The Roots of the Olive Tree Read Online Free PDF Page B

then licked her fingers. “Oh God that’s good,” she said. Anna wasn’t sure if she were speaking to the dog or to those seated around her.
    Erin blinked rapidly. “I’ve been away too long. I forget that you don’t see the world the way everyone else does. I forget it’s still possible to get a pig that someone took on daily walks.” She cut the meat into small squares and then put a bite no bigger than a pea on her fork. “I’d also forgotten that Bets can make a ham so tender it melts in your mouth.”
    Anna didn’t know what to say. Erin’s strange behavior wasn’t an issue they could raise in the presence of a stranger. Bets put another slice on Erin’s plate. “You’re so thin, maybe a little ham will put some meat back on your bones,” she said.
    In the end, Erin was the only one of them to have an appetite. Anna watched Bets clear half-full plates with food pushed around the edges. In the corner, Callie and Dr. Hashmi stood, holding their plates as if on their way to the sink, but instead they talked to each other in low voices.
    “Should we start?” Anna asked.
    Dr. Hashmi ended up sandwiched between Erin and Callie on the low living room couch. Erin, who appeared revitalized by lunch, asked question after question, with hardly enough space between her words for the doctor to answer. “Your accent is slight,” she said to him. “Where are you from?”
    “Tennessee. It was my father who immigrated to America in the 1940s to be part of the nuclear experiments.”
    He’d shared this information as if they wouldn’t know what he was speaking of, but Anna corrected that notion. “At Oak Ridge, right? One of the Lindsey boys was out there at that time working security. Of course we all thought he was a peanut farmer. Maybe your parents knew him?”
    Dr. Hashmi raised his shoulders as if to answer her, but Bets cut him off. “One of the faults of being so old is that you tend to think everyone ought to know everyone else.” She changed the subject, asking if he’d been born in Tennessee.
    Dr. Hashmi shook his head. “I’m afraid now that you know I wasn’t it gives away my age.”
    “Age is nothing to be ashamed about in this room,” Callie said. “You don’t get to be the head of a department if you’re under fifty.” She leaned forward, exposing a bit of her ample cleavage. “I just couldn’t get over that his assistant put me right through to him.”
    Anna watched the doctor closely. He dipped his head slightly in Callie’s direction, but she couldn’t tell what he was looking at. It had become apparent to Anna that Callie had developed feelings for Dr. Hashmi. She wondered if he felt the same.
    “I’ve been searching for a family such as yours nearly my whole career.” His hand briefly touched Callie’s knee.
    “And here we are in the middle of nowhere California,” Erin said. There was an edge to her voice that set off alarm bells in Anna’s head. She brushed her concerns aside to concentrate on the doctor, who opened his briefcase and passed around a thick packet of papers.
    “The questionnaires are first, but I want you to do this over the next few weeks. The oral interviews are why I’m here and of course, your DNA. I vant your blood.” His attempt at humor was greeted with silence. Callie’s laugh came a beat late.
    Anna pitied him and despite herself, she felt her suspicions melting away. She’d been strongly against the idea of having a geneticist study their family. Lab rats, she’d said to Callie when she brought them the idea. Her granddaughter explained how well his research suited their family. He was specifically interested in studying supercentenarians, both living and dead, and the resulting longevity of their offspring. He, along with several financial backers, believed in the existence of a longevity gene.
    Callie’s fascination with their family’s age sometimes exhausted Anna. That girl was always trying to find the why behind the Keller