“Thank you.”
“Is it a family name?”
“No.” I shook my head.
“Where did it come from?” she pressed.
“I was named after Ralph Waldo Emerson, the Transcendentalist,” I explained.
“Your parents must have been fans. His essays are wonderful,” Mrs. Lassiter agreed and I nodded slightly. My mother had always said so but I had never read them. I was just glad that I hadn’t been named Hipparchia, her first choice. The midwife had talked her out of it by suggesting authors’ names from the piles of books strewn around the room where I’d been born.
“‘To be great is to be misunderstood,’” Levi suddenly said, then explained, “That’s a Ralph Waldo Emerson quote that I think holds true in my case.” He grinned at his parents who shook their heads back at him, but not like they were disgusted. They seemed to find him funny, yet annoying.
“Was your mom a teacher, by chance?” Mr. Lassiter looked over at his wife, who told me that she herself taught middle school English.
“No,” I answered, and forced myself to continue. “My mother was an author.”
“Really?” Ava asked. “What did she write?”
“Nonfiction,” I said. “You wouldn’t have read any of her stuff. She’s deceased,” I added, just to wrap it up. There wasn’t any more to tell.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Nicola said.
“I bet she was a very interesting person,” Mrs. Lassiter commented, and nodded at me encouragingly. I said I guessed that she was, and the questions continued. What about my father? I gave her the same story that I’d told Levi, but more abbreviated: I didn’t have much to do with him. Brothers, sisters? No. My job? Bookkeeping.
“I just took on a new client,” I said in an attempt to share, and Levi looked up. “A dry-cleaning business,” I explained. His friend August hadn’t contacted me again and I, of course, hadn’t reached out to him.
They asked about my education and my hobbies, of which there weren’t any. They asked if I liked living in Ferndale. Pets? Friends? I didn’t have much to say for myself and I realized how empty and boring my life must have sounded to them. Really, the stuff about my mother had been the most interesting. Also, I could see them looking at my arms and this room had great lighting, so the streaks were very, very obvious. There was an awkward silence and Ava stared hard at her brother, who hadn’t added much to the conversation after doing his quotation thing.
But he suddenly spoke again. “Describe your favorite pair of shoes,” he told me.
“What are you talking about, Levi?” Nicola asked, laughing.
“They’re slippers with fake-sheepskin lining,” I answered.
“That indicates a homebody,” he said, nodding. “Interesting. What’s your third favorite movie?”
I absently rubbed at a stripe while I thought. “I’ll go withRoman Holiday.”
“What kinds of questions are those?” Levi’s dad asked him, and his son answered that he’d been told they were a good way to get to know someone.
“You’re supposed to be quirky,” Levi explained. “I heard that’s what the dating apps advise.”
“You’re not on those apps and you already know Emerson,” his mom scolded, and resumed her cross-examination. After a while, Ava’s husband took the kids off to bed and Nicola and her husband said they needed to leave, too.
“So do we,” Levi announced. He was very adept at avoiding questions about what we were doing and where we were going, and since it seemed like he didn’t want to tell anyone, I kept my mouth shut and didn’t admit that we had no plans and weren’t actually leaving together. We did exit through the front door at the same time, after I’d said goodbye, thank you, and nice to meet you to the appropriate people. He helped me down the steps, too.
“Quick question,” he said as we moved slowly away on the sidewalk.
“Yes?”
“Why do you have those brown lines on your arms and neck? Or am I seeing things?”
“I’ll get it off later.”
“You look nice,” he commented, but it was an afterthought and he’d probably only said it because he believed that he’d insultedme. “You dressed up for this. What did you know about tonight?”
“Ava texted and said that she was having a party. She must have gotten my number from you,” I pointed out, and he said yes, that she’d asked him for it.
