Chapter 26
After an awkward conversation with Mrs. Postma when she picked Hannah up after supper, Frank and Cassie sank gratefully onto the sofa in the family room.
Cassie sighed. “I’m really going to have to convince my classmates to warn their parents about us.”
Frank said, “It’s all this ‘in between’ stuff that gets wearing.” He carefully draped an arm across the sofa behind her shoulders. “Like Sharon Van der Broek said, we don’t fit into any of their categories or maybe we fit into too many at once.”
Cassie said, defiantly, “That’s their problem, not mine. I’m finally answering to Mrs. Ellis so I don’t care what they call me, as long as they’re polite about it.”
“And they respect our house rules.”
Cassie frowned. “I suppose we need to talk about that before too long, don’t we?”
Frank shrugged in return. “I suppose we do. I thought it would be a difficult adjustment to living with you but it hasn’t been, so far, except for my bad work habits.”
Cassie leaned against her husband. “Well, we have enough money and neither of us are spendthrift, so we don’t fight about that. I’m a bit neater than you are but we have Carmen picking up after us so I don’t really notice it that much although you keep your desk neater than mine. You still work late a bit too often.”
“But so do you.”
“I’d like to say I have a better excuse, but I don’t, really. I try to get my homework done before you get home from work but I get distracted with cooking now that I can afford to try all of those recipes I used to dream about.”
Frank gave Cassie a gentle squeeze. “And I appreciate it.” He nuzzled her hair and said, “So where is Anne dragging us off to this time?”
“One of the downtown missions she supports is having an art show featuring pieces created by the street kids at their drop in program. She mentioned that it was a very casual event but we will get to meet the executive director and some of the board members. I just hope the kids won’t be people I know.”
“So I won’t see you in Helen’s new creation? I was looking forward to seeing your lovely legs in another little black number and heels.”
“Not Thursday. Maybe you can think of somewhere else we can go?”
Frank considered the question. “Would you like to see what’s happening in Toronto this weekend? We could visit with your spare grannies.”
“I’d love to do that. I miss Yiayia and the phone doesn’t pass on hugs very well. But we should visit Dale and Supriya if we go.”
Frank considered that for a moment. “I could ask Dale to find us tickets for something on Saturday evening, if you don’t care about anything except dressing up and looking pretty. Not that looking pretty is hard for you.”
Cassie poked Frank in the ribs. “Hey. As much as I enjoy dressing up I’m much more interested in doing things with you. What would you prefer to do?”
Frank rubbed his side and gave Cassie a dirty look. “Dancing is fun, especially with you. If there isn’t some sort of function where we could dance, I prefer the ballet to the opera and both of those to a play or a movie but I’m open to anything if Dale has a good suggestion. Actually, I’d prefer to spend a weekend at the cottage in Parrsboro or head down to the Turks and Caicos to teach you scuba diving but it would be a long drive to visit your spare grannies.”
Cassie pointed at the phone and said, “Give Dale a call. It’s only nine.”
Frank reached for the phone and set it to hands free before dialling the number.
“Supriya Ellis here.”
“Hi Supriya. Is Dale home?”
“Oh, hi Frank. He’s in the den working out topics for his next few columns. I’ll see if he’s available.”
Cassie spoke up. “Don’t bother him if he’s working.”
Supriya’s voice grew warmer. “Hello Cassie. Shall I ask Dale to give you a ring when he’s free?”
Frank said, “Actually, we were wondering if there was something happening in Toronto on Saturday evening where Cassie can show off her new little black dress.”
Supriya laughed at Cassie’s indignant ‘Hey’. “I don’t really know. I could check for you.”
In a more serious tone Frank said, “We’re coming down for the weekend to catch up with some of Cassie’s spare grannies but I’d like to have dinner with you guys and maybe take in something like the ballet or a show where we could pretend to be elegant.”
“That sounds like fun.” They heard a rustling of paper and Supriya’s voice came back on the line. “We don’t have anything scheduled for Saturday evening. Oops, let me check my smart phone.” There was a moment of silence. “How are you two with Indian food?”
Frank said, “I’m okay with it as long as it’s not too hot.”
Cassie said, “I don’t know that I’ve ever had any really good Indian food. I’ve had the occasional samosa and fast food butter chicken at the Eaton Centre with Dad but I don’t think that counts. I’m not allergic to anything that I know of, if that helps.”
