The Company We Keep

by Mary Monroe

  But the picture that bothered Teri the most was one of Victor posing with Ike and Tina Turner. She had always thought that it was hideous and would have been more appropriate on display in a rock museum. She didn’t know how old the picture was, but from Tina’s long, straight wig and miniskirt, Ike’s bell-bottom pants and Beatle wig, she knew it had to be old. Hell, if she remembered correctly, Tina had left Ike’s crazy ass decades ago.

  She could have removed the pictures and other things in her office that irritated her, but most of this shit had already been in place when she got hired. She kept it around as a reminder to herself of how far she had come. Besides, she had her large live plants in every corner, her own water cooler, and a mini-fridge that Victor had given to her two Christmases ago; on her desk were pictures of her beloved grandparents, and one of Nicole and her son.

  She picked up the telephone to call her grandmother to let her know she was coming over. But before she dialed the number Miguel quietly opened her door and leaned in. Peeping over his shoulder behind him was John, Victor’s secretary.

  “It’s kind of slow. Do you mind if I shut up shop?” Miguel asked with a pleading look on his face.

  “No problem,” Teri said, dismissing the two men with a casual wave.

  “It’s my dad’s birthday,” John said anxiously. “I need to pick up the cake.”

  “Good night, you two. I’ll see you tomorrow,” Teri said with a light chuckle, dismissing them with an impatient wave. “When the cat’s away, or in this case, the lion, the mice will play,” she said to herself. “Well, since I can’t beat ’em, I’ll join ’em.” With that, Teri grabbed her purse and briefcase and practically ran out of her office. Two other people had suddenly gotten “sick” and had to leave work an hour ago. Teri didn’t even know about the folks in offices on the floor above her. But half of them had fled early, too. That was what happened whenever Victor was not around. Under normal circumstances, she did not condone this type of behavior. But with Victor for a boss, she felt it was justified, as long as everybody got their work done and as long as it didn’t happen too often.

  Teri called her grandmother from her cell phone as she navigated her way through the heavy commuter traffic. “I meant to call you earlier,” she said as soon as her grandmother picked up. “I’m on my way. I should be there in about ten minutes. If I ever get out of this mess on the freeway.” She knew, and had known for years, that I-405 was to be avoided like the plague during this time of day. “Keep a plate warm for me.”

  “Don’t rush. I didn’t have time to cook dinner today. I’ve been packing for the past hour,” her grandmother told her, sounding cranky. The tone of voice concerned Teri.

  “What’s the matter?” she asked, her heart thumping like a beaver’s tail on a log.

  “Nothing is the matter. All this packing is nerve-racking, that’s all. I better make sure I pack my Dentu Grip…” the old woman mumbled.

  “Packing for what? Are you and Grandpa going somewhere?”

  “We’ll be on the red-eye when it leaves LAX tonight. I don’t know why in the world they call it a ‘red-eye’ flight. It would make more sense if they called it the ‘midnight flight’ because that’s what it is.”

  “Sure enough.” It was the voice of Teri’s grandfather in the background.

  “When I talked to you yesterday morning you didn’t say anything about going anywhere.” Teri didn’t like to talk for more than a minute or two when she was driving. “Let me call you right back.” She took the next exit and stopped in front of a Chevron station. She redialed her grandparents’ phone number and this time it was Grandpa Stewart who answered. “What’s going on?”

  “Nothing’s going on. Me and Mother are just going out of town for a few days,” he mumbled. Teri waited for him to continue, but he didn’t. A full minute passed in silence. This not only annoyed her, it gave her something to worry about. The way her grandparents liked to run off at the mouth, she was surprised that they were being so closemouthed now.

  “Going where? And why didn’t you tell me before now?” she demanded. An Asian attendant inside the gas station was peeping at her out the window. There was a frown on his face that Teri found disturbing to say the least. The last time she had stopped in front of a place of business to make a call from her cell phone, the merchant had called the police, claiming she’d been “casing the place.”

