by Leah Atwood
“Mama! How you doin’? I was gonna call and ask about the skunk smell as soon as I got back here. Knew you’d be able to help.” When Officer Sterling’s mother came into view, Gavin had to cover his mouth to hide his laughter. Avery, who must have thought he was coughing, hit him on the back. Good thing she was too tired to put any umph into it.
Mrs. Sterling was six feet tall and had the build of a linebacker, possibly even one with pads already on. Her platinum-blond hair was askew, and her lipstick was hot pink. Nobody’s hair could grow in that direction. Could it? As Gavin studied the hair, she reached up and adjusted it, putting it to rights again. Huh. A platinum-blond wig. On a very… robust… woman.
Bemused, Gavin watched the interplay between the three Oklahomans. Mrs. Sterling set down a dozen grocery bags on the table in the interrogation room. Then she pulled two pieces of paper out from— well, maybe they’d been tucked into her bra strap — and set them on the table. She pushed one toward Norma Sue. “Here’s the recipe for cleaning the people up.” She gave the other paper a shove toward her son. “And this here’s the one for the laundry. If you mix it up, I’ll start doing their laundry for them. Norma Sue said I could use the jailhouse washroom.”
Despite his fatigue, Gavin was trying to follow the conversation. “What?”
Norma Sue came over and patted him on the back. “Don’t you worry about a thing. Since we can’t get no place to take you in, we’re gonna see to you here. Cap’n said to do whatever I could as long as I didn’t put nobody in danger. So we’re gonna mix up this stuff here that you use to clean your bodies. It’ll help get the skunk smell off real good. I’m gonna take the missus here to the ladies’ shower in the jailhouse, and she’ll be able to wash. When we’re done, Joe here will take you and the young’un to the men’s shower so you can both do the same. We’ve got nice clean prison jumpsuits for you to wear once you get showered, too, so you don’t have to get into them nasty old clothes again.”
“Meanwhile…” Mrs. Sterling gave him a no-nonsense stare. “I’ll get to work in the laundry room. I’ll be back in a jiffy to collect all the clothes in your luggage. Got me a foolproof recipe for gettin’ the smell out. Never ruined any clothes, either.” Her pride was evident. When Joe blushed and looked away, Gavin figured that his wife, with her own ideas about tomato juice, must have ruined something.
Gavin and Eli took a seat at the table in the interrogation room while Norma Sue led Avery away. Shortly after that, Mrs. Sterling wheeled in an industrial-sized, cloth-lined basket, the kind normally found in a laundromat.
“I don’t want to go rummaging through your things. Ain’t proper, you know. I’ll let you load the clothes into the basket, and then I’ll take it from there.”
Eli and Gavin got to work emptying out the laundry from their luggage and putting it into the basket for her.
As they got the last of the clothes in place, Eli offered to help her push it down to the laundry room. Mrs. Sterling laughed. “No way they’d let you wander around these halls smelling as bad as you do, but it’s okay, honey-child. I’m stronger than I look.”
She exited the room, and Eli sat back down. He leaned toward Gavin. “Does she think she looks weak? ‘Cause I’m telling you, in a street fight, my bet’s totally on her. And that’s based on looks.”
A half-hour passed before Avery came back into the room to the applause of Officer Sterling and the click-click-click of Eli’s camera phone.
“You don’t smell nearly so bad now.” Officer Sterling greeted her with a smile.
“My mom in a prison jumpsuit. Someday these pictures will be priceless!” Eli’s glee was tangible.
“Alright, gents. Your turn.” The officer led Gavin and Eli away.
Avery had no more than sat down in a hard plastic chair inside the interrogation room when a commotion pulled Norma Sue away from her side. A few seconds later, a paramedic stepped into the room and gave her a sympathetic smile. “Got skunked, huh?”
She nodded. “Before that happened, I took a fall and hit my head. I think I’m fine, but everyone thought I should get it checked out.”
The paramedic gave her a professional nod. “My name’s Greg. It shouldn’t take too long to figure out whether or not you’re having any troubles.”
