The Caryatids

nothing. It’s just us. People. We all sit there together and we eat. And at the head of the table—there was Toddy. But there’s nobody sitting there now. There’s a ghost there.”

“Yes. That’s very true.”

“Well, either somebody sits in that chair at the head of the table… and the others let her sit there—or else we stop meeting for dinner. In which case, the Family dies. Because, although we’re a huge corpora­tion, we’re also a human family. We need a warm body with a heartbeat to cluster around. Or else we all scatter. You understand what that means, right? If we scatter?”

“Of course I understand that!” Radmila said. “I’m Family! It’s breaking my heart.”

“Who belongs at the head of the table?”

“John’s dad should sit there. The Governor. But somebody shot him.”

“You belong there.”

Radmila bit her lip.

“You know that you belong there, Mila. You. So, don’t waste any more time. The mourning period is over. We’re sick of mourning any­way. You end the mourning for us. You just tweak your soundtrack, you dress to kill in total star-style, you prance to the head of the Family table and you just sit down. You don’t ask anybody’s permission. You just be­long there, and you pass us the mashed potatoes. You can do that. You have to do that. Because I can’t do it. Nobody else is willing or able.”

Radmila pulled at a sweaty lock of hair. “I’m the head of the Family?”

“No. You’re the heart of the Family. I’m the head. The head doesn’t matter all that much—because I’ve been doing all the thinking lately anyway, and nobody ever notices.”

Glyn was her best friend. Radmila had to let her down easily. “If that would work, I’d do it. But Toddy’s kids won’t let me do it. They’re older than us, and they’ve got priority.”

“That’s the key,” said Glyn. “Because you’re not an older woman. You’re a young woman, so you can give the Family children. The next generation. Futurity. That’s what you announce to them tonight.”

“I gave them a child already.”

“No,” said Glyn soberly, “you say you plan a major Family expansion. The patter of dynastic little feet. You want to have lots of children. Seven children. You promise them that. And you mean that when you say it.”

“Seven children? Who, me?”

“Toddy had seven children. Ifyou count me. A matriarch needs motherhood. That’s why they will let you do this. It’s because you’re the mom, that’s why. That’s a pretty weird kind of power, but it’s the kind that brooks no dissent.”

“You’ve really thought a lot about this.”

“I’m rich, but I’m not stupid.”

“I’m way too busy to expand the Family by having seven kids. I have my star obligations. We have other women in the Family. Let them have more kids.”

“They’re all too busy, too. No woman ever has the spare time to get pregnant. Especially a rich woman. No rich and famous woman wants to lie on a couch burping ice cream while her belly button turns inside out. Bearing kids is demeaning, hard work: it’s work for the poor. But do you want to run the Family? Those are your dues. You give them chil­dren and a dynastic future, and they will bow the knee to you. I promise you they will. They have to.”

Radmila understood why this mad scheme had sprung into her best friend’s head. Neither of them had ever been in a conventional family: with a father, with a mother… They were two women who had both come into the world by other means entirely. This coup would finally put them at the center of things.

“You’re proposing that I bear six more of John Montalban’s children? John would like some say about that.”

“John will do whatever you tell John to do. I know that John has been with Vera, and John is with Sonja, too. That’s very bad. He’s a head case about you and the others. But you’re the one who married him.”

“You know that what John did to me is unforgivable. The fact that those women exist is appalling to me. I hate them. I hate him for loving them.”

’’Yes, Radmila, I know all that. That fact is burningly, blazingly obvi­ous to me. I know that better than anybody. I’m exactly like you: so I know all about that. You’re the only one in the world who can’t stand it.”

Radrnila’s heart was pounding in her ears.

“Listen,” said Glyn, her face rigid. “I cried a lot these last few days. I cried a whole lot about my own big drama-trauma, and I have made up my mind. I grew up. My mother’s dead and I grew up. I have new grief, so I got over my old grief. I want you to do the same for me. Just grow up. Get over your past. Get over being Radmila Mihajlovic. Get over her, she’s as dead as Toddy Montgomery. From now on, you have to be dif­ferent. Because you’re not the little lost clone girl with no real mommy and daddy. You are the star. And you will become a megastar. I promise.”

“Why are you saying all that to me? You know that will make me crazy.”

“I can say it because you’re not crazy, Mila. If you were crazy, I might forgive you for the crazy way you behave. I know that you’re sane: but sometimes, you are just too damn stubborn to live. I know all about you, the three sisters, your brother Djordje… “ Glyn stopped. She smiled in sweet reminiscence at the thought of handsome Djordje. That was never a pleasant thing to see,

“I know about the three dead girls, and the horrible ways that they died. I know about your mother. My so-called mother was a piece of work… but your so-called mother doesn’t even walk this Earth!”

Glyn looked her straight in the eye and drew a determined breath. “So: I know all that, I still love you, Mila. I do love you. You know that I do. So: Just stop shaking all over like a banana leaf. You don’t pull that stupid crap on me anymore. Not on me. I’m tired of seeing you do that, that is all done, it should be long over. You and me: We may have no blood relation, but we are closer than any two sisters. So listen to me: I learned all this from you, Radmila. I learned it from what you said to the Family. Sometimes, a huge crime justdoesn’t matter. You were com­pletely right about that.”

“No, my crime always matters.”

“Get over yourself. Become a different woman. This is not some lit­tle secret island in the Balkans twenty- seven years ago where they hap­pened to clone some people. This is Los Angeles, stupid! This is the big time, in a big town! In the years to come, we’ll move Toddy’s invest­ments into you. There are no technical limits there. When you swan around this city, all brilliancy, speed, lightness, and glamour, you will be so huge, so gorgeous, so totally vested in stardom they won’t even have words for you. The past will be done. Finished. Sealed inside a plas­tic bubble dribbling on itself.”

Radmila was sweating. “But I never asked for that. I don’t want it. I can’t believe you’re telling me to have seven children!”

“Radrnila, we’ve never been part of the human race. This is how we buy into all of that.”

“I did buy into it. There’s Mary.”

“Your children will all be fine children. Seven is not too many. You are making up for the rest of us decadent aristocrats. You will be proud of your children. I know Mary. I love Mary. Mary is my favorite niece. I know her better than you do. Mary is not one of you-and-yours. Mary Montalban is definitely one of us-and-ours.”

Radmila smiled and wiped her eyes. “Well, thank God for that, at least.”

“Mila, you are really close to achieving a huge, lasting, major, public success. Just wise up a little. You are the perfect person to revive this Fam­ily and lead it into futurity. You are a lovable person. Toddy loved you. John loves you. Jack loves you. I love you very much. The other Family people, they all respect you, they’ve decided you’re all right for us. But that kid of yours: Everybody loves little Mary. Everybody. She is adorable and she is destined to be huge. This is your golden chance to turn your­self into the source of unity in our sad, strange little clan. If you turn down that chance because you’d rather be so hurt and proud and emo­tionally remote from us, you will never get another. Because you won’t deserve it. So do you hold it up, or do you kick it down? That is your choice.”

“Okay,” said Radmila, “I just heard your big, passionate set-speech. That one was pretty good. You obviously