The Neallys

Suzanne: A Drive in the Country and Meeting Eileen

Suzanne: A Drive in the Country and Meeting EileenOn the first Saturday in November, Annie and I picked up the car and drove to Beacon, one of those Brooklyn-on-the-Hudson towns you read about in The Times. And we had fun wandering about.

While we sat at an outdoor table finishing our lunches—salad for Annie, a burger for me—Kerry texted:

{Kerry: Hey. Are you on the road today?}

{Suze: Yeah. Annie and I are just finishing lunch in Beacon. What’s up?}

{Kerry: Nada. Just bored. I always get depressed when I remember we’re gonna change the clocks and it gets dark early.}

{Suze: Think of how we California sun-worshippers feel!}

{Kerry: Bullshit. You come from San Francisco and wouldn’t know the sun if it slapped you across the face.}

{Suze: LOL. Gotta go. Annie is getting jealous.}

What? Am I flirting?

{Kerry: Good thing you don’t have pictures of me to show her. Then she’d really be jealous!!}

{Suze: How do you know I don’t????}

{Suze: Don’t worry. I haven’t shown them to her…She’s already steaming.}

{Suze: LMAO. Kidding! She’s just pissed that I’m ignoring her. See you Monday.}

Okay. Not flirting.

“What was that about?” Annie asked. “You were texting like it was with George Clooney and hiding it like I was Amal.”

“Just Kerry.”

Annie and I finished our lunches and coffees and wandered through a few shops and a gallery before getting the Camry and heading home. It was a beautiful drive down the parkway even if the peak leaf-changing had passed. As on our trip from California, Annie and I shared driving duties—it was nice for both of us to get a chance to drive and feel free of the restraints of the City—and she was driving. I asked whether she’d like to meet Kerry.

“I imagine I’ll meet her one of these days,” she said, glancing over from the driver’s seat. My bare feet were gripping the dashboard just above the Camry’s glove compartment as I looked at the wooded area passing by. Without looking at Annie I said, “We’ll be nearly right next door when we bring the car back. She sounds lonely. I’ll see if she’s around.” Annie told me to go ahead.

{Suze: Hey. I’m bringing the car back to my Aunt. You want us to stop by before we do. You can meet Annie and she can tell you the deepest secrets of my life???}

I waited for about ten minutes, bouncing the phone lightly between my hands.

{Kerry: I could really use a break. I’m tired of outlining poor Mrs. Palsgraf and wondering what that guy was doing carrying a box of dynamite. Do you have the address?}

{Suze: No.}

She texted it to me and I plugged it into my phone.

{Suze: Got it. Thanks. We’re about 20 minutes away. Does that work?}

{Kerry: See you then!!!!}

I gave my Aunt a quick call, telling her we were stopping at a friend’s house nearby and that I would let her know when I would be dropping the car off.

Kerry’s Mom answered the door. She was stunning. About my height, 5’7”, and wonderfully curved. She had fair skin and amber hair, which she kept above her shoulders. That hair had a slight wave to it and seemed to frame her high cheekbones and round face. With eyes that were blue but not cut-like-a-diamond blue. Quiet, restful blue that I could imagine turning into something very treacherous. And that’s just what I got in a single glance.

She had, perhaps, spent a little too much time in the Sun when she was young—and she was hardly old when I met her, no more than her late forties—and there were some wrinkles beside those eyes and on her neck. For some reason, I noticed her neck. And I remembered how I admired Kerry’s that day I introduced myself to her.

Her Mom was wearing a nice yellow shirt without a collar, blue jeans, and a pair of Asics trainers. No jewelry other than what I recognized as a runner’s watch. She paused for a moment upon seeing me and after asking who was Suzanne and who was Annie she hugged each of us and led us in. Annie and I, in turn, said, “Hello Mrs. Neally,” and she said, “Please don’t remind me that I’ve gotten old. Call me Eileen. I guess I should be glad that you didn’t call me ‘Ma’am.’”

She was no “Ma’am.”

Kerry’s house sat on a small lot, close to its neighbors. It had a brick-facing, and when we entered the dining room was to the left and the living room to the right and a staircase to the second floor in the middle. It was nicely decorated and maintained but in something of a time warp. But it was a home in which people lived and after glancing around I told Mrs. Neally—it would take a while before I could bring myself to call her “Eileen”—that I loved it. Unlike my much larger house in California, it had life and unlike my house in California, it was a home.