Supriya said, “One of my cousins is opening his new restaurant on Saturday. I’ll make sure that Sanjit knows you’ll be in our party so he has the cooks dial down the heat. Dale will appreciate it because Sanjit still hasn’t warmed up to the idea of me being married to a white guy and tries to feed us things that are almost too hot for me.” Then they heard a muted ‘Frank and Cassie’ before the tone became more hollow as the hands free microphone engaged.
“Hey, little brother. What’s up? And how’s my favourite blonde?”
Cassie looked heavenward with a ‘Help me, Lord’ expression on her face before answering. “We’re both well, Dale. We’re coming down to Toronto this weekend and we wanted to do something special on Saturday evening where we could dress up.”
Supriya said, “I’m sure that we can include them in our invitation to the opening of Sanjit’s restaurant.”
Dale said, “How would you like to go to a premiere at the film festival? One of my clients offered me a block of tickets to the new Vanessa Redgrave movie as a thank you for some advice that turned out to be better than expected. Only it starts at six p.m. so we’d have to have appetizers here then supper after. We can make reservations at Sanjit’s new place for nine-thirty, if that’s okay.”
Frank looked at Cassie’s widened eyes and said, “That sounds exciting.”
Cassie blotted a tear that was forming. “Vanessa Redgrave was one of my Granny’s favourite actresses. Granny loved her work, especially in Julia, even if she didn’t agree with all of her politics off screen. I think about half of the movies Granny brought home from the thrift store had either Vanessa Redgrave or Maggie Smith in them. We wore out the tape of Howard’s End.”
“Then I’ll see if Jonathon’s offer still stands. We’ll invite some extra people to round out the party.”
Frank said, “Do give them a bit of warning about Cassie, please.”
“Nope. Not going to. She’s a lovely woman, Frank, and if she can handle hosting one of our family dinners then it’s all downhill from there. If people are going to be snotty towards her then they will be anyway and it wouldn’t matter what her age is. Besides, Supriya and I will get the brunt of the snotty comments, like usual. But remember, dear brother, we are Ellises and we can buy and sell most of them anyway.” The last comment was in an airy and falsely pretentious tone.
Cassie shook her head and sighed. “Is he always like this, Supriya?”
“What? Condescending and rude? Only when he’s defending me. A lot of the old money folks here in Toronto think he married beneath himself and wondered why he’d marry a foreigner.”
Dale said, bitterly, “A darkie, you mean.”
Supriya gave a long-suffering sigh. “There’s still some not-so-buried racism and it goes both ways, my love. Sanjit’s family is still learning to accept you and most of his friends are still snotty towards us even if my parents are happy you’re family. I don’t expect that anyone will say anything
about your age, Cassie, one way or the other, and if you dress up like you did for dinner in Parrsboro no one will believe you’re seventeen anyway. You’ll have to take me shopping sometime.”
“Oh. I can’t take credit for that. My friend Meghan Sokolov is the one with the great eye for fashion and she’s introduced me to some good shops and designers here in Ottawa. I’m sure Meghan would love the chance to go shopping for fancy dresses with someone new.”
“That sounds like an excuse to visit Ottawa to me. I haven’t seen Meghan in yonks and I haven’t met her Cassandra yet.” Cassie could picture Supriya’s bright smile.
“We can arrange a date when I get there. We have lots of room and I’d love to show off our new house.”
Dale broke in with a teasing, “That sounds like I need to go finish that column so I can afford to keep you in clothing, bujji.”
“Oh good. I thought I was going to have to use my own money, my handsome man.” Supriya’s tone grew intimate towards the end.
“I think we’ll sign off now.” Frank said, “Supriya?”
“Yes, Frank?”
“Let him finish his column, please. He’ll be able to better concentrate on you if he isn’t distracted.”
“Don’t worry, dear brother, he won’t be distracted. Much.”
“If you say so. Shall we meet you at your condo around four-thirty?”
Dale responded, “That sounds about right, although we live within easy walking distance of the cinema so we won’t need to leave until five-thirty, although I want to be there by five so I can work the room a bit. We’ll put out some appetizers when you get here.”
“We’ll see you between four and four-thirty on Saturday, then.”
“We’re looking forward to it.” Frank hit the end call button.
Cassie snuggled into Frank. “Thank you.”
———
Frank trailed a nervous Cassie out of the old fashioned elevator in the spotless but down at the heels apartment building near Kensington Market.
Cassie turned to Frank and said, “Do I look okay?”
Frank examined his lovely wife and smiled. She was dressed in a pair of wide legged dark green linen slacks and a coordinating moss green silk blouse under the matching dark green jacket. “You look beautiful, my love.”
