Chapter 14

Alex finished her new book at the beginning of April, and sent it off to Bert to edit. And then she decided to take a trip to visit some cities she hadn’t gotten to yet and wanted to see before she went home in June.

She went to Madrid and Barcelona, Munich and Berlin, and Prague because she had heard the city was so beautiful, and she wasn’t disappointed. She had become an expert at traveling alone by then. She stayed in good hotels because she could afford them with the money she was making from her writing. She ate early in respectable, moderate restaurants where she felt safe, or ordered room service, and in each city, she saw all the museums, churches, and tourist attractions she had planned to. And her last stop was Paris, because she wanted to go back one more time before she left Europe.

She spent May packing and buying small gifts for the nuns, and had dinner with Fiona several times, with her new boyfriend. She was still seeing Clive, the accountant she had met on the ski trip, and it was starting to look serious. They were both twenty-seven and he couldn’t do enough for her. She was in love, they both were.

Alex was boxing up some of her papers one night when Rose called her. It was three in the afternoon in New York, and eight at night in London, and Alex was feeling a little wistful about leaving. And although she hadn’t met the man of her dreams, which hadn’t been high on her agenda anyway, she was sad to be leaving London, and her travels around Europe. Her last trip had been the best one so far.

“We’ve had a very interesting offer today,” she said to Alex on the phone, “from a very important production company in L.A. They want to buy Darkness for a movie.” It was her second book and first big bestseller, and one of her most popular titles. “They already have a screenwriter, and they have a number of stars in mind that they’re negotiating with. The director is a big name. This could be a fabulous opportunity for you, and some nice money. And it never hurts the books. There’s only one hitch, but I think we can work it out.”

“What’s that?” Alex was shocked as she listened. She hadn’t thought a lot about movies of her work, she was too busy writing the books.

“They want Alexander Green on set, to correct the scripts and work with the screenwriter and keep the movie true to the book, or as close as possible.”

“Well, that’s the end of that. I can’t do that,” Alex said, disappointed for a minute.

“I’ve been thinking about it all day. Green is a famous recluse by now. We could set you up as his assistant, say he’s in a house somewhere in L.A., and you could go back and forth with the scripts, make the corrections at night, and bring them back fresh from the pen of the famously invisible author in the morning. It’s convoluted but it could work, if you’re willing to sit in L.A. on a movie set for four or five months. It’s all going to be shot in a studio and on locations in L.A.”

“Even the African scenes?” There were several jungle scenes in the book.

“Apparently. They don’t want to spend the money to go on location in Africa, and have their stars getting eaten by a boa constrictor.” She laughed as Alex listened. “What do you think? Should I pursue it or turn them down?”

“I don’t know. I don’t want to get found out and blow everything else. We’ve put too much into keeping it secret. I don’t want to risk someone discovering the truth.”

“Let me talk to the producer and get a feel for it. If they’re too pushy, we can turn them down. If they want Alexander Green badly enough, they’ll cooperate with us on our terms. I won’t risk exposing you, Alex, I promise.” Rose had been Alex’s strongest ally, and Alex loved and admired her. She was a fantastic woman, and had become a great friend. She had handled the publishers flawlessly when they told them about her, so she trusted her to deal with the movie people as well. “I’ll keep you posted. When are you coming back?”

“In ten days.”

“I probably won’t know anything by then, but we should hear pretty soon after that. They’ve already got the money for it in the bank, are close to signing the actors, and they want to start shooting in September, if they get the stars they want. So we’ll probably know in June, or beginning of July at the latest.” Alex thanked her and they hung up, and she spent the next few days in a daze, wondering if she should do it, and if it would work out. It sounded dangerous to her, in terms of keeping her identity secret, but very exciting. And she hadn’t heard from Rose by the time she left.

She had dinner with Fiona on her last night. Her bags were packed, her briefcase was crammed full, and she had a tote bag with proofs to read on the plane. And she was carrying her latest manuscript too. The apartment was neat, and she was sadder than ever to be leaving London.

She had a nice dinner with Fiona and Clive at the Shed at Notting Hill Gate, and the two young women cried when they left each other, promising to write and stay in touch. Fiona told her to go back to Boston and find a boyfriend before she turned into an old maid, which made Alex laugh through her tears. She didn’t say anything to her about the possible movie deal because she couldn’t. She could tell Brigid about it when she saw her, and the nuns, and Bert of course, but no one else. Her real life was totally unknown to Fiona, who thought that she lived on the modest inheritance her father had left her, didn’t have to work, and was a very lucky girl. That night at dinner, Clive hinted that they might be getting married, and Alex would have to come back for the wedding. He thought Alex was a great girl, even if she was a little quiet, and shy, but pretty and bright and a nice person. Fiona had told him what she knew of her story, and he said that probably living with nuns in a convent for seven years had made her act like one, and all she needed was for the right man to come along. Fiona thought so too.

