see them speaking.
“You religious?” Peter asked.
“No, just bored,” Gemma-Kate answered. “What’s this thing for?”
“It’s called a labyrinth. It’s stupid. There’s only one way in and out. What’s the good of it?”
“Maybe it doesn’t want you to have to make choices. Maybe it doesn’t want you to think. There, I got to the center.” She pointed to a white adobe wall across the yard. “What’s that?”
“I’ll show you. Come on.”
Mallory came up to say she had to get home to Owen, and spotted Gemma-Kate and Peter. “Isn’t that cute,” she said as Ruth and I turned to her. “No, don’t bother to thank me. Carlo said to tell you he’s ready to go, too.”
Ruth fastened on to Mallory while my friend tried to disengage from her in the social form of unpeeling Saran Wrap. I helped by asking her to let Carlo know we’d be staying just a little longer. Then, in the hopes that Ruth would stop talking, I pretended to watch the kids out the window, though they had walked away from the labyrinth in the direction of the small white adobe structure and I couldn’t see them anymore.
Peter said, “This is called a columbarium. See all the marble squares? There’s a person under each one. Ashes, I mean.”
“I went to the cemetery when they buried my mother, but she was Catholic so Dad didn’t cremate her,” Gemma-Kate said. “I think I’d rather be cremated. Did you know any of the people here?”
“This one over here. See, Joseph Neilsen. I was here when they put his ashes under that tile. They were in a little metal thing that looked like my dad’s martini shaker.”
Gemma-Kate did the math. “Fourteen years old. How did he die?”
“He drowned.”
“That’s a weird way to go here. You don’t even have any water in the rivers.”
“He had a pool.”
“Did he, like, hit his head or something?”
Peter shrugged but didn’t answer. “Nobody really liked him. He was sort of a jerk. We talked about it a lot at first, but it happened a while ago.”
“Now I remember,” Gemma-Kate said. “I heard my aunt’s friend talking about it at the house.”
“What did she say?”
Gemma-Kate turned at the sound of her name. Her aunt was coming up the path but hadn’t reached the wall yet, was waving to her. She waved back and told Peter she had to go.
On the drive home Gemma-Kate sat in the backseat, texting.
“Who you on with, GK? Peter already?”
“It’s Dad.”
“Tell him I said hi. I’ll call him.”
Nine
Early that week Carlo took Gemma-Kate for a tour of the University of Arizona, where he introduced her to the head of the Biology Department and they toured the labs. This was heady stuff for Gemma-Kate, who had only had access to what she could learn from books and the Internet. On return they walked in through the garage door singing Gilbert and Sullivan, but knowing I’m uncomfortable with music, Carlo shushed Gemma-Kate before the door closed.
Over lunch Gemma-Kate told me about the day while Carlo watched her, beaming with the delight a teacher has in discovering the one student who gets it.
“I saw a fly wing under an electron microscope. And I listened to Uncle Father talk with the Biology Department chair, Dr. Brogdon. They’re going to give a series of joint lectures on science and religion. Did you know that ancient philosophy began with questions about the physical world instead of the spiritual world, Aunt Brigid? The word ‘atom’ was originally coined by pre-Socratic philosophers.”
I nodded as if everybody knew that, more distracted by how Gemma-Kate might have ended up with “Uncle Father.” It sounded vaguely like something from South Park.
* * *
In the late afternoon that same day, Carlo and I got dressed up and gave Gemma-Kate directions for the Pugs, which amounted to just letting them out in the backyard if they asked. She asked if Peter could come over and looked sullen when I said I wasn’t comfortable with
“You religious?” Peter asked.
“No, just bored,” Gemma-Kate answered. “What’s this thing for?”
“It’s called a labyrinth. It’s stupid. There’s only one way in and out. What’s the good of it?”
“Maybe it doesn’t want you to have to make choices. Maybe it doesn’t want you to think. There, I got to the center.” She pointed to a white adobe wall across the yard. “What’s that?”
“I’ll show you. Come on.”
Mallory came up to say she had to get home to Owen, and spotted Gemma-Kate and Peter. “Isn’t that cute,” she said as Ruth and I turned to her. “No, don’t bother to thank me. Carlo said to tell you he’s ready to go, too.”
Ruth fastened on to Mallory while my friend tried to disengage from her in the social form of unpeeling Saran Wrap. I helped by asking her to let Carlo know we’d be staying just a little longer. Then, in the hopes that Ruth would stop talking, I pretended to watch the kids out the window, though they had walked away from the labyrinth in the direction of the small white adobe structure and I couldn’t see them anymore.
Peter said, “This is called a columbarium. See all the marble squares? There’s a person under each one. Ashes, I mean.”
“I went to the cemetery when they buried my mother, but she was Catholic so Dad didn’t cremate her,” Gemma-Kate said. “I think I’d rather be cremated. Did you know any of the people here?”
“This one over here. See, Joseph Neilsen. I was here when they put his ashes under that tile. They were in a little metal thing that looked like my dad’s martini shaker.”
Gemma-Kate did the math. “Fourteen years old. How did he die?”
“He drowned.”
“That’s a weird way to go here. You don’t even have any water in the rivers.”
“He had a pool.”
“Did he, like, hit his head or something?”
Peter shrugged but didn’t answer. “Nobody really liked him. He was sort of a jerk. We talked about it a lot at first, but it happened a while ago.”
“Now I remember,” Gemma-Kate said. “I heard my aunt’s friend talking about it at the house.”
“What did she say?”
Gemma-Kate turned at the sound of her name. Her aunt was coming up the path but hadn’t reached the wall yet, was waving to her. She waved back and told Peter she had to go.
On the drive home Gemma-Kate sat in the backseat, texting.
“Who you on with, GK? Peter already?”
“It’s Dad.”
“Tell him I said hi. I’ll call him.”
Nine
Early that week Carlo took Gemma-Kate for a tour of the University of Arizona, where he introduced her to the head of the Biology Department and they toured the labs. This was heady stuff for Gemma-Kate, who had only had access to what she could learn from books and the Internet. On return they walked in through the garage door singing Gilbert and Sullivan, but knowing I’m uncomfortable with music, Carlo shushed Gemma-Kate before the door closed.
Over lunch Gemma-Kate told me about the day while Carlo watched her, beaming with the delight a teacher has in discovering the one student who gets it.
“I saw a fly wing under an electron microscope. And I listened to Uncle Father talk with the Biology Department chair, Dr. Brogdon. They’re going to give a series of joint lectures on science and religion. Did you know that ancient philosophy began with questions about the physical world instead of the spiritual world, Aunt Brigid? The word ‘atom’ was originally coined by pre-Socratic philosophers.”
I nodded as if everybody knew that, more distracted by how Gemma-Kate might have ended up with “Uncle Father.” It sounded vaguely like something from South Park.
* * *
In the late afternoon that same day, Carlo and I got dressed up and gave Gemma-Kate directions for the Pugs, which amounted to just letting them out in the backyard if they asked. She asked if Peter could come over and looked sullen when I said I wasn’t comfortable with
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