"Mary?"
Elliot Martescu pushed open the door
of the front lounge, casting a glance around him for his wife. "Mary, are
you home, dammit? I need to talk to you."
"I'm here, Elliot."
Mary emerged from the back study, casting her husband a quizzical look.
"I was working on a song. What's wrong? You look wound up."
"I am wound up. I'm surprised you're not, too." Elliot held out the creased
sheet of paper in his hand. "You're always shut away writing those blessed
songs of yours and I'm wondering if you're even paying attention to what's
going on in the real world."
"I write songs as my job. You know that." Mary took the sheet, smoothing
it out. "What's this?"
"You don't need to. I earn enough
to keep us and you shut yourself away far too often." Elliot said firmly.
"You're always using it as an excuse to get out of corporate dos. But as
for what that is - it's Sylvie's last math quiz. She's failing. Again."
"She's never failed a class yet, Elliot."
Mary said simply, glancing at it then back at her husband. "But she's not
good at math. We can't all be. What about it?"
"What about it?" Elliot raised an
eyebrow. "Here's what about it. Mary, it's not that Sylvie isn't smart. She
is. She's just lazy. She's fifteen years old and her head's all into what
boy she wants to go to the next dance with, rather than her studies. In a
few years she and Anna will be seniors and looking at colleges. Do you think
any Ivy League school would even look at her with this kind of GPA?"
"Maybe the one you should be talking
to about this with is Sylvie." Mary handed back the quiz. "I agree that she
shouldn't be failing a subject simply because she's not paying attention.
But there is a lot of pressure, Elliot. You're really good at it, and so is
Anna. I wasn't so bad at it myself, once upon a time. But she's totally missed
the gene. She does struggle with it, because I've heard her and Anna going
over their assignments together. Annie helps her a heck of a lot, you know.
I think Sylvie works harder than you realise she does."
"I have my doubts." Elliot shook his head. "And I do intend on talking
to her about it, too. But I'm surprised you haven't."
"I didn't know." Mary shrugged. "Where
did you get it, anyhow? I haven't seen it - and the girls aren't home from
school yet."
"It was on her desk."
"You went through her room?" Mary's eyes opened wide. "Elliot, she's fifteen!
What happened to parental trust?"
"I wasn't going through her room!"
Elliot retorted. "I almost tripped over one of her army of jackets coming
in this afternoon, so I was returning it to it's mothership. I just happened
to see the paper as I left, that's all. Don't think I go spying on my kids
- but in this case, I'm glad I did find it! I work long hours, Mary, and
I trust you to keep an eye to the kids in things like this, because you've
always said it's how you prefer it. Well, you're doing a damn fine job if
one of them is failing a class!"
"If you have issues with my abilities
as a mother, Elliot, don't beat around the bush. Let's hear them." Mary's
eyes glinted with indignant anger. "At least I'm around for them. You're
in another state half the week, and when you are here you're tired and cranky
or working on something else."
"Is that worse than you shut away writing songs you have no earthly reason
to be writing?"
"I write them because I love music, and it makes me happy!" Mary exclaimed.
"And let's look at this, Elliot - if my husband was around more often, and
was more supportive of me and my twins, then maybe I wouldn't feel so drawn
to write quite so often. Did you think about that?"
"Oh yes. Put it all on me, like always."
Elliot grimaced. "It's not enough that the money I'm making will pay for our
girls to go to college and get good careers without sticking them in debt,
I'm also expected to carve out hours that don't exist in the week to hang
around here, holding everyone's hand?"
"It would be nice if you thought about
it, sometimes." Mary said coldly. "Meantime, what are you going to do about
Sylvie's quiz?"
"Do? Ground her. What else?" Elliot said darkly. "And I expect you to back
me up on it."
Mary sighed.
"When do I ever do anything else?"
She asked wearily. "If you think it'll help. But don't take her to pieces.
She's just a kid. Not every kid is cut out for intensive studies."
"She manages to put in an hour and a half almost every night on that damn
piano." Elliot pointed out. "If she showed that dedication and interest
in her schoolwork she'd have a 4.0 like Anna does, and we'd not be having
this conversation."
"Conversation?" Mary raised an eyebrow. "I thought we were having an argument."
"Dammit, don't be pedantic." Elliot sighed. "Don't you care what kind of
reports your kids bring home?"
"Of course I do, but Elliot, it matters much more to me that they're happy."
Mary spread her hands. "And..."
She faltered, then shook her head. "I hear voices. They're home. Go talk
to Sylvie about her quiz, okay? And I'll back you up if you ground her.
But I don't want them to hear us going at it like this. That's not going
to do any good."
"Fine. I'll do so." Elliot fingered
the paper absently. "But make sure you do back me up, Mary. I'm not going
to take this kind of laziness from a kid who's two years away from being
a senior. We need to nip it in the bud now."
"Whatever you think is best, Elliot." Mary sighed. "I'll be in the study,
finishing my song."
Elliot cast her a pained look, but
said no more as his wife turned on her heel, retreating once more into the
back room. Then, with a glance down at the quiz, he headed out into the hall
to where the twins were putting away their coats and shoes, bantering together
as they did so.
"Sylvina?" He said softly. "I want
a word with you."
Prologue: April 1st,
1997
Chapter One: Sylva's
Request
Chapter Two: Samantha...and
Jesta
Chapter Three: Flashback
- Junior High
Chapter Four: In The
Big Apple
Chapter Five: Flashback
- Sammi's Eighth Birthday
Chapter Six: Flight
Chapter Seven: Anna
Chapter Eight: Flashback
- The Martescu Home
Chapter Nine: Old Wounds
Chapter Ten: Jesta's
Clue
Chapter Eleven: In
Translation
Chapter Twelve: Flashback - Thick As Blood
Chapter Thirteen: A Friend In Need
Chapter Fourteen: Anna's Secret
Chapter Fifteen: Wedding Day
Chapter Sixteen: Flashback - First Kiss
Chapter Seventeen: Crossing The Line
Chapter Eighteen: Colin
Chapter Nineteen: Settling Up