Alex checked her bags at Heathrow the next day, carried her overstuffed hand luggage, and boarded the plane to Boston, feeling like she was leaving home again, but excited to see the nuns too. The two years in Europe after college had been the beginning of her adult life, although she hadn’t changed physically. She still looked years younger than she was and could have passed for a teenager in ballet flats and jeans at twenty-four.

She didn’t expect it, but Sister Xavier and Sister Tommy were at the airport to meet her, as a surprise when she came through customs. They held her tight when they hugged her and both nuns cried and so did Alex. She’d seen them at Brigid’s wedding ten months earlier, but that was a long time too.

“Thank God you’re home now!” Sister Xavier said with fervor, as they headed for the garage to get the car. Both nuns had ascertained immediately that she looked happy and well, and she seemed to have more self-assurance after living on her own for two years. She had grown up. They thought she was even more beautiful than ever. “We got our girl back,” she said to Sister Thomas with a sigh of relief as she started the car.

She told them all about her recent trip around Europe on the drive from the airport.

“I’ve always wanted to go to Madrid,” Sister Xavier said dreamily, as they drove along the freeway.

“I went to a bullfight with my husband once,” Sister Tommy said. “It was awful. He loved it. The poor bull. I almost threw up.” All three of them laughed, and they were at St. Dominic’s an hour later, and all of the nuns were waiting for her. It was a true homecoming. She hugged Mother MaryMeg first and lingered in her arms for a long moment.

“We were going to come over to kidnap you if you didn’t come back this time,” the superior teased her. “Welcome home, Alex.”

“Thank you, Mother,” she said, feeling at peace, and then went upstairs to her room, which had been kept intact for her. It was hers, and had been waiting, with her little blue lamb lamp from her childhood on the desk.

“How’s Brigid…Regina?” she asked Sister Xavier before she left her.

“Ready to pop.” She laughed. “She dropped by to see us a month ago. The poor thing can hardly walk, but she looks great and so happy.” They didn’t know what sex the baby was and were waiting to see at the birth, but were hoping for a boy. “She promised to call the minute it’s born.” Alex already knew that her husband and one of his sisters were going to be at the delivery, which all sounded scary to Alex. It was a subject she knew nothing about, and didn’t want to. Until she had to, one day, if she ever did. Sometimes she thought she’d stay single forever, and just be a writer and nothing else, neither a mother nor a wife. She wouldn’t have minded. And she thought Brigid was very brave.

She settled into her room that night, unpacked her bags, and put her papers on her desk, and in a way it was very odd. It was as though she had never left. She went downstairs for breakfast with the nuns the next morning, and she told Mother Mary Margaret about the possible movie offer after the others left.

“I haven’t heard back from Rose about it, so maybe it will never happen. I think movie deals are like that, they fall apart more than they get made.”

“How could you be on the set, though, and not have them figure out who you are?”

“I don’t know. I’m worried about it too, but Rose thinks we could make it work, with me pretending to be Mr. Green’s assistant. It’s a little crazy.” But so was her life, writing bestsellers under a pseudonym and pretending to be a man. It didn’t get crazier than that.

“That’s very exciting, Alex,” she said proudly. Her career just kept growing. “So you’d be leaving us again,” she added wistfully.

“Only for a few months.” She wanted to go back to London one day. She had liked it, the people, the city, the culture, the history, the British humor and manners.

Mother MaryMeg rushed off to her office then, and Alex called Brigid, as she had promised. Brigid invited her to their apartment for lunch. She said she was too fat to move or go anywhere. Her due date was two days away, and she had taught her classes right till the end. School was out now and she was on maternity leave till January.

Alex couldn’t believe the size of her when she saw her. “Oh my God, you’re huge,” she said, grinning, and Brigid looked down in dismay at the enormous lump the size of a beach ball.

“I think it’s mostly chocolate cake,” she confessed, “and cheesecake…maybe pecan pie and cupcakes…” she said after she hugged Alex, thrilled to see her. “I missed you so much!”

