The English Descendants

15

Alone in the house with their grandparents, Anne and Dexter make plans to ask Edith about Thomas after lunch. They don't know if they should ask around Alan, so they try to figure out how to distract him long enough to make their inquiry.

But at lunch, everything goes amiss when Edith says, "Alan tells me you have an imaginary friend who stays with you during the difficult times."

Dexter looks at Anne, eyes wide, "How does he know?"

"The night Harry died. Grandpa talked to him."

"I thought you said grown-ups couldn't see him?"

"No, I said he doesn't usually come around when there are grown-ups nearby. There's a big difference."

Edith interrupts their argument, "So it's true? Thomas visits you?"

Anne nods, "Yes. But mostly just me. Dex is scared of him."

"Am not!"

"Are so! You told me he frightened you because of the gash in his face."

"Well it's a bit upsetting to think of someone getting stabbed!"

She turns to her grandmother, "Is that how he died?"

"It's one of the wounds, yes. That one was the most quickly fatal. The others would have killed him in time."

All of Dexter's nine years have not prepared him for the idea that someone he knows, or knows in ghostly form, could have been murdered, "Hold on, you mean someone stabbed him to death?"

"Yes."

"Oh...that's terrible."

Anne's curiosity gets the better of her, "Where else was he stabbed?"

"Annie!" Dexter gasps.

"No, no, it's quite alright. His torso."

Alan watches to make sure Edith is fine talking about this- he has always been cautious about the subject of Thomas, letting her lead, and skillfully diverting their conversations if it appears she does not want to talk about him any longer. But she seems at ease, as if she has thought about this.

"Who was he?" Anne asks.

"My first husband. He died in England twenty eight years ago."

"Oh. Do you miss him?"

Edith nods, "On occasion. But I found your grandfather waiting for me while recovering from his death. And so here we are."

Anne is satisfied with this answer. Dexter is as well, but he is not sure if this is because the answer is enough or because he does not want to know any more about the murder.

When Charlotte and Harold return from the cemetery, it is late in the evening and supper is ready. When asked about their day, the children do not say anything about Thomas. Late that evening, however, after they are in bed, Edith and Charlotte take tea around the dining table while Alan and Harold play billiards.

"How were the children today, Mother? Honestly."

"Very well behaved. Inquisitive, too."

"Oh? What did they inquire about?"

"An imaginary friend of Annie's."

Charlotte's teacup pauses on its way to her lips, "Why would they ask you about her imaginary friend?" She has suspected for years that the imaginary friend might not be imaginary, but she has pushed it to the back of her mind, hoping her daughter's companion was only a flight of fancy.

"You know as well as I why. He's been watching over the children of this family since he died. Alan tells me he sat up all night watching over them the night we lost Harry."

"What did they ask?"

"How he died. Who he was?"

"And what did you tell them?"

"That he was stabbed to death and that he was my first husband."

"Did they ask anything else?"

"Only if I missed him."

Charlotte sips her tea, "That must have made my father a bit uncomfortable. Or wasn't he privy to this conversation?"

"No, he was there. But he and I talked after. The children are going to be curious about him and we should do our best to answer honestly, even if incompletely. Eventually they may come to know more of his story and I don't want them to think we lied to them."

"His story is pretty terrible."

"That it is. But I think sometimes you forget, dear Lottie, that he was a person, too, and a very broken one at that."

"I don't want you telling them anything else."

"I will not lie to them."

"Change the subject, then. Or tell them that I have forbidden them to ask of him. But I don't want them knowing about the incest or Lucille's brutality."

"They are children- those subjects are obviously taboo. But you cannot keep them from knowing when they are old enough. That would not be fair to them."

Charlotte is not happy with this answer but know she will get nowhere arguing with Edith, "I will have to tell him not to talk to them about it."

"What makes you think he will? He never did to either of you until you asked."

"But I don't want them to know, even if they do!"

Edith sighs, "Lottie...I know you are ashamed of what he did, of what Lucille did...but you cannot keep the children from knowing their other grandfather, when the time is right."

"I only begrudgingly allow it now."

"Did you know for certain they were visiting with him?"

"No. But I had an idea."

"He would have done the same for you, had you allowed it."

"I know."

"Consider this part of his healing- one more step on the path to finding rest. He needs to feel a part of a family and our family is his family. Let him be."

"Only so long as we are in this house."

Edith shakes her head, "You are making a mistake, dear daughter. But only time will convince you of that, if anything. Heaven knows, I can't."