Page 82 of Sleeper: The Palisades Edition

TWENTY-THREE

WILLA

ONE MONTH LATER

“Oy vey! We made it! Mazel tov!” I got a little tired of Summer’s Eliza Doolittle impression, so we watchedFiddler on the Roofa couple of weeks ago, and now she wants to be Jewish.

“Mazel tov!” I tickle her waist as I help her out of the car seat. “Let’s go see some flowers!” It took almost an hour in Saturday traffic, but since the kids don’t have any parties or play dates today, I decided to bring them to a botanical garden that’s over thirty miles away from home, in the hills of Northeast Los Angeles. I want to get some photos of the roses and camellias that are in bloom here, for Instagram, and the twins needed to get out of the house.

Summer was in a mood this morning, probably because her daddy hasn’t been around as much as usual lately. The premiere for his big summer comedy is on Thursday, and he’s been so busy with publicity stuff for the past couple of weeks. We’ve all been a bit stressed and moody lately. Shane isn’t thrilled that I don’t want to be his date to the premiere, but he understands why.He wanted me to keep sleeping in his bed once the kids came back home, but I think I should sleep in the nanny room any time they’re around. If he and Margo always think of the children first, then he and I should too. Boundaries. I know how hard it was for Shane to cross the line when he talked to Nico about me, but I still need the nanny-employer boundaries to define my life right now. Because there aren’t any boundaries in my heart.

Fortunately for everyone, theFiddler on the Roofsoundtrack is on Spotify, so we listened to it all the way here. It cheered us up a bit. Summer wanted to sing “Matchmaker” over and over again, and Lucky wanted to hear “If I Were a Rich Man” because he’s fascinated by the singer’s deep voice and all the funny noises he makes.

“Come with me,” I tell Summer while I go around to the other side door to get Lucky out of his car seat.

“Bahdahbahdahbahdbahduhbahduh biddy biddy bum!” Lucky’s arms are up in the air, and he’s wiggling his shoulders, the way the father in the movie dances.

“Let’s get your biddy biddy bum out of here.” I pull him out and realize that Summer is not by my side. “Summer!”

“Yabba dibba dibba dubba dabba dibba dibba dum!” Her voice comes from about twenty feet away. The parking lot isn’t too busy, but still.

“Summer! Stop where you are and wait for us!” I shut the door.

“Daidel deedle daidel daidel hurry up!”

I grab Lucky’s hand, and we jog over to where Summer is standing.

“We all need to stay together,” I say to Summer. “Take my hand.”

“You forgot to make the car beep,” Lucky says.

“What? Oh right.” I lock the car with the key fob, and then I take Summer’s hand as we cross the lot to the entrance to the gardens and wait in the short line.

“Are there animals here?” Lucky asks.

“Good question. It’s not a zoo, but I’m sure we’ll see some birds and squirrels, maybe lizards.”

“I wanna see lizards!”

“Me too!”

“Is Papa going to meet us here?” Summer has started calling Shane “Papa” and Margo “Mama” while pointing out that there aren’t any nannies in the “fiddler family.” She now refers to me as “Tzeitel,” the eldest daughter.

“No. I told you, we’ll see him at the house for dinner.”

“Tzeitel?”

“Yes, Summer?”

“When is matchmaker going to make you a match?” There’s a teasing tone to her voice, but I still don’t like it. She has been such an adorable little turd, ever since they Skyped with Margo last night.

“What makes you think I need a matchmaker?”

“Because you don’t have a husband.”

“Well,Fiddler on the Rooftakes place in Russia in 1905. Things are a little different here and now.”

“But Abby’s mom uses match dot com to find husbands.”