"She never told me."
"She didn"t want to upset the cart. One summer, when she and Ben were vacationing down the sh.o.r.e, she invited me and Rebecca and our kids to lunch."
"I can"t believe she kept you a secret from me!"
"She wanted to see for herself that I was happy. She already knew you were."
"She never stopped trying to rescue people, to fix what wasn"t right."
"Rebecca fell in love with her."
"Who didn"t?" She stops, then asks, "You and Rebecca?"
"Up and down. But I think we"re going to make it."
"I hope you do."
He checks his watch. "I have to get you to the airport...if you"re really going."
She gives him a you must be kidding look.
He shrugs and smiles. They walk back to his car. "I"m glad we got to spend time together."
"I"m glad, too." She feels satisfied, happy.
At the airport he kisses her goodbye in the car. "If someday..." he begins.
"Yes, if...But for now..."
"I get it," he says, kissing her one last time.
- SHE"S MADE A PLAN to meet Natalie for coffee in the first-cla.s.s lounge at the airport before their flights. How long has it been since Natalie visited them in Las Vegas? She gave a lecture at the library on "channeling your past lives" during one of her book tours, but that was years ago, and she flew in and out of town quickly, with no time for family. Fern, who"d come in from Shiprock with her girlfriend, Ora, also a doctor on the Navajo reservation, had been disappointed. Now the two of them run a family clinic outside of Las Vegas.
Natalie spies her first. "Hey, Brenda Starr...how"s it going?"
"Not so bad."
"You look better today. Yesterday, you looked like a corporate executive in that suit."
If Miri thought Natalie would be different now that she"d achieved fame, she was wrong.
"How was it seeing Mason again?" she asks.
"Like seeing a long-lost friend," Miri tells her. "Like seeing you."
"I saw your goodbye kiss. I doubt if that"s how you"d say goodbye to me."
Miri feels her face flush. "It didn"t mean anything."
"If you say so."
Change the subject before this escalates, Miri tells herself. "So, Warren Beatty?"
"You like that story?"
"It grabbed my attention."
"He was great."
"So, it"s true?"
"Maybe yes, maybe no."
"We"re back to that?"
"Ask me another one, Girl Reporter."
"How did you know Kathy Stein was on that plane?"
Natalie pauses for just a moment. "Ruby told me."
"No, really...how did you know?"
"Sorry if you don"t like my answer but it"s the truth. Next..."
Miri reminds herself not to push it. "Corinne?"
"She and her hubby spend winters in Palm Beach, summers on Nantucket. They play golf. I don"t know how they can stand it. But, then, I never understood my mother. I suppose you see a lot of Fern."
"I do. It"s nice for Dr. O."
"You still call him that, after all these years?"
"I tried Arthur but it never felt right."
They get their coffees, carry them to a quiet corner, where Miri says, "He"s sick."
"I heard."
"We"re hoping you"ll come to see him."
"I was waiting for his eightieth birthday."
"You probably shouldn"t wait that long."
"August? Are you saying August is too long to wait?"
Miri nods.
"s.h.i.t."
"Yeah."
- ON THE PLANE Miri is seated next to a young girl. "I"m Lily," she says. "I"m nine. My dad is a pilot."
"Is he flying this plane?" Miri asks, sure that if he is he"ll be extra careful with his daughter on board.
"No. He flies to Europe," she says, kicking the seat in front of her. "I just came back from Portugal. Have you been there?" She doesn"t wait for Miri to tell her she hasn"t been to Portugal. "You should go. They have a lot of tiles there. Do you like tiles?"
"Yes."
"Everything is tiled except your toothbrush."
Miri laughs.
"You think I"m joking but I"m not," Lily says. "Are you going to Vegas to gamble?"
"No," Miri tells her. "I live there."
"Me, too. With my mother. My dad lives all over the place. Do you think it"s weird?"
Does she mean weird that her parents live in different places? "Vegas," she says. "Do you think it"s a weird place to live?"
"I"ve lived there since I was fifteen. My children grew up there."
"And they turned out okay? Because my dad thinks it"s not a good place to grow up."
"They"re fine." Well, she thinks, two of them are anyway, but she"s not getting into that.
