It's Definitely Not All Mary Poppins

Eavesdrop

"Yeah." Another pause. "But you didn't call last week." Her eyes traced the opposite wall, slightly glazed. "So?" A longer pause, and Lilly's eyes widened. "Venice sounds cool." Another pause, which resulted in her frowning.

Matthew waited. His sole job, right now, at least, was to transfer the call back to Mr. Yang when Lilly was done.

Even the young girl seemed bored of it. "No...we got a new nanny." She paused, glancing up at Matthew; she smiled and waved. "Yeah, his name's Matt, and – " The smile fell from her lips. "Yeah." Another pause. "Mhm." Another, slightly longer pause. "Okay. L – love you too, Mom. Okay...okay, talk to you next week...okay...okay, bye." She handed the receiver to Matthew. As soon as she did, Lilliana trotted off without looking back.

He watched her go before turning to the telephone. "...Ms. Suo, I'll transfer you back to Mr. Yang now. Please hold."

"Thank you."

He placed the call on hold, then paged the older man. "Sir, Lilly's done."

"Thank you."

He transferred the call. As soon as the line flashed from green to red, he hung up. Stepping back, seemingly mesmerized by the light of the older man's phone on, Matthew took the moment to contemplate. He had never heard a call so ambivalent; it made him feel so genuinely sorry for anyone who was a telemarketer.

Mr. Yang's hushed voice drifted down the hall to the entryway.

Stepping back, as if pulling out of the telephone's magical grasp, he headed down the hall towards the ramp.

"...f course not, Pippa."

The casualness of the statement made Matthew take a breath. He pressed himself against the wall.

"She probably sounds that way because you only ever talk about your work." Yet Mr. Yang's words were tinged with a romantic fondness, reinforced with a quick chuckle after the fact. "Philippa, you know I don't."

Matthew's heart twisted. 'So sickening,' he thought, yet he could feel the blood rushing to his head.

Mr. Yang laughed. "Yes, I bet she would."

He shouldn't be doing this.

"How's Venice?"

There was something about that that made Matthew...yearn.

"You'll have to send me your article when it's done."

His breath labored.

"You accuse me like I wouldn't love to see it."

What if Audrey had spoken to him like that?

Mr. Yang laughed again. "您讓它聽起來如此復雜！"

...had she ever?

Biting his tongue, Matthew, pushed himself off the wall and appeared in the doorway. He grabbed the knob and gently closed it, unable to bring his eyes to Mr. Yang.

The older man, supposedly watching his nanny close the office door, paused before the conversation moved on. His uninhibited tone, spoken so casually, strikingly contradicted Mr. Yang's hard, unmovable glare that Matthew knew quite well.

Slapping his face lightly, he pulled himself away, retreating upstairs to the children's bedrooms.

Lilliana was back with her paint pallet in hand. She seemed frozen in place, staring at the wall mural.

"How was your call?" he asked.

She looked at him. "You heard it," Lilly started, her tip of her brush floating in anticipation. "She's in Venice."

Matthew licked his lips. "What's she doing there?"

"Working."

He groaned, pressing his middle finger against the bridge of his nose. Sitting down on her messily-made bed, he asked, "Are calls always like that?"

Lilly nodded. "She tells me about work, I tell her about school, and that's about it." She harrumphed, and dipped the brush back into her blob of red paint.

Matthew scooted forward. "...must be hard, not seeing her that often."

"No, it's fine," she answered nonchalantly. "Honestly, if she didn't call, I'd be okay."

"...she's your mom, though."

She shrugged, sighing. "It's not like she's really around that much. Like, maybe if she was around more, I'd be more sad, but she isn't. She's always traveling. Working. Never doing what she says she's gonna do."

'He's got a type, apparently.' Matthew bit the inside of his cheek.

Finally, she placed her paintbrush on the wall, moving it slowly over the painted cinder blocks. "Sometimes, she shows up for the Qingming Festival or Christmas. Yéyé and Nainai don't like her coming, but she..." Lilliana paused, lifting her brush from the wall. "Wait, hold on, I need to think."

Several surprise brushstrokes later, Matthew asked, "Are you ever sad she's not around?"

"No." Lilly turned to him, but only for a moment. "If she was around more, I might be, but no. I'm okay." She licked her lips.

Matthew wiped his hands on his pants and stood. "Going to go check on Eli, okay?"

"Mm," was her response.

As Matthew closed the door, he felt that same coldness radiate through the house; a coldness that not even a blistering summer heat could get rid of.

Maybe it wasn't the cold he felt.

Just as he could consider it, wisps of white smoke billowed out from the crack in Eli's ajar door. Groaning, Matthew pushed it open, only to be attacked by a lone cardinal.