Part 79
Quinn found the house and pushed the button at the security gate. Someone took her name and seemed to consult with others, then opened the gate for her. She was charmed with the gatehouse. It had sections on both sides, and a cross-over-the top section, from which you could watch cars driving under, through the gate.
She drove up the drive and found a space in the large driveway area; she saw Danny's Ford and Joe's Buick. The house was gorgeous, and Quinn was curious to see it. She was also glad to see Alexis, and was introduced to Alexis' brothers, Stavros and Stefan. To her delight, her grandmother, Kathleen's mother, Ruth Hanley, was there, and her aunt, Kathleen's sister, Eileen, with her husband and three young children. The little ones furnished a lot of conversation; they were cute, with their little tricks and baby-talk - exactly the thing to keep everyone else behaving well.
The house was big enough for all these people. Oksana was very sweet to Quinn, and showed her all over it, and then even took her outside and showed her the pool and the tennis courts, where Peter and Tim and Zander and Brad were playing, not all that seriously, but hitting the ball around and cutting up. Oksana even introduced her to Sergei, who was watching this, and left her there to watch too, so she could go and get Quinn a glass of wine.
There was turkey and trimmings and everything else you could imagine, set up like a buffet, so that you could get your food and then go eat wherever you wanted, which kept things from getting too formal, as it might with everyone sitting at a big table. This way, nobody had to feel like there should be a grace or a toast or a speech, so even the slightest temporary awkwardness was eliminated. Quinn sat with Alexis and her brother Stefan, which was nice, because she could talk to someone new in the company of someone familiar, and Stefan was one of those people who look at you when you're there even if you know nothing of the topic, so that you feel included in the conversation anyway.
There eventually developed a touch football game on the lawn, which all males except Quinn's grandfather participated in. Even Joe Quinn ran around with the ball a little bit. Quinn brought out some cheers from high school, and Alexis and Rosa's nieces were willing to learn them. That they were cheers for "Mercy High" didn't get in the way of it. They mostly messed them up and laughed over it.
Zander was in high spirits from this game, and so was Peter. Peter picked Quinn up and twirled her around out of sheer exuberance. "My cheerleader!" he declared.
"Put her down," said Zander.
"What, you think I'll drop her?" Peter asked, twirling her around so as to increase the chances of that misstep.
"Yeah," Zander answered.
Peter put her down then, still laughing.
"This worked out all right," Quinn said in an undertone to both of them. "Would you say?"
"World War III has not broken out," Peter answered. "That means it worked out. Pretty cool, isn't it, Q? Do you like the house?"
"Yes. I really like the gatehouse. So picturesque."
"That's S – Zander's," Peter said. "Mom knows better than to even ask him to take one of the rooms for his, but I had the idea that gate house was perfect, and so she agreed."
"Thanks, Pete," Zander said. "But, . ."
"Oh, we know you refuse, Sandy" Peter waved his hand, "It's your house, whether you want it or not. Q. likes it. That makes it a good house."
"If you moved into it," Quinn said, "think how easy it would be for Pete to come and see you."
"Good girl, Q!" Pete exclaimed. "Great arguments!"
"That's the one that will work, if there's going to be an argument that does," Quinn replied.
Later Quinn asked Oksana, "Do you really keep that gatehouse for Z - Sander? Or is that Peter's imagination?"
Oksana smiled. "I did say it. I have not mentioned this to Sander yet, because I know he will say no. At least the first fifty times I make this suggestion. I let Peter work on it, and it can work quicker."
Quinn smiled. Oksana was right, she thought.
A little while later, when Quinn was talking to Zander and people were starting to leave, Oksana brought a key to the gatehouse to Zander, and told him he should look at it, and show it to Quinn before she left.
Quinn was enthusiastic to see it, and Zander was stuck where he could not refuse.
They walked down the drive. It was getting a little dark. It took him a little while to get the key to work.
There was no furniture inside. It could be made cozy though, Quinn said. Zander agreed with everything she said, so that she figured he was just biding time to get out of there.
The side at the left as you went out of the gate had a sitting room on, or living room type of room of a fairly good size and a bathroom without a shower or bathtub on the second story, and on the first, a kitchen a tiny dining room, a utility room, and a good sized entryway with a lot of places you could hang up coats and long benches in the hallway. "I guess people had to wait in here in the old days!" Quinn exclaimed. "Man! The upper classes!" She shook her head. Zander watched her and listened to her, amused.
The other side had a bathroom and two small bedrooms, one of the bedrooms being on the second story. Then there were double doors from each side into the connecting hallway.
