Lisa Magdsick
Melting Ice Cream by Lisa Magdsick
The doorbell rang; Alyssa could see shadows move behind the brightly colored stained glass of the front door. She walked over quickly to let her guest in.
A young man wearing a tie, button-down shirt and khakis stepped through the door. He gave Alyssa a smile and short kiss as Alyssa shut the door. A click-clacking of high heels came down the hallway.
“John, I’m so glad you could come,” Margot leaned in and gave the young man a short hug. “I’m Margot. Come in.” She ushered the John and Alyssa into the living room where Vernon was sitting at a corner table next to a chess board. He looked up when they entered.
“Vernon, this is John.”
Vernon gave a nod without bothering to look up.
“Can I get you something to drink? Wine? Something stronger?”
John looked at Alyssa and back at Margot. “Wine is great.” Margot swished off to the kitchen.
Alyssa led John over to an unoccupied sofa that he subsequently slumped into. Alyssa rubbed her fingers over his hands and smiled. John blew air into Alyssa’s ear, causing her to laugh and to make John aware of Vernon’s presence in the room. He became more serious.
“Do you like chess, Vernon?” John asked.
Vernon stood up and put his hands in his pockets and paced a few steps as he said, “It’s something to do… It’s not mine.” He moved to a wooden chair by the loveseat.
“I’m sorry?”
“He means it’s my chess board,” interjected Alyssa.
“You never told me you play chess,” smiled John.
“I don’t. I just played some when I was younger.”
Vernon sat down in a chair opposite the sofa. He started to twirl a figurine in his hand. Alyssa looked away as Margot’s click-clacking heels got louder upon re-entering the living room. She saw the figurine in Vernon’s hand, moved gracefully behind his chair and whispered, “Vernon, would you put that down?” While passing the wine across the coffee table, she asked, “So, what have you all been talking about?”
“Chess,” said John. “Alyssa was telling me she used to play…”
“Oh yes, she was a wonderful player. We still have her old ribbons and trophies upstairs.”
“You competed?” John asked.
“Mom, how’s dinner coming? We have that movie to catch.”
“Everything’s ready. Why doesn’t everyone take their drinks into the dining room and I’ll get the food on the table.”
Everyone’s footsteps made creaks across the wooden floorboards as they entered the dining room. The table was immaculately set with two kinds of glasses, forks, and plates. After John said a short grace, and all the food had been passed once around the table, silverware began to scrap against the plates.
After John had tasted a piece of chicken, she said, “This is delicious.”
Margot beamed, “Well, thank you. You know, there’s nothing to it. I mean there’s only a few ingredients in it. I’ll write the recipe down for you, maybe Alyssa can make it for you sometime.”
“Do you cook a lot, then?” John asked in the middle of chewing.
“I suppose so, I just thought it was better to make it myself, just the way we like it, instead of some peal-back-the-lid variety with too much something here and not enough something else there.”
Alyssa silently cut, chewed, and swallowed her food while Margot was talking. “Mom, I work most of the day and am tired when I get home. I don’t have the energy to make meals that aren’t of the ‘peal-back-the-lid’ variety.”
“You find the time, Alyssa.”
“Maybe I’d find more of it if I were a housewife.”
Margot’s calm demeanor had grown slightly tense. “More wine, John?”
He shook his head. The Mozart piano concerto trilling in the background and the tinking of glasses and forks were the only audible sounds. Finally John Margot and Vernon and said, “Alyssa told me you always take a trip every year. Any plans for where you’ll go this year?”
Margot looked sullen. “No. This year we’re going to take a break from travel. Maybe next year.” She looked down at her plate for the first time during the meal while piercing her broccoli.
Alyssa looked at her parents in confusion. She said, “But you always go on vacation. You just said how much you wanted to go to Greece.”
“We decided not to go.”
“But why? I mean, it’s not like you don’t have the money or Dad couldn’t get the time off.”
There was a clank at the head of the table. Vernon had banged his water glass on his plate. He began trying to eat wild rice, but most of it kept falling off his fork.
John looked uncomfortable while Alyssa looked determined. “What’s going on?”
Cutting into her chicken and Alyssa’s question, Margot asked, “What are your plans for after college, John? You had said you’re an English major just like Alyssa was. There’s a lot you could do there.”
Looking a little dumbstruck, he answered, “Uh, well, I was kinda thinkin’ about teaching.”
“English then? And where would you teach?”
“Pepper, fork,” said Vernon at the other end of the table with the water glass in his hand. Margot put down her knife and fork and looked to Alyssa to pass her father the pepper. He became frustrated. “No, for teaching.”
