May was signing and pointing to the doll in my hand. I signed back, describing how I had found it on the beach. She wanted to look at it. Even though it was so faded and ragged, May looked at me with that ecstatic rapture only the very young could express. She understood my rescue mission immediately and turned to Cary, signing. He shook his head.
"What is she asking?" I inquired, because she had her back to me.
"She wants me to fix that mess of a doll. What are you doing with it?"
"I found it on the beach and it's not a mess," I insisted and marched into my room. Cary came to the doorway with May.
"Well, what are you going to do with it?"
"I don't know, but I know it's not a mess. It was once a very pretty little doll." I spun on him, my eyes burning with swallowed back tears. "People cast each other aside just as easily as they cast aside their possessions these days," I complained.
A deep silence fell between us.
"Maybe I could do something with it," he finally said. "Can I look at it?" he asked in a softer tone. I handed it to him and he turned it over in his hands. "Body's still okay. Needs some paint and a new head of hair, as well as a new little dress. It's not so much, I suppose."
He saw the warm appreciation in my eyes. "Could you do that?"
"I have all that paint upstairs and the tools. I'll just get something for the hair and May will make the new dress." He signed that to her and she nodded emphatically. "What color do you want her hair?"
"My own," I said quickly. He nodded and explained all to May, who looked almost as happy as I was about it.
"What else do you have?" he asked, nodding at the bag in my hand.
"A dress Holly gave me and some incense."
"Incense?"
"Yes. You light it and it helps when you meditate."
"Huh? Meditate? You mean like a Buddhist monk or something?" he asked w
ith a smirk.
"Where's Aunt Sara?" I asked instead of replying. He was getting me angry. "I thought I'd find her in the kitchen and help her with dinner," I said.
"She's not here. She and Dad went to dinner at the Wilson's," he said. I stepped back, surprised.
"Your father and mother went out to dinner?"
"Well, you know Ma. She prepared our dinner first," he said. "All we have to do is serve ourselves and clean up-afterward. Dad and Jimmy Wilson are talking about buying a cranberry bog together. Ma put up quite a fuss when she heard she had to leave us, but I promised her we'd take care of everything."
"Oh. Well then, I'll clean up and go down and get our dinner set out," I said.
"I'll just put this up in my work room," Cary said, indicating the doll.
I signed to May, describing what we would do, and she told me she would set the table while I showered. After I finished towel-drying my hair I took out the dress Holly had given me and wrapped it around myself. When I stood before the mirror, I laughed at how I looked and then thought I would wear it to dinner to see Cary's reaction. He was downstairs in the kitchen and when he saw me, he stopped what he was doing and dropped his jaw.
"What is that?"
"It's called a sari."
"I'll say it's sorry," he remarked and laughed.
"Cary Logan, all you're doing is showing your ignorance," I accused. His smiled faded.
"Well, what's it supposed to be?"
I explained that it was the natural dress for Hindu women and a very special gift given to me. Cary started to smile after I finished, but when he saw the serious expression on my face, he tightened his own, swallowed back his ridicule, and sat at the dinning room table, tonight taking his father's seat.