“Me too,” Alex said, feeling as though she had reclaimed a sister. She had brought a little white knit outfit from Paris for the baby, with embroidered white rosebuds on it, which Brigid held up in delight. It was the prettiest thing she’d ever seen. Her face had gotten fuller too, but she looked blissful, and they talked all afternoon about what Alex had done in London for the past year since the wedding, her trips, Fiona, and a modified, less racy version of her relationship with Ivan, even though Brigid was married now. Alex thought she didn’t need to know all of it, but Brigid could guess. When Alex left, Brigid waddled out to the car Alex had borrowed from the convent.

“I’ll call from the hospital when I go in,” she promised, and thanked her again for the little French outfit for the baby. “I hope it’s soon. Like tonight.” She laughed. “I can’t even eat anymore. I can hardly breathe, and I have heartburn all night.” It sounded awful to Alex, but Brigid had her fondest wish and looked ecstatic. Alex reported the visit to the nuns at dinner. They couldn’t wait for the baby to be born, like a houseful of doting aunts. And as soon as they got up from the table, Brigid called.

“I’m in labor!” she told Mother MaryMeg victoriously. She had gotten to the hospital twenty minutes before and reported that she was two centimeters dilated, which the superior knew wasn’t impressive. She had a long way to go before she’d have her baby in her arms.

“We’ll all be praying for you,” the superior said in a loving tone. “It’ll be over before you know it. Try to get a little rest now.”

“I feel great!” she said, on an adrenaline high.

“Rest anyway,” she told her, and reported to the others that Sister Regina was in labor. Everyone was excited at the news.

Alex called Bert and they made a lunch date for two days later. He had editing to give her on the new book. She didn’t tell him about the movie, because she was beginning to think it wouldn’t happen anyway.

There was no word from Brigid at breakfast the next morning, which didn’t seem to concern anyone, much to Alex’s surprise. “Should we be worried?” she asked the mother superior.

“Not at all.” She smiled at her gently. “She went into labor about seven o’clock last night. I’d have been amazed if it had been born by now. It’ll probably be sometime late this afternoon, or maybe tonight.”

“Tonight? How long does it take?” She had never thought about it before and didn’t know. She had no female relatives and lived with a houseful of nuns, and no one she knew had ever had a baby.

“For a first baby, average would be about twenty-four or thirty-six hours. And she was in the very early stages of labor when she called us. That barely counts. I’m sure she’s hard at work by now.”

She had guessed accurately, and when the superior called the hospital from her office to check on her, the labor and delivery nurse at the desk told her that Brigid Dylan was in full-on labor now, and at five, which the superior, who was also a nurse, knew meant she had hours to go. Many hours. Hard ones. Especially with a baby that size.

“How’s it going?” she asked with concern. Brigid was still one of hers, in her heart, even now that she was married.

“About how you’d expect, with a first baby, and a big one, at thirty-seven,” the nurse told her honestly when she had identified herself. “Maybe tonight,” or a C-section, they both knew, if it took too long, but she wasn’t there yet, and the nurse said she wasn’t even ready to push. It was going to be a while.

Alex stuck her head in the door at two o’clock to ask if there was any news, and Mother MaryMeg shook her head and smiled. “I’m sure she’s fine.” The nuns had made bets after breakfast and one of them had said midnight, which made Alex wince. Most of them who were nurses had guessed between eight and ten o’clock that night. Alex felt sick thinking about it for her, and wondered if Brigid had known what she was in for.

They had just finished dinner at eight o’clock when Patrick called them at Brigid’s request. He called the nuns right after he called his parents. Mother MaryMeg came back to tell them. “Brigid has her baby. It’s a boy. Ten pounds, two ounces, forceps delivery. He was born at seven forty-one. Mother and son are fine.” The superior beamed at them, and one of the nuns at their table commented that that wasn’t bad at all. Twenty-five hours for a first labor was shorter than it could have been, especially with a big baby. Alex wondered if Brigid would agree. She couldn’t even imagine it. Twenty-five hours of labor. It sounded like a nightmare to her.

“I won! I won!” one of the older nuns at a back table called out, and Alex felt like she was at a bingo game. “I said seven forty-five.” The other nuns cheered and Alex asked Mother MaryMeg a question.

“What’s a forceps delivery?”

“Kind of like a big clamp to help get the baby out, if the baby is big. Like we use in the kitchen.”

“Oh God. I’m never having children,” Alex said and meant it.

“You’ll be surprised. She’ll forget all about it by tomorrow with the baby in her arms.”

“I hope so,” Alex said with feeling, while the older nun collected her winnings from the others at her table. They had each bet a quarter and she’d won more than six dollars. “When can we visit her?”

“I’d give her till tomorrow. She’s going to be worn out tonight, and busy with the baby, even if it wasn’t a long labor.” Alex still couldn’t get over the fact that twenty-five hours was considered speedy.