As Greg shined a light in her eyes, he began to ask her a series of questions. “Can you tell me your full name? … When were you born? … How did you get injured? … Where are you now?”
Avery answered all his questions, and he smiled approvingly. “That’s a good sign. You didn’t have to stop and think about anything. Is the accident with the car clear in your memory, or is it fuzzy?”
“Clear. I remember it vividly. I almost wish it were fuzzy. I didn’t know exactly where my son was when it happened. Not knowing if he was in danger was scarier than any of the rest of it.”
Greg moved his hands over her skull. “Don’t mind me. I’m just checking to make sure nothing’s broken.” When he found the lump his fingers were gentle. “On a scale of one to ten, how bad is your headache?”
“Probably a four or five.” She grunted. He might be gentle, but it still hurt. “It’s been a long trip, though, and I haven’t had much sleep. I had a headache before I fell, too, so that might be making it worse.”
“Any sensitivity to light?” His fingers felt for her pulse.
“Yes, but I think that’s because of the headache. I normally get a little sensitive to light when I have a headache.”
“Are you tired?”
She nodded. “But like I said, I’ve only had a couple hours of sleep in the last two days. I was tired before I hit my head.”
Greg gave her a smile as he wrapped a blood pressure cuff around her arm. “It’s not an inquisition. I have to ask the questions.”
Avery took a deep breath and tried to relax. She didn’t want to end up in a hospital on Christmas Day. Finding a way home and crawling into her own bed sounded so much better.
Greg removed the blood pressure cuff. “All through. You have some of the symptoms of a concussion, but I think that’s more coincidence than anything else. Do me a favor, though, and don’t go crawl off in a corner somewhere to get some sleep. If you decide you want to be alone, make sure someone knows where you are. And if you have any sudden changes in balance, head pain, nausea, or your ability to think and answer questions, please take yourself to an ER immediately.”
“Of course.”
Greg quickly filled out some paperwork and held a clipboard for Avery. “I just need you to read this and sign at the bottom.”
Avery did as she was told then, exhausted from too many hours without sleep, lay her head down on the table in the interrogation room as soon as Greg left.
“Everything okay, sweetie?” Norma Sue asked as she stepped back into the room.
“Not too long ago we were traveling through a part of Albuquerque I don’t often go to. We saw a homeless man pushing a shopping cart, and I wanted to reach out and cover my son’s eyes so he wouldn’t see.” Avery rolled her shoulders as she sat back up. “It was almost like I thought he should be protected from knowing how ugly life can be sometimes. I felt disgusted, too. I didn’t mean to react that way, and I wasn’t proud of it, but that’s how I felt inside when I saw that man with his shopping cart. Now here I am in a prison jumpsuit, and there isn’t a homeless shelter around that will even take me in.”
“People down on their luck and people livin’ high-off-the-hog got more in common than most folk realize.” Norma Sue’s took one of the other chairs. “Some of them work hard, and some of them never lifted a finger a day in their lives. You can’t be judgin’ a person by their clothes.” The woman reached out and pinched a bit of the bright orange fabric of Avery’s sleeve. “If you want to know what’s goin’ on in someone’s life, you need to take the time to get to know the person.”
When Avery lifted her eyes to gaze at the small woman, her attention was snagged by something in her eyes. How long had she been in Norma Sue’s
company? A while, at least. And it had taken her until that moment to get past the awful hairdo enough to notice the rest of her. It sure was a good thing Norma Sue hadn’t judged her based on smell when they’d first met.
“Do you normally work the holidays?” Avery figured she might as well start on that getting-to-know-people thing. “Seems as if you’d have enough seniority to get out of it.”
Norma Sue shrugged as her eyes shifted away from Avery to stare at the wall. “I don’t have anyone to spend the day with, so I don’t mind. I’m semi-retired, but I try to take the holidays so the younger folk can be with their families. Someone has to work. Might as well be me.”
“No kids?” Avery saw it again. A twinge deep in Norma Sue’s eyes. She’d hit a nerve with that one.
Norma Sue smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “I had two babies. Twins. One died within the first week, and the other died from crib death when she was four months old.”