Cassie looked at him with uncertain eyes. “Really?”
Frank returned her gaze with sincere love. “Really, truly.”
Cassie took a steadying breath and asked, “Did we remember everything?”
Frank raised the pot of violets in his left hand and the small cooler full of treats in his right. “Yes, sweetheart, we have everything.”
Cassie squared her shoulders and said, more to herself than Frank, “Okay, I’m ready.” She walked to the door of the nearest apartment and knocked.
Almost instantly the door opened and Cassie was enfolded in the arms of a generously built grey haired woman a little shorter than she was. There was a torrent of foreign words and tears glistened on the faces of both his wife and the older woman.
After a moment, Mrs. Bountoulous looked over Cassie’s shoulder and critically examined Frank in detail. He felt very exposed but he gave her what he hoped was a warm smile. As she returned it, she released Cassie from the hug and stepped to one side to usher them into the apartment.
A very frail elderly woman in a stereotypical widow’s black dress and headscarf came toddling on her cane towards the small foyer of the apartment. The only words that Frank could make out clearly were the elderly woman’s whispery ‘Cassandra’ and Cassie’s response of ‘Parayiayia’. He watched as Cassie moved forward to give her a gentle hug and kisses on both cheeks. There was a joyous expression in the elderly woman’s rheumy eyes.
The noise had attracted attention from other residents on the floor and three of them emerged from their apartments to join them.
Mrs. Bountoulous said, “Let’s not stand in the hall. Please, come in.”
The apartment was clean and neat and smelled of genteel poverty, old women and lemon oil. They all moved to the living room and Cassie, after a round of hugs and kisses for the newcomers, said, “Frank, I’d like you to meet some of my extra grandmothers. This is Mrs. Papandreou,” pointing towards the very elderly woman, “Mrs. Bountoulous,” indicating the woman who had greeted them at the door, “Mrs. Robertson, Mrs. Soares and Mrs. Rodriguez.” Then she took Frank’s arm with a possessive air and said, “And this is my husband, Frank Ellis.”
There were relieved smiles all around when the women saw the pleasure and pride on Cassie’s face which broadened when they saw Frank return her look with love evident on his face.
Then Cassie realized that Frank was still carrying the plant and the small cooler. She took the plant and gave it to Mrs. Bountoulous. “Yiayia, I hope you have room for one more violet.”
“Oh, I think I can find a place for it.”
Then Cassie took the cooler and walked briskly into the kitchen with the air of a family member returning for a visit. When she spotted the tea service already set out she called. “Everyone take a seat please, we brought some treats to go with morning tea.”
Frank brought kitchen chairs into the living room for him and Cassie and sat down to wait for her. He scanned the room to see the five women in dark dresses intently examining him with varying degrees of curiosity and maternal skepticism.
Mrs. Papandreou said something in Greek and her daughter smiled. At a hand motion encouraging her, Mrs. Bountoulous translated, “Mother said that she’s glad Cassandra married someone already grown up. Too many girls these days marry boys and it leads to problems.”
Mrs. Soares nodded. “What do you do, Frank?”
“I’m an accountant. I recently bought into a small firm in Ottawa.”
Mrs. Robertson asked, “Have you been married long?”
Frank gave her a warm smile. “It will be two months tomorrow.”
Cassie returned to the living room with the tea tray. Frank stood and asked, “Do you need some help?” That earned pleased smiles from the women. Cassie handed him the tray and said, “I just have to bring out the platter of treats then we can sit and chat.”
Everyone waited for Cassie to return with the tray of homemade cookies, baklava and hors d’oeuvres. “I think I made everyone’s favourites.” She pointed at the peanut butter balls. “Even yours, Frank.” She took a small plate and put a square of baklava and a dolmade onto it for Mrs. Papandreou then served herself.
“So how did you meet?” Mrs. Rodriguez asked.
Cassie stiffened. This was the question she had been dreading but she told them how it all happened, in a matter of fact tone.
Frank could see the various looks of anger and sadness.
Mrs. Bountoulous said, “We were very worried about you when Penny called to say you were missing.”
Cassie gave a sheepish look and said, “I should have called you as soon as I left home, but Gord promised that he would hurt you if you helped me. He has enough friends in the gangs that I believed him.”
Mrs. Soares tisked at her. “You should not have believed him. Did he hurt you? Or force you to do things?”
Cassie face went stony. “Yes,” she said tersely.
Mrs. Robertson asked, “And Penelope did nothing to prevent this?”
