Her family and Noella who had a wake for Leigh in Trudie’s apartment. With her mother on one side, and Leigh’s mother on the other, both holding her hands, Trudie wore that black dress and vail and greeted the mourners as they filed by her in a single line. Trudie vaguely remembered the wake and didn’t know half of the people who came to it. She remembered nothing of her collapse or the days leading up to the wake.
Noella took charge of collecting the condolence cards, cards on the flowers and small tokens left at the wake. She had a special thank you card designed, and she and Louise signed Trudie’s name to each one. It had been months before Trudie was ready to read the condolence cards. The wake had a steady stream of guests file through the door, and Krystal played hostess, making sure people signed the guest book and had plenty to drink.
“Remember, I told you I had to go to Hollywood for a meeting with the producers. I’ll only be gone a few days, five at the most. Just long enough to check on some of my new clients while I’m there.”
Noella’s fledgling career had really taken off after they turned Trudie’s third book into a movie. Of course Trudie was her biggest client, the one who paid her thousands of dollars monthly to keep her name in the press, but she still had to see to her other clients. Especially if Trudie wasn’t going to write another book, as she had alluded to.
“Oh, yes, I remember now. You stay as long as you need, I’ll be fine. I’ve got a busy week planned myself. I’m behind answering my fan mail, and I’ve still got books to sign and photos to autograph. Plus, I want to look on the web for ideas on redecorating this condo.”
“I know a good interior decorator; why don’t I call her—”
“No, thanks. This is something I want to do myself. To make it uniquely my own.”
“I understand, but she can provide you with swatches, models, color schemes, that kind of stuff.”
“And she won’t try to take over?” Trudie asked.
“No, I’ll make sure she knows you don’t want any suggestions or interference. She’ll just be available if you have questions.”
“Okay, that sounds good, thanks.” Trudie felt a surprising twinge of excitement. Starting a new, creative project was just what she needed to keep herself active.
When they bought the condo, the first thing Trudie and Leigh wanted to do was redecorate it. Leigh didn’t like it, so Trudie didn’t either. The last thing they did together before Leigh was killed was choose the bedroom suit and have it moved in. The country décor was comforting to Trudie, inviting and warm. That room she would not change because Leigh’s essence was strongest in there.
Trudie got dressed while Noella made coffee.
“Em, that smells good, thank you,” Trudie said, shuffling over to the kitchen cabinet.
“Here you go, I’ve got your cup all ready to go.”
“With cream and sugar?”
Noella nodded. “Yes, just the way you like it.”
“Oh, you are too good to me,” Trudie said, picking up her cup.
“And don’t you forget it either,” Noella jested. “Okay, I’m off. So much to do, so little time to do it all.”
Trudie watched her friend pick up her jacket from the chair and put it on. Then Noella picked up her purse, kissed Trudie on the cheek, and walked out the door. Noella was such a forceful person that when she left a room, she took all the energy with her.
Trudie put some bread into the toaster and pulled out the butter and jam from the refrigerator. As she waited on the toast, she did an inventory of her pantry and refrigerator. As soon as the toast popped up and she spread the butter and jam on it, she refreshed her coffee and carried it all back to her office. It was time to fill out her online grocery list.
Chapter Four
Her chores out of the way, Trudie reached for her cellphone, but then she changed her mind and put it back on the desk. She really didn’t have anything that needed fixing. She just wanted to see Annie again. She couldn’t get her mind off of her and it had been three days. She walked to the kitchen and poured herself another cup of coffee. Then she returned to the office, set the cup on the desk, and picked up her cellphone. She called the maintenance office number, clicked on the speaker button and laid it next to the wall. “Okay, here goes nothing.” Trudie did a handstand, resting her feet against the wall for balance and support, and her head and hands on the floor. This just feels strange.
“Maintenance.”
“Uh, hello. This is Trudie Youngblood on the seventh floor.” Oh no, my nose itches. Trudie wiggled her nose, trying to relieve the itch. “Um, could you send someone up to fix my sink? The faucet is dripping.”
