Friends and Strangers by J. Courtney Sullivan

Author:J. Courtney Sullivan [Sullivan, J. Courtney]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2020-06-29T00:00:00+00:00

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As a rule, Elisabeth and Andrew kept images of Gil off the Internet, for reasons of privacy and pedophiles and other dangers they didn’t know about but knew enough to fear. Faye had never understood this. Andrew had to threaten not to send her any photos if she shared even one on social media.

But the photo of Gil in the Santa hat was so irresistibly cute. The day after the art show, unable to help herself, Elisabeth posted it to Facebook.

Soon after, her mother posted the same shot to her own page, with the words Best Christmas present this family ever got! As if she’d been there when the picture was taken, or had anything whatsoever to do with it, when she had not yet met her grandchild and he was seven months old.

Two days later, she announced over email that she was going to Aspen alone for the holidays.

Festive! Elisabeth wrote back. Have fun.

Within twenty minutes, her father called and asked if he could come spend Christmas with them at the new house. Her parents no longer spoke to each other, but they remained in a mind-meld. They often asked her the same question at the same moment over text, or emailed the same video clip from the previous night’s episode of 60 Minutes.

Elisabeth told her father yes, though she had been planning to avoid her family. They did not normally get together for the holidays. They lived across the country, which provided an excellent excuse. Before she got married, Elisabeth spent Thanksgiving and Christmas in the city, with friends. Half the people she knew there might as well have been orphans. But she suspected that marriage and children would draw her parents back to her. Which was one reason why neither had ever appealed much.

“We can’t wait to see the baby,” her father said before they hung up the phone.

“We?”

“Me and Gloria.”

“Why is she coming? Not that she isn’t welcome. But—doesn’t she want to spend Christmas with her own kids?”

“Not particularly.”

A week passed. Her mother wrote to say she was having second thoughts about Aspen.

It’s time for me to meet my grandson already.

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