So much grief in such a short time. Avery’s heart dropped into her stomach, as heavy as a cold stone. What was she supposed to say?
“My girls would be about your age now if they were still livin’. I’d be a grandma to some ornery teenagers, I’m sure. My girls would’ve been beautiful inside and out. Every man in the county would have wanted to wed them and raise a family.”
Avery was still trying to find the right words to say when Norma Sue reached out, kindness in her eyes, and patted her hand. “It’s okay. You don’t have to say anything. Appreciate what you have each day you get to hug your boy there, ‘cause you never know when those days will be over.”
From deep within the recesses of the building, a phone rang. Norma Sue reached up to touch a button near her ear. “Oklahoma Highway Patrol in Lawton. How can I help you?”
Avery’s jaw dropped. The kitschy Norma Sue she’d heard talking up to this point was gone. The woman answering the phone and speaking to a distraught person on the other end was all business, her voice soothing and calm as she hurried back toward the front desk to take down information and dispatch an officer.
A few minutes later, she came back into the interrogation room. “Sorry about that. Most calls get routed through 9-1-1 these days, but every now and then someone calls us directly with an emergency.”
“That’s okay. How long have you been doing this job?”
Norma Sue’s shoulders dropped the tiniest bit. Her smile spread wide. It was the kind of smile you give when you’re trying to cheer someone up, but Avery had a feeling the older woman was trying to cheer herself up. “I’ve been at this job nearly thirty years now.”
Thirty years was a long time. “What made you want to work with the highway patrol?”
Norma Sue patted her hair into place as though a few stray strands might make the almost-neon-red up-do too garish. Then she took a breath. “I sometimes beat around the bush, but I’ll tell it to you straight, okay, sweetie? Seems to me you can handle it. Not many folks can, so I do them and me both a favor by keeping things to myself.”
Leaning forward, Avery wanted to catch every word. She didn’t fully understand what Norma Sue had meant, but she knew she was being given a special privilege.
“After my babies died, my husband had a real hard time. He wanted a big family, you see, but I had complications birthin’ my girls, and the doctor told me I couldn’t never have kids again. When they both died, my husband decided he wanted a different life than just bein’ married to me for the rest of his years, so he took off. I never got around to finding myself another man.”
A sad look on her face, the older woman continued. “I was confused for a lot o’ years and thought maybe no man worth his salt would want me since I couldn’t have babies. It was a kind of dark time in my life. Then a friend told me I ought to start doin’ for others and that I’d feel better if I did. So I started working for the OHP, and it turned me around. Suddenly people needed me, and things I did mattered. My friend hit the nail right smack on the head. Helpin’ others makes a world o’ difference.”
“You never remarried.” Avery’s heart broke for the older woman. The older woman had clearly wanted to be married.
This time Norma Sue’s smile traveled all the way up to her eyes, making them sparkle like a lake at sunrise. “Once I got over feelin’ sorry for myself, I got comfortable with who I was again. I found out I didn’t need a man to be happy. I was content to do whatever the good Lord asked, and I learned to let that be enough. Every day that goes by, I miss my girls, but I know I’ll see them again someday, and when I do, I’ll get to shower on them all the love I didn’t get to pour out on them while they were growin’ up.”
Avery reached across the table to touch Norma Sue’s hand. “Thank you for sharing your story with me.”
“Pshaw.” Norma Sue shrugged it off. “It ain’t nothin’. We all got a sob story somewhere in our background. Take Joe’s mama, for instance. She’s got a doozy of a tale that goes back decades, but you wouldn’t know to look at her. I first met Laura Jean back in grade school. Even when we were six years old she was twice my size. She took up for me when other kids would pick on me on account o’ how small I was. We been friends ever since. Laura Jean’s the one who told me to get over myself and start doin’ good for those around me. That woman’s as strong on the inside as she looks on the outside, let me tell you. Here lately she’s had a rough time of it. You aren’t exactly seeing her at her best, but she’s still a better person than most everyone else I know.”
