"Bon soir? What are you, dismissing me? Fine.
Just remember what I told you," he said, and headed
for the door, where he turned to me again. "I'm with
two crazy women, if you ask me.' he said, and left. In the days and weeks to follow so much
changed at Joya del Mar. Kirby's trips became even
more frequent. Mommy was more and more upset
about it. but I was grateful. I began my therapy with
Dr. Anderson and found him to be a very nice man.
Mommy began to retreat from her social committees
and events
. She knew she was the center of gossip
again and all because of Kirby's behavior. She was
doing her best to hide my condition, but with as many
servants as we had and the tendency for people to
gossip, that was becoming an increasingly impossible
task. People like the Carriage sisters were at her,
pecking and pecking in a search for new information
they could gobble at their teas and luncheons. Nearly four months later I paused in the
hallway on my return from seeing Dr. Anderson
because I heard the distinct sound of Mommy sobbing
in the den. I hurried to the doorway and looked in at her. She was at her desk, her head lowered to her
arms.
"Mommy?" I called.
Slowly, as if her head weighed a hundred
pounds, she lifted it and looked at me through
bloodshot eyes.
"Oh. Grace," she said. "Grace.'
"What is it?" I asked her, stepping into the den.
"Kirby..."
"He's with another woman?" I asked quickly. "No, worse," she said. "He's seriously depleted