Her bobbed hair had a sprinkling of gray. She was clutching a tissue. Marissa realized that she was crying.
The introductions were awkward, especially with Elaine Olafson struggling through tears.
“I’m sorry,” she apologized.
“But seeing Tristan brings back the pain of losing Eva. And we have gotten so attached to Chauncey.”
For the moment, Chauncey was holding on to Elaine’s leg. His eyes darted from Marissa to his father.
Marissa couldn’t help but sympathize with Elaine. The woman had lost her only child and was now about to lose the grandson she had been caring for for three years.
As they entered the house, Marissa smelled the wonderful aroma of a roasting turkey. She had always loved Thanksgiving.
Her memories of Thanksgiving dinners in Virginia were warm and wonderful. It had always been a comfortable, secure time.
Tristan and Eric soon retired to the den to watch football, cans of beer in hand. Marissa and Elaine went into the kitchen. After some initial shyness, Chauncey attempted to straddle both rooms, moving back and forth from the kitchen to the den every few minutes. Tristan had decided not to force anything. He wanted Chauncey to have the chance to get used to him.
“Put me to work,” Marissa told Elaine. She knew for a dinner like this there would be much to do.
Elaine told Marissa to relax, but Marissa insisted. Soon she found herself rinsing the salad greens. They chatted about the journey that morning from Butte, Montana, to San Francisco.
But as Elaine calmed, they moved to more personal issues.
“Tristan told Eric on the phone that you and he are planning to be married?” Elaine said.
“That’s the current plan,” Marissa said. It was hard for her to believe it herself. Only months previously she never would have imagined that she’d be capable of such a major step. But the transition from friendship to romance had started slowly. It had grown steadily through their months in hiding. Then, to Marissa’s surprise, their budding romance had flowered with sudden and intense passion.
“And you are going to adopt Chauncey?” Elaine asked. She opened the oven and basted the turkey.
“Yes,” Marissa said. She watched Elaine, waiting for the woman to look at her.
“I know this is very difficult for you ” Marissa said.
“I can imagine how much you will miss the boB ut there is something you should know. Tristan and I plan to move here to Berkeley so that Chauncey won’t have to change schools. But also so that he will be nearby. You and Eric will see him as often as you like. We know the change will be as difficult for Chauncey as it will be for you. We want to do the most we can to make it easier.”
“That’s wonderful,” Elaine said. She smiled for the first time since they’d arrived.
“I had no idea. I thought you would be moving back to Australia.”
“No,” Marissa said.
“For now it will be better for us both here.
We have a lot we’d like to put behind us. We want a fresh start.”
Elaine’s mood was much improved with the unexpected news about the intended move to Berkeley.
“Eric and I saw you and Tristan on Good Morning America and on 60 Minutes. When we heard what those clinics were doing, we were appalled. What some people will do for money!”
Marissa nodded.
“I had to laugh at what Charlie Gibson said,” Elaine continued.
“That comparison he made between the closing of the chain of Women’s Clinics and the jailing of Al Capone.”
“It does seem a bit ironic,”
“Marissa agreed.
“Absolutely,” Elaine agreed.
“I know that tax evasion was the only crime they were ever able to convict Capone of. But after everything those rotten doctors did, it’s hard to believe the only charges they got to stick were violations related to the hiring of illegal aliens.”
“At least the clinics are closed,” Marissa said.
“The problem has been that it is impossible to prove that the BCG these thousands of women have been given came from the clinics in question.
But they’re still not in the clear. The investigations have uncovered the fact that they had been routinely scheduling cervical’ biopsies for normal Pap smears. And they have been finding this in both the United States and Europe.”