"Well, don't come around where I am until you do," Marty said.
"I was here first. If you don't want to be near me in this mood, maybe you'd best stay out of my space."
She hopped up and grabbed Betsy by the arm. They stomped down the bleachers just as a colorful red burst lit up the sky.
"Those are your cousins. You need to make peace with them, instead of taking up for a man who can't even hold down a job," Daisy scolded.
"Why, Miz Daisy, are you going to throw stones from your glass house?" I asked, all wide-eyed and innocent.
She snapped her mouth shut and watched the fireworks without saying another word.
Billy Lee, I mused, worked harder than ten men. He'd keep at it all day, then go out to that monstrous-sized shop behind his house. As I watched the fireworks explode, I wondered what went on in that building. Whatever it was, it had to bring in big bucks, because that book he'd given me for my birthday wasn't a dollar-store sale item. The one time I'd checked online at rare-book sites for a first-edition copy of Gone With the Wind, the price had boggled my mind.
After the fireworks display we went home to sit on the porch and have a cold Coke right out of the can. The past three days had been a fairy tale, and we'd driven the whole way home without a single argument as we discussed the ghost in the haunted hotel, the price of the quilts in the antiques store on the main street of town, and even the next step in our refinishing job. Billy Lee and I had become best friends, and we were happy sitting on the porch in each other's company, listening to the tree frogs and crickets in our part of the world. They didn't sound quite as southern as their bayou cousins, but the concert was lovely.
"Glad to be home?" he asked.
"I had a wonderful time. It was three days of indescribable wonder, but the closer we got to home yesterday, the more excited I got. Sitting here, right now, I just realized that this old house has become home to me. It gives me those warm, fuzzy feelings I read about in big old fat romance books."
"That's the reason I live in the house next door. I don't need anything bigger, and it's home. Sharing Jefferson with you was wonderful, Trudy."
"Sharing it with you was beyond wonderful, Billy Lee."
He tossed his soda can into the recycling bin.
"That's a three-point basket for you"
"It hit bottom. Last week it would have made more noise when it hit all the other cans in there"
"Oh?" I remembered the cans I'd tied onto the back of Drew's car.
"Had you forgotten about vengeance?" he asked.
"Guess I had, at that."
"That's good. See you tomorrow morning, then?"
"I'll be up and ready to go to work. Especially now that I've seen what lies beneath all that ugly."
He brushed a quick peck onto my cheek and said, "Good night, Trudy."
I could hear him whistling all the way to his house, as I held my hand to my cheek to see if it was really as warm as it felt.
Momma was having a good day when I got to the nursing home the next evening. I'd taken a shower and put on the new Capri set I'd worn in Jefferson so she wouldn't be ashamed of me. She looked up from her recliner, where she was watching a Golden Girls rerun, and smiled. "Trudy, I'm so glad to see you. Did you have a good birthday? I'm sorry we didn't get to go out and have lunch."
I didn't notice Lessie sitting in the shadows until she whispered into my ear as she left. "She thought she was five years old the past three days. Played with a doll and sang nursery rhymes. It's just in the last hour that she's been right."
I nodded and mouthed, "Thank you"
"Well, did you?" Mother asked.
"Oh, Momma, I did have a wonderful birthday. Let me tell you all about it." I pulled up a folding chair, took her hand in mine, and told her everything, even about the book.
"Well, I suppose since it's an old book, it's not improper for you to keep it. Now, if it had been a personal item, like something you wear, then you'd have had to refuse it," she said seriously.
"You are so right, Momma," I allowed. "Do you remember anything about Billy Lee's relatives?"
She patted my hand and held her head high. "Well, of course I remember them, Trudy. They lived right next to Granny Molly and Aunt Gert all my life. Best neighbors in the world. They had one daughter named Wilma, and she was a couple of years older than me. She was really, really smart but kind of slow in another way. Book learning came easy to her, but she'd been born late in their life, and she was . . "
"A nerd?" I asked when Momma stammered. I held my breath, fearful that she'd drift back into the gray fog.
