Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Chapter Twelve: Additions

Compass sat at the kitchen table, chin resting on folded arms, staring down a fat pile of student compositions. She had engaged in every procrastination ritual she had: the bed was made, dishes washed, floors vacuumed, news headlines skimmed, even the cat boxes had been emptied and refilled. That’s how much she didn’t want to correct and grade those papers. She’d rather scoop turds. Compass sighed and laid her head down on her arms. Without looking, she wearily reached up and pulled the top paper from the pile.

In addition to her ESL classes, Compass also taught Composition. It was this class whose papers she was currently confronting.

“Why Hair Extensions are Cheeting,” was the title of the paper in her hand. Compass groaned. When the phone rang, loud enough to almost make her cats react, Compass was so happy she could have hugged it.

“Willy, dear, were you planning to call us sometime? It’s just that we were planning a trip for, say, summer 2009, and we wouldn’t want to miss your call.” It was a woman’s voice – older, unfamiliar, but not entirely.

“I’m sorry, uh, ‘Willy’ isn’t here. You do mean Wilhelmina, right?”

“Very amusing, dear. Didn’t we play this game last time? I didn’t fall for it then, I’m not likely to fall for it now.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t know what you mean.”

“Yes, of course. Look, Willy, I may be old, but I’m not deaf. I know your voice when I hear it, despite your feeble attempts to disguise it. At least you’ve dropped that awful French accent this time.”

“Listen, lady-”

“No, you listen to me! All that ‘foody oo je suis une foofoo lollerol’ nonsense is ridiculous. You must think I’m senile.” The old broad was a steamroller, and this was clearly a conversational track she knew well and relished. “I don’t mind if you’re only willing to talk to me seven minutes out of the year, but I don’t appreciate being treated like a fool. So can we just stop this now and have an actual conversation?”

There was a sudden gap, so unexpected that Compass didn’t realize at first that she was expected to fill it.

“Uh. Oh. OK, fine by me. But this really isn’t Mina.”

And the old lady was off again. “Not ‘Mina’ indeed. That’s right, dear, I’m just a crazy old bat with her glasses on sideways and oatmeal dribbling down her chin; I can be fooled by the simplist of tricks. In fact, I bet if you put the phone in the aquarium, I’d be perfectly happy burbling to your fish.” This went on at some length, but the old lady was funny, so Compass sat back and enjoyed it. She could always hang up if she got bored, and her mother would get the blame, and this was waaaaaaay better than grading papers.

“It’s one thing, you just playing these games with me, but you know your father isn’t well-”

Wait. What? “Wait. What?”

“I told you about the kidney stones, and now his doctor’s going on about hip-”

“Father? Mina has a father?”

There was a fairly sizeable gap in conversation as both parties re-evaluated.

“Who is this?”

“This is Mina’s daughter. Who’s this?”

“Virginia. Willy’s mother. She has a daughter?”

“She has a mother?!”

“Well, heavens, child, did you think she hatched from an egg?”

“She told me you were dead.”

“Wishful thinking. She never told us you were alive.”

“Where are you?” They both spoke at once, then laughed. Anyone hearing those almost-identical laughs would have pegged them immediately for family.

“I’m in Seattle.”

“We’re down on Harstine Island. Just a couple of hours’ drive away. Fancy that. How old are you, dear? Ten? Eleven? Older?”

“I’m 39.”

A brief pause, then Mina’s mother erupted into laughter. “My god, but that girl can keep a secret!”

“Yes, she can,” said Compass. “Yes, she can.”

“You must come visit Arthur and me. Or we can meet you halfway, you could take the ferry to Bremerton, and we could meet you there. Do you have kids? My goodness, do we have great-grandchildren? Arthur!” The last came out as a shriek.

Suddenly Compass was crying. Big, gaspy, empty-lunged, full-hearted sobs with fat tears that soaked the front of her shirt.

“Oh, my. Oh, dear, sweetheart, you needn’t come right away or at all if you don’t want to. Oh, I didn’t mean to overwhelm you; Arthur says I could make a deaf man jump off a bridge when I get going. It’s just, this is all so . . . well, I guess I don’t need to tell you what it is, you’re right here, after all. And, oh, honey, don’t cry. Arthur!”

