Babies in the Bargain

It didn’t make Kira feel any better.

And it wasn’t much help when Cutty said, “Betty, why don’t you show Kira the ropes around here so the girls will eat?”

Kira didn’t think it was a good sign that she had to be removed from her nieces’ sight in order for them to relax enough to have their breakfast. But there was nothing she could do except comply and hope the twins would warm up to her. Eventually.

Disheartened, Kira followed Betty out of the kitchen.

“Really, they’ll be okay after a while,” the older woman said confidently.

“I hope you’re right.”

That seemed to put an end to the subject then, because Betty said, “Let’s start in the nursery,” and led Kira down the hallway that ran alongside the staircase and up the steps.

The second floor of the house was as much of a disaster as the first. On the way to the nursery Betty picked up a few things, but it didn’t make a dent in the mess.

The nursery itself was painted white and trimmed in mauve, with one wall papered in a print where cartoonish jungle animals all played happily in a rain forest.

There were two cribs, two dressers, two toy boxes, but only one changing table.

“That’s Mel’s bed. That’s Mandy’s,” Betty began, pointing out which was which. “But sometimes if one or the other of the girls is fussy they sleep better if you put them in the same crib.”

The older woman crossed to Mandy’s bed and began to strip off the sheet. “I probably have enough time to help you with these beds. Marla always changed the bedding every day. I’ve tried to go on doing things like she did because I know that’s what she would have wanted.”

There was a strong message implied that Kira should do things as Marla would have wanted, too.

Kira went to the other crib and began to strip the sheet from it. “You must have known Marla well.”

“Northbridge is a small town—everyone knows everyone well. And then I helped out three days a week after the twins were born so I got to know her even better. Not that Marla really needed any help, because believe you me, she didn’t. It was Cutty who brought me in but I mostly just fed the babies bottles and tried to play with Anthony while Marla did the real work. She was just a marvel as a mother and housekeeper. Actually I can’t think of anything she wasn’t a marvel at.”

Unlike her younger sister, Kira thought, as she lost her grip on the crib sheet three times before she finally succeeded in getting it stretched over all four corners of the mattress.

But at least the other woman didn’t notice. Betty just continued talking. “You should have seen Marla with Anthony. He was a sweet boy but he was a handful. It never fazed your sister, though. She was devoted to him. She was like a saint, that girl.”

Kira didn’t know what to say to that, especially since what Betty was saying was making Kira worry about how she was going to accomplish all Marla apparently had.

Betty then hurried out of the room with the sheets in her arms, saying as she did, “You can do the rest of the room later. In the meantime we can put these sheets right into the washer. Marla always did at least one load of laundry a day, and I’m sure you’ll want to, too.”

Kira watched the plump older lady stuff the sheets into the washing machine in the closetlike space that opened off the hall, hoping it and the dryer operated the same way the machines in her apartment laundry room did so she wouldn’t have to ask for instructions.

“Cutty told me this morning that he’s not having you do anything in his room. He says he’ll take care of it himself,” Betty informed her, bypassing the closed door across the hall from the nursery and moving into the bathroom where towels, washcloths, baby clothes, tub toys and various soaps, shampoos and lotions littered the space. There was also a ring around the tub and stains all over the sink and countertop.

“Baths everyday,” Betty instructed. “In the evenings before bed. That was how Marla did it. And she would never have left the bathtub dirty. Or a speck of dust anywhere or the floors unvacuumed or—well, or anything less than immaculate. I’m telling you, she was amazing.”

“She always was,” Kira said, trying to do a little in the way of straightening up the bathroom.

“Oh, honey, no. Marla kept that soap dispenser on the right side of the sink and that’s where it belongs.”

Kira put the pump bottle where she’d been told to.

Betty adjusted it to just the right spot, explaining as she did, “Marla liked everything exactly so. But I don’t have much time, and you can get this done later. Let’s go back downstairs so I can show you a few things there.”

The older woman led the way out of the bathroom and Kira followed.

There was another closed door on the other side of the bathroom and Betty nodded in that direction as they went by it.

