Carry the Light

by Delia Parr

  Ellie grinned and snagged a forkful of coconut custard from the cake on her plate. “Which brings us to rule number four.”

  “Which is?”

  “There isn’t a problem you can’t solve or a hurt you can’t forgive with faith and a little bit of chocolate,” Ellie proclaimed, inspired by the spirit and loving wisdom of this woman who had become her friend.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Impossible. Unquestionably and undeniably impossible.

  With that depressing thought, Charlene drove home from her pitifully empty store, surrendering any hope of filling the seventy-eight orders for Easter gift baskets she had taken as of yesterday. True, she had plenty of stuffed animals and baskets downstairs, but she had only enough undamaged candy to fill half a dozen baskets, at most.

  Even if she managed, miraculously, to order the candy she needed, it wouldn’t arrive until the middle of next week, not nearly soon enough to fill the baskets, let alone get them wrapped in cellophane and topped with a bow before Easter.

  Trying to focus on the gratitude she felt for Daniel’s support and the help from so many townspeople today, as well as Ellie’s visit, Charlene pulled into the driveway of Aunt Dorothy’s house. Since Daniel’s car was not here, she assumed his errands were taking longer than expected, and she was relieved to see Madeline’s car parked in front of the house, which meant she and Annie were still here with Aunt Dorothy.

  She held her purse with one hand, and with the other, she grabbed the shopping bags holding dinner, and what was left of dessert.

  She was halfway to the front door when Agnes Withers came charging across the lawn, headed directly for her.

  “Yoo-hoo! Charlene! Wait a moment.”

  Charlene stopped and gritted her teeth. After the day she had had, chatting with Agnes Withers didn’t even make the bottom of her to-do list, which included making seventy-eight calls to customers to explain that she would not be able to fill their orders, and sitting down with Aunt Dorothy, to relate everything that had happened at the store today after the accident.

  The elderly neighbor was huffing and puffing by the time she reached Charlene. She paused, pressing her hand to her heart until she caught her breath. “I heard what happened and I just had to tell you in person how bad I feel.”

  “Thank you. I appreciate your concern.”

  “Dorothy was quite upset, too. I came right over the minute I heard, of course. I offered to stay with her for the day, but once her two friends arrived, I left. I didn’t want you to think that I’d abandoned her.”

  “Not at all. I’m sure you had enough to do at home to keep you busy,” Charlene replied, shifting her bags from one hand to the other.

  “I hope you don’t mind, but once I got home, I spread the word that Dorothy shouldn’t be disturbed. After that, I couldn’t get a bit of my housework done. My phone was ringing all day, but at least Dorothy didn’t have to be bothered. I won’t keep you long, but I promised Janie Lewis that I’d check with you the minute you got home. Emma Mitchell and Janie were chatting in the social room at the Towers, and Emma said she had heard from Derek Eldridge, the custodian, that you were closing down the store permanently and that you were going to sue Mr. Murphy for driving into your store and destroying it.”

  Charlene dismissed all the names Mrs. Withers tossed into the conversation simply because she didn’t know any of them. She could only imagine the gossip that had spread through the Towers today, especially since she had heard more than one person refer to the social room there as the Gossip Garden.

  “Please tell your friends that I’m hoping to reopen Sweet Stuff, although I really haven’t any idea how soon that will be,” she replied, wanting to dispel the false information before the rumors spread any further. “I’m very sure, however, that I have no plans to sue Mr. Murphy. My store is well-insured,” she added politely, but firmly.

  Mrs. Withers pulled her head back and batted her eyes. “Really?”

  “Really,” Charlene replied.

  “I’m sure the Murphys will be relieved to know that. I did hear that Stanley got a ticket for reckless driving, though, and his son is pretty set on making sure his father doesn’t drive again.”

  “If you’ll excuse me, I’d better get inside and see Aunt Dorothy.” Charlene attempted to escape without commenting on Mr. Murphy’s driving issues, if only to avoid planting any additional seeds of new information that would sprout in the Gossip Garden and flower as a misquote.

