, this patient is flatlining. Paddles, stat!"

"Edward," he reminded her. "You look great." She watched the doctor's eyes travel from the roots of her blow-dried hair to the tips of her pedicured toes. It occurred to her on some level she'd been hoping to run into him.

"I'm Susan," her aunt said, extending her hand to Edward before Evie could explain why she was dressed for a party on the day of her grandmother's surgery. "Bette's daughter. You must be one of my mother's doctors."

"Edward is Bette's surgeon," Evie explained.

"Evie didn't mention how handsome you are," Susan said, batting her eyes at him.

"Susan!" Evie yelped, grabbing her aunt by the elbow with a bit of force. To think her aunt was actually flirting with Edward.

"Evie, how could you leave that out?" Edward asked with an endearing smile. Evie wanted to crawl into his dimple and hide.

She did her best to regain composure and attempted sarcasm. "It's hard to imagine."

Edward laughed. "I forgive you. So, should we go see Bette?" he said, taking another long look at Evie before he started down the hallway.

"Yes," Evie said. "By the way, I just want to explain my, um, appearance. Bette insisted that I dress up. She wants to take a family photo, since my aunt is in town. I feel ridiculous."

"Nah, you look beautiful," he said. "Makes getting up at this early hour for surgery worth it."

Huh? Edward seemed to be overtly hitting on her. What was that about? She didn't want to lose respect for him. Even if he wasn't hers, she liked the idea of knowing men like Edward existed. Fate wouldn't necessarily collide her with another one like him, but it was rea.s.suring to at least know these unicorns were out there. Thinking of him stepping out of the bounds of his marriage, even with just casual lip service, was disheartening. She moved to ground the conversation back in practicalities.

"So how come you're here already? I thought the actual surgery doesn't start for a few hours," Evie asked.