There was a click as someone picked up an extension.

“You hollered?” He had a deep, hoarse, rather frail-sounding man’s voice. The voice of a grandfather. Compass wept even harder.

“Oh, my my my. Another telemarketer, reduced to putty. What do you say to them, Gin?”

“That’s not a telemarketer. Honey, tell him who you are.”

But Compass couldn’t. She could only gasp and wheeze and sniffle her way around all this, and now she had the hiccups from crying so hard.

“Is this a person or a warthog? All I hear is snurfling. You hauled me away from a Fawlty Towers marathon on PBS to listen to something rooting in the underbrush?”

Arthur and Ginny bickered on for a bit, until finally it got so ludicrous – them quibbling and her snorfling and bawling – that Compass started to laugh. A few seconds later, they were all laughing. It was the sloppiest conversation Compass had ever tried to have, and it took several minutes for them all to get themselves back under control.

Finally, Arthur asked again, not unkindly, “Now, who are you?”

Compass was almost afraid to answer, afraid to mortally shock this grandfather and lose him when she’d only just found him. She was framing an answer that was subtle yet informative when Ginny cut her off.

“It’s our granddaughter! Canyoubelieveit?!”Ginny was excited bordering on hysterical, and Compass held her breath.

“Well, now. Fancy that. Hello, granddaughter.” His voice was firm, solid. Warm.

“Hello, grandfather.” Her eyes filled up again. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“What’s your name, dear?” The excitement of a new baby in the family was finally wearing off and the business of filling in the 39 years since the birth was beginning.

“Compass. Jones. Compass Jones. You’re my mother’s parents, right?”

“That’s right,” said Ginny. “That’s an unusual name.”

“A good tool for someone who’s lost,” said Arthur, chuckling. “No pressure.”

Compass laughed out loud. “No, indeed. I think she gave up on looking to me for direction a long time ago.”

“I have so many questions for you! What do you like to eat? Are you married? Are you happy? When’s your birthday? Goodness, think of the backlog of birthday and Christmas presents we owe you!”

They chatted for a long time, the three of them, discovering a mutual affinity for cats and dogs, a unanimous dislike of squash, asparagus and religious zealots, and a shared allergy – between Compass and her grandfather – to penicillin. They fought with great passion and zeal over the edibility of mushrooms, spinach and Indian food, settled once and for all the Coke-vs.-Pepsi debate (though both Compass and her grandmother would opt for a diet Dr.Pepper over a cola any day), determined Compass’ favorite foods, colors, architectural styles, authors, time-wasting activities and position on children, the having of. Finally, they set a date to meet in person, at a restaurant near the Bremerton ferry dock.

At the end of the conversation, as all of them were feeling tapped out and exhausted, Compass asked if she could have two more answers.

“Of course, dear,” said Ginny.

“One, do you know of any connection between my mother and dragonflies, and two, do you have any idea who my real dad might be?”

There hadn’t been a gap in conversation for several hours now, but this one was so long and so enormous, Compass felt she might have lost her brand-new grandparents in it.

“There’s so much there to tell, granddaughter,” said Arthur. “Can you wait until we can tell it in person?”

“We don’t want to add any more mystery,” said Ginny, adding exponentially to the mystery. “We’ll tell you all we can when we see you. It’s just better that we see you.”

They said their good-byes shortly thereafter, and despite the awkwardness there at the end, Compass could hear the expectation of love in all their voices.

15 comments:

NuclearToast said...

Just how many chapters will this "novel in progress" possibly be? I have to plan ahead, steel myself for the inevitable surprise in every chapter, balancing with the hope of possibly finding out what's really going on at some point.

Another great chapter!

Ash said...

What a great surprise to find another chapter! And such a great one no less! I love it!

LOL on these parts:
"Well, heavens, child, did you think she hatched from an egg?"
"Arthur says I could make a deaf man jump off a bridge when I get going."
"Oh, my my my. Another telemarketer, reduced to putty. What do you say to them, Gin?"
"Is this a person or a warthog? All I hear is snurfling."

DK said...

The mystery deepens... good stuff.

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