  “I hope Dorothy isn’t overtired. I told her friends not to stay long so she could take her naps, but they’ve been here the entire day,” Mrs. Withers remarked, frowning as she glanced over at Madeline’s car. “Some people just don’t listen.”

  “Thanks for helping out today,” Charlene said, and resolutely headed for the front door. Once she was inside the living room, she set her purse and bags down long enough to remove her coat and lay it across the back of a chair. Neither Aunt Dorothy nor her friends were in the living room, but Charlene could hear voices and laughter coming from the kitchen.

  She smiled. Remembering the day she had found the three of them feasting on donuts from McAllister’s, she carried the bags through the living room and dining room. Just like last time, she stopped abruptly the moment she reached the archway, looked inside the kitchen and blinked hard.

  Annie and Madeline stood on either side of Aunt Dorothy, who was sitting at the table with her eyes closed while her friends attended to her.

  The tabletop looked like the makeup counter in a department store, although far messier. The entire surface was littered with cotton balls, cosmetics squares, Aunt Dorothy’s abandoned eyeglasses and all sorts of makeup, including lipstick, blush, face powder, eyeliner and mascara. The air was thick with the distinctive smell of fresh nail polish.

  Aunt Dorothy had her hands resting on the table, palms down, with her fingernails sporting a shiny coat of bright orange polish that looked like it could be used as reflective paint by a highway-construction crew. Around her neck, in addition to her Total Care necklace, she wore a pendant featuring the head of an elephant with bright orange eyes the same vibrant color as her nails.

  Annie was applying matching lipstick to Aunt Dorothy’s lips, while Madeline worked at blending blue and green eye shadow above Aunt Dorothy’s eyes.

  “You look younger already,” Annie said.

  “Not too young, I hope. He likes mature women, so I hear,” Aunt Dorothy said.

  “He likes all kinds of women,” Madeline countered, and burst out laughing again. “He kept company with Connie Wilson a few years back and complained that she was too old for him.”

  “Connie wasn’t even seventy then,” Annie countered.

  “Keep your eyes closed for another minute, Dorothy,” Madeline ordered, and leaned back to look at her handiwork. “I want to make sure the color is right. What do you think, Annie?”

  Annie nodded. “Nice. But don’t forget that after Connie died, he started keeping company with Carol Gillerman, who was only sixty-one. Why on earth you told that man when he called on the phone that he could stop to see you tomorrow, Dorothy, is beyond me. You haven’t been home from the hospital for all that long, you know.”

  Growing uncomfortable observing the three friends, Charlene cleared her throat. “Hi, ladies. Having fun?” she asked, entering the kitchen before she got caught eavesdropping, and embarrassed herself. “Did I hear somebody say that someone was coming by tomorrow?”

  Aunt Dorothy opened her eyes and grinned sheepishly before donning her glasses again. She looked as if she were made up for a part in a play. “Max Duncan is coming to see me tomorrow.”

  Annie beamed. “He wants to start calling on Dorothy.”

  Madeline’s grin was just as wide. “Which means he’ll probably want to keep company with her. He did say he wouldn’t come until Dorothy had her afternoon nap, though, which was very considerate.”

  “Or convenient. At eighty-five, he probably needs a nap as mu
ch as Dorothy does,” Annie quipped.

  Charlene held back a groan and put her bags on top of the counter.

  Aunt Dorothy patted the chair next to her. “Sit a spell, Charlene. We’ve been thinking about you all day.”

  “Most of the day,” Annie corrected. “We all took a couple of catnaps to make sure Dorothy didn’t overdo it, just because we were here.”

  Madeline cleared the table in front of the chair next to Aunt Dorothy. “Having a manicure always makes a woman feel better. I’ve got plenty of nail polish. Would you like me to do your nails for you?”

  “I’d better not,” Charlene replied as she slid into the chair. “I don’t have time to let them dry.”

