“Have a nice time,” Haylee added.
“It’s been great meeting you, girls,” Darren said. “Next time, you’ll play something for me.”
“Yes, they will,” Mother said.
We watched them leave.
“Next time?” Haylee said. “He sounds like they should start planning a wedding.”
“Let’s eat,” I said. I didn’t want to talk about it. I was still trying to accept the fact that Daddy was basically out of our lives, and, as they say, this was another nail in the coffin.
Haylee shrugged. It was obviously not bothering her as much, or she was better than I was at hiding it. At least, that was what I thought until a little while later, when we sat to eat our dinner, and she suddenly said, “I know I don’t act like it most of the time, maybe more because it would upset Mother, but I do miss Daddy.”
“Why shouldn’t we?”
“It’s so strange seeing her with another man,” Haylee said.
“Maybe it’s mostly for her ego. She feels she’s been dumped, remember, even though she’d never say it.”
“You’re right. I never thought of it like that. I’ve got to stop hanging around with infant minds,” she said. “What they have is contagious.”
I laughed. I was really laughing at her, but she thought I was laughing at her clever remark. Would she ever notice the difference?
“What should we do tonight?” she asked. “I really don’t want to play any board games. You always win. I just said it to please Mother.”
“Let’s practice piano,” I said. “We’ll work on Mozart’s Figaro duet just the way we used to and surprise Mother and Darren when he comes again.”
“If he comes. Maybe she’ll have a boring time, or maybe she’ll meet someone else.”
“Whatever. Let’s do it for Mother, then.”
“Okay,” she said. “And then we’ll just make some popcorn and watch a dumb movie, the dumber the better.”
“Haylee-Kaylee,” I said, shaking my head.
“Kaylee-Haylee,” she replied.
We cleaned up after ourselves and went to the pianos. Of course, we were quite rusty, not having practiced for a while, but Haylee surprised me by staying with it until I thought we had done enough.
“A few more practice sessions,” I said.
“Okay. Time for a movie?”
“Pick out what you want. I’ll look into the popcorn.”
I never would have expected it, but we had one of our best nights together in a long time. When Mother came home, she found us both on the sofa, the TV still on, both of us asleep next to each other.
When I woke, Haylee woke, and we sat up quickly, because Mother was standing right in front of us and smiling.
“We didn’t hear you come in,” I said.
“I’ve been standing here for almost ten minutes. I didn’t want to wake you. You looked like you did when you were infants. My girls.”
“Did you have a good time?” Haylee asked, wiping her eyes.
“Good enough,” Mother replied. “I learned something from you.”
“What?” Haylee asked, astounded that Mother could learn anything from us.