THE CALVERTS
Chapter Eight
As the months
passed, things began to improve for the Calverts. Rose’s insistence that she
was John’s cousin, combined with her story about being widowed on the Titanic,
quieted many of the gossips. Both John and Rose had agreed on a story to
explain the situation, and they followed this course of action unswervingly. A
few people still whispered, but most believed them.
John discreetly
watched out for Rose as time passed and her pregnancy became visible. She
continued to work as she had before, eschewing the idea that a pregnant woman
needed extra rest, even if nothing was wrong, and going out in public without a
qualm. Amongst members of the upper class, pregnant woman were often kept
hidden away, as though pregnancy were something to be ashamed of, but in the
immigrant neighborhood in which they lived, few women had the luxury of
confining themselves. There were children to be cared for and jobs to work,
though many women gave up working, either temporarily or permanently, when they
had children. In a place where day-to-day life was often a struggle, it was
rare that a healthy woman would give up the workings of daily life simply
because she was in the family way.
As John watched
Rose’s figure blossom, he couldn’t help but wonder what Miriam’s child would have
looked like, had she and the child lived. The baby would have been born in
November, he knew, and he couldn’t help but think about what might have been.
Would the baby have looked like him, with his brown hair, or like Miriam, pale
and blonde? Would it have been a boy or a girl? He knew that Miriam might well
have lost the child, even if she had lived, but it didn’t stop him from
thinking about it.
In spite of, or
perhaps because of these memories, he found himself being protective of Rose
and her coming child. She had become a substitute mother for the two girls, and
the toddlers looked at her growing middle with interest, delighted when she let
them feel the baby kicking. Rose made no attempt to explain how the baby had
gotten inside her, though Mary asked both adults how it had happened, and when
they promised to tell her when she was older, wanted to know if she could have
a baby herself. Rose assured her that only grown-up ladies could have babies,
and that she would have to wait until she was grown and married before she
could have one. Mary sulked for a while at this idea--she liked babies--then
forgot about it.
The most remarkable
change, however, was in Nadia. Slowly but surely, she had been coming out from
behind the wall she had built around herself after the Titanic disaster, eating
better, playing with Mary instead of just clinging, and sometimes even playing
with the other children at the park Rose often took them to. Nevertheless, she
still didn’t speak, though she showed signs of beginning to understand the
English that was spoken to her and it wasn’t until late in November that she
began to speak aloud to anyone but Allegro.
*****
It was Thanksgiving
Day, and Rose was working to prepare a modest Thanksgiving dinner. She had
insisted that if the Calvert family was going to be American, they needed to
celebrate the American holidays, and had arranged for Thanksgiving to be
celebrated with two other families in the building. One family had been in the
United States for ten years, while the other had arrived that past summer. Rose
considered herself an expert on Thanksgiving, having been born and raised an
American, so she had organized the gathering.
The three families
had split the cost of a turkey, and Rose had asked around until she found recipes
for the dishes she remembered from her childhood. Rose herself was preparing
the simpler dishes, since she was still learning how to cook, and the women in
the other families were cooking the turkey, stuffing, and desserts. Between the
three households, there would be nineteen people, more than enough for a
traditional family gathering, even if they came from several different
families.
As Rose was slicing
up the turnips, she noticed the two small children wandering into the cooking
area and crawling under the table. They often liked to play house there, with
the chairs pushed out to make room, and Rose preferred that they play there
while she was cooking, rather than closer to her. Nadia usually sat quietly if
Rose told her to, but Mary was far more rambunctious, and would try to run and
play near to the hot stove, or play with knives or matches, or try to snatch
bits of food. Rose had yelled at her repeatedly for this, but it never seemed
to help for long. Mary had ceased trying to grab things off the stove, however,
when she had burned herself, and Rose couldn’t help but think that maybe she
should allow Mary to do as she pleased, and learn from the consequences.
Today, however,
Mary and Nadia were content to play under the table. They each had a rag doll
that Rose had made for them out of scraps of fabric left over from the couple
of maternity dresses she had made for herself, and they sat on the floor,
rocking the dolls as they had seen mothers do with their babies, occasionally
peeking out at Rose. Allegro gave up begging Rose for scraps and crawled under
the table with them.