  “Daniel stopped back to check on me in between errands about an hour ago. He told us all about your store,” Aunt Dorothy reported. Her gaze grew tearful as she patted Charlene’s hand. “I’m so sorry. I know how much you loved Sweet Stuff.”

  “Is there anything we can do to help?” Madeline asked.

  “We’ve got lots of time on our hands,” Anne added.

  “You’ve both helped a lot already, just by being here today,” Charlene told them. “You could stay for supper, though. Ellie Waters dropped off enough food from The Diner for all of us. Did Daniel say when he’d be back?”

  Aunt Dorothy shrugged. “I thought he’d be home by now.”

  While the women debated whether or not to stay for supper, Charlene grabbed her cell phone from her purse and called her husband. He answered on the fifth ring. “How close are you to coming home?” she asked.

  He laughed. “About four steps from the back door. I’ve got my hands full, though, so if I drop the phone, don’t be surprised. I could use some help.”

  “I’ll get the door,” she said and hung up. “Daniel’s home,” she explained as she got up and hurried to open the door. She found him standing with the cell phone scrunched between his head and his shoulder. He had two shopping bags in one hand, while tucked in the crook of his other arm was a twenty-five-pound bag of bird seed, which was sliding down. She stepped outside, grabbed hold of the bag, and shifted it out of the way to let him inside.

  “Thanks. I was afraid I’d drop it and end up with bird seed spilled everywhere but in the feeders I just set up. Just set it down for now, but don’t say anything to Aunt Dorothy. I want her to be surprised,” he whispered, and pecked her cheek as he passed her.

  She eased the bag to the ground, followed him inside and shut the door.

  “I brought enough supper for everyone,” he announced as he walked into the kitchen and over to the table.

  Annie and Madeline scrambled to clear the table.

  Aunt Dorothy turned her head to smile at him. “What a dear, sweet man you are.”

  “And you look especially lovely,” he said, pressing a kiss to the top of her head and setting the bags on the table. “I wasn’t sure what everyone liked, but I figured I couldn’t go wrong with pasta.”

  Laughing, Charlene added her bags with the food from The Diner to the table. “Pasta isn’t the only thing on the menu. We have meatloaf, stuffed pork chops and chicken pot pie, too. My friend, Ellie, dropped these off for us,” she explained.

  Aunt Dorothy clapped her hands. “I love a smorgasbord. And I have lots of baggies for leftovers so you can take some home with you, too,” she said to her two friends. She looked around the table at everyone and smiled. “Isn’t having supper together just the best way to end the day?”

  Charlene nodded. Aunt Dorothy was right. Again. The best way to recover from the losses she’d suffered today and to recharge for the daunting task of starting over again was to surround herself with good food, lots of conversation and laughter, caring friends and a loving family.

  Everything else, including making those seventy-eight calls, could wait until tomorrow.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  The following morning, Charlene woke early after a fitful sleep. She met Ellie for their usual morning walk at six-thirty and was back at the house by seven-fifteen. Both Aunt Dorothy and Daniel were still asleep, so she showered and changed quietly, trying not to wake them. At eight o’clock, Daniel got up, skipped breakfast and went outside to work in the yard.

  By eight-thirty, Charlene was returning to her aunt’s bedroom every ten minutes to reassure herself that the frail elderly woman was still breathing.

  Finally, a little after nine o’clock, Aunt Dorothy got out of bed. Acting a bit lethargic, considering she’d had a good thirteen hours in bed, and looking unusually pale, Aunt Dorothy complained of feeling a little dizzy, and she was unsteady on her feet.

  Charlene helped her aunt change her nightgown and took a fresh housecoat out of the closet for her aunt to wear. Charlene also stayed very close as her aunt walked out to the kitchen for their pre-breakfast morning ritual of glucose testing, insulin injection, weigh-in and pills.

