Red Rain

25

“When will Mom be back?” Elena lifted the whole toaster waffle to her mouth and bit off an end.

Mark took a long sip of coffee from the white mug in his hand. “She just left an hour ago. She was taking the first jitney. You already want her back?”

Elena gave him the eye-roll. “Just asking, that’s all.”

“She has meetings today. She’s staying with her sister in the Village tonight. She’ll be back sometime tomorrow afternoon. Okay?”

“Okay. Why are you such a grouch?”

“Sorry. Just tense, I guess. I didn’t want her to go. She seems so shaky. She can’t seem to leave that damned island behind her.”

“Da-ad. Language.” Elena motioned toward the twins having their breakfast at the table.

“Maybe some meetings in the city will do her good. Give her something else to think about,” Roz chimed in from the other end of the table, Axl on her lap with an egg-stained face.

Elena swallowed a chunk of waffle. “Does Mom’s cell work? I need to talk to her. You’re being totally stupid and unfair.”

Mark shrugged. “Yes. Everyone tells me I’m stupid. And unfair.”

Across from Elena, Samuel and Daniel giggled. Daniel leaned toward Axl. “How’s my monkey boy?”

Axl stuck his tongue out, pleased with the attention. But Roz snapped at Daniel, “I wish you wouldn’t call him that.”

“He likes it.”

“I’m fourteen,” Elena told Mark, dropping the waffle onto the plate. “All my friends go into the city on their own.”

Mark sighed. He spun the coffee mug between his hands. The cuckoo clock above the sink chirped eight times. They were going to be late.

“You know my feeling on this. Why bring it up now?”

Elena’s dark eyebrows formed arched Vs over her eyes, the sign that she was angry. “You’re a total phony, Dad.”

The twins giggled again. That made Axl giggle, too. Roz tried to wipe the caked egg off his cheeks with a paper napkin. Ira kept his head down, concentrating on his Cheerios, keeping out of it.

“Me? A phony?”

“You wrote a book saying parents should let their kids do what they want. But you-”

“That didn’t include letting a bunch of fourteen-year-old girls go traipsing around New York City with no plan or idea of what they’re going to do.”

Elena balled her hands into fists and let out an angry growl. “We. . don’t. . traipse.” Said through gritted teeth.

“Let’s table this for later. We’re going to be late.” He balled up his paper napkin and threw it onto the table. “And stop tossing my book back at me. I know you haven’t read it. The book is a piece of research. It doesn’t mean I can’t make decisions as your father.”

“Phony, Dad.” The eye-roll again. “You’re a phony and a grouch.”

Mark watched the twins gobble down the last syrupy pieces of their toaster waffles. “How are you boys doing in the guesthouse? You like it back there?” He had to change the subject.

“We love it,” Samuel said. “Our own house. We never had our own house.”

“Our house was always crowded with a lot of strangers, don’t you know,” Daniel added.

“Really? Well, it was nice of Roz to give up her place for you, wasn’t it?”

“Mark, they’ve already thanked me a hundred times,” Roz said, obviously pleased. “And they were so sweet. They both helped me carry my stuff up to the attic. They’re very hard workers.”

Grinning, the twins raised their skinny arms, doing muscle poses, showing off nonexistent biceps.

“Well, I didn’t think it was a good idea,” Mark said. “But I’m glad if it works out. Your own secret hideout.” He glanced at the wall clock. “Come on, guys. Get your backpacks. I’m driving today because Mrs. Maloney wants to meet the twins. Tomorrow you go back to the school bus.”

Ira groaned. “I hate the bus. I get bus sick every day.”

“Get over it,” Elena said helpfully. She bumped him from behind. They bumped each other up the stairs to get their backpacks.

Roz stretched and smiled. “It’s going to be so quiet here in just a few seconds.” That was Axl’s cue to start crying. “What are you doing today?” she asked Mark.

