by Lynne Hinton
At first, when Dick came home for lunch with the van, having picked it up after a wash and wax, Beatrice didn’t consider the possibility of using it; she was thinking about how she had failed again at her one assignment, how Louise was going to yell at her again about not being able to follow through with her one task.
It wasn’t until her husband left, taking the car and leaving the van in the front yard, that Beatrice knew it was the solution she needed. It was like a miracle, she had thought; but of course she had not told that part to Louise. But she did. She really thought it was a miracle, a sign or a gift from God.
She saw Dick pulling away and she ran out the door and started inspecting the vehicle. She looked in all the windows and kicked the tires. She even tried to open the hood and look at the engine, though she knew that she would have no idea of what she was looking at. When she couldn’t get the hood open, she just patted it on top.
She continued to examine the vehicle, nodding as she went, and determined that it was big enough for the four women. She could also see that with the third seat installed there would be room enough to allow for a bed in the back for Margaret. It was all clean inside and still had that new car smell that she always liked. She didn’t think anything about the sign on the side, designating it as a funeral home vehicle; she thought it was exactly what the women needed. It even had four-wheel drive in case they ran into snow on the roads.
She didn’t worry about borrowing it because she knew that the funeral home had other vans, and she guessed that they wouldn’t really miss the one that was parked at the house. She figured that she could just take the van, drive to Texas, and be back by Christmas. She thought that since the owner of the funeral home was taking his family to California for the holidays, Dick wouldn’t really be in any trouble because she guessed that no one would really ever find out. He was in charge, after all. So she finished getting ready, called Dick to say good-bye and that she would be home in a few days, loaded her suitcase, and went to pick up Louise.
When Beatrice called Dick to say she was leaving, she didn’t mention that she was taking the van. She knew he would have told her no. He would have given a thousand reasons that it was a bad idea, including the one big one: that it wasn’t their van. So she decided she would wait until she was out of town to let him know what they were driving, let him know that she had the van. She would call when she got to Asheville or Knoxville, a spot too far from home to have to turn around and drive back. She thought her plan was perfect and she was intending to tell her friends about what she was doing, not sensing that anything would be wrong with any of it.
However, by the time Louise had finished yelling at Beatrice, saying she wouldn’t go in that van, and making calls, only to find out what Beatrice had already told her, that there were no vans available, Beatrice had made no mention of the fact that Dick didn’t even know about the use of the vehicle. She knew after hearing everything she had heard, Louise would go crazy if she found out that they were actually stealing the funeral van. So Beatrice decided not to share that part.
After almost an hour of screaming at Beatrice, saying she wouldn’t allow Margaret to ride in that van, wouldn’t allow Beatrice to drive them in that van, Louise got in the vehicle and agreed to go over to Jessie’s. Maybe, she thought, Jessie would have some other idea of how they could get a van. Maybe, she thought, Jessie could make Beatrice see what a ridiculous idea it was to take Margaret to Texas in a funeral home van.
Now, however, Louise realized that Jessie wasn’t going to take her side. Jessie thought it was funny. Jessie was going to allow them to drive Margaret to her hometown place somewhere in west Texas in the funeral home van. Louise couldn’t even believe it.
She just shook her head and stomped back to the van, got in the passenger side, and shut the door. She was so flabbergasted, she didn’t even know what to say. She couldn’t believe that Jessie didn’t think this was a horrible idea, that Jessie thought this was funny. So she just decided to go with them. The only thing she could think was that maybe Margaret wouldn’t notice the sign on the side. Maybe she could hurry out and slide open the side door and Margaret wouldn’t see what they were driving. She slid down in the seat, trying to figure out the best way to get that accomplished.
“I even have a little cake,” Beatrice said, trying to sound upbeat. “You ready, Jess?” she asked.
Jessie nodded and gave a good-bye kiss to James. He whispered something in her ear and she smiled. She walked over to the side of the van and slid open the door and got in.
