I set the alarm function on my phone and placed it on the coffee table. Somehow I had to get enough sleep for whatever tomorrow would bring. I closed my eyes and started drifting off, then a flash of light hit me.
“Oh sorry, Betsy. I was looking for the TV remote for the bedroom.” Charlotte again. “Would you know where that is? I just can’t fall asleep without the TV on. A bad habit, I know, but I’ve been doing it for years.”
“Look in the bedside table drawer,” I said.
“Thank you. Sweet dreams. Do you want me to tuck you in? You used to love that when you were small. I can still remember how I would sing to you, ‘Lavender blue, dilly dilly lavender green …’” She stopped singing and her eyes met mine. “Do you remember?”
I punched down the cushion again. “You sang that to me? I used to sing that song to my dolls as a little girl. No wonder.”
“No wonder,” she repeated softly. She nodded and headed back into my room. I closed my eyes again and heard the music of a late-night talk show blasting from the bedroom. This was going to be a very long night. I was about to put a pillow over my head when my phone chirped out the song for Leo’s ring, “Goin’ to the chapel, and we’re gonna get married.”
“Hey there, beautiful,” said Leo. “How’s it going? So what’s this I hear about a big surprise?” Thank God it was Leo.
“Oh that. I never said it was a good surprise.” I knew I should have called him two days ago, but I didn’t want to bother him at his conference.
“Oh boy. What happened?”
“Charlotte happened. Hold on.” I remembered she was only a few steps down the hall and rose from the couch. I grabbed my blanket, tiptoed through the den and out onto the porch. Fog swirled around the streetlight, and I pulled the warmth I had tightly around me. I felt the porch swing for dampness, and finding the seat dry enough, settled in. Surely she wouldn’t be able to hear me out there.
“Okay, now we can talk.”
“Charlotte as in Charlotte Kelsey?” asked Leo.
“The one and only.” I felt my throat thickening as tears started hitting my cheeks and quickly chilling in the January air.
“She’s in Texas? I thought you said she would ignore the invitation just like everything else you’ve sent her.”
“Surprise,” I squeaked out as I felt a sob start to hit my throat. For the past few days I had tried to remain understanding and tolerant. Bringing her here had hurt most of the people I loved, and I didn’t know how to fix it. Hearing Leo’s voice on the phone unleashed all of the pent-up emotion I had been holding in since Charlotte had arrived.
“What’s she like?”
“She’s okay, I guess. She seems nice, but somehow she has gotten herself entangled in all the wedding plans, and she’s sleeping in my bed right now.” My words started breaking up with unexpected sobs.
“Where are you?”
“Wishing I were in Dallas, with you.”
He sighed and his voice hit his lower register. “You have my vote on that one.”
“No, not for that, I just feel … trapped,” I said. “She and Aunt Maggie are going at it, every chance they get.”
“What? How’s Maggie?”
“Not good. Barely speaking to me.”
“You need to do something about that. Making Aunt Maggie angry is like short-sheeting Mother Teresa.”
I rubbed my temples, trying to ward off the headache that had appeared in the last hour. “It’s not as easy as that. She has a way of grabbing hold.”
“Like a tick?”
I sniffed and caught myself laughing softly. “Sort of. Aunt Maggie’s mad at me, and my dad isn’t returning my calls.”
“Whatever happened between them?”
“I can see now I never really got the full story,” I said. “I was told she left town with another cop from the department. They moved to California and married. He worked as a cop out there, and she was an artist.”
I was repeating verbatim what I’d heard my aunt and father told me in the last twenty-five years.
“So they never told you much about her?”
“No,” I said, “and I have to say in some ways I admire them for that. She’s sweet but … different. She seems to have had a lot of jobs, and she’s a widow now. She drove here on a whim. Dad never ever spoke badly of her. It’s hard to believe.”