  Aunt Dorothy’s sugar level was higher than yesterday, although still within normal range. But she had gained three pounds overnight. Charlene added that number to the daily log. Only time would reveal if the weight gain was a warning that she was beginning to accumulate fluids again or the result of eating an amazing portion of last night’s smorgasbord.

  Already fearful that her aunt might be on the verge of another episode that could land her back in the hospital, Charlene grew even more concerned when her aunt asked her to call Max Duncan to tell him not to stop by today since she was not feeling up to par.

  By late afternoon, after a dreary but rain-free day, Daniel was still in the backyard, trying to make good use of the waning daylight. Charlene was in the living room watching her aunt nap yet again, still worried about the shallowness of Aunt Dorothy’s breathing. When the telephone rang, Charlene bolted to the kitchen to answer it.

  “Hi, Charlene. Andy Johnson here. I’m sorry to have to bother you at home, but we’ve got a bit of a problem here.”

  Charlene closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. She had all the problems she could handle right now, including how she might manage to make her calls to her customers when her aunt obviously needed her attention. “What kind of problem?” she asked, trying to keep her voice loud enough for him to hear her, yet low enough to keep from disturbing her aunt.

  “Like I promised, I’ve been taking in some deliveries for you, but there’ve been so many today, I’m about out of room. I know things are probably pretty hectic for you right now, but is there any possibility you could come over and move these boxes into your own store?”

  Charlene furrowed her brow. When she had accepted his offer to take in her mail and any deliveries that might come, she really hadn’t expected there would be more than a few supply catalogues or bills, and she wasn’t expecting any deliveries for the simple reason that she hadn’t ordered anything from her suppliers. Everything she needed for Easter, as well as Mother’s Day, had been delivered weeks ago.

  “You’ve got that much?” she asked, hoping he was exaggerating the situation.

  “Seven boxes. No, make that eight. I forgot to count the one that just got dropped off.”

  Thoroughly confused, she shook her head. “I can’t imagine what they’d be for. Did you check the mailing labels? Are you sure they’re mine?”

  “Every box has Sweet Stuff written on it.”

  “All right. I’m really sorry you’ve been bothered—”

  “No bother. I just need to clear a path to the cash register for my customers and all the folks stopping by to find out if you’ll be reopening for Easter.”

  “I’ll be over as soon as I can. Give me half an hour. Maybe a little more.”

  “Great,” he replied, and hung up.

  “Great,” she repeated, and hung up, too. Still confounded by having so many boxes delivered when she couldn’t remember ordering anything, she had yet another problem to solve before she could leave. With Aunt Dorothy feeling so poorly she simply couldn’t, in all good conscience, leave her alone in the house. She hesitated to ask
Daniel to stop working since he had already lost a whole day yesterday. She didn’t want to call on either Annie or Madeline again, either, for fear Aunt Dorothy would overdo it. Ellie would probably be home from school by now, but she needed to stay with her mother.

  Charlene sighed and shook her head. Agnes Withers was probably the only option she had, but she was reluctant to ask the next-door neighbor, especially without asking her aunt first. She turned away from the telephone to walk back to the living room, but immediately flinched and halted her steps, startled to see Aunt Dorothy walking toward her.

  Heart pounding, Charlene managed a smile. “Mercy! I didn’t hear you coming.”

  Aunt Dorothy stopped and looked down at the hospital slippers she wore on her feet. “I’m sorry. I guess these don’t squeak like my slippers do. I brought so many pairs of these socks home from the hospital that I thought I might as well use them,” she said while walking toward the table a bit more steadily than she had all day.

  She sat down, smoothed the collar on her purple housecoat and untangled the corded necklace she still wore faithfully, which had gotten caught on the white enamel elephant pinned to her housecoat. “Did I hear the telephone ring?”

  Pleased that her aunt was looking and acting quite a bit better than earlier, Charlene explained the call from Andy Johnson, as well as her dilemma. “I feel awful imposing on him, so I really don’t want to keep him waiting, if I can help it.”