Chapter 30

Sulamith didn't talk much over the next few months, about anything really. She dove into books and the rest of the time she was out in her workshop. She spent a couple of days at a gem show and then was in her workshop ten hours a day. “What's with Sulamith?” Toby asked me on a grey day in mid October. “I can't get her to hang out with me. She's turned into crabby hermit girl.”

I looked up at Toby. He was growing so fast and at fourteen he had already hit the six foot mark. He'd been raiding his dad's boxes of old clothes. I'd have to tell him the history of the decrepit Pixies concert t-shirt that he was wearing. He'd get a kick out of it. I sighed, “You need someone to hang out with?”

“Well I just got Guardians of the Galaxy on blue ray and I can't get the machine to work . . . But Sulamith always used to stay and watch movies with me even if she wasn't that interested. She said that she would be in to turn it on for me in twenty minutes, but that was over a half-an-hour ago. She's just totally forgotten. And even when she remembers she won't stay and watch movies with me anymore,” Toby grumbled.

“Well, I know that I'm not as cool as Sulamith, but if we can get your Grandma to turn on the movie for us, I'll watch it with you.”

Toby grinned, “I'll go get Grandma,” and he bounded up the stairs with the combined volume and enthusiasm that only a six foot tall fourteen-year-old boy can manage.

*

“Ya know when you keep eating the popcorn even though you have lots of little popcorn bits stuck in your teeth and you don't actually want anymore popcorn but you're too lazy to go upstairs and floss anyway so you just eat more popcorn 'cause it's not like it could get worse?” Toby asked after the credits had rolled.

I moved the popcorn out of his reach.

“Thank you,” he said, then, “So what's up with Sulamith anyway?”

“I offered to take her to see her biological father's family and my extended family in December. I think that she feels a bit . . . disconnected from the world lately.”

Toby nodded, “I thought your family was all dead or something mysterious like that?”

“My grandmother and my half siblings are still alive.”

“So, have I got like . . . cousins and shit?”

I raised an eyebrow at him, “Interesting turn of phrase Toby, but yes, you do have cousins.”

“Can I come too?”

“Do you want to?”

“Fuck yeah! I mean . . . That would be nice.”

“I'd like it if you came,” I told him.

“Then count me in.”

“We won't leave without you,” I smiled.

“Mum?” He fixed me with a serious look, “Is it your side of the family that fries computers and shi . . . I mean, stuff?”

“I'm not completely sure, but I think so. Why?”

“Are we like, Star-Lord . . . or something?”

I chuckled at the mental image, but I knew what he was getting at. His friends had gotten tired of his, 'Bet you I can fry your Iphone' trick fast. “We're not aliens sweetie, but . . . yeah.”

Toby nodded for a few thoughtful moments. “Cool,” was what he said, but his tone wasn't flippant. He got up off the couch and headed up the stairs, then stopped and turned to me with a puzzled look, “So Mum I'm guessing that you know that Angel who raids my DVD collection and always insists that I'm dreaming?”

“Yeah that's Raphael.” I shook my head, “I'll tell him that you know he's real the next time I see him.”

“Thanks,” Toby smiled, ran the rest of the way up the stairs and closed his bedroom door. Within moments thundering bass lines shuddered through the floor.

*

I hadn't actually gotten an answer from Sulamith as to whether she wanted to go, but about four weeks later she found me in my room. It was mid-morning. Evan was at the university, Toby at a course, and Sheila was in the back yard digging around in the dirt.

Sulamith looked skittish for a moment, like she'd bolt if I made any sudden movements, and then like that her posture changed and she took my jewellery box and sat with it cross-legged in the middle of my bed. This was an old habit of hers. It started when she was six and I had an unusual collection of jewellery.

“When I was little I used to take it for granted that all mothers had jewellery like this. It's only over the last few years that I've sort of wondered where it came from sometimes.” She lifted out the ruby set that Liam had given me and stared at it entranced.

“I have a dress that goes beautifully with that set if you'd like to try it on.”

She looked at me like I was crazy—or a big dork—for a moment, and then she looked frightened. She looked back at the necklace. “Okay,” came her timid reply.

“I'll be right back,” I told her.

I'd had the dresses that I'd brought back with me specially packed by cleaners and Raphael had eventually brought me a couple more he'd thought that I would have rather kept. There were four in total. I opened the boxes with some hangers handy, and one by one hung the dresses so that Sulamith could see them. She fingered the cream silk dress and the red dress that had been one of Rowan's favourites. She smiled at the pink dress that I had worn the night Rowan had asked me to be his. “This one is like a Disney princess dress.”

“I know. It screams Cinderella doesn't it?”

She smiled and nodded.

She walked back to the cream coloured dress, “This is the one that you wore with the rubies?”

“Yeah. My brother Liam gave me the rubies to go with it.”

“If I try this dress on will you put on the dark blue dress?”

“Alright,” I smiled and moved the other dresses to the closet.

We tied each other's laces and I clasped the rubies around her throat as she held her hair. She looked like a princess. “Would this be too fancy to wear on the winter solstice?” she asked as she stared into my mirror at her reflection.

“No, not at all, and I think that those rubies want to belong to you now.”

Her hand rose to her throat and I wondered what she was thinking but I didn't ask.

“Will you wear that dress?” she asked me of the blue dress I was wearing.

“Sure. Are you telling me that you want to go?”

She nodded, “I made you something. Here put your sapphire necklace on.” She rummaged in the pocket of the hoodie that was lying crumpled on my bed and pulled out a small velvet bag. “I was worried that I wouldn't be able to match the sapphires,” she told me as she passed me the bag.

I pulled the drawstring loose and emptied the contents of the bag into my hand. She had made earrings to match the necklace Bronwen had given me so many years earlier. They were the perfect accompaniment. Every detail. “Sulamith, these are incredible! I can't believe how good you are at this. These would cost thousands in a jewellery store! I wouldn't be able to tell that they hadn't been made with the necklace as a set.” I fastened the earrings and kept turning from the mirror and catching Sulamith's eyes. I could tell that she was pleased with herself. She was almost bouncing on the bed.

“Ever since the summer it's been like the stones and the metal are whispering to me and telling me what to do. Maybe later today I can show you some of the other pieces I've made?”

“I would like that. Can Toby come too? He's been missing you lately.”

Sulamith looked troubled for a moment, “Does he know . . .?”

“Not quite as much as you do,” I paused then told her, “He thinks we're like Star-Lord only, not aliens. But he seems good with it so far.”

Sulamith gave a snort of amusement, “I think that I'll have to sit down and watch that movie with him. I feel bad. I know he's been a bit lonely. I'll make it up to him . . . and I won't tell him anything that I don't think you would,” she added.

I smiled, maybe a little sadly, “I knew that you would be sensible if I showed you everything. Do you think that it was too much? Did I make a mistake?”

“No. Don't think that for a second Mum.”

I took her hand.

*

When I came downstairs later that day Sulamith and Toby were on the couch watching Guardians of the Galaxy. Sulamith had a huge smile plastered across her face.