“And how often did you speak badly of Barry to Zach?” asked Leo. He was right. I hadn’t told Zach anything about Barry’s hit-and-run style of commitment to me. It just didn’t seem like I was playing fair. In the end though, Zach’s fantasy view of his dad collapsed when he finally met him. Barry hadn’t been off doing wonderful things for society, he had just chosen to not include him in his life. Funny how history seemed to be repeating itself. Could this be why my dad never told me about the real Charlotte? Whatever possessed him to marry her?
“You’re right, you know. I did the same thing to Zach,” I said.
“So what are you going to do?”
“I don’t know. She’s like mold in Texas, clinging to everything and making everyone around her sick.”
“I was going to come down this weekend to help you finish up with the deposits. Do you need me any earlier?”
“Yes, I need you right now, tonight, with me,” I said.
“Not much longer, sweetheart. I promise you that.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
As the day dawned, I again felt overwhelmed by the negativity of my family toward my new houseguest. Aunt Maggie still wasn’t speaking to me beyond a few words, and my dad was nowhere to be seen. As I waited at the kitchen table, massaging my aching neck, I knew I had to try to find her a hotel. I drank a cup of rich brown coffee and watched the morning light bounce across the scattered diamonds on my engagement ring. I was exhausted from trying to make everybody happy.
No matter what had happened this last week, this morning I couldn’t stop myself. I picked up the phone and called my dad. I knew he was still angry with me, but surely he would understand I was in over my head.
“Good morning, Betsy,” Judd said. He’d seen my name on his caller ID and still answered the phone. That was a good sign.
“Hi Dad.” I suddenly found myself at a loss for words. It was comforting just to hear his voice. A silence passed between us before I finally spoke again.
“Dad, I’m sorry.”
Now it was quiet on his end of the conversation. He sighed deeply as if he were expelling all of the frustration I had caused him.
“I know, darlin’.”
Tears started making their way down my cheeks with the incredible relief that short statement gave me.
“I’m so sorry I hurt you,” I said. “I had no idea that all of this would happen.”
“Well, now you know there was a reason why your mother was in one state and we were in another.”
“I know that now. Boy, do I know that.”
Dad chuckled. “I’m sure you do, darlin’.”
“Can you ever forgive me for inviting her and not telling you?”
“I guess I’ll have to if I’m expected to be walkin’ you down the aisle in front of God and everybody. I suppose I should have told you more, and that was my fault.”
I remembered my conversation with Leo. I had done the same thing with my child, so I couldn’t blame him for this. Even if I hadn’t done what I did, he was still a parent who cared enough about a child not to trash an absent parent before that child’s own opinion could be formed.
“After these few days, I’m amazed you lasted as long as you did,” my dad continued. “You need to know, your mother can be hard to live with, but she has her reasons.”
“Like?”
“Like, it’s hard to explain. It was easier just to come up with a few things about her I thought you would like to hear and then try to stick to my story.”
All those years of trying to get people to confess hadn’t been lost on him.
“Charlotte is … Charlotte. When we fir
st met, I thought she was the most wonderful creature God ever put on this earth. She came from a pretty good family here in Pecan Bayou. Most of them are gone now. When she said she would marry me, I was on cloud nine. She seemed so happy to be a part of my life, to be the wife of a cop and then being a mother to you. It wasn’t until you were around two that I started to see the change.”
“What change?” I said. “Was it postpartum depression?”
“Maybe, but I don’t think so. During the time we were married, Charlotte would go through these phases. Always something new. She was into decorating, and then she decided she wanted to be a commercial actress in Houston. After that, I think she took up health food. She just seemed to always need a new direction to focus on. I’m afraid you and I were dull to her. We were routine, housework and dirty diapers. Charlotte could never stand monotony.”
My dad’s words rang true in my mind. Maybe that was why she had tried so many things out in California. Acting on a whim was nothing new for Charlotte.
A peace passed between us, and I felt a familiar sense of security returning.
Dad finally broke the silence. “I’m looking forward to seeing you relax after all of this and will enjoy watching you dance with Leo at your wedding.”