Her eyebrows drew together as if she was trying to remember. "That's what you would have called her in your day. In our time she was just odd. Anyway, they lived in that little house right beside Gert's place. You did tell me she left that house to you, didn't you? I'm glad. You need a place to live, and it was a fine old house. You can make it nice again, but it'll take lots of work. Have you lost weight? Your face looks thinner."
"Yes, Momma, I have. You were telling me about Wilma Tucker."
She nodded and went on. "Oh, yes. Wilma was one of those girls who never, ever had a date. She wasn't a very big girl, but she dressed all wrong. She wore old-granny oxfords and her hair pulled back in a tight bun like her mother's. The rest of the girls were all wearing cute little bobs, but not Wilma. She graduated from high school before me, and we'd see her around town with her mother or at church. And that's about it."
I sensed she was leaving something out. "But when did she get married?"
Momma lowered her voice to a whisper. "She married a truck driver, and he died, and then Billy Lee was born. Most of us didn't even know she was expecting until he was already born"
She smoothed her hair back with her hands. "Looking back, it seems like one day she was skinny as a rail, wearing dresses that hung on her frame, and the next day she was carrying around a baby boy. When Billy Lee was about two years old, she took sick and died. His grandparents raised him. They died within a year of each other when he was in college. He just kept on living in that house. He's a hermit kind of person, but he doesn't bother anyone. Gert said he was the best neighbor a person could have"
I had to know more. "Why does Billy Lee go by Wilma's maiden name?"
"Don't know. I guess after the truck driver died, she decided to keep her maiden name and gave Billy Lee the Tucker name. He's a good man, just odd like his mother. He proved it on your birthday. Who'd give a girl an old book for a birthday present? He should've given you a bouquet of flowers."
I thought before I spoke because I was afraid any show of anger could set her back. "I like the book."
"I'm glad. You should have a nice birthday. Did I tell you Marty came by today? She was all up in arms about seeing you coming to the fireworks with Billy Lee. Said the whole town was saying you gave up Drew for him."
"Momma, I really don't care what anyone says. I only have to live with me and my heart"
"Well, I'm glad," she said. "I wish you'd had that kind of backbone when you were married. What on earth changed you?"
"Eavesdropping in the ladies' room at Gert's funeral on Marty and Betsy bragging about all the women they knew who'd slept with Drew. Remember? I told you all about it," I said.
She hugged me tightly. "Both of them act like their sorry daddies. Now, tell me all about the house. When can we go see it?"
"Right now, Momma. We can go this very minute, and we'll go down to the Dairy Queen and get some ice cream while we're out. Would you like that?"
"I'd love it. Do I have to change clothes?"
She wore khaki slacks and an orange-and-white-checked shirt. Her hair was combed neatly, and her Keds were spotless, but I looked her up and down for effect, anyway. "You look lovely just as you are. Would you like to drive past our old place?"
"I would, but after we see your new house. I want to see for myself if those floors shine like they did when I was a little girl."
I drove strai
ght to the house, fearing every moment that Alzheimer's would claim her before she saw the floors. She walked inside and clapped her hands together. "It's just like it was in the old days when Granny Molly lived here."
I floated on a cloud high above heaven.
She claimed a rocking chair in the living room. "Okay, now tell me again, how long have you lived here? I forget sometimes, you know."
"Since Aunt Gert died. I moved in the very day of her funeral. It'll take a year or more to make it all pretty again, but I've got lots of time. I don't think I'm going back to work at the school this fall."
"Looks to me like you've got enough to keep you busy right here. Wouldn't be any need to work anywhere else. Are you okay with this divorce thing?" She took my face in her hands and looked right into my eyes, the way she had when I was a little girl and she wanted nothing but the truth.
"You always told me when I was dating and broke up with a boy that I could only be sad for one day. I was sad that long and then mad for a couple of weeks. Most days I don't even think of Drew anymore. He's fading away pretty fast for a man that I lived with for twenty years"
She kissed me on the cheek. "That's real good. I'm glad. I'd like to see you married again, but be careful who you date. If it don't feel right, don't do it."
"Momma, I don't care anything about marrying again. Look what Lonnie did to Gert and what Drew did to me. We trusted them, and we got our hearts broken."