Beatrice got into the driver’s seat and pulled the seat belt across her shoulders. She turned on the engine. “It’s oatmeal, the cake, I mean. It’ll be nice for the mornings.”
She waited until Jessie was in the seat with her seat belt on. They all waved to James, who was standing on the porch. Jessie blew him a kiss and he smiled.
Beatrice pulled out onto the street and turned the car in Margaret’s direction.
“It smells nice,” Jessie noted as she glanced around inside the van.
“I know,” Beatrice said proudly. “It’s new.”
Louise looked out the window.
“And you were right, it’s real roomy, isn’t it?”
“They can carry one hundred arrangements in the back, if they take that seat out, of course.” Beatrice pulled to the stop sign and looked in both directions carefully before pulling out.
“One hundred?” Jessie asked. She looked all around the van again and nodded. “It was sure nice of Dick to let us borrow it,” she noted.
Beatrice made a kind of humming noise, and Louise turned quickly in her direction.
“Dick does know, doesn’t he?” Louise asked.
“Oh my,” Beatrice quickly answered. “Do you think we should have packed a thermos of coffee?” She wanted to change the subject as quickly as possible.
“I have one,” Jessie replied. “And I brought an ice chest with some sandwiches in it.” She knew that James had put it in the back.
“Great!” Beatrice exclaimed. She was glad to talk about food and not about her husband.
“I think this is real nice, Bea,” Jessie said.
Louise sighed and shook her head. She still couldn’t believe that they were going to pick up their friend, sick with cancer, and drive her to Texas in a funeral home van. It was all just beyond her good senses.
“Oh, come on Lou, it’s fitting,” Jessie said, reaching up and slapping her friend on the shoulder.
“How is it fitting?” she asked.
“For us,” Jessie replied. “It’s simply fitting for us.” She laughed again.
“We are the cookbook committee,” Beatrice added, even though her comment made no sense to anyone.
“Now, I was thinking that we would take turns behind the wheel,” Beatrice announced. “I will drive first and then we can take two-hour shifts. We’re staying in Knoxville tonight, right?” She glanced over to Louise.
“That’s the plan,” she replied.
Suddenly Beatrice made a sharp turn down a side street, slinging Louise and Jessie across their seats. She made the quick turn because she realized that if she went the way she was planning to go, she would have driven right past the funeral home. She certainly did not want to do that. She tried to play off what had happened. “Wheeee,” she said, trying to make it seem like she had intended to make the turn.
“Beatrice! What is wrong with you?” Louise was sliding back into her seated position. She had been thrown toward the console stationed between the two front seats.
“Oh, I just remembered how much holiday traffic we would run into if we took River Road over to Hawthorne.” Beatrice nervously looked in the rearview mirror, trying to make sure that no one had spotted the van and was following them. She didn’t see anything.
“Well, if you’re driving like that to Knoxville, your shift is about over,” Louise noted. She could tell that Beatrice had gotten nervous about something. She turned around to look behind
them.
“So, we’ll get to Asheville about five P.M. Do we want to stop there for dinner?” Beatrice asked, trying to distract Louise. “Or will we just eat the sandwiches and cake and keep going?”
“Why don’t we just wait to see when we get hungry or tired of sitting?” Jessie replied. “There’s really no schedule for this adventure. We’ll let Margaret decide how she’s feeling.”
Beatrice nodded. She made the turn down Margaret’s road and then drove into the driveway. When they stopped, Louise jumped out and quickly slid open the side door of the van so that the sign was not visible. She hoped that Margaret wouldn’t walk around to the other side. There was nothing she could do about that sign.
“I’ll go get her,” Jessie said as she stepped out. Louise stood by the door, guarding it. Jessie just shook her head when she realized what her friend was doing. “It won’t matter, Lou,” she said. “She’ll see it eventually. And I promise you, Margaret will think this is a hoot.”