“Sounds nice,” I said. “Drinking champagne, doing the whole white dress thing and finally being with the man I love.”
“Damn, and I thought you’d always been with a man you loved,” he teased.
“You know what I mean.”
“You sure about the champagne? I think I still have pictures of your last wedding. Barry sure could put away a bottle of the bubbly. Sprite’s a hell of a lot cheaper.”
That was one memory I thought I had repressed. Barry, thinking he was at a frat party instead of our wedding, drank heavily on our wedding day.
“I thought I had destroyed all those pictures,” I said. “Do you still have one?”
“One or two.”
“Yeah, well do me a favor and throw them away. That marriage, that life, it’s all over.”
“Yes ma’am. I’ll get the fire roaring.”
“I’m so glad I haven’t lost you in all this.”
“You never lost me, darlin’,” said my dad. “Now, I can’t speak for Maggie, though. She’s pretty torn up.”
“I know. I think I’ve hurt her the most.”
“Another fence to mend,” Dad said.
“Uh, Dad … What do I do about Charlotte?”
My dad didn’t hesitate. “Stage a coup, darlin’, and kick her ass out.”
“Asking your own mother to leave is not going to be easy, but you're right. I need to do this.” I admitted and then heard the sound soft footsteps padding down the hall and the gentle closing of a door.
******
I poured another cup of coffee and waited for Charlotte to come out of my bedroom. I took a toasted pastry out to Zach, who was now snuggled up in my blankets in the den watching cartoons.
“Thanks, Mom.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Why did you have to sleep out here?” he asked.
“Because Miss Charlotte is using my room.” I ruffled his hair. “We have to try to be nice.”
“I will be,” he said. “Danny said she’s your mom, but she wasn’t your mom when you were growing up. Did you miss her?”
“It’s kind of hard to miss a person you never see.”
“I miss my dad, and I never see him.” He took a bite of his pastry and thought for a moment. “I guess when I met him I didn’t like him. Sometimes, I guess I just miss the dad I thought he was. Is that silly?”
How could someone so young be so wise?
“I love you,” I said, hugging him.
“Love you, too.”
I returned to the kitchen to find Charlotte dressed in one of the outfits she bought after arriving here. She grabbed a cup of coffee and glanced at her watch.
“Are you going somewhere?” I said.
“I feel terrible that I’ve inconvenienced you. I’m thinking of going somewhere else.”
I rubbed my neck feeling, a bone-deep ache.
“You don’t have to do that.”
Charlotte sipped her coffee and then spoke. “Maybe I do. Maybe I made some assumptions about you and me. I don’t know. In my mind you were still that sweet little girl that I left. It was easier then. I didn’t worry about you because you had Maggie and Judd. I knew you would be all right.”
“And now?”
“Now, you’re a grown woman with a child,” she said. “You know, for all my restlessness, coming here I became aware of something. You are turning into the person I always wanted to be.”
“There was nothing stopping you from staying here and becoming that person,” I replied.
“You don’t understand. Every day I spent here I felt like I was being buried alive. I was covered up with more and more and more. I had to get out before I suffocated.”
“I hope you’re not feeling that way now,” I said.
“Maybe, a little. More, though, I feel like I’ve upstaged what you and Maggie have together.”
“She isn’t too happy with me,” I admitted.
“I sensed that. Maggie and I never really got along, but I left her the thing I loved the most. Even though sometimes I hated her, just look at you. You’re smart, funny, beautiful and amazing.”
Tears welled up in my eyes. She was saying she loved me.
“I’ve made a mess of things here. That’s something I find I have a talent for. My coming here was not a good idea.” Her brown eyes met mine. “I won’t be staying for the wedding. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me. I have a few details to take care of here in town, and then I guess I’ll drive back to California. Time to put the cat out.”
Once again, my mother loved me. Once again my mother was leaving me.
