Elona clapped her hands. “I like eating on the floor, like the Japanese.”
“That’s right, Elona,” Amira said, surprised. “The Japanese do sit on the floor. How did you know that?”
“From a story the teacher read to us in school,” Elona said as she settled down onto her heels, like the pictures in the book the teacher had shown to the class.
Amira sat beside her, copying Elona’s position. “I say we declare this evening Japanese evening then.”
“Can we eat with chopsticks, too?” Elona’s eyes grew wide.
Amira put a plate on Elona’s lap, then removed a piece of pizza from the box and put it on the plate. “Maybe next time. Be careful and try not to get any on your dress.”
Sharon sat on the floor between Amira and Guy and served him, then herself a piece of pizza.
“I can’t wait to get everything out of these boxes,” Amira said after her first bite. “I think this place is going to be cute once I put a few pictures on the walls and curtains on the windows.”
“I remember our first apartment after we got married,” Sharon said, looking at Guy, who was already nodding. “A tiny little garage apartment. Your father was teaching at the high school and taking graduate classes at night. I worked at the movie theater. We didn’t have a complete set of dishes, much less anything that matched. Mostly things given to us by our parents or as wedding gifts. But I thought it was a grand place. I bought some material and sewed the curtains for the window over the sink in the kitchen and the window by the couch. Remember, Guy?”
“Yes, I do. They looked nice.”
“It was an exciting time. We knew our lives were changing; we were growing. We could feel it happening.” Sharon smiled at Amira. “As I feel it here with you.”
“Am I growing too, Mommy?” Elona asked.
Amira quickly wiped a tear. “Yes, baby, you are. Quicker than I’d like.”
After the pizza was gone, Guy and Elona took the empty boxes scattered about the apartment, broke them down, and stacked them in a corner in the dining area. Sharon helped Amira unpack the rest of the boxes of kitchen possessions. When they were done, Amira looked around the kitchen. Although not as big as her previous one, it had the same functionality. She smiled. Not bad. The adrenaline she had been running on all day had faded. The pizza sat like a lump in her stomach. Amira went to the couch and sat down with a thud. Just as she did, her cell phone chimed from the kitchen. Since her parents were standing in the same room and John had agreed not to call, she knew it was Ethan. She lifted herself from the couch and retrieved the phone from her purse. She dreaded the thought of a fight over the phone.
“Hello, Ethan.”
“I see you have made your pick of things. You could have discussed with your husband the things you were taking,” Ethan said.
His voice wasn’t raised. Amira thought if anything he sounded tired.
“I tried to talk to you. You just scream at me that I’d get no help from you, so I’ve made the decisions myself. If there’s something I took that you feel strongly about we can talk about it.”
“The thing you have taken from me that I feel strongly about is our family.”
“I’m not—”
“I’d like to see Elona.”
“Sure, you can have her the whole weekend if you want.”
“Tonight.”
“It’s getting late and she has school tomorrow.”
“Please. Amira, I haven’t seen her in three days. Just for a moment, and you can get the box of food you left in the kitchen from the pantry.”
Damn it, Elona’s favorite cereal is in that box. Amira looked at her watch.
“Okay, but just for a minute.”
UNHOLY
Amira pulled up in front of Ethan’s apartment building. Ethan stood outside against the brick wall at the edge of the sphere of light issuing from the large decorative lamps at the front entrance. His hands in the pockets of his black overcoat, collar pulled up, he huddled against the brisk wind. Amira got out, walked around the back of the SUV, opened the back passenger door and unlatched Elona. Now in the lavender coat that matched her dress, she sprang from the SUV to the sidewalk. The massive ponytail bounced with her.
“Daddy!”
She ran to him. Ethan squatted and she ran into his open arms. He lifted and held her to his chest.
“Oh, I’ve missed you,” Ethan said.
“Missed you, too, Daddy.”
Ethan leaned her back to get a good look at her. She smiled at him. He smiled too, the first time in the last three days. His child, his daughter, had the power to obscure his sadness. He felt the weight of her in his arms. The most important thing. The only person in his entire life who had given him unconditional love. Unable to betray. “Did you have fun at Grandma Sharon’s house?”
“Yes. I slept with Mommy in her old bed.”
“I bet that was crowded.”
“I liked it, but Mommy says I kick a lot. You should see the new apartment!”
“Do you like it?”
“Yes, I have my own room. We ate pizza on the floor like Japanese.”
“You did?”
“Yep, and Grandpa said his knees are broken from it. And my room looks just like the room in your apartment.”
Ethan put Elona down and looked at Amira, standing in front of him. Amira thought he looked pale. Mangled beard, disheveled hair, perhaps even thinner in the face. His eyes, bloodshot and puffy, that a moment ago had looked at Elona lovingly, had rage in them.
“I’d like to talk for a moment.” Ethan glanced at people passing on the sidewalk and at Frank standing by the door. “Not here. Come up to the apartment.”
Amira felt something that she had never felt with Ethan before. The thought of being alone with him made her uneasy. He had slapped her in their last argument; she hadn’t expected that, but even then, with his handprint on her face, she didn’t feel like he was capable of extreme violence. On that night, it was about control and his loss of it. His hope to regain it. Now, the hope for control was gone. Now, for an inexplicable reason, she felt the whisper of a threat in her ear. “Elona has school tomorrow and I don’t want to go back to the apartment.”
Ethan looked at Elona.
“You would like to come up, wouldn’t you?”
Elona looked at her mother. Amira grabbed Elona’s hand. “No, we can’t.”
“If you want a job, I could talk to Dr. Jones. Perhaps the company could hire you to be my assistant at the lab… maybe a few days a week.”
Ethan’s tone was as close to a plea as she had ever heard.
“Of course, you would want me to work there with you. You don’t want me to do anything that you don’t control.” Amira let out a sigh. “We’re past the point of discussing any of this.”
A tear rolled down his cheek.
“Crying, Ethan,” Amira said. “Does your desire to manipulate have no limit? Will you give me the box of food so we can go?”