Cassie looked sad then recovered with a shrug. “No, Grandmère. But I think everything worked out the way it was supposed to.” She took Frank’s hand. “Even if it happened sooner than I ever dared to dream.”
Mrs. Papandreou said something in Greek and Cassie blushed to the roots of her hair. Mrs. Bountoulous snickered and, at the curious looks, translated, in a way that implied she was editing for the sake of politeness, “Mother told Cassie that she was expecting to see a child before she passes away and expressed a hope that Cassie was… um… working diligently towards that end. After all her husband is very handsome.”
Frank began to blush as he lifted Cassie’s hand and kissed it. “Child
ren are always a gift from God. I hope that we will be blessed with that gift.”
Cassie murmured, “Very diplomatically put, Frank.” Then, louder, she said, “I’d prefer to wait until I finish university but, as Frank said, they are a gift from God.” Then she changed the subject by asking Mrs. Soares about her grandchildren and the conversation took off from there but always circled back to an interrogation of Frank.
Around eleven, Cassie noticed that Mrs. Papandreou was beginning to look fatigued and she reminded Frank that they had other visits to make. The neighbours stood to take their leave with hugs and kisses for Cassie and approving smiles for Frank. Mrs. Papandreou called Cassie over to give her blessing then beckoned Frank to come so she could to do the same in her halting English.
While her mother was speaking with Frank, Mrs. Bountoulous said, “Nan would be so happy for you, Cassandra. Frank seems like a very decent man, even if it happened before you were ready for it. Not that any of us are ever truly ready, even when we think we are.”
Cassie helped put the leftovers into the refrigerator. “He is a very good man, Yiayia. I don’t know what I did to deserve him.”
Mrs. Bountoulous gathered Cassie into her arms. “We can’t plan for love. We can only respond to it. It is obvious to me that he is deeply in love with you and that you are not certain yet that you can love him the same way. Trust your heart, Cassandra, and trust that your husband cherishes you.” She gave Cassie a squeeze and released her. “Be happy and do your best to keep him happy.”
Cassie grew thoughtful at the advice then after a moment said, “Thank you for accepting us. Most people don’t know how to treat us when they find out that he’s almost twice my age.”
Mrs. Bountoulous sniffed. “Nan regretted that you had to grow up so quickly, you know. But it means that the age difference between you and Frank is mostly just a number. We know you, Cassandra, and Frank is lucky to have found you.”
Frank appeared behind Cassie and said, “I know I am, and I’ve given a prayer of thanksgiving every day since she came into my life.” Then he said, in a formal way, “Thank you so much, Mrs. Bountoulous, for your hospitality. I expect we will be in Toronto once a month or so. May we call on you when we are in town?”
Mrs. Bountoulous dragged Frank into an unexpected hug, which he returned awkwardly. “You may call anytime, Frank.” Then, more seriously, she said, “Thank you for rescuing our Cassandra from that awful situation. We were all worried that something like this would happen after Nan died. We hoped that Penny would settle down after she married Eric but he was away so much…”
Frank took a step back. “We have to remember that when it came time to do the right thing, Penny gave Cassie permission to marry me, even if I did have to bribe her to come to City Hall to sign all the forms. I’m praying that she will eventually do other right things and turn to Jesus for help.”
Mrs. Bountoulous nodded then said, “You are a devout Christian then?”
Frank grinned. “It depends on who you ask. I have some Roman Catholic friends who tease me about being a Protestant heretic.”
Mrs. Bountoulous gave a pleased smile. “I’m certain that old Father Petros would have his doubts as well.” She put a hand on each of their shoulders. “You have my blessing and I will pray that you are showered with blessings in your life. Your marriage is an answer to some of my prayers.”
Cassie stepped forward for a final hug. “We really do need to be on our way because Mrs. Lepinsky is expecting us to join her for lunch at the nursing home in Vaughn. Thank you for everything, Yiayia.” There were moist eyes all round as Cassie took her leave. “We’ll see you soon.”
Cassie leaned into Frank as they took the elevator down to the lobby. “Well, that went better than I expected.”
“They are delightful people.”
“Oh come on, Frank, they kept grilling you the whole time we were there.”
“I’ve sat through tougher job interviews. And helping a client deal with a tax auditor can be pretty bad, too. Trust me, they were delightful.” At her skeptical look he said, “Because they love you as much as I do.” Then he tilted her chin up and kissed her.
She could almost feel the roots of love twining around her heart as she surrendered to her feelings and put her arms around his neck and returned the kiss, breaking it off only when the elevator doors creaked to announce they had reached the main floor.