"Odd choice of use of space," Quinn commented, while they were in the lower story bedroom. "I like it though. But why not just have a regular house?"
"I think you have to get up in the middle of the night if someone comes in," Zander said. "See, there's a door to the gate from this bedroom. Rich people! So demanding."
"This house could prevent divorce, or be a good place to be divorced. You live on your separate sides, but the kids can visit just by making the crossover."
Zander laughed. "Oh, good one. So now we discover this!"
"Can Oksana get you to stay here?"
"Alexis should have her place to herself. And I can do better than a room over a bar. Hey, you found an apartment. Help me find one."
"Rent this place from Oksana."
"You know how that'll end up."
"Maybe she'll let you pay it, even if in the long run it is only symbolic. She wouldn't know when you're coming and going. It is you who knows when she is."
"Yeah, that might be a good thing to know. But you can rent it."
"I like it. Maybe." She walked up into the hallway. There were windows. It was fun to look out. Neat when a car went out underneath. You could definitely hear the gates open and close.
"Things will settle down and it won't be any worse than me and my parents," Quinn said.
Zander looked out the window next to her. "I don't know about that. I'll never be like yours, Quinn, but I'm closer than I thought I would ever be. I have grandparents now."
"Were your grandparents they way you thought they would be?"
"No. I always had a hard time picturing them. If I ever thought about them, they looked like some other kids' grandparents. It's much better to know what they look like. So I took a lot of pictures. I wish I had them with me now. I wish I could show them to you, Quinn."
"Show them to me another time."
"I will. I can write them a letter. My uncle gave me an email address."
"How many uncles do you have?"
"Two. The oldest is Vadim. He has a wife Marina and three children," Zander replied. He rattled off the children's names. "Mikhail, who is divorced and has a daughter Irina. And an aunt, Yelena, who never seems to have been married, but she has a son, Pavel."
"That is so great! Who else did you meet?"
"My grandfather's sister and my grandmother's brother, with his daughter and granddaughter."
"So that makes 5 cousins, a second cousin, a first cousin once removed, and a great aunt and uncle."
"I've never had a uncle before," he said. She was looking at him, and he was gazing out the window, smiling slightly, as if this were the most wonderful present he had ever received. Quinn felt her eyes fill up a little bit, with a mix of sadness and joy for him. It was sad he had not known this before, but it was happy that he did now, happier than otherwise, because he did not take it for granted.
"Uncle Mikhail," she said, trying to pronounce it carefully. "Practice saying that."
He looked at her then, and explained, "They don't do it like that there, Quinn. If you are talking about him you say 'My uncle, Mikhail Nikolaevich', and to talk to him directly, you only call him "Uncle." Almost like "Grandma or "Dad."
"What happens if more than one of them is in the room?" Quinn asked.
"I'm not sure! One evening, they were both there, but I didn't have a situation where I needed to distinguish between them while talking to one of them."
"I like it. There is something about that I like. Like you say, it makes more of that relationship."
"I liked it all. It was great. You don't know them at all, but you look like them. They treat you like you belong to them even when it's the first time they've ever seen you."
"Sometimes I've heard that. I have these relatives in far away places. For example, some cousin of my mom's I've never met lives in Montana or some such place, and she got to talking about them, and I said I'd like to see Montana and it was too bad I didn't know them. She said, forget it, if you show up on their doorstep and tell them who you are, they will welcome you."
"I like that story. Poor Dad. He's the one who doesn't have it."
"Do you ever ask him about where he grew up?"
"He doesn't seem to like to talk about it. Mom either. She did tell me a little bit when we were over there."
"What did she tell you?"
"Remember asking me what religion I was?"
"Of course," she sat down on the floor, and stretched out a little, leaning against the wall. He sat down against the opposite side of the wall. A car swooshed under.
"I asked her about it. There were cathedrals and churches and nunneries all over the place. When she was a girl, growing up there, they were all museums. Now, they are back to being churches, a lot of them. Some are still museums, but they are historical now, she said. But when she grew up these museums, the government, tried to make out as it religion belonged in a museum. Like the horse and buggy, that sort of thing. It was so primitive, it only belonged in museums. The teacher would take them to this museum and they would learn a little bit about the religion, from that. So that was all."
"When your parents came to the US they were free to look into it."
"I guess they must not have had time to think about that, or didn't know what to do or how to ask. Some people thought we were atheists, but we weren't really. Not like it was a conscious decision that way. If someone asked, the only thing to say was 'none.'"
"More like agnostic, where you don't know. With no traditions. If you have a religion, it has traditions. If you don't have a religion, there's no substitute for all that."
