Hello, Privet! #1: Hello/Привет

Chapter 1

SOPHIE

There are only three possible reasons why my grandfather would invite me for lunch:

    a) He wants to welcome me home.

    b) He wants to personally express his condolences re: my father.

    c) He and the rest of the family want to talk to me about the picture of me that appeared on the front page of Hadashot, an Israeli newspaper.

    But knowing my grandfather, it's probably

    d) All of the above.

    I don't really want to go, but my cousin Anne calls to ensure my presence.

    "Is this going to be some kind of intervention?" I ask.

    "Call it what you want, but you are expected at Elmslea at your earliest convenience." Elmslea is Aunt Claudia's house in East Hampton. From here, it would take about four hours to get there. I'm really not up for traveling again.

    "Really?  At my convenience?" I ask, plopping down on the sofa and decreasing the volume on the television. I change the channel to CNN. More bad news on the war in some place in Georgia, the country, not the state.

    I had arrived in New York yesterday, and now my mother's apartment is littered with pizza boxes, a couple of Chinese takeout boxes, and The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, New York Post, Daily News and The New York Observer. I put on my glasses and pick up the Post and reread my horoscope.  "So is this optional then?"

    "No. Actually, I'm sure grandfather doesn't give a damn about your convenience," Anne says, glibly enough.  "Harrison is on his way to pick you up. So be ready in—a couple of hours?"

    I grip the handset tighter.

    "Or you know, if you want to meet your mother and the senator first—"

    I bite my lower lip. "So my mother will be there?"

    "Yes. It's a family meeting..." Anne trails off. Then she says, "You have to attend, Sophie," gently, but firmly, as if I can't say no.

    "Why?" I ask, putting down the remote and pacing around the coffee table. I pick up the remote again and then channel surf. "My mother will be there, so she can handle it, whatever it is. Why am I needed?"

    "I can't say anything more right now, but I'm telling you, you need to be here."

    "Anne...has something happened?" I've switched to a tennis match—a guy named Akhmerov against a guy called Haase on a clay court with BNP Paribas banners. I switch to Cartoon Network instead.

    "No. Of course not."

    "Anne—"

    "Well, it's about Aunt Claudia."

    Great Aunt Claudia, my grandfather's sister, died about three weeks ago. She died just two weeks before my father did. I had to miss her funeral but I had to sit shiva for my father. There's no specific reason to be discussing her unless... "Who else is going to be there?"

    "My parents, your mom...the senator... It's just family," Anne says quickly. "And my dad has something to discuss with you."

    "What?"

    "I don't know..."

    "Oh, then maybe I won't go."

    "It's something about Aunt Claudia's will," Anne finally says, exhausted.