"What were you doing in New Jersey?" Lily asks.
"Visiting old friends."
"Was it fun?"
Miri thinks before answering. "In a way it was. Yes."
The flight attendant stands at the front of the cabin. "May I have your attention?" She demonstrates the proper way to fasten your seat belt. Then she says, "In the unlikely event..."
Lily leans close and says, "This is the part I don"t like. Why do they have to say that?"
"It"s just a safety rule," Miri tells her, trying to sound as if she means it.
"Are you scared?" Lily asks.
"No. Why would I be scared?"
"You"re digging your fingernails into your armrests."
Miri tries to laugh. "Just an old habit," she tells Lily.
But Lily can see right through her. She reaches for Miri"s hand. "Will you hold my hand until we"re up?"
"Sure," she says. Lily reminds her of Fern on their first flight to Las Vegas. But she doesn"t tell her that. Instead, she says, "I have a daughter. She"s fifteen. Her name is Eliza."
"Do I remind you of her?"
"A little."
"Is she dead?"
"What? No! Why would you say that?"
"Because you seemed sad when you said her name."
"I"m not sad. I just miss her. She"s at school. I"ll see her next weekend." Miri closes her eyes. Who is Lily, really? What are the odds that the two of them would be seated together on this flight? In the unlikely event...she hears the flight attendant saying in her head. Life is a series of unlikely events, isn"t it? Hers certainly is. One unlikely event after another, adding up to a rich, complicated whole. And who knows what"s still to come?
Lily looks out the window, then back at her. "My dad says unlikely events aren"t all bad. There are good ones, too."
"Like meeting you on the plane," Miri says, making Lily smile.
- DAISY SPENDS TIME with Dr. O every day. An hour here, an hour there. Sometimes they tell each other jokes. Sometimes they reminisce. Other times they"re quiet. He sleeps, she reads. Rusty says it"s such a help to be able to call on her, to count on her. She still goes to the office three days a week. She still looks good, maybe because she gave up smoking when she moved to Las Vegas, maybe thanks to her condition. Who knows? That was so long ago.
She can"t imagine life without Dr. O, her oldest, dearest friend, more than fifty years of working together, fifty years of friendship, of knowing everything about the other, except for one-she never knew, she never guessed about Dr. O and Rusty. How he managed to hide that from her she doesn"t know. Proves that everyone, even the person closest to you, can have secrets.
- RUSTY"S LET her hair grow and doesn"t color it. She wears it in a braid hanging down her back. There"s something about her still-lovely face, silver hair and clear eyes that makes people turn and stare, the way they did when she was in her prime. She"s a western woman now, though she"s never felt comfortable on a horse, or driving long distances on her own.
When Miri and Christina ask if they can plan an early eightieth birthday celebration for Dr. O the last weekend in March, she gives her blessing. That"s five weeks from now, she thinks. Who"s to say what will happen in the next five weeks? He"s made his wishes clear. No more treatment. Palliative care only. Don"t try to extend his life. He"s had a good run. Thirty-five fantastic years with you, my love. When he says that, she dissolves. She can"t bear the idea of losing him.
"You"re strong," he tells her.
"Not anymore."
"I need you to be strong."
She nods. For him she"ll do anything. If he needs her to be strong, she"ll be strong.
"I never expected to make it to eighty," he says. "And I"m not talking about cancer. I expected G.o.d to strike me down for wanting you."
She smiles. "Arthur, you"re becoming religious in your old age?"
"I"ve always been religious deep down. I never wanted to hurt anyone, not even when I was drilling a tooth."
She kisses him. "Is it any wonder I love you?"
"No funeral," he reminds her for the tenth time.
- NONE OF THEM KNOWS if Natalie will show up for his early birthday party, but at the last minute, she does. She brings fifteen-year-old Ruby with her, the youngest of her three children, each by a different father. She"s never seen the point of marriage. They stay in a two-bedroom suite at Caesars Palace, arranged by Christina. A car and driver are at Natalie"s disposal, delivering her and young Ruby to Miri"s house for Dr. O"s party. It"s a sunny afternoon, warm enough to set up the buffet on the deck.