  “Can you hold on for a few minutes?” Teri didn’t wait for a response. She pulled her BMW up to the pump closest to the station. She had filled her tank on her way to work that morning so she didn’t need any gas. She went inside the station and started to randomly grab merchandise. She’d donate the Fritos, bottled water, gum, and a small bottle of Rémy Martin to the first homeless person she encountered.

  Something told her that she was going to need a drink or two when she got home so she would probably keep the alcohol for herself. By the way the clerk was grinning and nodding, the fact that she’d made a purchase seemed to satisfy him. As soon as she walked out the door, he returned his attention to a small black-and-white TV on the counter featuring something in a foreign language.

  “Where are you two going?” she asked as soon as she got back on the phone.

  “Sister Etienne Conroy passed away this morning,” Grandpa lamented. “Me, her, and Mother all grew up together. We all had the same godmama.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. She’s the lady back in Louisiana, right? The one with the lazy eye that played with my ears so much that time you took me back there for a visit when I was fourteen?”

  “That’s her. Been gooch-eyed all her life. Born and raised in Slidell. I swear to God, Sister Conroy just about died when we up and moved to California. If she didn’t call us at least once a week after we got here, we called her. She was more like family than some of our family. You’d have loved her to death.”

  “I’m sure I would have. And isn’t she the lady whose husband died two months ago?”

  “Uh-huh. We didn’t make it to his funeral on account of I was down with the grippe, remember? But grippe or nothing else could keep us from missing out on saying bye to Etienne. You know where we hide the key. Come by and water the plants and take the mail out the box. Don’t worry about the newspapers. I’ve already taken care of that. Now you go on and don’t worry about us. I’m sure one of your friends would love to spend this evening with you, doing whatever you young people do these days. You got a boyfriend?”

  “No, I don’t have a boyfriend. Uh, I’m going to swing by anyway,” Teri said, starting her motor.

  “Well, you’d better hurry. Brother Pickett is driving us to the airport and you know how he is. We don’t need to be there until ten, but he drives the way he walks, slow as a snail. We’ll be lucky if we don’t miss that red-eyed plane.”

  “I’ll take you to the airport,” Teri insisted. She hung up and sped back onto the freeway.

  CHAPTER 38

  Teri loved her grandparents and would have been willing to walk through fire to accommodate them. But sometimes they were as fractious and unruly as toddlers. By the time she dropped them off at LAX she was a nervous wreck.

  All the way to the airport, her grandfather had complained about her driving. No matter what speed she drove, it was either too slow or too fast. “Can’t this thing go any faster? I told you to get a Buick!” A few minutes later it was, “Slow down, girl! You almost ran over that squirrel crossing the street!”

  Her grandmother was no better. “I hope I locked all the doors and all the windows. I hope I didn’t leave the oven on. I hope those Donaldson boys don’t break out my front window the way they did the last time we left the house for a few days,” the old woman whined. On top of everything else, both grandparents looked like they were going to church. Grandpa had on his best navy blue suit and fedora; Grandma had on a flowered dress with a white collar and a wide brimmed hat with a feather on the side. She had on enough rouge to coat a bus.

  “I’ll go back
to make sure you locked all the doors and windows and turned off the oven,” Teri volunteered.

  “Lord, I hope we don’t have to deal with a terrorist situation on that plane tonight,” Grandpa complained, shaking his head.

  “I doubt if any terrorists will be on a plane to Slidell, Louisiana,” Teri said with a mighty sigh.

  “Well, if they had enough of the devil in them to get on a plane going to San Francisco, then hijack and crash it, not to mention all the rest of those planes they crashed up that September, what’s to stop them from doing the same thing on a plane to Slidell?” Grandma asked, leaning forward from the backseat.

  Teri didn’t even bother to respond to that last comment. Unless she agreed with her grandparents, having a conversation with them was usually a no-win situation.