“Autumn and I are going over some foreign contracts and some mail. Then I have a meeting. A guy from the Blakeman Institute is coming here at four.”

“Weird. He’s coming all the way out to Sag Harbor? Is he bringing you a fat check?”

Mark laughed. “You and my wife are a lot alike. She asked the same question.”

“Well?”

“I hope so. I’m counting on this grant. I won’t get any book royalties for another five months.”

“YAAAAAY.” The twins came bursting into the kitchen with their brand-new blue canvas backpacks bouncing on their backs.

“Let’s go, guys!” Mark said. “The principal wants to meet you two.”

“Rule the school!” Daniel cried, pumping a fist above his head. “We’re going to rule the school!”

“Rule the school! Rule the school!”

Mrs. Maloney was a solid woman, with short salt-and-pepper hair over a square, no-nonsense face. She wore no makeup. Her green-gray eyes were the most colorful parts of her face. They radiated humor and intelligence and were enough to make people find her attractive.

Her silky tan blouse pulled tightly over her bulge of a stomach, and even from the other side of her cluttered desk, Mark could see that she was straining her stretch-type brown pants. A tube of Pringles and a can of Pepsi on the edge of the desk revealed that she didn’t care much about her weight.

She greeted the twins warmly as Mark ushered them into her small office. Daniel took the chair beside the desk. Samuel sat across from the desk. Mark watched from the doorway.

The principal showed them she already knew how to tell one from the other (thanks to a previous visit from Lea). And she gave them school maps and copies of last year’s yearbook, which the twins seemed quite pleased with.

Mark knew quite a lot about Mrs. Maloney. She had first been principal at the Sag Harbor elementary school next door before moving to the middle school last year.

Sag Harbor had a large Irish community. They were the carpenters and landscapers and housekeepers, waitresses and pub owners.

Some said they came here because the weather so near the ocean was close to the weather in Ireland. But more likely, they came because they had relatives here. Mrs. Maloney and her husband had emigrated nearly twenty years ago from a town named Wicklow when they couldn’t find teaching jobs in the local schools.

She still had her Irish accent, which made her sound as if she were singing instead of talking, and added to her warmth. She joked with the twins, and they seemed delighted with her.

“There’s less than two months left of school, lads,” she told them, turning serious. “But it should be enough time for you to learn your way around and make some new friends.”

“We want to rule the school!” Daniel cried suddenly. That startled her into a laugh.

“Rule the school!” Samuel repeated, as if it was a chant.

“I like that,” Mrs. Maloney said, gray eyes flashing. “Miss Montgomery will like that, too.” Then she added, “She’s your teacher. Normally, I would split you two up. But since it’s so late in the school year. .”

She raised her eyes to Mark, who was still leaning in the doorway. “I know we don’t have any school records for these boys. Is there any chance of locating them?”

Mark frowned. “We’re trying. But we haven’t been able to find any records for them. No birth certificate. No family ID or anything. It’s such chaos down there.”

Mrs. Maloney tsk-tsked, shaking her head.

“The records were all blown away or underwater,” Mark continued. “But we have someone looking for us. A woman Lea met down there named Martha Swann is trying to find whatever she can find.”

She nodded, then glanced at the wall clock above Mark’s head. “I guess that does it. Welcome to Sag Harbor, boys. We’re very happy to have you. Mark, will you help them find room 204? It’s the second door upstairs.”

“No problem,” Mark said.

Mrs. Maloney was fumbling her hand over her desktop. She raised her eyes to him. “Did you see my watch? I’m pretty sure I had it right here on the desk.”

Mark shook his head. “Sorry. I didn’t see it.”

She peered under the desk. Pulled open the middle drawer and gazed inside. Then moved a stack of papers. “That’s odd. Did you boys see a silver watch here on the desk?”

“No, mum,” Daniel answered, eyes lowered to the desktop. “I didn’t see it.”

“I didn’t see it, either, mum. Can we go to class now?” Samuel said.