“Whatever,” Louise responded. “But why don’t we wait until we’re out of Hope Springs before we show her what she’s traveling in?”
“Do you want me to help you with her and her stuff?” Beatrice rolled down the window and asked.
“I think we can manage,” Jessie replied.
Jessie walked to the door just as Margaret opened it. The two women smiled at each other.
“Your chariot awaits,” Jessie announced.
And at that moment, Beatrice honked the horn, scaring Louise and causing her to jump, letting go of the van door, which began to close, clearly exposing the sign she was trying to keep hidden.
Jessie, of course, was right. Margaret thought it was the funniest thing she had ever seen.
SECTION FOUR
Orange Slice Cake
2 sticks margarine
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
3½ cups plain flour
½ cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon baking soda (dissolved in buttermilk)
2 cups chopped pecans
1 pound orange slice candy cut in small pieces
2 pounds dates cut in small pieces
½ cup coconut
Cream margarine and sugar; add eggs one at a time; add flour alternately with milk. Add nuts, candy, and dates rolled in flour. Add coconut. Cook in tube pan at 250 degrees for 2 hours and 30 minutes.
TOPPING
1 cup fresh orange juice
2 cups powdered sugar
Mix orange juice and sugar thoroughly and pour over hot cake just removed from the oven. Let stand in pan overnight or for several hours.
Chapter Sixteen
We’re in Amarillo.” Charlotte couldn’t hear Jessie very well. They were both on cell phones and there wasn’t a very good connection. It was almost lunchtime. She and Rachel had slept late and then eaten a big breakfast. She waited. “Jessie, are you there?”
“Yes, hold on just a minute, let me see if I can get a better signal.”
The two women paused.
“Okay, is that better?” she asked.
“Yes, much better,” Charlotte replied. “So, where are you guys?” she asked.
They had spoken to each other over the weekend, once on Saturday before they left Hope Springs. And then Charlotte had called Jessie on Sunday evening to tell her that she and Rachel, one of the women from the shelter, were leaving Gallup on Monday morning and would make it to Amarillo to spend the night.
She knew that the group had left North Carolina Saturday evening and were planning to be in Goodlett by Tuesday. She learned, however, from her phone call on Sunday that they had gotten a bit off schedule once they started their trip from Tennessee. Beatrice apparently persuaded them all to stop in Memphis and get a picture of the four of them at Graceland.
Based upon the conversation she had with Louise on Sunday evening, the women had gotten separated at Elvis’s estate and Beatrice had gotten locked in the jungle room. There was some sort of trouble with security and they were asked to leave. She couldn’t make out the rest of the story, the women were laughing too hard.
However, after the holdup in Memphis, Charlotte wasn’t sure that they would make it to Little Rock Sunday night or if they would get all the way to Oklahoma City on Monday night. She hadn’t talked to them since just after the Memphis side trip.
Every time Charlotte tried to call Jessie, she was sent directly to her voice mail. She knew that either there had been no good signal for her to return the calls or Jessie had still not quite figured out how to work her cell phone. Regardless, Charlotte was quite relieved to be able to talk to her friend on Tuesday.
“We’re almost to Oklahoma City,” Jessie replied. “We spent last night in Fort Smith but we got up pretty early to start today. We didn’t make it to the hotel Louise had planned for us but we’re almost caught up by now. We’re about to get on Highway 62. Then we drop down on Highway 83 to hit 287. We should be in Goodlett before it gets dark.”
“Louise and Beatrice still fighting?” Charlotte asked. She was grinning when she asked it.
“Bickering, like old hens,” Jessie replied. “But what else is new?” she asked.
“Lou started it,” Beatrice said, breaking into Jessie’s conversation. “I could have gotten us to Little Rock by nightfall if she hadn’t wanted to stay and sing with the Elvis choir.”
“I started it?” Louise said. She was driving, and Beatrice was beside her on the passenger side. “You were the one who was locked up in the hall closet in the King’s house and stopped all the tours. I was where we were supposed to be, just hanging out in the souvenir shop waiting for you.”
