“This is Mandy,” Cutty said, pointing to the baby on the right. “And this is Mel—short for Melanie. About the only way any of us can tell them apart is that Mel has that tiny mole above her left eye. We’re hoping Mandy doesn’t get one like it or we’ll have to go back to guessing which of them is which.”
Fighting the tears because she was afraid Cutty and Betty would think she was crazy if they saw them and because she didn’t want to alarm the babies, Kira went to the table and leaned across it.
“Hi, Mandy. Hi, Mel.”
They were doing more playing with their oatmeal than eating it—Mel had a handful she was squishing through her fingers and Mandy was taking spoonfuls and placing them meticulously on the tray around the bowl—but they finally looked up from what they were doing.
Kira didn’t know what she’d expected, but it wasn’t what she got. Mel immediately held out her arms to Betty as if to save her from Kira, and Mandy’s adorable little face screwed up into a look of great alarm before she let out a wail.
That made Kira really want to cry.
“Oh, no, it’s all right. I’m your aunt,” she said as if that would make any difference.
It didn’t.
Betty hurried to the high chairs, standing behind them and wrapping a comforting arm around each of the babies as she bent over between them to pull their cheeks to hers.
“Poor little dears,” she cooed to them. “They’re usually so good with strangers.”
“It’s okay, girls,” Cutty assured his daughters. “Kira’s a nice lady.”
Mandy had cut short her wail, but both babies still stared at Kira as if she were some kind of alien life-form.
“Just give them a little time. They’ll warm up to you,” Betty said.
“Sure they will,” Cutty chimed in.
It didn’t make Kira feel any better.
And it wasn’t much help when Cutty said, “Betty, why don’t you show Kira the ropes around here so the girls will eat?”
Kira didn’t think it was a good sign that she had to be removed from her nieces’ sight in order for them to relax enough to have their breakfast. But there was nothing she could do except comply and hope the twins would warm up to her. Eventually.
Disheartened, Kira followed Betty out of the kitchen.
“Really, they’ll be okay after a while,” the older woman said confidently.
“I hope you’re right.”
That seemed to put an end to the subject then, because Betty said, “Let’s start in the nursery,” and led Kira down the hallway that ran alongside the staircase and up the steps.
The second floor of the house was as much of a disaster as the first. On the way to the nursery Betty picked up a few things, but it didn’t make a dent in the mess.
The nursery itself was painted white and trimmed in mauve, with one wall papered in a print where cartoonish jungle animals all played happily in a rain forest.
There were two cribs, two dressers, two toy boxes, but only one changing table.
“That’s Mel’s bed. That’s Mandy’s,” Betty began, pointing out which was which. “But sometimes if one or the other of the girls is fussy they sleep better if you put them in the same crib.”
The older woman crossed to Mandy’s bed and began to strip off the sheet. “I probably have enough time to help you with these beds. Marla always changed the bedding every day. I’ve tried to go on doing things like she did because I know that’s what she would have wanted.”
There was a strong message implied that Kira should do things as Marla would have wanted, too.
Kira went to the other crib and began to strip the sheet from it. “You must have known Marla well.”
“Northbridge is a small town—everyone knows everyone well. And then I helped out three days a week after the twins were born so I got to know her even better. Not that Marla really needed any help, because believe you me, she didn’t. It was Cutty who brought me in but I mostly just fed the babies bottles and tried to play with Anthony while Marla did the real work. She was just a marvel as a mother and housekeeper. Actually I can’t think of anything she wasn’t a marvel at.”
Unlike her younger sister, Kira thought, as she lost her grip on the crib sheet three times before she finally succeeded in getting it stretched over all four corners of the mattress.
But at least the other woman didn’t notice. Betty just continued talking. “You should have seen Marla with Anthony. He was a sweet boy but he was a handful. It never fazed your sister, though. She was devoted to him. She was like a saint, that girl.”
Kira didn’t know what to say to that, especially since what Betty was saying was making Kira worry about how she was going to accomplish all Marla apparently had.
Betty then hurried out of the room with the sheets in her arms, saying as she did, “You can do the rest of the room later. In the meantime we can put these sheets right into the washer. Marla always did at least one load of laundry a day, and I’m sure you’ll want to, too.”
Kira watched the plump older lady stuff the sheets into the washing machine in the closetlike space that opened off the hall, hoping it and the dryer operated the same way the machines in her apartment laundry room did so she wouldn’t have to ask for instructions.
“Cutty told me this morning that he’s not having you do anything in his room. He says he’ll take care of it himself,” Betty informed her, bypassing the closed door across the hall from the nursery and moving into the bathroom where towels, washcloths, baby clothes, tub toys and various soaps, shampoos and lotions littered the space. There was also a ring around the tub and stains all over the sink and countertop.
“Baths everyday,” Betty instructed. “In the evenings before bed. That was how Marla did it. And she would never have left the bathtub dirty. Or a speck of dust anywhere or the floors unvacuumed or—well, or anything less than immaculate. I’m telling you, she was amazing.”
“She always was,” Kira said, trying to do a little in the way of straightening up the bathroom.
“Oh, honey, no. Marla kept that soap dispenser on the right side of the sink and that’s where it belongs.”
Kira put the pump bottle where she’d been told to.
Betty adjusted it to just the right spot, explaining as she did, “Marla liked everything exactly so. But I don’t have much time, and you can get this done later. Let’s go back downstairs so I can show you a few things there.”
The older woman led the way out of the bathroom and Kira followed.
There was another closed door on the other side of the bathroom and Betty nodded in that direction as they went by it.
“That was Anthony’s room,” she whispered as if it were a secret. “There’s nothing in there. Even when Anthony was here he could only have a mattress on the floor, and at the start of the summer Cutty finally got rid of it. He gave away his own bed and bedroom furniture, too. It was a clean sweep. He bought all new things for himself, but of course there was no reason to get anything for Anthony’s old room. Besides, there’s work that needs to be done in there and until it is… Well, no sense furnishing it.”
Kira glanced in the direction of the closed door, curious about what kind of work the room needed and why. But she didn’t feel comfortable asking so she merely followed Betty down the stairs as the woman continued her nonstop chatter.
“It was good for Cutty to make some changes, though. We all thought it meant he was ready to get on with his life, and we were glad to see it. For his