“That was Anthony’s room,” she whispered as if it were a secret. “There’s nothing in there. Even when Anthony was here he could only have a mattress on the floor, and at the start of the summer Cutty finally got rid of it. He gave away his own bed and bedroom furniture, too. It was a clean sweep. He bought all new things for himself, but of course there was no reason to get anything for Anthony’s old room. Besides, there’s work that needs to be done in there and until it is… Well, no sense furnishing it.”

Kira glanced in the direction of the closed door, curious about what kind of work the room needed and why. But she didn’t feel comfortable asking so she merely followed Betty down the stairs as the woman continued her nonstop chatter.

“It was good for Cutty to make some changes, though. We all thought it meant he was ready to get on with his life, and we were glad to see it. For his sake and for Mandy’s and Mel’s. A person can’t grieve forever. That’s just not healthy. Would you look at this mess?” Betty said, changing subjects as they reached the living room but not taking so much as a breath to let Kira know she was suddenly talking about something else. “Two days I’ve been gone, and I just can’t believe what a shambles this place is in. You came at the right time, that’s for sure. Now I can take care of my mother and know everything here will be all right. If poor Marla saw a mess like this she’d have had a fit. Never a thing out of order—that was Marla.”

Betty went on to point out the box in the corner of the room where the downstairs toys could be put away, as well as outlining how often Marla had washed windows. And turned mattresses. And scrubbed walls. And wiped down baseboards. And polished furniture and silver. And made hot meals and home-baked cakes and cookies and her own bread.

The list seemed to go on and on until Kira began to think she might have a panic attack if she heard one more word.

Maybe Betty saw it on her face because she stopped suddenly and said, “Oh, not that you have to do all Marla did. I don’t know if anyone could do all Marla did. I’ll just be happy if you can keep everybody clean and fed and the house picked up until I can get back here.”

“I’ll do my best,” Kira said, realizing that Marla had left her a very high standard to live up to.

“I’m sure you’ll be fine,” Betty said. “Now let me give you a quick tour of the kitchen and tell you about the babies’ schedule before I let you get to work.”

Kira followed the plump woman back to the kitchen where Cutty was trying to coax his daughters to eat.

The reappearance of Kira didn’t aid that cause because this time when she walked into the room they watched her warily and paid no attention to what their father wanted of them.

“After breakfast I get the darlings cleaned up and dressed for the day,” Betty was saying, oblivious to the twins’ continuing disenchantment with Kira. “Some mornings they’ll watch Sesame Street while I get to work on the house, or they’ll play—”

“Those are the good mornings,” Cutty contributed wryly, leaving Kira to guess what happened on the bad mornings.

Betty didn’t address it, though, she just went on. “They’re ready for lunch around noon and then I let them digest their food for about half an hour before I put them down for their naps. That’s the best time to catch up. They’ll be awake again about three or so. We try to have dinner around six. Then there are baths and hair washing. They like to look at books before bedtime—they won’t sit still if you try to read to them but if you point to the pictures and tell them what they are, they like that. I put them to bed for the night about eight or eight-thirty, and that’s the day.”

Kira felt winded just listening to it.

But she wasn’t going to let either Betty or Cutty know that and decided she would look at it all as a challenge. A challenge she was confident she could meet just the way she’d always met every other challenge in her life. After all, she’d been well-trained in meeting standards set by someone else. Plus she kept her own apartment pristinely clean. How much more difficult could it be to take care of two little girls on top of doing the housework around here?

“Okay,” she said simply enough.

“You’ll do fine,” Betty insisted, looking at her watch. “I’d better leave you to it so I can get Mom out of that hospital before she tries hitchhiking home. She warned me to be there first thing this morning or else. But if you all need me—”

“Don’t worry about us. We’ll manage,” Cutty said.

“What’s this we business?” Betty countered. “Remember, you’re supposed to stay off that ankle. You just let Kira do everything. After all, she’s Marla’s sister. She’ll be able to handle anything.”

Kira didn’t refute that because she knew she would bend over backward to do every bit as well as Marla had. As always.

“Okay, I’m off,” Betty announced.

She kissed the babies on the top of their curly heads as Cutty said, “Tell your Mom hi and that we hope she feels better.”