{"id":4776,"date":"2021-09-06T15:03:02","date_gmt":"2021-09-06T22:03:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/?p=4776"},"modified":"2021-09-06T15:03:02","modified_gmt":"2021-09-06T22:03:02","slug":"from-whence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/archives\/4776","title":{"rendered":"From Whence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the early morning of December twentieth in their little house on the outskirts of the northern California coastal town of Mercy, the resident trio of Delilah, Nathan, and Celia sit at the dining table listening to heavy rain drumming on the roof, Nathan having green tea, Celia and Delilah coffee. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nathan is eighty-eight and feeling\nchipper this morning after a good night\u2019s sleep. Dressed in old brown corduroy\ntrousers and a black long-sleeved T-shirt, his hair snow white, he\u2019s thinking\nof taking the mutts Chico and Gypsy for a walk once the rain lets up, which he\nguesses will be in the early afternoon. After fifty-eight years of living in\nMercy, Nathan\u2019s guesses about the weather are rarely wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Celia is Nathan\u2019s wife. She is eighty-two\nand was a nurse for forty-five years until she retired simultaneously with\nDelilah coming to live with them fifteen years ago. She is still in her nightgown\nand bathrobe, her long black hair full of gray, her winter days filled with\ncooking and reading and spending time with Nathan and Delilah and their\nfriends, her hopes of late pinned on Delilah marrying Gabriel Fernandez, a\ncharming fellow and good friend of their family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Delilah is twenty-eight and the only\nchild of movie star Margot Cunningham who died eight years ago. Unmistakably\nthe daughter of her famously beautiful mother, Delilah is also still in her nightgown\nand bathrobe, her brown hair longer than it has been in several years, though only\na boyish bob. This morning, after a lifetime of wondering, she is both excited\nand fearful about the possibility of finally discovering who her father is. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last night Delilah and Nathan and\nCelia went with Gabriel to a party at the home of the very British Constance\nand Joseph Richardson next door to Ziggurat Farm where Delilah is the main home\nschool teacher and Nathan and Celia are the honorary farm elders. Gabriel and\nDelilah are not yet lovers, though they are wildly attracted to each other and love\nspending time together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the party, Raul Neves, chef and\nowner of Ocelot<\/em>, a renowned\nrestaurant in Mercy, and his wife Caroline, Delilah\u2019s close friend and the\nmanager of Ocelot<\/em>, gave a slide show\nof their recent honeymoon in England and Portugal. One of the slides was of Raul\u2019s\ndeceased mother Beatrice. In the photo, which was taken when Beatrice was\nthirty-five, her resemblance to Delilah is exact down to the finest details. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And because Delilah knows Raul met her\nmother Margot on a few occasions twenty-nine years ago, now that she\u2019s seen\nthis photo of Beatrice she is convinced Raul is her father.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFortunately,\u201d says Nathan, going to\nput a log on the fire, \u201cRaul is a wonderful person and you like him and he\nlikes you. Much better than discovering your father is some obnoxious lout you\ncan\u2019t stand.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou would think so,\u201d says Delilah,\ngroggy from lack of sleep because her mind won\u2019t stop gnawing on the possibility\nof Raul being her father, \u201cexcept how will Caroline feel if I ask Raul to have\na DNA test to see if he\u2019s my father? They just got married and she\u2019s pregnant\nwith his child. She might be devastated.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCaroline loves you,\u201d says Celia, getting\nup to make more coffee. \u201cShe\u2019ll want to know the truth as much as you. So will\nRaul. They\u2019re both strong people. Don\u2019t worry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLife is far more mysterious and\nfantastic than we could ever imagine,\u201d says Nathan, gazing into the flames. \u201cRaul\nand Caroline must have noticed how much you resemble his mother and done the\nmath. They\u2019re probably wondering the same thing. And if he\u2019s not your father,\noh well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo do I just call him up and say,\n\u2018Hi Raul. Delilah here. Shall we go have a DNA test and see if you\u2019re my father?\u2019\u201d\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWould you like me to call him?\u201d\nasks Nathan, returning to the table. \u201cI\u2019d be happy to.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWould you?\u201d says Delilah, feeling childish\nand overwhelmed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOf course,\u201d says Nathan, going to\nthe phone. \u201cWhy else did I reincarnate?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A half-hour later, Raul and Caroline arrive with a day-old pumpkin pie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fresh coffee is made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After everyone expresses joy over\nthe much-needed rain and the deliciousness of Raul\u2019s pie, Caroline, tall and\nlovely and married and pregnant for the first time in her life, cuts to the\nchase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe first thing I said when I saw\nthat picture of Beatrice was how much she looked like Delilah. And Raul\u2026\u201d She turns\nto her husband. \u201cYou tell.