She went to see Brigid the next day at the hospital at lunchtime. She had dark circles under her eyes, and was sitting at an awkward angle as the nurse showed her how to nurse the baby, and she broke into a broad smile when she saw Alex. The baby was sound asleep in her arms and wasn’t interested in nursing. Brigid said Patrick had just gone home to get some sleep, they’d been up all night admiring the baby. He had a face like a rosebud when Alex looked at him, and she kissed her friend. The nurse took the baby from her then, put him in a little bassinet, and wheeled him off to the nursery for a while.

“How was it?” Alex asked as she sat down in the chair next to Brigid’s bed.

“Awful, worse than anything I could ever have imagined. I thought I was going to die when he came out. But worth every minute of it. I would do it again in a heartbeat.”

“You’re insane,” Alex told her and Brigid laughed.

“Isn’t he beautiful? He looks just like Pat.” Alex couldn’t see it and thought he looked like a baby, but he was very pretty, and very big.

“Sister Ignatius won six dollars thanks to you last night.” They both laughed at that. “Six twenty-five actually. They had a pool on what time he’d be born. I was worried sick about you.”

“It went fine,” Brigid said, looking serene. “It was just really bad for the last four or five hours.”

“I’m having my tubes tied immediately,” Alex said, wincing, and they talked quietly for a while. She was happy for her friend. She had everything she wanted now.

“I guess I won’t be writing for another twenty years or so,” Brigid said sheepishly. “I don’t have your dedication or your talent. I wanted to write a book but I guess it will never happen.”

“You’re a mom now, you get a pass.” She kissed Brigid as they brought the baby back and put him in his mother’s arms. He was crying loudly and wanted to be fed. She was trying to figure out how to do it as Alex left the room and went back to the convent, feeling happy for her.

A group of the nuns went to see her that night. They had knitted little sweaters for the baby, and booties and babies’ caps, and reported that she looked great and the baby was gorgeous. Alex was still stunned by the mystery of it. But Brigid had her baby. They named him Steven Michael. And Alex and all the nuns wished him well, and his parents.

Alex had lunch with Bert the next day. They ate sandwiches she’d brought, and he showed her the editing he’d done and the changes he wanted her to make. He suggested she add details to the crime scene that would be even more vivid, and make the perpetrator of the crime even harder to guess. He was a hard taskmaster but she trusted him completely and he was usually right, so she followed his advice. She was going to start working on it that night.

She wanted to see Brigid again, but she had already gone home that day, thirty-six hours after the baby’s birth, and when Alex called her it sounded like chaos in her apartment, with Pat’s siblings, his parents, and their friends visiting. Brigid was exhausted and Alex didn’t want to add to it. She had her hands full.

Rose had left a message for Alex that afternoon at the convent office. When she got back from Bert’s, Alex called her.

“They want to buy it and they’ll pay a good price. And they agreed to our conditions for Mr. Green. They’ll pay to rent a house for him, and for his assistant to be the go-between. That would be you, Alex.” She listed the names of the stars who would be in it, and Alex couldn’t speak for a minute. “They want you and Mr. Green there on August twenty-fifth for preproduction meetings. So? What do you think?” Rose was very pleased.

“I think I’m going to faint,” Alex said as she sat down in a chair in Mother MaryMeg’s office. She was alone there.

“Please don’t. They’re sending the contracts over tomorrow. I’ll email them to you. You’ve got a movie, Alex. This is a big deal, especially with that director and that cast.” Alex was her youngest client, and one of the most successful at the moment. Rose was impressed too, and excited for her. She had never seen a career take off at lightning speed as hers had. But she worked so hard, she deserved it.

“Thank you,” Alex said, and they hung up, and she was still looking shell-shocked when Mother MaryMeg walked in a minute later.

“Is something wrong?”

“I got the movie. Darkness is going to be a movie.” She listed the cast for her. The superior was stunned too.

“Goodness.” She broke into a slow smile. “Brigid has a baby, you have a movie. What’s next? Things are booming around here.” She gave Alex a big hug, and they announced it at dinner. She had time to do the editing on her latest book before she left, and at the end of August, she was going to Hollywood. She still couldn’t believe it. She lay in her bed that night thinking about it, wondering what she had ever done to be so lucky. Bert had been thrilled too when she called him.

Alexander Green was the best thing that had ever happened to her. As far as the world knew, Alexander Green was the bestselling author, but Alex was the woman behind him in the shadows, making magic. It made her laugh to think that, in a way, she was the Wizard of Oz.