Chapter 14 - What I Kept On
A week later the table came back out. I heard it before I saw it, the soft clink of the white plates and the glassware being set down one by one in the dining room. The daylight was the same, hard and bright through the floor-to-ceiling windows, catching on the crystal chandelier even though it was lit. It was afternoon again.
Vanessa was directing it. She stood at the head of the long glass table in jeans and a silk shirt, her hair pulled loose, pointing where each place should go. One. Two. Three. I counted from the hallway where I waited with my backpack still on my shoulders. The candelabras were already up. The napkins with the gold rings were rolled tight.
Rosa moved around her, quiet. She set the first plate down, then the second, then the third, lining up the edges with her thumb. When she looked up and saw me, she stopped for just a second.
I had made my decision that morning in my bedroom. My school clothes were laid out on my bed. My pink lace dress was hanging on the closet door where Rosa had put it back after washing it. The spot on the front was gone. I stood there for a long time and then I pulled the dress down and stepped into it instead. I fixed my pink clip in the bathroom mirror. It clicked the way it always did.
Dad came out of his office when he heard the plates. He was in a shirt with the sleeves rolled up, no jacket. He saw Vanessa, then he saw me in the doorway.
"Elena," he said. "You have guests coming tonight. Go change into—"
I didn't move. "I'm wearing this," I said. My voice sounded small in that big room, but I kept my hands still at my sides.
Vanessa looked at me from the end of the table. That same smirk pulled at her mouth. "She can't wear that to dinner, Daniel. It's a children's play dress. People are taking pictures."
"It fits me," I said.
Dad glanced at Vanessa, then back at me. He opened his mouth like he was going to tell me again, softer this time, to go to Rosa. Instead he just nodded once and looked away. He didn't tell me to leave.
Rosa went back to the sideboard. She picked up a fourth white plate from the stack. Nobody told her to. Vanessa was busy straightening a candelabra and didn't see at first. Rosa carried the plate to the table and set it down at the empty side, across from where Vanessa always sat. She placed it carefully, centered it between two of the ornate gold chairs. Then she added the glassware. Then a rolled napkin with a gold ring.
My chest got tight when I heard that plate touch the glass.
Vanessa turned. "What are you doing? I said three."
Rosa didn't pick the plate back up. Her hands went to her apron. "There's four in the house," she said.
Vanessa stared at her. "Take it off. We don't need it."
Dad was still standing by the windows. I watched him look at the three places, then at the fourth one Rosa had set. He put his hands in his pockets. For a moment nobody breathed.
"Leave it," he said.
Vanessa's head snapped toward him. "Daniel."
"Leave it," he said again. Louder this time. He didn't look at me when he said it. He looked at her.
May you like
Rosa stepped back from the table. She gave me the smallest nod. I walked in then, my shoes soft on the floor, and I went to that fourth spot. I didn't sit yet because the chairs were still pushed in and dinner wasn't ready. I just stood behind it with my hand resting on the back of the gold chair. The diamond necklace caught the light when Vanessa finally sat down to wait, arms crossed over her chest, eyes fixed on me.
The fourth plate stayed where Rosa had put it.
