Dorian:
The following week sees two more "important" messages from Tina that I ignore, a huge budget meeting that gets lukewarm results and Risa connecting with two doctors to start her physical transformation...at least one or two transformations.
I try to put last weekend's nightmare out of my mind...I'm glad it didn't ruin our weekend together.
We parted on Sunday afternoon with lots of hugs at Times Square with Addie inviting all of us up to her place for Thanksgiving.
On Wednesday, I am happy to receive an e-mail from Zyon's granddaughter Eden, so during a work break, I e-mail back.
Eden lives in Peoria, Illinois and has two small children, a son and a daughter and is a librarian.
She was a great comfort to me when Zyon died...we still keep in touch now and then.
Once when she visited last April, the two of us spent an entire day exploring the stacks of the largest reading room at the Library of Congress and had a great time.
We pored over old newspaper articles covering the huge 1918 flu pandemic and the early 1900s immigrant waves.
Zyon's family and mine both have ancestors who immigrated through Ellis Island to escape the pogroms in Eastern Europe.
Speaking of Eastern Europe, later that week, I also get an invitation for the following week to a dinner for ambassadors past and present which features ambassadors, a few US senators and parliament members from around the world, including Germany, Italy, India, Russia, Canada, several South American countries and Sri Lanka.
Pleased with this invitation, I RSVP yes immediately before leaving my office for the weekend.
•••••••••••••
"Heeyyy, baby-mousse!"
"Heyy, sweet-drinks!" I call.
David and I run into each other's arms at the airport after our quirky greet that late afternoon on Friday.
Our funny monikers from each other still stick from our first marriage.
Ironically, that first marriage that took place back in Llanview was to protect each other from a revenge plot Viki had hatched to get back at me for escaping death row and at David for having a fling with Tina.
It's great seeing David again after a few months. He's wrapped up the commercial he was doing, but is likely to fly back to LA again in late October.
"River...Risa...is he settled in okay?" David asks as we walk to our car after collecting his two bags.
"Yes...she's studying medicine," I tell him. "Risa should be home by now...I made the eggplant Parmesan for tonight...tomorrow we're headed to Langston's place...we'll meet her daughter Jill."
My heart swells in anticipation of meeting my youngest grandchild.
"So River really transgendered completely and goes by Risa now?" David muses.
"Yes." I park, noting how the trees around our neighborhood are beginning to change.
The days are still warm, but less humid now and the nights are beginning to grow cooler.
•••••••••••••
"Mooom!"
"Langston!"
"Granna!"
Finally, I'm meeting my newest granddaughter. As David, Risa and Langston greet each other, Jill runs into my arms and I pick her up.
She doesn't seem shy about meeting her grandmom for the first time.
She has dark hair like Langston and me and I'm happy to see that her eyes are almost as brown as mine.
Langston and I introduce David, Risa and Jill, then head to the living room to catch up.
Langston has crackers, cheese, grapes, wine and tea for us.
We spend several hours talking. David tells us about his latest fragrance soap commercial.
Risa tells Langston and Jill about grad school and studying medicine and a bit about her transgender experience.
"So, you used to be a man and now you're turning into a lady?" Jill asks.
"Yep," Risa confirms.
Langston tells us about a historical play she's writing and about a young adult play she's producing.
One of her plays may even be featured at an old classic theater in Greenbelt that the Roosevelts helped found back in the 1930s.
"Your great grandmother Sofia once told my sisters and me about how so many people struggled during the Great Depression," I put in.
"What do you remember about great-grandmum?" Langston asks.
"She immigrated through Ellis Island from Russia in 1905," I say. "She died when I was twelve...I missed her for a long time...I still sometimes do...she taught me a bit of Russian...I wish she'd lived longer...maybe Mama..." I trail off a bit, not wanting to really talk about Mama. "I wish I could speak Russian."
As we catch up more and Jill plays on the floor building an elaborate little city with her legos, I think about how Mama had to live with other relatives who were unstable alcoholics for several years during the Great Depression.
Sofia or Babushka as we called her, had been loving with us girls...she often tempered my parents' and Ms. Stonecliff's insanity.
I vaguely remember when we girls had gone to the beach with her one summer when I was very small and she held me when I cried over dead fish in an oil spill.
By the time we head to Langston's large kitchen for dinner, Jill has built a little city block.
"Does dis look like where you live, Granna?" Jill asks me.
"It does," I confirm. "One day perhaps you and your mom can visit me in Washington and see the Capital and the White House."
As we head into the kitchen to eat and sit, Jill asks, "Is the Capital building where you work dat building dat looks like a big white pencil with a point in the middle of a pad of grass."
We chuckle as we pass around the food. "No, that's the National Monument," Langston tells her.
"The Capital is the building with the dome and long windows," David adds.
"Your grandmother works in that domed building making sure that we stay safe and free," Langston says.
Langston's kitchen is a beautiful eat-in kitchen with several island counters, two big bay windows with a large roofed porch and even a fireplace.
The porch reminds me a little of a house I knew long ago when I was in grad school.
The house belonged to a lady who had hired me as her groundskeeper for a couple of school breaks.
After dinner, we walk about the house outside, then around the neighborhood a bit.
Langston points out several sites, including a shopping center a short walk away and a small, beautiful park that Jill loves.
There's also a recreation facility and a grammar and high school in the area.
"It's one of the reasons I wanted this area," Langston says. "It's walkable and the schools are so close...the Largo Town Center and metro station is a short drive or you could walk a half hour if you're really up to the exercise."
It's a lovely, quiet suburban neighborhood, but the houses and stores are close enough where people are not isolated.
As we walk back in the sunset, I feel very happy for my youngest daughter and granddaughter.
Perhaps maybe, maybe this newest generation of Cramers have a chance at escaping the curse that has afflicted our family for too many generations.
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Leftover Baggage from Llanview
FanfictionDorian is now settled in Washington, DC, having left the small, gossipy town of Llanview. Her life has settled down and is a lot more peaceful and quieter than it once was. However, she still has leftover emotional baggage from those years that she...
