This pair of sisters probably would've continued with this much longer if another sister hadn't shown up in town. Jolene showed up at their door. She was greeted by Beth yelling at an imaginary Harry to leave her alone,
"Jesus Fucking Christ," she says with a surprised smile on her face, "Who the hell are you?"
"What's Harry doing here?" Emilie said before she could see who was actually at the door.
Beth quietly muttered, "Jolene?"
Emilie's reaction was quite different from her sister she ran up and hugged Jolene. She quickly pulled back and after she did Jolene entered their mess of a house.
She brought somber news with her, Mr. Shaibel died and there was going to be a service, she had to come to tell them in person since they didn't answer her phone calls. Jolene stayed the night and they all caught up.
-
"It's a fucked up world and I'm not going to change it, I can't spend all my time teaching white girls how to hold a badminton racket,"
There were quiet chuckles from Beth and Emilie.
"You do make extremely valid points," Emilie added.
"Anyways, Lily what about you? Still drawing and writing those articles"
"Oh, you saw those?" Emilie was surprised, unlike with Beth her face wasn't in a lot of things.
"Well, I try to keep up with Beth so I bought a magazine and the article about Beth was also written by a Harmon, and Lily your drawings have improved a lot but I'd still know it anywhere," This filled both Harmons with a bit of pride, "Haven't seen one in a while,"
"Oh, I stopped writing when I got married," Emilie put the best cheery look on her face she could.
"Lady why would you do that they were good?"
"Her husband's a piece of shit," Beth chimed in.
"Anyways..." Emilie cut in, "what food do you guys want?"
-
"Best fucking mac and cheese I ever had," Beth said with her mouth full
"More about your man Lily!" Jolene said, "And why wasn't I invited to the wedding?"
"We eloped around Christmas time in New York,"
"New York? How'd you end up in New York?"
"I was visiting Beth,"
"Oh, so she was at a tournament," Jolene said thinking she understood, not knowing just how much she didn't.
"No, I was staying with Benny Watts," Beth interjected.
"He your boyfriend?"
"He's certainly something isn't that right Emmy?" Beth said to Emilie, still torturing her.
"Ok someone fill me in," Jolene demanded. Beth turned to directly address Jolene,
"Do you want the professional or unprofessional answer?"
"Cracker, just start talking,"
"Well, he is a pretty famous chess player who was helping me prepare," Beth paused, attempting to look Emilie in the eye when Emilie wouldn't meet her she continued on, "he's also the reason why Emilie eloped,"
"Like that answers anything?"
"And this topic is done," Emilie got up and started putting plates back in the kitchen even though they weren't done with their food, something was still different tonight besides Jolene's presence, neither of them had had a drink since she arrived, so the poison was slowly leaving their systems.
-
A few hours later Beth retired to her room, leaving Jolene and Emilie alone together.
"You know as much as she wants to, she can't do it alone," Jolene said, still looking straight ahead.
"Pardon me?"
"Beth isn't going to be able to do this on her own. Yes her big chess brain is great but at this rate her one chess brain will be all muddy and it's known that more than one big brain is better than just one," Emilie chuckled to herself, "What is it, Lily?" Jolene asked
"It's a good idea you just sound a lot like someone,"
"Well, whoever I sound like is smart,"
"Nope, he's an idiot,"
"Benny? What happened?"
"Too much stuff happened but also not enough," was all Emilie said with a sigh. Something told Jolene not to pry too much more,
"What did he use to say about the whole team thing,"
"Oh, he kept on bringing up to different people that the Russians were so good because they played each other and worked as a team. He said Americans had a disadvantage because of what individualists we are,"
"I mean if Beth gon' play Russians she might need to think like 'em,"
That night Emilie thought about it more and it didn't seem like a half-bad idea.
-
"Just wait a bit, he'll be home I just have to be sure he's dressed," they were all driving to go to Mr. Shaibel's funeral and Emilie wanted her husband along with her for this.
Emilie used her key to open the door to their house and the house wasn't quiet like she expected.
There was a creaking sound. A rhythmic creaking sound. And giggles.
Emilie decided to quietly climb up the stairs. Once she reached near the top she realized the sounds were coming from the bedroom. Emilie opened the door, she was a little hungover but part of her still wondered if she was hallucinating. Nope, what she saw in front of her was very real.
Just like high school all over again, there was Sam and Tabitha, in bed, in the bed she shared with her husband. The bed where she lost her virginity. All of it was too much, but not in the way she expected.
As Sam started the whole "this isn't what this looks like" speech, Emilie started hysterically laughing. Like psychotic, mental breakdown laughing. Her reaction scared Tabitha enough to get up and leave, taking the sheets with her to cover herself. Emilie simply walked out laughing, Sam followed after her but as she walked out the door she slammed in his face slowing him down. She got back in the car.
"That was fast, where's Sam?"
"Drive!" Emilie demanded.
Jolene started to drive away, but Beth looked back. She saw the two adulterers exit the house, Beth stuck her head and hand out the window and flipped them off as they drove away.
"What the hell just happened?"
"Beth said it best yesterday, my husband is a piece of shit," Emilie went from maniacal laughter to eerily calm very quickly.
"Are you okay?" Jolene asked quietly.
"This is Mr. Shaibel's day, I'm not going to clutter it up with my mess, I can deal with this tomorrow,"
"Whatever you say, Lily,"
-
Once they got to the location, Beth realized how few people showed up to the funeral. They stayed for a while, paid their respects, and planned to go back and visit Methuen. On the way out Emilie went to say hello to good old Mrs. Deardorff.
"Good Afternoon Mrs. Deardorff," Emilie said this almost like it was muscle memory, and it sort of was from the hundreds of times she had said it. Mrs. Deardorff looked up at her from her seat,
"Harmon. Are you Elizabeth or the other one?"
"Um... the other one, Emilie," she put out her hand to shake but the older woman didn't take it.
"Seems the adoption treated you well, if I remember right I was quite surprised to have a lady adopt such old children,"
"Mrs. Wheatley was wonderful, though like Mr. Shaibel she passed,"
"Emilie... you were the writer one or the artist? The artist right?"
"I guess you could say that," Emilie said with a polite chuckle. Jolene then came up and said,
"Lily we got to go, Beth's already in the car,"
"Ok, I'll be right there," Jolene went to go to the car, and Emilie nodded to say goodbye but Mrs. Deardorff had one more thing to say,
"I thought you said your name was Emilie, why'd that smartmouth Jolene call you Lily?"
"Long story short, she misheard me the first day, I didn't correct her,"
"Why didn't you tell her, she bein' awfully disrespectful," Mrs. Deardorff shook her head
"No, she knows my name!" Emilie chuckled and continued to clarify, "It kind of became a joke and then the nickname just stuck," she nodded awkwardly.
"Well, I guess you ought to go,"
"Yes I do," Emilie sort of speed-walked out of there.
When they visited Methuen, the trip was mainly full of tears, and Emilie had an arm around Beth the rest of the way back home.