Helens-of-Troy Read Online Free Page B

before.
There’s nothing wrong with how I dress. Nothing’s too short,
nothing’s hanging out—nothing. If you think about what I could be
wearing, I think you’ll find you’ve got it made. I could dress like
a slutty, schoolgirl/pop-star and maybe somebody like Dave would
come along and…”
    “Okay, okay, I get the picture. But
Ellie, look at it from my perspective. We’re going to your Nan’s,
and today is Halloween. She’s going to think it’s a costume. She’ll
say, ‘Ellie, you look so cute!’ But the joke will be on her when
she realizes you dress like this all the time. Not just for pagan
festivals, but at Christmas, and Mother’s Day, and whatever other
three hundred and sixty two days of the year there are.”
    “Mom, you’re exaggerating. I take the
make-up off at night. So you can take Christmas Eve out of the
scenario and revise your count. Which is a little off, I might add,
given that there is probably more than one pagan festival a
year.”
    “That will be a relief to her, I’m
sure.”
    “I’m her granddaughter. She’ll love me
no matter what.”
    “You think so, do you? Try calling her
‘Grandma’. She’ll claim you belong to the neighbors.” Helen ran her
finger across her throat execution style “Or kill you, so you never
utter those words again.”
    “She will not.”
    “Give it a try, see what happens,”
Helen shrugged.
    Ellie sadly watched in the side mirror
as every familiar landmark became smaller in the distance. She
tried to remember what her grandmother was like, but it had been a
long time since she had seen her. She remembered liking her, and
she remembered that her mother didn’t. Which made her wonder why
they were going there in the first place?
    “Do you think I’m going to embarrass
her or something?” Ellie asked pensively.
    “The thought had crossed my
mind.”
    “And parking a van in front of her
house, a van that’s side-painted with a dead cockroach lying on its
back, won’t? Thanks a lot.”
    “So we’re back to the van again. I hate
it when you’re right. Look, when we get to Nan's, let’s pretend we
like each other, at least tonight. Okay?”
    Ellie looked at her mom, bewilderedly.
“I do like you mom. Except when you treat me like a child. What did
you mean by that anyway? Don’t you like me? You said ‘pretend
we’.”
    The remark stung Helen. “Nothing. I’m
sorry, Ellie. Of course I like you. I love you. This has just been
an emotional day for me, that’s all.”
    “You can like someone without loving
them, and you can love someone without liking them,” Ellie said
thoughtfully.
    Maybe she was growing up after all,
Helen admitted to herself. She reached over and flipped Ellie’s
long black hair over her shoulder so she could see her daughter’s
face. “I like and love you, Ellie. That’s also
possible.”
    Helen thought for a moment she saw the
slightest beginning of a smile on her daughter’s face. It didn’t
last long.
    “Then why are we moving to Nan's
anyway? To this Troy place? Why don’t we just move around the block
or something? That way I can still be friends with Dina and go to
the same school. We don’t have to move miles away just because
you’ve dumped your latest husband.”
    Helen knew the tender mother-daughter
moment had passed. “I’m not sure being friends with Dina is such a
good thing for you. I think she’s going to get herself pregnant. It
will do you good to meet some new friends. Country
friends.”
    “She already is pregnant.”
    Helen sighed. “Okay, see that’s what I
mean. This move is going to be so good for us.”
    “It’s not contagious or anything, being
pregnant.”
    “It kind of is, Ellie. Sure, you won’t
get it from her, but if it’s going around, it’s going around. And
don’t pretend you don’t know what I mean, because I know you
do.”
    “Is that what happened to you? Didn’t
Nan move you to a small town in time?”
    Ellie had wanted to hit a nerve in her
mother,