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I first looked at that old\nphoto,\u201d says Raul, ruggedly handsome, his hair a tangle of gray, \u201cI couldn\u2019t see\nwhat Caroline was seeing. The photo is very small and the images I have in my\nmind of my mother are from much later in her life, so it never occurred to me\nshe looked like Delilah. But when I saw the picture projected on the big screen,\nit was obvious.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo\u2026\u201d says Delilah, feeling incredibly\nshy around Raul, \u201cwill you\u2026 would you\u2026 can we have a DNA test and see?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you\u2019d like,\u201d he says, smiling warmly\nat her. \u201cBut I know you\u2019re my daughter. And it makes me happy in a way I never\nknew I could be happy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Twenty minutes later, Raul and\nDelilah are sitting side-by-side in the otherwise empty waiting room of the Mercy\nHospital lab, Delilah feeling six-years-old, Raul feeling pleasantly ancient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDid my mother seduce you?\u201d asks\nDelilah, innocently. \u201cOr did you seduce her?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raul ponders the question and says,\n\u201cWhen we\u2019re done giving our blood, I\u2019ll tell you what I remember. But not\nhere.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRaul Neves?\u201d says a young woman in\nblue scrubs calling from the lab entrance. \u201cReady for you now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCan we come in together?\u201d asks\nRaul, smiling at the young woman. \u201cWe\u2019re finding out if I\u2019m her father.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh,\u201d says the young woman, pleased\nby Raul\u2019s frankness. \u201cSure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Driving back to Nathan and Celia\u2019s house from the lab, they stop at a vista point to watch the parade of storm-driven waves rolling into Mercy Bay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYour mother summoned me to her\nhotel room,\u201d says Raul, striving to remember his tryst with Margot. \u201cIt was the\nnight of the last time she came to my restaurant. Each of those times, there\nwere three or four, I came out of the kitchen and spoke to her at her table,\nsomething I don\u2019t often do, but your mother was a big star and so very\nbeautiful and I was thirty and full of myself and had a faint hope of adding\nher to my trophy list. You do resemble her, you know, though not as much as you\nresemble my mother when she was your age.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDid you like my mother?\u201d asks\nDelilah, who found Margot emotionally impenetrable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was hypnotized by her,\u201d he says\nsimply. \u201cBut I didn\u2019t know her. She was fantastically alluring, but not warm,\nnot effusive. In our chit-chat at her table we discovered we were both thirty,\nso maybe that was a bond.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo you went to her hotel room. More\nthan once?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJust one time,\u201d he says, closing\nhis eyes to remember. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t have to tell me more if\nyou don\u2019t want to,\u201d she says softly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t mind,\u201d he says, opening his\neyes and smiling at her. \u201cI understand why you want to know. I would like to\nknow how it was when my father and mother made me. And now that I have opened\nthis page of my memory I remember when your mother opened the door of her suite\nI was pleased to see she had changed out of her fancy clothes and was wearing a\nsleeveless black top with spaghetti straps showing off her beautiful shoulders\nand arms, and a short red skirt showing off her beautiful legs, and her hair was\ndown and she was barefoot, her toenails painted red, and she was impossibly\nbeautiful. We sat together on the sofa and she drank hard liquor and I had wine.\nI don\u2019t recall what we talked about. My restaurant, I suppose, or the movie she\nwas making. I don\u2019t remember, but I know we spoke for quite some time and she\nhad a beautiful deep voice, as deep as Caroline\u2019s. Then she told me\u2026\u201d He\nhesitates. \u201cI don\u2019t know if I should tell you this. I\u2019m only just now\nremembering what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t have to,\u201d says Delilah,\nthough she wants him to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo, I\u2019ll tell you. Maybe it will\nhelp you understand her. I don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhatever you want,\u201d says Delilah,\nclosing her eyes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe told me she wanted me to pursue\nher and she would try to elude me. She said when I caught her she would fight to\nget away, even though she wanted me. I remember she said, \u2018I hit hard. So be\nready.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now he remembers everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe said, \u2018I want you to overwhelm me\nuntil I have no choice but to surrender.\u2019 I said, \u2018But this is not my way. I\nwould never force a woman to have sex with me.\u2019 And she said, \u2018Then you should go.\u2019\nSo I said, \u2018Okay.\u2019 But then I looked at her and saw how sad she was, so lonely,\nand I said, \u2018Or maybe you will let me be gentle with you, and also strong.\nMaybe you will like that, too.\u2019 She looked away and said, \u2018No. Gentle doesn\u2019t\nwork for me. Just go.\u2019 So I got up and bowed to her like a monk bowing low to a\nstatue of his god. I don\u2019t why I did that, but I remember it felt good to bow\nto her like that. And then I told her it was a pleasure meeting her, which in a\nstrange way it was, and then I walked to the door and she came running after me\nand wrapped her arms around me and we kissed, and then she took me to her bed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