“Of course, Ms. Youngblood. Someone will be right up.”
Trudie got down and clicked the end call button. She sat there a moment letting the blood equalize as she rubbed her nose, then she rushed into the kitchen. She turned the knob on the cold water tap just enough to produce a drip. This is so wrong.
A few minutes later, there was a knock at her door. Lucy was there instantly, growling. “It’s Annie, Lucy. Remember, you like her.” When Lucy maintained the attack posture, Trudie looked at the surveillance monitor. The heavyset man looked vaguely familiar, and he wore the same uniform Annie had worn. “I need to see some identification, please.”
The man pulled out his wallet and held his driver’s license in front of the security camera. “Ms. Youngblood, it’s me, Donny Wilcox. We’ve met a couple of times before. I’m the maintenance supervisor for the building. You just called and said your faucet was dripping.”
Trudie looked at his I.D. closely.
“Annie is busy on another call, so I’m filling in for her.”
“Damn.”
“I’m sorry, I couldn’t hear you,” Donny said.
Trudie unlocked the door and opened it. “Come in, please.”
Lucy growled, and Donny froze in place.
“Lucy, sit,” Trudie commanded. “Can I get you a cup of coffee, Mr. Wilcox?”
“Thank you, no. I’ll just take a look at your faucet,” he replied, looking at the dog. “Uh, is it safe to move? Annie told me how she met Lucy.”
Trudie laughed. “Yes, of course. Lucy won’t bother you now unless you threaten me.”
“Glad to hear it, because I certainly don’t intend to threaten my favorite tenant,” he said, and walked over to the sink.
Trudie had heard thousands of fake compliments in her career, but his made her blush for some reason. Perhaps it was because he was Annie’s boss. Of course it was because of that.
“I appreciate your letting me know how Annie did. Not everyone takes the time to call.” Donny pulled out a wrench and began working on the faucet.
“She was wonderful! Um, I mean, she was very professional.”
Donny eyed her suspiciously. “Uh huh.”
Trudie, feeling suddenly shy, lowered her head. “Um, have you known her long?”
“Yes, I’m her godfather.”
She raised her head quickly. “That is so great.”
“Yeah, she’s a good kid.” Donny paused. He liked Trudie, but he loved Annie. “When Annie was young, we’d go fishing together. She loved to fish and was better at it than me. Now that she’s older, all she wants to do is go hiking, or canoeing, or parasailing. Most weekends when she’s not working, you can find her hiking through the Ouachita National Forest or the Buffalo River Trail. She loves to camp out overnight on a cliff and wake up as the sun rises. She sure loves being outdoors.” Donny glanced at Trudie to see if his ploy was working. “Why, I’m surprised she didn’t stare out at your scenic view the whole time she was here.”
“Oh.” Trudie put her hand to her cheek. What was I thinking? She would never be happy living in a glass cage. Hell, even her cologne was outdoorsy. “No, she was all business.”
Tightening the aerator, Donny turned on the water and then turned it off again. “Okay, well, I think you’re all set. It shouldn’t drip anymore.”
“You’re very
good, Mr. Wilcox, and very quick.”
“Thank you, Ms. Youngblood.”
“Please, call me Trudie. So, um, will you be taking Annie’s place every time?”
“No, not every time. I’m cross-training her on every floor because she wanted to learn more. She’s a chip off the old block, that one.”
***
Friday night could not come soon enough for Annie. She had a date with a pretty blonde she had met Tuesday night while on duty at the grocery store. It had been after midnight and the blonde had asked Annie to walk her to her car. As they walked, the blonde batted her eyes and touched Annie’s arm several times, squeezing it affectionately. Annie had seen her in the store before and knew she flirted with everyone, but Annie had some pent-up energy that only another woman could satisfy, so she asked the girl out.