"I remember in the hospital you told me about the weddings and baptisms and funerals. Now I think I have to ask them that! What did they do in the Soviet Union, not have funerals? Weird. What happened when somebody died? Nobody got baptized, OK. They got married, though."
"I wonder why. If you're an atheist, and everyone is, then why worry about that either?"
"I guess they still have to get some feeling they were committed, or they'd move in and out and no family would be stable. They didn't have much reason to care, though. Maybe they thought people worked better or raised the kids better that way."
"So what did they do on Sunday?"
"They had that day off, I know."
"That's almost like a vestige of religion."
"When we lived there, people were interested in the churches, only because they could now and they were curious. We were as confused as they and used to not being curious, I think. We never went into one unless a friend specifically invited us. Between here and there we don't know what we are."
"That would be what you would have been, without the history of that country and then yours."
"They didn't have Christmas. Even when we were there, it was not a big deal. They made a big deal of New Year's Day, which they still do."
"No Christmas trees, or presents?"
"We had all that, but it was for New Year's."
"Interesting. And no Easter, and no Thanksgiving."
"There was Easter when we were there. There was a day for men, and a day for women. A big day in May about the war. A big day in June about the new constitution. There was a day in November to celebrate the communist revolution but they changed the name of it to be about something else, but people would not stop taking that day off."
"How did you get used to no Thanksgiving?"
"Easy, it was nothing to everybody around you, so it was nothing to you."
"Yeah, that would be the way. Still, was it odd to be in school on a day like Christmas Day?"
"If you thought about it. But you had to be thinking of the date. Realize that oh, today is Thanksgiving Day. But we weren't in school on Christmas Day. It was a holiday. Just not a big deal of a holiday, like it is here."
"I like Thanksgiving, though."
"Most people do. The Quartermaines don't appreciate it. They have a ridiculous tradition, where they eat pizza. I forget how it came about."
"How depressing! I can't get into that. But do you want to know where Little Emily is spending her Thanksgiving?"
"She could have come home for it, I suppose. Did you see her?"
"Oh, no, no, no. I saw AJ, and asked him what they were doing, as he asked me. Just small talk. They are flying to a secret, undisclosed location to meet her."
"They may as well go to the Caribbean as stay here. They can go anywhere they can get a pizza."
"I guess. But they're still concerned she'll run into you, obviously!"
He shrugged. "They didn't have to bother," he said.
"What did you to do Little Emily? Just what did you put her through?"
He laughed, because she obviously thought it was silly and was disposed to see it his way. "I was lonely and in jail. She took the time to talk to me. She was one of the few people being nice to me at the time. It was flattering. But, I believe, in the long run, you were right. It is better to have Oksana and argue with her than it is to have no one. Then you can become artificially over attached to anyone who is kind to you."
"And as a result, terrible things happened to her."
"First thing was, by coming to see me so much, she lost her boyfriend, Juan."
"And her grades suffered?"
"Her grades were good. She talked to me about her homework and what she was doing. In fact, Juan complained that her grades were good. He thought that her parents would not let her talk to me if only her grades were bad."
"Her boyfriend came to see you?"
He laughed. "Yeah, he did. A couple of that times. And when you're that alone, and locked up in jail, it's not all that bad. Even people who don't like you are a break. Her mother came, her father, her friend Lucky. Her oldest friend. He told me her was her oldest friend. He tried to claim he was her best friend, but she had already told me Elizabeth was."
"What else were you preventing her from doing?"
"Everything, I guess. Lucky said she would have been homecoming queen. Her brothers claimed she would have been on sports teams. But she never mentioned any sports she used to play before, and if she had, I'm sure she would have told me about it."
"They can never prove she would have been homecoming queen, for crying out loud. It sounds like she never did any sports anyway."
"There was her parents big move of sending her away to a private school all the way in California"
"Just because she liked you?"
"As far as they ever told me, that was the only reason. And they did it in January of her senior year, so they probably had never planned it before."
"You must have really sympathized with that, having your own school years messed up! But that was mean of them! What a big change that is, and what a bad time for it. And then having to graduate from a school you went to only your last semester!"
"I went all the way there to get her. We came back on a bus."
"All those hours in bus, and she didn't ask you about your family or anything?"
"I know that's amazing to you, Quinn. But she didn't. She just talked about everything she felt. Then when I had to testify in court, her family complained that it was traumatic for her. She sat through the trial when she wasn't in school. She was supportive. She didn't complain, but her family and her oldest friend did – the usual stuff she missed out on. Sports. School parties. Dates."