“I was ready to leave while you were trying to sneak in the back row of the choir.” Beatrice folded her arms across her chest.
“You hear all that?” Jessie asked.
“Has it been that way since North Carolina?” Charlotte asked. She knew how Beatrice and Louise could argue.
Back in Hope Springs she had left them in the church after a meeting one evening fussing about something with each other and found them there the next morning, asleep in the day care center. Charlotte knew that these women could keep an argument running for days.
“How’s Margaret doing?” she asked, deciding to change the subject from Beatrice and Louise. She had been concerned that the trip was too much for Margaret. She didn’t know the condition of her friend, but knew that Margaret had not been well since she left the hospital.
“She’s a trouper,” Jessie said. She turned back to look on the seat behind her where Margaret was sleeping.
It was easy to see how frail she appeared, how much weight she had lost in the previous months, but Jessie could also see how peacefully she was resting. She didn’t know how her friend could sleep through all the noise in the van.
“We’ve actually had a lot of fun,” Jessie noted with a smile.
And it was true. They had already seen a lot of sights in the three days they had been on the road. They had stopped in Nashville at the Grand Ole Opry and heard a Christmas concert, shopped at some outlet stores in Arkansas, and stopped at the monument in Oklahoma City that was just off the interstate. They had packed a lot into the trip. Memphis and Graceland was just one of many adventures they had shared.
“Tell her about the orange cake,” Beatrice said.
“Bea wants me to tell you about this cake we ate in Arkansas. We stopped at some truck stop off the highway and Bea ordered this cake for dessert. It was made with those candy orange slices. You remember those?” Jessie asked.
“Real sugary ones?” Charlotte responded.
“That’s them. Anyway, it was certainly a different kind of cake. I didn’t care for it myself but Beatrice wouldn’t let us leave this diner until she could call the woman who baked this cake and get the recipe. She’s pretty excited about it so you may be getting a cake in the mail in the new year.”
“She just can’t get enough recipes, can she?”
The two of them laughed.
“Well, I’m glad you’ve been safe and I certainly figured you all would make this trip into something memorable,” Charlotte responded. “I hope you have your camera with you.”
“We do. And we have some fine photographs of Louise singing with a choir of Elvis look-alikes and Beatrice being escorted off the premises at Graceland by security guards.” Jessie laughed.
“I think that one big man with the Santa hat sort of liked me,” Beatrice said. She turned around in her seat to face Jessie.
“I think so too, Bea,” Jessie said, responding to Beatrice. “We think we may use them for next year’s Christmas cards,” she said to Charlotte. “So, anyway, we should be in Goodlett by suppertime. You got any idea where we could meet?”
“There’s an RV park in Goodlett. It’s off the highway going into town. It’s got ‘cotton gin’ in the name of it. We could meet there,” Charlotte suggested. “Rachel thought it had a little store, so we could just meet in the parking lot.”
“Cotton Gin RV Park,” Jessie repeated. She knew about Rachel because Charlotte had mentioned her passenger when they had talked on Saturday. “Sounds perfect and it shouldn’t be hard to locate. We’ll plan to see you there in a few hours.”
And with that, the signal was gone.
Charlotte placed her cell phone in the console beside her seat.
“You lose her again?” Rachel asked.
“Yeah, or Jessie hit the end button with her chin.” She smiled. “I don’t think she’s quite gotten her cell phone technology figured out yet.”
Rachel nodded. “I never used one before.”
“Really?” Charlotte asked. “You want to use mine?” she offered, wondering if Rachel had even phoned her sister to let her know she was in Texas.
“Nah,” she replied. “I don’t even know anybody to call.” She slumped down in the passenger seat.
Charlotte and Rachel hadn’t talked much since they started the trip the day before. They left after the Christmas party at the shelter. Charlotte thought it had been a nice event for all the women.
