Nora Jane by Ellen Gilchrist

Author:Ellen Gilchrist [GILCHRIST, ELLEN]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780316085212
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Published: 2009-09-25T16:00:00+00:00

The medic spotted the Jeep and the truck. “There they are,” he yelled at the driver. “There’re the fools. Let’s go get them.”

An hour later Freddy was on a stretcher being brought down the mountain by four men. The clearing was filled with vehicles. The brown cape was thrown into the back of an EMS van. It would end up at the city laundry. Then on the bed of a seven-year-old Mexican girl who had been taken from her mother. But that is another story.

Ten days later a party gathered at Chez Panisse to eat an early dinner and discuss the events of the past week. There were nine people gathered at Freddy Harwood’s favorite table by the window in the back room. The young man who had seen the flares, the medic, the driver, Nieman, Freddy, Nora Jane, Tammili, Lydia, and a woman biochemist who was after Nieman to marry him. Her name was Stella Light and this was the first time Nieman had taken her out among his friends. It was the first time he had taken her to Chez Panisse and the first time he had introduced her to Nora Jane and Freddy and the twins. Stella Light was dressed in her best clothes, a five-year-old gray pantsuit and a white cotton blouse. She had almost added a yellow scarf but had taken it off minutes after she put it on.

“We had this magic cape we found under the bed,” Lydia was telling her. “The minute we say something’s magic, it is magic, that’s what Uncle Nieman says. It’s probably his cape but he can’t remember it. He leaves his stuff everywhere. Did you know that? He’s absentminded because he is a genius. Do you go to school with him? Is that how you met him?”

“Well, I teach in the department. Tell me about the cape.”

“It kept us warm. Dad thinks it was synchilla. Anyway, it was raining so hard it felt like rocks were falling on us.”

“It was lightning like crazy,” Tammili added. “There was lightning so near it made halos around the trees.”

“Tammili!” Freddy shook his head.

“You don’t know. You were incoherent from pain.”

“Incoherent?” Stella laughed.

“She always talks like that,” Lydia said. “It’s Uncle Nieman. He’s been working on our vocabularies since we were born.”

“I’m having goat cheese pie and salad,” Nieman said. “I think he wants to take our orders. Menus up, ladies. Magic cape, my eye. Magic forest rangers and volunteer distress signal watchers.” He stood up and raised his glass to the medic and the driver and the young man. “To your honor, gentlemen. We salute thee.”

“To all of us,” Freddy added, raising his glass with his good hand. “My saviors, my family, my friends.”

Nieman caught Stella’s eye as they drank. A long sweet look that was not lost on Tammili and Lydia. We could be the bridesmaids, Lydia decided. We never get to be in weddings. None of Mom and Dad’s friends ever get married. Pretty soon we’ll be too old to be bridesmaids.

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