  “Don’t forget to take your pills. Both of you,” Teri reminded in a tired voice. She was thoroughly exhausted by the time she dropped them off and left the airport.

  She took her time going home from checking her grandparents’ house. She stopped at a Chinese takeout next door to a Cat’s Paw shop. Even though everything on their menu was greasy she picked up some egg rolls. She started nibbling on the way home, driving with one hand, eating with the other. By the time she entered her living room the container was empty and her greasy lips were shining like new coins.

  She saw the light blinking on her answering machine. Before listening to any of the messages, she called Nicole, assuming at least one was from her.

  “Did you call?” she asked when Nicole answered on the sixth ring.

  “No,” Nicole told her, speaking in a low voice. Teri groaned and rolled her eyes around like marbles. From the sound of Nicole’s voice, she was up to something that Teri did not want to hear about.

  “Oh. Well, I won’t keep you on the phone long.” Teri told Nicole about the episode with her grandparents and how worried she was about them. “I know that when one of them goes, the other won’t be that far behind. It seems to happen to all elderly couples. Girl, that is one thing I am not looking forward to. I could be planning two funerals in the very near future and that is not something I want to think about.”

  “Then don’t.” Nicole didn’t even try to hide the impatience in her voice.

  “I…you know you are sounding kind of strange tonight, even for you. Did I call at a bad time?”

  “I have company,” Nicole whispered, confirming Teri’s suspicions.

  “Humph. I figured it was about time for one of your maintenance men to pay you a visit. I’ll let you get back to whatever it was you were doing. Get enough for me this time. I could sure use some.” Teri chuckled. She sat down on the arm of her couch with the remote in her hand. “How did you manage to get away from Eric in time to get home for your little rendezvous?”

  Nicole took her good old time responding. “I didn’t…”

  Teri gasped. “Oh shit! It’s Eric?”

  “Uh-huh. I really do have to go now. Are you going to be in the office tomorrow?”

  “As far as I know,” Teri said, speaking slowly. It was a struggle for her to suppress her disappointment. On one hand she was glad that Nicole had finally got Eric alone in her apartment. And despite his relationship with Yvette, she hoped that things would eventually be more serious between him and Nicole. From what she’d witnessed in Eric’s loft between him and Yvette, she had a feeling that Yvette’s days were numbered.

  She had plenty of alcohol in her living room minibar, but she popped open the Rémy Martin that she’d purchased at the gas station as soon as she got off the phone with Nicole. She took a few sips before she pushed the Play button on her answering machine. The first call was from her hairdresser, calling to confirm the appointment she had scheduled for Saturday. The second message was from someone who had dialed her number by mistake. The third message was from Harrison. It was brief and to the point. He had just called to say how he’d enjoyed seeing her that afternoon and that he was sorry she had to put up with Young Rahim’s antics. Then he hung up. He didn’t ask her to return his call and he didn’t say anything about wanting to see her. Again, she felt that “can’t beat ’em, join ’em” feeling. She used to know Harrison’s telephone number by heart but had recently forced herself to forget it. She stumbled across the room to the stand by the door where she’d left her purse. She dumped out the contents to locate her palm-size address book. She had written his number in red ink. But it was no longer his number. As soon as she heard the recorded message indicating that the number she had just dialed had been either disconnected or changed and was now unlisted, she got tears in her eyes.

  “I guess it’s not meant to be,” she said, dragging herself into her bedroom. “Shit!” was the last thing she said before she finished her drink and turned in for the night.

  Teri slept like a baby that night and didn’t wake up until after eleven the next morning. She fixed herself some toast and made herself a tall mimosa. She had used only a splash of orange juice and a lot of champagne. She got an instant buzz, and it was a lot smoother and milder than the one from the Rémy Martin the night before. She was admiring the granite-top counters she’d recently had installed during a home improvement frenzy last month when the telephone rang. She grabbed the cordless off the counter.

