By 'finish packing tonight', my grandfather had meant as soon as I walked into my father's house and 'in the morning' was loosely redefined as the dead of night. I finished packing before night fell, and then, the car loaded, I barely had a moment to take a final look around me, before we left it all in the rear view and I was finally told where I was headed.
"Chicago first," he was saying, his driver driving at a respectable speed. "Then you'll be taken to somewhere safe, out of Klein's reach." I feared he meant back to Europe, but he promised I'd stay in North America. "I promise, Lizzie, I will keep you out of this mess."
He didn't accompany me. He had business to attend to, but he kissed my cheek and promised I'd be taken care of by family. He smiled and then, to my surprise, hugged me tight against him. "I'll keep in touch. I'll let you know what I can."
"Alright," I boarded the flight, and before I could contemplate what or where I was headed, we were in the air.
A shock was waiting for me in Chicago. I'd come into the airport, looking for directions to the baggage claim and for a sign that showed me who would collect me and take me to my 'family', when I saw her. A face I'd recognize anywhere. One that had tucked me in as a child and told me stories of a princess named Elizabeth, whose family loved her, but had to send her away to keep her safe. A story I know knew had more basis in fact than fantasy.
"Minnie?" And then her arms were wrapped around me and I felt like everything was spinning. Luckily, it wasn't a spinning that required a mad dash for the ladies' room. "How- Why-" I was sputtering, and I knew it. She chuckled, breathing in the scent of my hair it seemed.
"Oh, Lizzie." Pulling away, she studied me. "You still look like the little girl who wouldn't eat her vegetables." I smiled at the memory. "Come, come." She was pulling me toward the exit, but I needed to find my luggage. "It's being taken care of, come." And then we were in a car, and she patted my hand as she told me that she couldn't wait for the others to see me again.
"Again?" I asked, feeling like the world was full of surprises.
Her smile held a secret, and her lips refused to reveal it. The only thing she offered was that I should have learned by now, by meeting Sy that he wouldn't have let just ANYONE take care of his Lizzie. "Sy's my brother, Lizzie."
"You're my aunt?" I knew that eventually it would all hit me, the secrets, the spying, the lies, but right now, everything seemed comforting. Oddly. She nodded. I set back, not worried about posture or image for once. "Everything I know is-"
"Topsy turvy?" A vague nod from me had her chuckling. "Knowing who your grandfather is, who your pop is- I thought you were smarter than that, Lizzie."
Shaking my head, I felt the boot being loaded with my luggage, and chuckled. "So did I, Minnie, so did I."
At an unassuming house, with sunlight streaming through the lace curtains, I realized that I had been surrounded by family my entire life. My aunts, either through blood, or through marriage and early widowhood, had been taking care of me since I'd been sent away. Three of Pop-Pop's sisters, Minnie, Annie, and Sara, and two of my late uncles' wives Alice and Selma had taken pains to see that I was raised well and as happy as they could make me.
They swore that, while they wanted to tell me, my grandfather insisted that I be kept in the dark. That I did not know that the women who acted as my guardians, my caretakers, and my confidants were to seem like hired help. I felt a flush of embarrassment at the few tantrums I subjected them to, at the orders I tossed at them, at the power I wielded while feeling like a lost child without a home or family.
"I'm so sorry," I started to say, but Selma held up a hand. She'd traveled with me during the summer before my return to America.
Shaking her head, she was smiling at me because she knew what I was apologizing for intimately. "There isn't a need for that, Liz. We all knew, we all saw what you were going through. We tried to argue with Sy, but-" She gave a long suffering sigh. "He felt it was for the best."
"If he sent all of you, then what did Father-" A shared round of snickering laughter at the mention of Ben made me stop.
"Ben Diamond did nothing." Annie, shaking her head and sucking her teeth in irritation offered. "Not nothing," she corrected. "He took credit for all of it, but it was Sy."
"Yeah, Sy paid for the schools." Sara agreed.
"And the summer travel." Minnie added, while Annie gave her own opinion. "He even kept the jewelry, or most of it."
"I have my jewelry." I saw them all share a knowing look. "I don't?"
"Not half of it," Alice shook her head in disapproval. "Doris had buckets of jewelry. She set aside so much for you, and what he sent?" Another shake. "A mere drop."
"He said-" Why had I believed him? He lied to me about so much. So goddamn much. "That man-"
"Is pure evil." Minnie was looking as sick as I felt. "And he got you back. Selma was in knots when he summoned you."
"Here," Sara handed me a warm cup of something that smelled like peppermint. "It'll help with your situation."
"My situation?" I was worried about taking a drink. What if Pop-Pop had told them about my condition and this was a solution I didn't want?
They all seemed to zero in on my stomach and I rolled my eyes. "The nausea," Minnie assured me, "drink, it's just peppermint tea, Lizzie."
I took a sip, it warmed me and I didn't feel the bubbling in my stomach that usually accompanied anything I ate or drank, including the crackers and water. "I'm sure you think I'm silly." For the fear that clung to me like a shroud.
"No, we think you're smart." I smirked into my cup, since Minnie had also insinuated the opposite in the car not an hour earlier. "Caution is good, especially in this family."
I spent two days with the women who raised me. Well, actually two days in Minnie's care while the others visited as often as they could. Selma, my last companion in Europe, was going to be taking me to my next destination. She promised me that I'd be able to settle in there, and wait for Pop-Pop to contact me and keep me informed, while also out of the clutches of Klein.
Saying goodbye to the women who'd tucked me in, dried my tears, told me stories, and made sure that I felt some comfort as a lost little girl in a strange world was more difficult than I'd thought it would be. I was accustomed to goodbyes. Especially to them, but now that I knew that they were family, that they cared about me, not the money I'd assumed they were grasping for while in their care made it harder than I could have imagined.
A car this time, and as Selma drove, something she reminded me I should learn to do, she told me where I'd be staying for the foreseeable future. Canada. A small town just across the border, with a small house waiting for us. She promised that Sy would fix things and I'd be able to choose where I wound up in the end.
Tea was the magic cure, it seemed. Or at least it helped to alleviate the constant urge to void my stomach's contents. Mornings, waking up, were still started with my head in the bowl of the toilet, but after a cup for breakfast, I could eat a little more than what I'd been able to hold down before.
Selma told me it would let up once I got past the first hurdle, but I wasn't sure I trusted that diagnosis. It was like this baby wanted to remind me of the choices I'd made that created it, and wanted to punish me soundly for them. Pop-Pop called a day after we arrived and settled in.
"I spoke to the doctor," I went still and silent, "you are, Lizzie. It's positive." I don't know why it hit me hard, I knew it. I was living it. "He knows." Oh. "I'd bet that Klein does too." Of course he did. "You're out of his reach, sweetheart, so don't worry."
"I know," I'd sat down hard on the chair by the phone. "It's not easy-"
"Yeah, I know, honey." He sighed, and I heard voices in the background. "I have to go, but I'll check in soon, alright?" We said goodbye, and I realized, confirming my pregnancy didn't make it easier to accept. Not without Ike beside me.