As soon as she got off work, she drove over to her mother’s house. Her mother had called, reminding her that her mail was starting to pile up, and some of it looked important. After she had left active duty, Annie lived with her mother to take care of her. Then, when her mother went into remission, she insisted that Annie go back to living her own life, so Annie rented an apartment fifteen minutes from where her mother lived.
Annie stayed only long enough to check on her mom, then she grabbed her mail, kissed her mother and rushed home. As she walked into her apartment, she hung her tool belt on the coat rack, threw her keys and mail on the counter and walked into the kitchen for a beer. After the first satisfying gulp, she rifled through her mail.
“Bills. More bills. Hey, what’s this?” She picked up a large envelope with her name and address handwritten on it. She opened it and pulled out a card resembling a book cover. Trudie’s book cover from Breaking into Prison. “What the hell?” An oval picture of Leigh was in the left-hand corner of the invitation.
Book Signing Event exclusively for the members of the 19th Security Forces Squadron.
In honor and memory of squad member, TSgt Leigh Warren.
Date: Saturday, March 27, 2016
Time: 1700 – 2100 (come and go)
Dress: Dress Uniform
Food and cocktails will be served.
Admittance with invitation only.
Books provided for the military, all other guests may purchase one at the door. No RSVP needed.
Annie dropped the card on the table and walked into her room. She opened the closet door and pulled out her dress blue uniform wrapped in plastic. Annie had done her six years in the Air Force and then enlisted in the reserves after she got out. She had been a military police officer and served two tours in Afghanistan. Now she stood duty at the main gate of the Little Rock Air Force Base one weekend a month and trained with her reserve unit two weeks each summer.
She tore the clear plastic off and inspected the dress blue jacket, satin necktie, and cummerbund. She laid the uniform on the bed and pulled out a flat jewelry box with her insignias and a measuring ruler inside. As she sat on the bed, arranging her ribbons and insignias, Annie smiled. She knew it must have been Noella who sent out the invitations, unaware of who was on the list. Trudie probably didn’t know, either. Noella most likely had her secretary get the list from the commanding officer and address them herself. Annie couldn’t wait to see the look on Noella’s face when she walked into Trudie’s party wearing her uniform. An afterthought made Annie tingle in the dark recesses of her loins. She couldn’t wait to see Trudie’s face.
“Oh, shit!” Annie was so engrossed with the details of her uniform, measuring each ribbon and insignia to make sure they were properly lined up, that she had forgotten all about her date. She wrapped the uniform back up and hung it from her closet door. Then she grabbed her car keys and rushed out the door, wishing that she didn’t have to go.
As expected, after dinner they went back to the blonde’s apartment and made love. Fast, frenzied sex that left the blonde completely satisfied and Annie completely exhausted. The girl had zero inhibitions and zero preferences, just as Annie had hoped. They screwed on the floor, couch, upside down in the living room chair, and finally, in the shower. Although the blonde offered, Annie didn’t stay the night. It was too intimate to wake up in a stranger’s bed. She was saving that for when she fell in love, and that hadn’t happened yet.
Home again, she marveled at how fast her date was over, considering the Olympic marathon of orgasms she had just enjoyed. She grabbed a beer from the refrigerator and walked into her bedroom, flopping down on the bed, boots and all. Taking a swig from the bottle, she looked over at her uniform. She realized that it was the excitement of seeing Trudie tomorrow that drove her lust tonight. Annie fell asleep smiling.
***
As hard as it was for Trudie emotionally, today was the one thing she looked forward to all year. Her parents, and two of her four siblings had arrived early to help with the event, even though Noella hired staff people to serve the food, pour the drinks, collect the empty glasses, hand out the gifts and take photos of the invitees with Trudie. As always, she’d thought of everything, including the theme. Though it was military, she tried to make the event unique each year, and this time she had big screen monitors brought in and ran an edited loop of every video ever taken of Leigh from when she was a baby, to her receiving the rank of Tech Sergeant, to her wedding. The wedding was the hardest for Trudie to watch, but it was also her favorite video of Leigh.