  “Teri, are you all right?” It was Nicole, calling from the office.

  “I’m taking a day or two off,” Teri replied, looking at the wall clock above her stove. “If I have any meetings, reschedule them for next week in case I don’t make it in tomorrow or Friday…”

  “Okay. What did you do last night after I talked to you?”

  “The same thing I usually do. I hope you had a good night,” Teri commented, rubbing the back of her head. She made a mental note to avoid that potent-ass Rémy Martin shit from now on and stick to wine, margaritas, and mimosas. She returned to her bedroom and crawled back into bed with the telephone.

  “I did…and I plan to do the same tonight.”

  “I see. Well, you can tell me all about it when I see you.”

  “Listen, you just got a call…”

  “And?”

  “I didn’t know if you wanted to talk to Harrison. He said he left a message at your home number last night but that he hadn’t heard from you yet.”

  She was back on her feet in a flash. An earthquake couldn’t have jolted her out of bed any quicker. She got so tangled up in her sheets she stumbled and inadvertently plopped back down on the side of her bed.

  “I tried to call him back, but he’s got a new phone number and he didn’t leave it. What did he say? What time did he call?”

  “He called just a few minutes ago. Here’s his work and home numbers,” Nicole said.

  Teri wrote Harrison’s numbers down on the back of a dog-eared TV Guide. She couldn’t get Nicole off the telephone fast enough.

  CHAPTER 39

  Harrison was on the air, so Teri got his voice mail when she called him back at his work number. She didn’t want to sound too eager, so all she said was that she’d received his message and was returning his call. She sat there for the next ten minutes hoping he’d take a break and call her right back. He didn’t, but she knew he would.

  She took the telephone with her into the bathroom when she couldn’t hold her bladder any longer. He returned her call an hour after she’d left him a message.

  “Teri, I know you’re probably busy, but I wanted to ask you anyway,” he began. “I read the magazine interview you did, and I was wondering if you’d be interested in letting me interview you on my show.”

  “When did you see it?” she wanted to know. Damn that Lola. She hadn’t even dropped off a copy of the magazine for Teri. And she couldn’t buy it because it wasn’t on the newsstands yet.

  “While I was out with Trevor last night we ran into Lola. She had a few copies with her.”

  “She was supposed to have delivered me some copies by now.”

  “So she told me. Anyway, you’ll be proud of how she sho
wcased you. She devoted half a page to you, and just a few lines to the other four women.”

  “Is that right?” Teri was not a boastful or arrogant woman, but she was human. She knew she was good at what she did. Was it possible that she could eventually be in as high a position as Suzanne de Passe was over at Motown? Victor had even told her that she’d probably be running his company when he retired because she was the only person who could do his job as well as he could. How could she not pat herself on the back every now and then? It pleased her to know that so many other people thought the same thing.

  “Hearing about your success, as if I didn’t know about it already, was so refreshing. I think it would be a big inspiration to a lot of young folks out there. You and I both know that most of them need all the help and inspiration they can get. I can work around your schedule as long as we do it within the next three weeks. I’d like to do this before the story gets stale. Like, before the next issue hits the stands.”

  “An interview?”

  “And you don’t have to worry about me taking up too much of your time. I know how busy you are. Ten minutes max is all I’m asking for. But I’ll settle for whatever I can get. The last interview I heard Donald Trump do lasted only two minutes, but he kicks so much ass when he speaks, the less he says the better. It keeps him fresh and it makes people want more of him. Same with you…”

  “Oh. Thanks for the compliment. You just made my day. Well, how about this Friday morning? I could stop by the station on my way to work.”

  “Hold on, let me check the calendar.” Harrison put Teri on hold, and she had to suffer through half a minute of the tail end of Young Rahim’s latest tune, then another minute and a half of Trevor’s latest before Harrison returned. “I—hello? Are you still there?”