“You mean Wipperspoon? Wipperspoon Academy?” asked Margot.
“Is that a good place for teaching?” asked Bill.
“Oh yes, it’s where Alyssa went to school. You could look that place up, see if you were interested,” Margot said to John, which was met by a noncommittal nod.
The CD player growled as it changed selections and the tinkling of silverware had stilled. John reached into the bread bowl, but finding nothing he liked, returned his hand to his lap.
Margot tapped her hands together as she said, “How about some dessert? Alyssa, would you give me a hand?”
John stretched as Margot and Alyssa cleared the dishes and walked into the kitchen. Once the dirty plates were stacked, Margot turned on the coffeemaker and Alyssa started arranging the assorted cookies, bars, and chocolates onto an empty platter as she said, “Mom, what’s going on?”
“Nothing. For once we’re not going on vacation and suddenly something has to be wrong?” She popped a chocolate into her mouth.
Alyssa started unwrapping the cookies and her words more viciously. “Excuse me for caring when suddenly cooking and serving are your number one priorities and Dad’s acting like he’s drunk.” Margot started unwrapping some ice cream. “Mom, for God sakes, what is it?”
“First, don’t talk about my priorities, Alyssa, you obviously do not know what they are. And second, your father’s never been drunk in front of you in your life. They gave him some time off from work, which you would know about if you were here more often.” She clunked a stack of clean dishes onto the counter in front of Alyssa and started walking into the dining room with the platter of desserts and ice cream in her hands.
John yawned as the desserts were placed on the table. Alyssa brought in the ice cream and freshly brewed coffee, pouring it into the outstretched cups around the table. She sat down and started serving ice cream, the clinking of the ice cream scoop against the clean dishes becoming rhythmic. “So, Dad, how’s work?”
“Alyssa,” Margot breathed the name with anger while covering her head with her hands.
“What? We talked about John’s work, let’s talk about Dad’s. So how is it?”
Vernon wiped the corners of his mouth with his napkin and shrugged. “Good.”
“Same old forty hours a week?” Alyssa said curtly. After Vernon gave her no response, she said, “I would just want to know if something important happened, like your getting promoted, a raise, or getting forced into early retirement, so I could call you up and congratulate you.”
John squeezed Alyssa’s hand to signal a retreat. She skewered some ice cream from her plate. “For once I’m trying to get us to talk about something important and you want me to stop? And I can’t believe that you all knew about this and didn’t tell me.”
John ate his dessert quickly and half-heartedly. Looking at his watch, he said, “Well, this was a wonderful dinner, but it is getting late.”
Everyone rose awkwardly and walked uniformly to the front door. Alyssa started to put on her jacket, but John motioned for her to stop. “I don’t think I’m in the mood for a movie anymore.”
She took her coat off again and looked into John’s face, asking, “So, you’ll call me tomorrow?”
John looked down at the floor while nodding. He gave her a peck on the cheek and did not look back as he walked out the front door.
Margot closed the door and walked past Alyssa into the dining room. Alyssa walked into the living room where Vernon was already sitting on the wooden chair next to the loveseat.
“Well, that was fun,” said Alyssa, as she slouched onto the arm of the sofa.
There was clinking of dishes in the kitchen and a face-paced click-clacking coming down the corridor. Vernon kept looking at his folded hands.
“Alyssa,” said Margot, turning into the living room, “your behavior at dinner was totally inexcusable. You showed a want of feeling, patience, and decorum, and that is not the way I brought you up.”
Looking at her nails, Alyssa said, “Have you been practicing those lines in the kitchen?”
“You couldn’t wait even half an hour until your guest had left for me to tell you what’s been going on in this house?”
“Would you even have told me then? You never tell me anything!”
“Fine. Since you want to know so badly, I’ll tell you.” Alyssa slouched as though she was not interested and Andy focused on Margot. “Your father’s colleagues at the hospital were afraid he might say the wrong medication without noticing it, since he’s been mixing up words for the last few months, so they told him to take some time off, and if he got better, he would be welcomed back. And the reason we’re not going to Greece is simply because we might not be able to afford it. Is there anything else you wanted to know?”
“And when did this ‘time off’ start?” asked Alyssa.
“About two months ago.”
Alyssa covered her forehead with her hands. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me.”
“You weren’t around here to tell.”
Alyssa jumped up from the sofa and marched to the backdoor to get her purse. She watched Vernon looking at his hands as she walked to the front door, slamming it behind her. Leaving Vernon alone in the living room, Margot strode back to the kitchen to finish cleaning the dishes.