He put a mitt on his hand, opened an old-fashioned oven, and pulled out two plates heaped with mashed potatoes and sausages and beans. He lit the burner to warm some gravy in a small cast-iron pot.
“Special occasion food, I see,” Nick said. Then, to me, “Prepare yourself for a lot of soup.”
Terry laughed, reached an arm toward Nick, and ruffled his hair.
“I’m not twelve,” Nick said, laughing, too.
Terry turned to me and smiled, warm but careful. “Here, sit.”
I sat at the never-ending kitchen table, all oil-spotted and cup-stained, and let the dinner fill me up while Terry and Julia chatted with Nick about his new job in a San Francisco skyscraper. I half listened, taking in the details of the kitchen. The blue-and-white-flowered curtains, the butcher-block counters, the giant mason jars lined up on shelves, full of flour and cornmeal and sugar and rice. I had never been anywhere like it.
“Well . . . ,” Nick said when he had finished eating.
“You’re sure we can’t persuade you to stay?” Terry asked.
“Gotta work in the morning. But I’ll come up again soon. Good luck,” he said, giving me a quick hug goodbye. “Don’t let these two work you too hard.”
They walked him out, and by the time they returned I was also finished eating.
“Mila,” Terry said, picking up my empty plate and water glass. “Why don’t you stay and visit with us for a little bit before I show you around.”
“I’d love to,” I said. “Can I help clean up?”
“Oh, don’t worry about these. You’ll be cleaning up plenty soon enough.” He set my dishes in the sink and smiled as he nodded toward the living room, where I could see that Julia was already arranging pillows on one of the sofas. I followed him up the two steps that separated the rooms. A fire burned under a grand hearth, glowing across overstuffed chairs and floor pillows, two sofas and a grand piano. The whole room was covered in floor-to-ceiling shelves laden with books and framed photographs. Rugs piled upon rugs. Everything was beautiful and nothing was perfect, and I didn’t know how I could have been chosen to be there.
Julia sat on the sofa, one leg tucked under. “Nick said you had an easy drive up. Have you been this far north before?”
I chose one of the chairs and sank into it. “No,” I told her. “Never this far.” I traced the outline of a bird printed on the armrest. I was trying not to look at the grand piano, which filled up the corner behind her. The sight of it made my chest ache.
The fire crackled and light danced across the ceiling and I wanted to give them something of myself. “I have to tell you . . .” They both leaned forward. “Nick told me about the piano. And for some reason I said I wanted to learn how to play it, but I actually know how to play. It’s just been a very long time.”
Julia laughed. “It’s funny, isn’t it? The things that come out of our mouths.”
“I’m glad you told us,” Terry said. “What a treat to have someone here who plays well. There’s enough terrible playing, believe me.”
“I don’t know if I play well. It’s been years.”
“Do you want to play now?” Julia asked.
I did want to. I wanted to very badly. So I got up and walked across the room and sat down and set my fingers on the keys.
I remembered what to do next. It came back to me. I played “Someone to Watch Over Me” from beginning to end without faltering. I knew just which keys to press, when to pause, and when to speed up. I played softly because, upstairs, children were sleeping. I finished and crossed back to the chair. I wondered if they could see me blushing, but I didn’t really mind if they did.
“We knew we picked well,” Julia said.
“Yes,” Terry said. “Now tell us who taught you to play like that.”
So I told them that I had lived with my mother and my grandparents for most of my childhood, until I turned thirteen and my mom and I moved in with Blake. “My grandmother loved to play the piano and she was a really good teacher. I don’t even remember trying to play, or messing up, or worrying about whether I was doing it right. I just remember her fingers on the keys and her telling me to follow.”
“And what happened to your grandparents?” Terry asked.
“They died sometime after we moved out. In a car accident.”
“And we heard that your mother . . .” Julia trailed off, waiting for me to finish the sentence.
“She left,” I said. “After the fire.” I traced the bird again, and then the branch it perched on, and the leaves that sprouted from the branch. By the time I looked up I was able to meet their faces. “I don’t want to talk about the fire if that’s okay.”
“That’s just fine,” Julia said.
“Your past is your own,” Terry said.
I nodded. We sat quietly for a minute or two. Julia said, “Thank you for playing for us. Thank you for your openness.” She stood up and stretched her arms over her head. “It’s past nine already. I’m going to check on the children. They’re so looking forward to meeting you in the morning.”
“I’m looking forward to meeting them, too.”
“Let’s get you some provisions,” Terry said. “It’s always nice to have something in case you want a midnight snack without crossing the field. And then we’ll go to your cabin and I’ll show you how to heat it.”
In the kitchen, he handed me a basket and offered me oranges and a loaf of bread and cookies. “And now,” he said, once the basket was full, “we cross the field to the third cabin.” He gestured to the window, then stopped. I followed his gaze but at first all I saw was our reflection, standing beneath a light in the kitchen: a tall Black man with an expression of wonder, a lonely white girl trying to make sense of the dark.
Then in the moonlight I saw something outside, glowing and crossing the field, moving closer. And the closer it came, the more it looked like a figure, like how a person would look if a person emanated light.
“I hope you aren’t afraid of ghosts,” Terry said.
I felt gripped around the throat at first. Felt a familiarity. A darkness. My spine went stiff and straight and I made my face blank. I would be impenetrable. I would not give myself away.
The ghost hovered in place on the moonlit field. It lifted its arms to the sky and spun in a slow circle. A girl, I thought, by the way she moved. And, in spite of myself, I was mesmerized.
“No,” I whispered. “No, I’m not afraid.”
I didn’t know if I was telling the truth.