The living room windows were covered with Air Force decals, American flags stood in the corners with the Air Force flag, and everything else was decorated in red, white and blue. There were gifts for adults ranging from a Kindle Fire with her books already loaded on it, to tablets and laptops donated by Krystal, to T-shirts and caps, all with the Air Force insignia on them. The kids had gifts of their own consisting of teddy bears, dolls, jet planes, mini jam boxes, temporary tattoos, and non-violent video games and consoles, also with the Air Force insignia on them.
Deidra also volunteered to help, but Trudie assured her that everything was covered, so she walked Lucy and put her in her bedroom, then went home to study for a few hours. She would be back at the start of the event because she had cajoled Trudie into letting her hand the books to her for signing. A clever guise to be close to her hero.
Noella cornered Trudie in the kitchen. “So, the interview aired yesterday. Did you see it?”
“No, I have no desire to see myself on TV.”
Trudie used to love the camera and the attention. But after Leigh was killed, and they hounded her for interviews, she detested it.
Noella shook her head. “I thought as much. It was an important interview, Trudie. The station got thousands of calls. You trended on Twitter for hours. People want to know more about how you felt then and how you’re coping now.”
“I’m sorry, but it’s none of their business.” Trudie’s cheeks flushed red. “I neither want nor care for their pity.”
“Oh, honey. They don’t want to pity you.”
“Noella, you know as well as I do that people will put you on the highest pedestal and worship you from below, until the slightest thing, like being an agoraphobic, brings it all tumbling down. Better to knock it down now and get it over with.”
“They already know you are. There are rumors all the time that no one has seen you in public since Leigh’s death.”
“Rumors are just that, rumors. It doesn’t matter whether it’s true or not, people will gossip.”
“Okay, you’re cynical. I get that. But sometimes, Trudie, people just want to show that they care.”
Noella winked at her and then walked away as Louise walked up.
“She’s right, you know.”
“Oh, Mom. Now don’t you start on me, too. I just don’t want to deal with it right now, okay?”
“All right, sweetheart. Why don’t you go lay out the clothes you’re going to wear tonight? Your sisters are waiting for you in the bedroom.”
“Thanks, Mom.”
Belinda and Sara, Trudie’s sisters, enjoyed going through
Trudie’s clothes, inevitably borrowing a dress from time to time. Noella usually had an outfit designed for these kinds of events, or television interviews and photographs for magazines, but Trudie didn’t want a new suit for this private event. She had plenty of stylish outfits to choose from already. She wanted no special publicity unless the Air Force wanted to send a reporter, which was all right, because she would make sure it was about Leigh, not her. Today was her wife’s birthday and it was important to Trudie that it be all about her.
***
Across town, Annie was just waking up. After a late night of lovemaking, and knowing that it was one of those rare occasions where she had the weekend off from all three jobs, Annie didn’t get out of bed until almost noon. She shuffled her feet as she walked to the bathroom and grimaced when she saw herself in the mirror. Her tongue felt like it was wearing a fur coat, her eyes were bloodshot from too much sleep, and her hair was standing straight up on her head. She turned on the shower and closed the curtain. The water heater in her apartment building took approximately twenty minutes to heat the water in the shower. So she shuffled off to the kitchen to make some coffee, stopping only long enough to pick up the remote and turn the TV on.
Once she had her toast and coffee prepared, Annie carried it over to her recliner and sat down. With the death of the Saturday morning cartoons a couple of years ago, Annie would surf the channels searching for something of interest to settle on. Usually that was the national news. But today nothing interested her. Then she remembered that she had recorded Trudie’s interview yesterday, so she clicked to the program.
“My wife was murdered right after my fourth book was published.”
Annie sat forward and stared at Trudie as if she were trying to see inside her mind. What was she thinking? What was she feeling? How did she survive the tragedy? Why was she so afraid to leave her condo? These were questions Annie wanted answers to, because to understand them, was to understand Trudie. “You can’t swoop in and save Trudie. You can’t rescue her when she doesn’t want to be.”
Breaking into Prison Page 5