“Thank you for inviting me,” she said. “I know I haven’t been the best mother. There was so much out there I wanted to try, lives I wanted to be living. Now I can see what I gave up was much more valuable. You’re a wonderful person, Betsy. I think you have a lot more of your dad in you than my share of the genetic pool, and that’s a good thing. Tell Zach goodbye for me.” She patted my arm and rose to leave.
I felt a deep sadness welling up in me as I watched my mother pick up her bag and head out the door, again.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“I can’t believe you did it,” Leo said a few hours later as we drove out to Stokes’s Flower Farm. With all of the new bills coming in from Mr. Andre’s vendors, we really needed to get my deposit back. At this rate we might have to hit Zach’s college fund.
“I’m pretty amazed by it myself. She was my shadow for the last few days, and then she just left.”
“I thought you said we had to be nice to her?” Zach said from the backseat, now reunited with his future brother, Ty. “She said it, and then she kicked her out.”
“I did not.”
“Well, I’m sorry I didn’t get to meet her. I hate missing out on surprises,” Leo said with a wink my way.
As we pulled into the driveway, I noticed that the white pickup with the rails on the side I had seen on my last visit was not there today. Maybe that was why Martha hadn’t picked up the phone when I called. I didn’t look forward to dealing with Lenny.
“Doesn’t look as if anybody’s home,” Zach said.
“Good, let’s go get some lunch,” Tyler said, leaning into the front seat.
“No, Ty, your stomach can wait for another half hour,” said Leo. “Betsy has to get this straightened out, the sooner the better.” He turned off the motor and pocketed his keys.
“I’ll see if I can find somebody.” I exited the car and went up to the front door. After knocking twice, I gave up and walked toward the long greenhouses next to the dilapidated home. Maybe they were working and didn’t hear our car. The greenhouses contained giant fans, and if one of them was on, the rest of world was put on mute.
/> The greenhouses were enclosed in layers of heavy plastic in a tunnel design. Inside the nearest one were rows of planting boxes all filled with tiny seedlings and flowers. There was a hose hooked up to the side of the enclosure and a yellow watering can in the corner. The large metal fans were not running, and Martha and Lenny Stokes were nowhere to be seen. “Martha?” I called out. “Mr. Stokes? Are you out here somewhere?” I heard Leo’s footsteps behind me.
“I don’t see them.” I stopped talking when I noticed Leo’s face was taking on an unhealthy shade of white.
“Betsy, maybe you’d better come outside for a minute.”
“Did you find somebody?”
“Yes, yes I did,” he said as he put his arm around my shoulder. Against the house were two large white boxes that I hadn’t noticed when I first came around the corner. On the ground next to the boxes was the body of Lenny Stokes. He had on overalls with no shirt. His ancient hands were clutched to his chest. He was curled up in the fetal position. His face was terribly deformed with raised knots scattered throughout his cheeks and lips. His scrawny arms where I had seen a rash on my first visit were now full of little red marks and grotesque bubbles under the skin. Near his body was a little metal can. Parts of his skull were also now swelling out through his sparse stringy hair.
“Oh my god, what happened to him?”
“I don’t know. I’ll go tell the boys to stay in the car, and you dial 911.”
“Did you see Martha anywhere?”
“No, you just call the police,” said Leo. “We can’t let the boys see this. You know, you always tell me about finding bodies, but this is the first time I’ve been here when it happened.”
“Sorry,” I said. “It’s a hazard of spending time with me.”
He grimaced and headed back around the corner to the boys sitting in the car.
Lenny Stokes wasn’t going anywhere, and after I had dialed 911, Mrs. Thatcher from the Pecan Bayou Police Department promised they were on their way. I looked at the white boxes. Each one had little drawer handles, and there was a board leaned against them in the front. Were these for small animals? I lifted the lid of the box and jumped back. Inside were neatly filed square pieces of wood. Crawling up around the top of one of the squares were hundreds of bees. I quickly slammed the lid back onto the box, but not before a few rattled bees flew out toward me. I dodged their advances and screamed. Leo came running around the corner.
Buzzkill (Pecan Bayou Series) Page 7