Avery, who thought Mrs. Sterling looked strong enough to step into the ring with the heavyweight champ of the world, couldn’t help but wonder about what the woman had been through recently. She was trying to think of a polite way to dig into the story when the woman in question came marching into the room.
“Is anybody comin’ to help me fold laundry? It’s not perfect, but the smell’s a lot more tolerable now.” The look she cast Avery’s way didn’t hold an ounce of condemnation. “I’ll send you home with the recipe so you can wash the clothes in it some more if you think you need to. After they’re packed up tight in suitcases for a while, they might need another soakin’.”
Avery smiled her gratitude at the woman. “I’d love to help fold. I’ve been sitting in an ugly cramped car for way too many hours these past few days.”
“I need to stay up here where I can keep an eye on the entrance, but you two go on ahead.” Norma Sue waved them on. “I’ll send the boys down when they get back.”
Avery followed Laura Jean, noticing for the first time since arriving, that there were a couple other officers in the building. “Where’d they come from?”
Joe’s mother gave an exaggerated shake of her head, causing her wig to skitter a bit. “I’m sure when the word skunk came over the radio, this place cleared out in a hurry. Now that y’all are getting cleaned up, it’s safe for them to come back.”
Chapter Nineteen
Lawton, OK
December 25, 6:05 a.m.
The clock crawled its way past six in the morning, the sky starting to lighten with the barest hint of pink and gold at the horizon. Weary, the three travelers sat at the table in the interrogation room. Their laundry was all clean, but Norma Sue still hadn’t been able to find a place willing to take them in. Mrs. Sterling had given Avery a list of everything she’d need to buy back in Albuquerque to make more of her special de-skunker if they ever needed it. Then she’d gone on home to feed the chickens and get ready for Christmas Day.
Officer Sterling was due off-shift at six, but he was sticking around in case Norma Sue found a place for them and they needed a ride. “I might as well see things through and get y’all to where you need to be before I go home and wake my wife.”
Avery’s curiosity got the better of her. “So what’s the deal with your wife and mom. They don’t seem to get along too well.”
Crimson stained the officer’s neck and cheeks faster than wildfire spreads in a high wind. “It ain’t as bad as all that. Lauren’s a city girl is
all. Never lived on a farm or out in the country. Mama didn’t have an indoor latrine till about a decade ago. The two don’t quite speak the same language.” His eyebrows climbed. “I don’t know where she got the idea, but Lauren thinks Mama’s intimidatin’. Says if it came down to a brawl between Mama and Paul Bunyan, she’d put her money on Mama.”
Avery couldn’t help the snort that escaped.
Gavin, who’d looked as if he was dozing, turned out to be wide awake. “If they both love you, they’ll find a way around their differences.”
Norma Sue came running into the room. “Joe, you got t’ load their things now! Herm’s waiting over at the airfield. He’s gonna fly ‘em back home.”
Eyes widening, Gavin sat up. “You found us a flight?”
Norma Sue nodded, hair bobbing vigorously. “Herm’s an old friend. Went to school with me and Laura Jean. His son lives in Tucson. He flies out there for Christmas, but because of the weather, he’s been grounded. Got the all-clear a few minutes ago. I caught him as he was heading out the door to the airport.”
“Let us change out of the prison suits, and we’ll be ready to go.”
“There’s no time!” Norma Sue waved them toward the door. “He’s on his way to the airport now. I promised I’d rush y’all straight out the door.”
Joe, who’d jumped up as soon as he’d heard the news, was already out the front door of the precinct, hauling most of their belongings with him.
“Can we get through airport security in these jumpsuits?” Eli plucked at his orange waistband.
“It won’t matter none if you don’t get to the airport in time, now will it? I’m sure Herm’s got a place you can change.” Norma Sue shooed them with her hands. “Now get out of here and go home.”
Caught up in the smaller woman’s enthusiasm, they all rushed out the front door, hauling the camera cases Officer Sterling had left behind.
Avery made it halfway to the squad car when she wheeled around and ran back. She grabbed Norma Sue up in a tight hug. “Thank you for being such a kind person, for welcoming us, taking care of us, and finding us a way home. Have a blessed Christmas.”