"But if she really wanted to be a lawyer, it would have been a good thing to do for that."
"Yeah. Either they didn't believe her about that, or they never thought of that. Then came her grandfather and his story. We went to the police station. Suddenly she changed. That was awful! The worst night of my life. Well, maybe there were a couple worse, but I'd gotten over them. Then the prom. Oh, that was a disaster, of course."
"Of course. She would have been the prom queen."
He laughed. "You're right! None of them said that, but they should have, shouldn't they? The forgot. She deserved to be there with the prom king. Or captain of the football team. Which I suppose Scott was."
"No. I was the prom queen. He was the prom king only because of that!"
"Still, I know he must be exactly what Emily's parents would want her to date. Another thing I ruined for her was the big party at Deception. Elizabeth had been a model, or wanted to be. Emily claimed she had been a model herself, in the past. I never saw it. Somebody put her a picture of her head on a picture of a nude body and put it on the internet. Ended that career."
"Why should it end that career?"
"It did. Less than perfection equals failure, to them, it must be. Anyway, she wanted me to go to this party with her. Elizabeth was under consideration for being their main model. But Elizabeth didn't want Emily to bring me there."
"Why would Elizabeth lose out because Emily brought you there?"
"I don't even remember any more. Maybe it would look bad if her best friend was there with a criminal. Who knows what goes on in a place like that? Now, Elizabeth says didn't know me and wouldn't think that way again. She was impressed that Emily gave up this party for me. One of Emily's brothers came to me, complaining that she missed it. It would have been fun; it would have helped her with her own modeling career, and so on."
"Which was over, and her own choice not to continue, before she even met you."
"They never see it that way."
"Maybe they want her to go out for sports and she doesn't, and you because a convenient vent to their frustrations. I mean, maybe it doesn't have much to do with you."
"That could be. She never complained about not having time for anything. But you could have a point. When they couldn't convince her is when they came to me. Her brother came to me and wanted me to tell her not to come to jail and see me. I realized they must not be able to convince her not to. But I liked her. I couldn't tell her I didn't, which they wanted me to. I thought that was too cruel."
"Didn't they try to get to know you?"
"Never. Later, much later, her mother made some noise about how if Emily saw something good, ergo, I must have some good points."
"They don't normally seem to trust her judgment. In fact, they don't trust their influence over her anything like they trust yours. But they let her go off to college on her own. Don't they think the college could be crawling with Svengalis? They pay you compliment in a way. You have these amazing powers. They have to take these desperate measures. Move her to a school across the country. Fake attacks to try to get you in jail. She has no ability to resist. You powers are so extensive, that you are responsible for her decisions in their eyes."
"But I felt she was always about to slip away."
"She stuck by you."
"I know it seems like that. Still, it felt very conditional. I could screw up, or somebody else could say something and screw it up any time. I never saw it, because her words were so kind. Trouble is romantic, to her."
"She'll be sorry then, for the trouble she missed!"
"Probably. From now on, I intend to have no trouble, as far as she's concerned."
"Then move in here. In fact, move in with your Mom. Get the tutor. Let Mom get you a nice car. Keeps you off the street. Play tennis. You need something you're good at. Peter goes on about how good you are at that."
"I haven't played since I lived in Russia."
"What else did you play?"
"I was on the soccer team, and the swimming team, and I learned ice skating."
"You liked sports."
"Yes. They give medals. I got a couple. I had an advantage because I had been able to do swimming and tennis year round in Florida."
"Where are they?"
"Where are what?"
"These medals."
"Oh. I don't know. I suppose Dad has them."
"Ask him for them. You need some reminders of some thing good about yourself."
"Like your pom poms and your photo of the cheerleading squad?"
"How do you know?"
"Pete showed me all that! He's the tour guide of your parents' house!"
Quinn laughed at this. "What an interesting state of affairs. When I first saw you, I never dreamed it would end up that this patient's brother would eventually come to town and be able to conduct a tour of my folks' house!"
"He can! It has come to that, Quinn!"
"Or that you could speak a foreign language. Didn't you have trouble? An accent?"
"No. At first there would be words I didn't know. Especially slang. But other kids there were nice. They helped me. Not like here, where they would make fun of a kid who is different."
"What were the teachers like?"
"Stern and strict. Everybody was quiet. Nobody would shout or fool around in a classroom. They were nice to talk to, though. They helped you with anything you had a hard time with. They never said you were stupid and there was no question you were going to graduate and do something with your life. They didn't act like you were a jerk for not already knowing. You didn't have to figure out what year you were and what class you were supposed to be in. All you had to do was study."