* <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Early the next morning, a Thursday, Raul and Caroline lie abed talking about the myriad things they need to do today before they open Ocelot<\/em> at five this afternoon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wish Andrew was not so dour,\u201d\nsays Raul, speaking of the new cook in the kitchen. \u201cI keep thinking he\u2019ll\nlighten up as he gets more familiar with everything, but he remains so deadly serious,\nand deadly seriousness does not work well in my kitchen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShall I resume the hunt for another\ncook?\u201d asks Caroline, wishing they didn\u2019t have to get up just yet, the day cold\nand dreary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI suppose so,\u201d says Raul, tired of\nbreaking in new employees, life in the hinterlands a difficult fit for many\nprofessional cooks accustomed to city living. \u201cAnd I\u2019ll speak to Andrew. I keep\nwaiting for him to relax, but maybe he needs a little prompting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI hate to say this, but I think\nhe\u2019s intimidated by Maurice,\u201d says Caroline, speaking of Raul\u2019s longtime sous\nchef and assistant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raul sighs. \u201cMaybe so. Maurice has\nbecome a mean old man, and that won\u2019t work in my kitchen either.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI can\u2019t imagine your kitchen\nwithout Maurice,\u201d says Caroline, who has never been intimidated by Maurice because\nno one intimidates her. \u201cCan you?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI can,\u201d says Raul, getting out of\nbed. \u201cWhenever he goes away for a vacation now the kitchen is much happier. But\nwhat can I do? He\u2019s been with me for twenty years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes, but if he\u2019s the problem\u2026\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe\u2019ll have to change or go,\u201d says Raul,\nputting on his bathrobe. \u201cI\u2019m making breakfast. Stay in bed my darling. I\u2019ll\ncall when the coffee is ready.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to be apart from you,\u201d\nshe says, getting out of bed and embracing him. \u201cI\u2019ll come with you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBefore we found each other,\u201d he\nsays, looking into her eyes, \u201cI couldn\u2019t imagine letting Maurice go, but now I\ncan because I have you and our baby and Delilah and all our friends I never had\nbefore.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Seven days later, the twenty-eighth of December, Delilah and Celia and Nathan give lunch to Constance and Joseph Richardson and Daisy and Michael Darling and their almost-two-year-old daughter Jenna. Michael is Caroline\u2019s older brother, an ornithologist, Daisy is the author of a novella entitled Women Farm<\/em> that Delilah has illustrated with exquisite pen and ink drawings, Joseph is a landscape painter, and Constance is a writer of bestselling murder mysteries; and they are all members of the Ziggurat Farm collective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Celia\u2019s incomparable chicken\nenchiladas have been devoured, everyone deploys in the living room with pie and\ncoffee, Celia sitting in the rocking chair with Jenna on her lap, a fire\ncrackling in the hearth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Constance taps her mug with her fork.\n\u201cWe have news.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMomentous<\/em>\nnews,\u201d says Joseph, nodding in agreement with the adjective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo do I,\u201d says Delilah, bouncing\nher eyebrows. \u201cYou go first.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cArnold Winfield called from London\nyesterday,\u201d says Constance, gazing intently at Daisy, \u201cto tell us he is head\nover heels in love with Women Farm<\/em>\nand wants to bring out a lavish clothbound edition in September and hopes very\nmuch that you and Delilah will come to England for a couple weeks of publishing-related\nevents.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIncluding,\u201d says Joseph, raising a\ndeclarative finger, \u201ca show of Delilah\u2019s original drawings at the Onyx Gallery\nin London, which is a coup of epic proportions, the Onyx an apex gallery. I can\nonly dream<\/em> of my paintings hanging\nthere.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh my God,\u201d says Daisy, bursting\ninto tears. \u201cI can\u2019t believe it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCongratulations, honey,\u201d says Michael,\nhugging Daisy. \u201cEngland here we come.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMama cwy,\u201d says Jenna, pouting.\n\u201cDome cwy Mama.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe\u2019s happy,\u201d says Celia, bouncing\nthe little girl. \u201cHappy tears.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cArnold\u2019s initial offer was 10,000 pounds with\n80% to Daisy and 20% to Delilah,\u201d says Constance, beaming at author and\nillustrator, \u201cbut I jiggled him up to 20,000 pounds. You can arrange the split\nhowever you like. That\u2019s entirely up to you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThank you so<\/em> much, Connie,\u201d says Daisy, going to Constance and hugging her. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThank you<\/em>, dear, for writing such a masterpiece and allowing us to show\nit Arnold,\u201d says Connie, delighted to be the agent of such a fortuitous collision\nof writer and publisher. \u201cA match made in heaven.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd what is your<\/em> momentous news, Delilah?\u201d asks Joseph, feeling certain she can\u2019t\npossibly top Arnold Winfield publishing Women\nFarm<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell,\u201d says Delilah, standing with\nher back to the fire, \u201cI\u2019m sure you all remember the picture of Raul\u2019s mother\nfrom the honeymoon slideshow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGorgeous woman,\u201d says Joseph, remembering\nthe shimmery green dress clinging to those admirable curves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI thought she looked like you<\/em>,\u201d says Michael, who finds Delilah\nsurpassingly lovely. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI thought she was<\/em> you at first,\u201d says Daisy, still breathless from the news of\nher novella finding a publisher, never having published anything before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo\u2026 what about Raul\u2019s mother?\u201d asks\nConstance, smiling curiously at Delilah. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell it turns out,\u201d says Delilah,\nlooking at Celia for courage, \u201cand we just got the results a few days ago, that\nI resemble Raul\u2019s mother because\u2026 she\u2019s my grandmother.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRaul is your father?\u201d says Daisy,\nmouth agape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Delilah nods. \u201cHe is.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDear God,\u201d says Constance, placing\na hand on her heart. \u201cHow is this possible?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell,\u201d says Delilah, laughing\nthrough her tears, \u201cwhen Raul was thirty and had just opened his restaurant in\nSan Francisco, my mother dined there a few times and they had a fling, the\nresult of which was me, though Raul never knew, nor did my mother know who the\nfather was because she was quite promiscuous at the time. And though I knew\nRaul had met my mother long ago, it never occurred to me they might have been\nlovers until I saw that picture of Beatrice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRaul never suspected?\u201d says Joseph,\nstaggered by this astonishing turn of events. \u201cNever saw the resemblance?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNot until he saw that picture of\nhis mother projected on the screen,\u201d says Nathan, gazing fondly at Delilah. \u201cThen\nhe knew.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo the morning after the slide\nshow,\u201d says Delilah, continuing the story, \u201cNathan called Raul and he and\nCaroline came over, and then Raul and I went to the hospital lab and got our blood\ndrawn, and five days later\u2026 voila.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHave you told the farm folks?\u201d asks\nConstance, in shock\u2014Raul a god to her and Delilah her favorite person in the\nworld right after Joseph.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRaul and Caroline are telling them even\nas we speak,\u201d says Delilah, smiling at the thought of her dear friends gasping\nin amazement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo now what?\u201d asks Michael, dazzled\nby the unfathomable workings of the universe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo now I\u2019m going to change my last\nname to Neves,\u201d says Delilah, giving Constance a hug. \u201cAnd my middle name to\nBeatrice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On a cold clear night in January, Delilah and Gabriel are necking in the living room\u2014Nathan and Celia long gone to bed\u2014when Delilah stops the kissing and says, \u201cMake love to me?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShall we go to a motel?\u201d asks\nGabriel, eager to please his beloved. \u201cI would take you home, but my mother and\nsister are there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo, my love,\u201d she says, getting up\nand holding out her hand to him. \u201cHere. In my bed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut we might wake Celia and\nNathan,\u201d he whispers, taking her hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf we do,\u201d she says, leading him to\nher bedroom, \u201cI assure you they will be delighted.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

fin<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just Love<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the early morning of December twentieth in their little house on the outskirts of the northern California coastal town of Mercy, the resident trio of Delilah, Nathan, and Celia sit at the dining table listening to heavy rain drumming on the roof, Nathan having green tea, Celia and Delilah coffee. Nathan is eighty-eight and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[6981,6979,6982,6978,6985,6987,6986,6819,6984,6983,4305,6980,6788],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4776"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4776"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4784,"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4776\/revisions\/4784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}