Part 11 (1/2)

To hear her, you would think that she herself had been there for Jin-Ho's sake. Dave all but forgot that she hadn't even known them back then.

Susan said, Our plane was late? She edged in between Jin-Ho and Maryam. I didn't know our plane was late! Did you? she asked Jin-Ho.

Jin-Ho just shrugged and gazed elsewhere. (There were times when Dave wondered if she would prefer not to be reminded of Arrival Day.) They never did announce it, Maryam went on. But a moment came when we understood that something must be happening. They opened the door to the jetway; all of us gathered around ...

Brad and several others, meanwhile, were building a mountain of luggage next to the carousel even more luggage than he and Bitsy had left with. Finally Brad stepped back and started reading aloud from a list. Duffel bag: check. Garment bag: check. Red suitcase, blue suitcase, smaller blue suitcase . . . Bitsy had reclaimed Xiu-Mei and was traveling through the crowd inviting all the welcomers to return with them to the house. Lord only knows what it looks like. Remember I haven't been there myself for the past three weeks, she said (slightly offending Dave, who had cleaned the place top to bottom just that morning). But we'd love to see you, all of you, and Jeannine is bringing refreshments, bless her heart. A flush had risen in her neck always a sign of excitement, with Bitsy and she looked gawky and fervent. Dave felt a stab of love mixed with pity; he couldn't have said quite why.

Well, I'm an old fool, Lou was saying cheerfully. I poked my mike at somebody who turned out to be a stranger. I took him for one of the neighbors or some such. But he was mighty nice about it. Said, 'Regretfully, I don't have the pleasure of knowing these people but I certainly wish them the best and I think they're very lucky to have such a beautiful baby.' Of course I could always erase him, but I'm thinking I might leave him in.

Definitely leave him in! Bitsy said. Is he still here? We should invite him back to the house! She hoisted Xiu-Mei higher on her shoulder and turned to Dave. Dad, will you be riding with us? Can you fit between the two car seats?

I don't see as I'll need to try, he told her. I'll just hitch a ride with...

He turned to look for Abe or Mac and found himself face-to-face with Maryam. She said, Certainly. I can take you.

Before he could explain, Bitsy said, Great! Thanks, Maryam. And thanks for coming to welcome Xiu-Mei.

I wouldn't have missed it, Maryam said, but in that idle, floating tone that always made Dave wonder if something had struck her as humorous.

Everyone headed for the parking lot carrying pieces of luggage, Dave in front so he could show where he'd left the car. Jin-Ho protested when he tried to stash her present in the trunk. I have to give that to Xiu-Mei! she said. She can open it while we're riding.

Okay, sweetheart, he said. See you in a few minutes.

He handed Brad the keys and then set off with Maryam to where she had parked her own car, one more level up. The garage felt colder than outside, bone-chillingly cold, and both of them walked quickly, the sound of their footsteps almost metallic against the concrete floor.

Isn't it odd, Maryam said. Just like that, a completely unknown person is a part of their family forever. Well, of course that's true of a birth child, too, but ... I don't know, this seems more astonis.h.i.+ng.

To me, both are astonis.h.i.+ng, Dave said. I remember before Bitsy was born, I used to worry she might not be compatible with the two of us. I told Connie, 'Look at how long we took deciding whom we'd marry, but this baby's waltzing in out of nowhere, not so much as a background check or a personality quiz. What if it turns out we don't have any shared interests?'

Maryam laughed and wrapped her coat more closely around her.

They didn't speak again until they were in her car, merging onto the highway with the ticket booth behind them. Then Dave said, How about Sami and Ziba? Think they'll adopt another?

I suspect they feel that one child is all they can afford, Maryam told him. What with the cost of private schools these days.

They don't believe in supporting public education?

She sent him a sideways glance but said nothing; merely drove for several minutes in silence. Her profile, edged in silver by the pa.s.sing headlights, seemed icy and austere, the long slant of her nose impossibly straight.

Although I guess that's a very personal decision, he said finally. She said, Yes.

He felt a surge of rebelliousness. What right did this woman have to act so superior? He said, You know, it wouldn't do you any harm to indulge in a little to-and-fro discussion.

She sent him an even briefer glance and went back to watching the road.

You could tell me, for instance, that the Baltimore public schools are abysmal. I could say, well, yes, but if the parents got involved I still had some hope we could change things. Then you could say you didn't want to sacrifice your granddaughter's future for a mere hope. I could handle that! I wouldn't fall apart!

Still she didn't speak, but she seemed to be fighting back a smile.

You act as if you think you're so right that you don't need to bother arguing, he said.

She said, I do? and now she gave him a full-on stare of surprise.

It's as if you think, Oh, these cloddish Americans, what do they know about anything?

I don't think any such thing!

It's harder than you realize, being American, he told her. Don't suppose we aren't aware how we appear to the rest of the world. Times I used to travel abroad, I'd see those tour groups of my countrymen and flinch, even though I knew I looked pretty much the same. That's the h.e.l.l of it: we're all lumped in together. We're all on this same big s.h.i.+p, so to speak, and wherever the s.h.i.+p goes I have to go, even if it's behaving like some ... grade-school bully. It's not as if I can just jump overboard, you know!

Whereas we Iranians, on the other hand, Maryam said wryly, are invariably perceived as our unique and separate selves.

He said, Well. He felt slightly foolish. He knew he had overreacted.

Did you see how people edged away from Sami and Ziba and me at the airport tonight? No, probably you didn't. You wouldn't even have noticed. But that's what it's been like ever since September eleventh. Oh, she said, sometimes I get so tired of being foreign I want to lie down and die. It's a lot of work, being foreign.

Work?

A lot of work and effort, and still we never quite manage to fit in. Susan said this past Christmas, she rode home with me after school one day and she said, 'I wish we could celebrate Christmas the way other people do. I don't like being different,' she said. It broke my heart to hear that.

Well ... , Dave said. He spoke cautiously, not wanting to call forth another of Maryam's looks. Um, maybe you could let her have a little tiny Christmas tree. Would that be a problem?

She did have a tree, Maryam said. They were entering the city now and she glanced into her side-view mirror, checking for a chance to switch lanes. She had a huge tree. That much we could do for her.

Then ... I don't know, decorations? A wreath, a string of lights?

Of course. Also mistletoe.

Ah. And ... would it go against your beliefs to give her a few small presents?

She received dozens of presents. And gave them.

She did, he said. He was quiet for a moment. A stocking, maybe, he said at last. Did she hang a stocking?

Oh, yes.

And how about the caroling? I mean, not the more religious carols, of course, but maybe 'Jingle Bells' and 'Good King Wenceslas,' and, let's see, 'I Saw Three s.h.i.+ps ...'

She went caroling with the next-door neighbors. They walked up and down her street singing every single carol there is, baby Jesus and all.

Well, then, he said. I'm not quite sure But in the car that day she told me, 'It's not the same. It doesn't feel the same. It's not like a real Christmas.'

He started laughing.

Oh, for goodness' sake, he said. You're talking about every child in this country!

She braked for a light and looked over at him.

He said, You don't think that's what all of them say? They say, 'Other families celebrate better; on TV it seems much better; in my mind it was going to be better.' That's just Christmas! That's how it works! They have these idealized expectations.

She did seem to get his point, he saw. Something seemed to clear in her forehead.