Page 40 of The Sky in Summer
“This is gorgeous!”
Nobel looks pleased at my reaction, but when did he ever get another kind?
“That’s where I do my thing,” he says, pointing to the wide sleek desk angled at one of the windows. Three monitors sit waiting for whatever is needed for three monitors.
“Whatisyour thing, Nobel?”
“I’m an attorney.”
“Nice.”
Silently I am wondering if he still practices law when he is married to a star. But we move on.
“Layla! Welcome to Party Central!”
Aurora takes a place at the counter in the kitchen as we walk in. She’s making deviled eggs.
“Hi. What a fantastic place to cook! I’d never leave this room.”
She rinses off her hands and dries them on a towel.
“Isn’t it perfect?
“The entire place is.”
“Come look at the gallery,” she says, moving to the far wall of the dining space. “So you can get to know who we are.”
“Come on, Mom. Not everyone is mesmerized by our baby pictures,” Nobel says chuckling.
“Yes, they are,” she answers.
“I want to see them!”
“I knew you would. This is us in nineteen eighty-nine. Don’t they look cute?”
The black framed photographs are displayed in a perfectly spaced display. The one she points out is of another July Fourth. The family wears red, white, and blue matching shirts. Van’s sisters are holding hands. Aurora looks sexy and very tan. Gaston wears shorts that only men in the nineteen eighties wore. Short shorts. Funny. Van is sticking his tongue out and it takes me back to kindergarten. It’s just the following year. I think that’s Aargon holding two fingers over his little brother’s head, while Nobel stands staring at the camera.
“So adorable,” I remark.
“That’s our Kristen. She passed away a few years back.”
Aurora says it stoically. But the words came out without a pause between sentences. As if it must be said quickly otherwise the pain would be too great. She kisses the tip of her index finger, then touches the face of her missing child. I feel a lump rise in my throat and tears in my eyes.
“I’m so sorry. Van told me when I asked about his sisters. I cannot imagine your loss.”
Aurora looks in my eyes and as a mother I feel the weight she must carry. It’s a stunning wound.
“Thank you. We march forward.”
Nobel turns the moment.
“Now this one, embarrassing as it is, is my parents’ favorite. It’s before they were saddled with five children,” he says chuckling.
“And before they learned how to dress themselves,” Scarlett adds.
“What? Those were very groovy outfits! You guys don’t know what you’re talking about!” Aurora says emphatically.
“Oh, groovy! It was bitchin’ too I bet!” Nobel teases.
