Every Happy Family Read Free Page B

Jill.
    â€œHe did.”
    â€œHe sounds too good to be true.”
    â€œHe is a good man, Jilli.”
    Jill stops. That’s the line she used whenever Jill was angry at her failure of a father and feeling, somehow, that her mother was to blame.
    â€œAnd I need to go, it’s tea time.”
    Nancy has never been the one to terminate their Sunday call. “At eight in the morning?”
    Nancy doesn’t respond.
    â€œOkay, Mom.”
    â€œBye, Jillian.” Nancy hangs up with a noisy clatter and Jill can’t help feeling jealous. Who is this guy stealing her mother’s attention?
    She hears Beau’s lead-footed trek from bedroom to bathroom and recalls the word he came up with at last night’s dinner when she brought up Grammy’s new housemate: “Geriaction.”

    â€¢â€¢â€¢

    Jill sits at the kitchen table with her coffee and computer determined, after she calls her mom, to buckle down and work on her paper. Movement in the yard makes her look up to see the ducks pecking at the grass, as if drinking the previous night’s rain. This morning feels like peace, she thinks, after last night’s loud, giddy sleepover. Four grade nine girls, glitter in their teased-up hair, trying to master the choreography off some misogynist rap video. Clumsy and innocent on the one hand, on the other, their sexy moves to words like ‘bitch slap’ were disturbing. At one point Pema dragged Beau in to watch. It’s like feminism never happened. She gave them a quick lecture on the power of language, which effectively shut it down, though that wasn’t her objective. Awareness was her objective.
    She calls her mother’s number.
    â€œHello?”
    â€œMom, hi. How are you?”
    â€œOh, it’s you Jillian.”
    And she was expecting? “What’s new?”
    â€œWell, lots, if you must know.”
    What, is she prying now?
    â€œBut first, how are you and everyone there?”
    â€œThat stomach flu’s gone.”
    â€œGinger tea.”
    â€œYes. That helped,” she lies.
    â€œAnd?”
    â€œYour contrary grandson, Beau, is playing rugby despite the doctor’s orders and won’t listen to me. Has a lot of pride, that kid.”
    â€œA lot of pride.”
    â€œOh and Pema” – she lowers her voice – “had her period.”
    â€œHad what?”
    â€œHer period. Finally.” The oldest in her group of friends because she refused to start school without Beau, Pema was, nevertheless, the last to have her period. “I think she’s happy. Played it cool though. I tried to research Tibetan traditions around first menstruation but came up empty and took her out for high tea at the Empress, invited Auntie Annie along.” Annie was invited because Jill finds herself uneasy when alone with Pema, their conversation a little forced. “So it was just us girls. We even got dressed up. That was Annie’s idea. The tea is something Pema always wanted to do and, though it’s overpriced, I wanted things to be celebratory. Undermine any notions of it being a curse.” Afterwards, Jill had considered telling Pema about the letter, had even brought it with her in the car, but then decided it would be mixing messages. “We had a good time.”
    â€œThat’s nice, dear,” says Nancy flatly, and Jill wonders if she’s offended her. Nancy had been morose when Jill hit puberty. It was just a matter of time, she’d said, and then she gave instructions on how to hide all evidence from her father and brother.
    â€œSo was John able to open those pictures I emailed?”
    â€œPictures?”
    â€œOf Quinn and his girlfriend? New Year’s grad.”
    â€œYes, yes. Very nice. Quinn looks very handsome and also his girl.”
    â€œLauren.”
    â€œLauren.”
    â€œI’ve always liked that name. It has a tough elegance. You liked his pink tie?”
    â€œI liked