Kerry came in and asked us what we wanted to drink and the four of us went into the kitchen. I’d had enough coffee for the day and don’t drink soda so I was glad to get an iced tea, with Mrs. Neally insisting on cutting a slice of lemon for it and for Annie’s.

Mrs. Neally laughed. “Do you know that old New Yorker cover, the one with the map looking west and everything west of the Hudson sort of disappears?” After we nodded, she continued. “That’s pretty much my world and I hate to admit my view of the rest of the world. I always wanted to go to California, and San Francisco in particular, but it never happened.”

Annie piped in, “Suzanne and I loved growing up there but, let’s face it, it was kind of boring compared to what we imagined the real world looked like.” Kerry interrupted by saying “You do realize that a lot of shows set in New York were filmed in Toronto don’t you?” to which Annie mockingly responded, “What? And are you telling me that Harry never met Sally?” which she said while glancing at me.

I called her a dork. “It’s like Annie’s favorite movie. She brought it up while we were driving here since we too were making the life-altering change of moving to New York. She even displayed her mock-orgasm skills somewhere in—” I stopped, blushing as I realized that Kerry’s Mom was standing there, and switched to saying, “Anyway, believe me, any illusions or delusions we had about New York vanished about thirty-six hours after we rode into town. But, yeah, you should visit San Francisco at least once. LA? Not so much.”

Kerry interrupted this love fest by offering to show Annie and me what she called her “Cave,” which turned out to be in the basement. She had carved out a space for a desk and a bookcase, and a computer sat on the former and her case books in the latter.

Suddenly Annie said, “This is bullshit.” I was stunned and Kerry looked like she’d been slapped. Annie smiled, “Kerry, you can’t work in these conditions. The Department of Labor would shut you down if they saw it.” Kerry looked and I was puzzled. WTF?

“You lawyer wannabes are clueless,” Annie said. “It’d take us like an hour to move stuff around down here—tell me, Kerry, if I’m overstepping—so that you can work without feeling that the f*****g walls are moving in on you.”

Kerry called up to her Mom. “Mom.” Getting no response, she went up a few steps and shouted “MOM!” and when her mother got to the top of the steps Kerry said, “These California girls think they can do something about my Cave. They want to know if there is any stuff down here that we can just get rid of.”

She came down and said, “Well I have been after your uncles. We can put some of this stuff into the garage so I can see it and decide what needs keeping and what needs not-keeping so that’s fine with me. But honey I don’t want your friends to do it. They look tired.” And pointing at me she said, “And Suzanne here doesn’t look like she could carry a cup of Starbucks,” to which I responded, “Hey, I’m a lot stronger than I look. I’ll have you know”—at which Eileen—that wasn’t so hard now that she suddenly seemed so approachable—laughed, “I’d be surprised if you could lift a pencil but I’m willing to live and learn just how strong you are.”

Kerry looked at her Mom who she’d apparently never seen so animated and Annie said, “Get a room” to which Kerry said, “I thought that’s what we trying to do.” It was left to me to be the voice of reason. “Guys, guys. Let’s figure this out. What can we move and how are we gonna move it?”

The next two hours passed faster than any two had passed since I’d left home. This was happening a lot with Kerry. At about five I called my Aunt to give her an update on what we were doing and when we expected to drop the car off. When Eileen asked who I called, I said, “My long-lost aunt. She lives over near Sarah Lawrence and I keep my car there. I try to go for a drive once or twice a month or so to clear out some of the cobwebs.”

By then we had moved several pieces of not-too-heavy furniture and maybe twenty boxes of papers into the back and around to the garage. We could actually see the floor and there was a clear path to the basement’s sole window. We decided that an oriental carpet and some new lights would liven up the place. At least it wouldn’t be such a cave anymore and Kerry might find it less stressful to study down there.

When we all walked upstairs, Kerry’s Mom asked if she could get us anything. After we all said water would be good, and after she handed glasses around she looked at me and said, “Suzanne, I do apologize. It seems you’re a lot stronger than I gave you credit for.” She drew it out.