"You had good grades there, Mom said."
"Yes. I liked the way they did tests. They were oral. When it was your turn, you went before this panel of teachers. They asked you questions and you stood there and answered. You could even write on the blackboard."
"I'd have hated that! I'd have flunked! The pressure would have killed me!"
"It's easier, really. You get used to that way."
"Maybe you should move in with Oksana. If you really concentrate, you could get your education straightened out, with the tutor and everything."
"I only wonder what she will want in return."
"What could she want now?"
"I don't know. She never was bossy on little things."
"Maybe she doesn't want anything. You're her son, that's all. I know. Watch how she does with Pete! You'd have more freedom than he, too."
"Yeah. She considers him different, though. She probably trusts his judgment more."
"Maybe not. You made some good decisions recently."
"I do feel much – less alone, I think is the best way to put it."
"You have been dealing with so much. Go easy on yourself awhile."
"Some of it is good."
"Yes."
"It feels like it was a century ago, that I was in that high school and getting arrested. Having Oksana and Sergei around is not as bad as I thought it would be. It got all out of proportion. If I had a family, I might have ended up in jail, but I never would have been involved with an immature high school girl like Emily. I would have done the right thing, patted her on the head, said her attention was flattering and said some boy in that high school would be a lucky guy."
"Her grandfather went to a great deal of trouble to get you apart from her. A lot of trouble. He must have been sure she'd follow you to the end of the universe and there was nothing he could do about it. Then her parents sending her to that school like that! That is a lot of trouble to go to. And she was going to leave college and live with you, while you put her through PCU? She'd have been giving up the perks of being rich, for you!"
"Those aren't so hard to give up as you may imagine. True, she wasn't spoiled that way. When we got back from California, she got a room over Kelly's and started working as a waitress there. She went to school still, and got good grades. It wasn't a really long time, though. I think if there was no excitement, only the grind and hard work, she'd find some way out. Mind you, she wouldn't say, I can't deal with this, I have to go back to my wealthy parents. She'd finagle some way to make it look like it was my fault. You know, mentally twist something so that she could again tell me she was leaving because she didn't love me. I really don't think she ever did, now. I get it now. I couldn't then. I'm just lucky that she bailed out when she did. "
"Maybe you can thank this phantom heart condition for getting your back your family."
"And Alexis. And Quinn, of course, the investigative nurse. And full of ideas for the future, now, aren't you? Now let's discuss yours."
"Boring."
"Because you graduated from high school and were a cheerleader and the homecoming queen and the prom queen -"
"Well, now, let's not exaggerate. I was not the homecoming queen."
"Amazing! But, you have your college degree, always have a boyfriend, and if you didn't 20 guys would immediately call. You have a godfather and parents who really love you and aren't just saying so. You have a good job as a professional. If you don't marry this doctor, you marry some other really successful guy, but even if you wanted to marry a gas station attendant, your parents will not have the least objection; they trust your judgment that much."
"No, I'm not perfect. I drift into what seems like the thing to do, the right thing to do, without thinking. I can't complain about what I have, and it is good to have parents who think I should follow my heart. It's not easy, though. I thought I was. I am not the queen of non commitment like Joanna thinks. Something must be wrong with me, or something. I just wish they'd wait a little longer before pushing it."
"But they don't."
"I can follow my heart. It does not go fast enough for other people! I think my heart wants some time, is all. Why does it have to be either/or by a certain date? Isn't there enough of that in the rest of stuff you have to do?"
"There has to be some end. You and Paul could be 60 or 70 before you could decide."
"OK, I'll have decided before then. Maybe by 50."
"There's some limit to your parents, too. But it is too hard to push. I pointed out this grease monkey at the track, and Danny claimed that if you loved that guy, he's go right along with it."
"Danny told you that? I'd almost like to test them. I think I'll go and visit the jail tomorrow."
Zander laughed. "I can show you where it is. But I'd rather show you my pictures."
"OK. Call me on Sunday when I've had a chance to sleep after the midnight shift."
It was so late, Zander wanted Quinn to stay at Oksana's house. She wouldn't, and he wanted to drive her home.
"I'll call you and let you know I'm safe and sound, if you want."
"OK. But do it."
"Only if you stay here."
He looked at the house. It was late.
"OK," he said.
He would not go into the house until she drove away all right. She laughed and would not drive away until he went into the house. They both laughed, and he walked in while she pulled across the circular driveway to where it passed the front door. He went in and looked at her from a front window next to the front door. She drove off then, waving.
