Anna In-Between by Elizabeth Nunez

Author:Elizabeth Nunez [Nunez, Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, General Fiction
ISBN: 9781933354842
Publisher: Akashic Books
Published: 2009-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

Anna finds her father in the garden in the back of the house. He is examining the two orchid plants Singh has left in a corner, near the fence. He has taken off the tan slacks and blue shirt he wore for her mother’s sake when they went to the doctor’s. Now he has on shorts that end at his knees and a blue knit shirt stained with brown spots, most likely coconut juice.

“Singh brought them for Mummy last night,” Anna says, walking toward him.

“He was here?”

“He came to drop them off.”

“I guess your mother ordered them.”

“No. Singh said they are a gift. From his wife and him.”

“Oh.” Her father bends down and picks up the bundle of plants. Singh has covered the roots with burlap.

The thick dark green leaves of the orchids spread elegantly above the burlap. There are buds on the stalks that Singh has propped up with thin bamboo sticks. On one of the stalks, an orchid is flowering. The petals are bright white, rare even for the Caribbean. Her father strokes a leaf on the flowering orchid and says, his voice brimming with wonder, “He brought this? He came just to drop this off?”

“He was concerned about Mummy.”

Her father sighs. “I complain she’s bossy with Singh and Lydia, but you know, Anna, she is also kind to them.”

“I’m sure she is, Daddy.” She wants to please him. He is worried about his wife. She will not upset him. She will allow him the fantasy he seems to need.

“When Singh got married again, your mother made me give him a month’s salary as a wedding present.”

Anna is not impressed. “That was good of her.”

“Do you know Lydia has a granddaughter?”

“Yes, I know that Lydia has a granddaughter.”

“Your mother makes me pay her school fees and buy her school books.”

“Mummy?” Anna is unprepared for this new information.

“Every year, for four years now,” her father says.

“Four years?”

“Lydia’s granddaughter … What’s her name?”

“Jennifer.”

“I keep an account for her at Zanzibar Books and at that clothing store, Murray’s. She goes there and purchases what she needs. It’s put on my account.”

“Four years? Mummy’s never said a word. And Lydia …”

“Your mother has forbidden Lydia to tell anyone what she has done for her.”

“Forbidden?”

“Your mother says if she gets her reward here, she will not get it in heaven.”

Her father says this in all seriousness. There is not a hint of mockery in his tone. He converted to Catholicism for her mother. The priest had refused to marry them otherwise. There was the question about their children. The children had to be Catholic and the priest wanted more than a commitment in intentions. He would believe her father’s intentions to raise his children as Catholics if he himself became one. Her father loved her mother; he did what the priest asked.

When Anna was a child, she did not think of her father as a religious man. She does not think so now. Her mother says she saw him praying as the chemo drugs coursed through her veins.

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