Mary petted the
dog, laying down and putting her head on the animal’s side. Allegro licked her,
then curled up, groaning softly to himself as Mary squeezed him around the
middle. Nadia continued playing with her doll.
After a while, Mary
dozed off on the floor, her head pillowed on her doll. Rose glanced at the
clock, and realized that it was time for lunch and then naps. She set her
cooking aside and moved to wake Mary, but Nadia crawled out from under the
table and tugged on Rose’s skirt.
"A...An’
Wo?" she whispered.
Rose looked at her
in surprise. Nadia had never spoken to her before.
"Yes,
Nadia?" She knelt down to the little girl’s level.
"An’
Wose...me...hungy."
Rose hugged Nadia,
delighted that she was beginning to talk again. "You’re hungry,
Nadia?"
The little girl
nodded, clutching her doll to her chest.
"Well, that’s
good, because it’s time for lunch. Would you wake up Mary for me?"
Nadia nodded again,
crawling back under the table. "Ma’y, Ma’y, wake up." She shook
Mary’s foot.
Mary woke up, ready
to yell at her. "Nada!"
"An’
Wose...Ma’y wake up."
"Nada! You
talk!" Mary squealed, standing up and hitting her head on the table. She
wailed in pain.
After Rose had made
sure that Mary wasn’t really hurt, she put the two girls at the table and
brought them sandwiches and apple slices.
"Nada,
talk!" Mary kept insisting.
Finally, Nadia
turned and looked at her. "No."
Rose laughed,
almost choking on her sandwich. Nadia had just begun talking, and already she
had learned the favorite word of two-year-olds everywhere.
"Yes!"
"No no
no!"
"Mary! Nadia!
That’s enough," Rose warned them.
Mary stuffed a
slice of apple in her mouth, then reached to grab a slice from Nadia’s plate.
As she often did,
Nadia shoved Mary’s hand away, but before Rose could reprimand the child, Nadia
did it for her.
"No! Ma’y
bad!"
"You
bad!" Mary retorted. "Aunt Wosie..."
"Nadia, finish
your lunch. Mary, drink your milk. Then it’s nap time."
"No!"
both girls wailed in unison.
"Yes."
Rose began to clear away the dishes. She yawned exaggeratedly. "I’m
sleepy. We’ll all take naps." She pretended to fall asleep standing up,
making snoring sounds. The girls giggled, their protests forgotten.
*****
When John arrived
home that afternoon, the apartment was filled with the smells of food cooking.
They would carry the food over to the apartment of one of the other families,
who had slightly more space than they did.
Rose turned from
the stove to greet him. "Hello."
At that moment,
Mary, Nadia, and Allegro crawled from under the table and rushed over to him.
"Daddy!"
Mary and Nadia both ran over to him, wrapping their arms around his legs.
Allegro whirled in his canine dance of joy.
John was taken
aback for a moment. Nadia had shouted along with Mary, and they were both
calling him Daddy. He thought for a brief moment about telling Nadia to call
him Uncle John, since he claimed her as his niece, but rejected the idea. He
was raising the girls as sisters, and as such, they could both call him Daddy.
"Hello, Mary.
Hello, Nadia." He picked them both up.
"Daddy, Nada
talk!" Mary exclaimed with delight, eager to be the first to give the
news.
"Yes, she
does," John agreed, setting them down. "When did you start talking,
Nadia?"
"Around noon
today," Rose told him, walking over. "She said she was hungry."
"Did
you?" John asked Nadia.
"Uh-huh."
She smiled, showing her tiny white teeth. "Me talk...like Ma’y."
Nadia’s speech was
far from perfect, but she was speaking again, and she was rapidly picking up
the English spoken around her. Mary gave her an exuberant hug, and led her back
under the table to resume their game.
John looked at Rose
and smiled, both with happiness and relief. He had been right to keep Rose on
as the children’s caretaker, and Nadia’s newfound ability to speak was proof of
that.