"You got Crystal out of the deal, so it wasn't all bad. Don't waste an opportunity for happiness. Just be wise," she said.
We visited for a while and then went to the Dairy Queen. Momma had a banana split, and then we took a long drive. The light was fading fast by the time we got back to the nursing home. We were walking down the hallway to her room when she stopped and studied my face. "Trudy, sometimes I don't remember things. I hope I remember today for a long time. It was so good to spend it with you"
I hugged her tightly. I didn't want to let her go or for the day to end. "I love you, Momma"
"I've loved you your whole life. Now I'm tired and ready for bed, so you run along home and get a good night's rest."
"How about I just sit with you for a while until you go to sleep? Then if you remember anything else you want to tell me, I'll be here," I said.
I stayed with her until she fell asleep, but she didn't say anything more.
Billy Lee was sitting on the porch when I pulled into the driveway. He brushed at his pants legs, but he still looked like he'd walked through a sawdust tornado. He held up a sweating can of Coke, and I took it without hesitation. If it got any hotter, the devil would be moving his furnace to Tishomingo.
"Have a good visit with your momma?" he asked.
"She had a good day. I treasure each and every one when she knows me." I rolled the cool can over my forehead and face before I pulled the tab and sucked in the first cool foam.
He sipped his. "I'm glad she was good today."
"So what did you do this evening?"
"Worked in my shop. Painters are coming tomorrow to start scraping and painting. You sure you want the house yellow? This is your last chance to change your mind."
I nodded. "Original as I can get it, so no plastic siding, thank you. Think they can save all the gingerbread?"
"What they can't, I'll duplicate. They'll be taking it down and stripping it. Take a while, but it'll look better. You want to start in Lonnie's room next?"
"Guess we might as well. Gives me hives."
Billy Lee set his empty can on the porch. "Lonnie died, and he's gone. Ghosts don't live in houses"
"Why not? There's a ghost in the haunted hotel at Jefferson. If one can live there, why can't one live in Lonnie's bedroom?"
Billy Lee chuckled. I prized the times when he laughed as much as I did Momma's good days. He was pretty serious by nature. Maybe that's why folks thought he was odd. I wanted to lean across the distance between us and kiss him. I blinked a dozen times to erase that crazy notion. What was I thinking? Billy Lee Tucker was my friend, and one kiss could spook him and ruin our friendship.
"You ever miss your momma?" I thought it was a good, neutral question to get my mind off his lips.
He looked away, and I wished I could call the words back.
"I didn't know her. She died when I was just a little kid. Grandma and Gramps adopted me and raised me as their child. I didn't know my father, either. He died before I was born. He and my mother were only married a few weeks. I miss my grandmother the way a person would miss a mother."
I changed the subject. "Sometimes I worry that I'll get Alzheimer's."
"Trudy, don't worry about tomorrow or let the past ruin today. If you get Alzheimer's, we'll deal with it then. Don't fret about it today."
"You're right, Billy Lee. Life's too short for fretting." I didn't miss the "we" he'd mentioned. He was promising to stand beside me in friendship through thick and thin, and I appreciated it.
"Guess we'd best call it a day. Plumbers, scrapers, and painters will be crawling all over the house while we strip woodwork and start on another room. At least you can see what the landing and stairs look like for inspiration."
"See you in the morning, then," I said.
He didn't whistle that evening, and I missed it.
I unlocked the padlock on Uncle Lonnie's room that morning. If there had been even a faint rustle of the old lace window curtains or a squeak of the ancient metal bedsprings, I would have lit a shuck for Billy Lee's house. But the room was empty of ghosts, and a sliver of orange peeked through the lace curtains. I went down to the kitchen and brewed a pot of coffee. Sitting at the kitchen table, a cup of black coffee in one hand, a piece of toast in the other, I flipped through magazines. It was time to think about furniture.
When I was younger, magazines had had glorious pictures of the inside of houses. Now every magazine had sixty ways to keep a man happy: been there, done that, failed in the long run. Forty-nine ways to lose weight: remodel an old house and be too tired to eat. Dozens of tests to see if you were compatible with the man of your dreams: didn't have one. Billy Lee Tucker was my only friend these days.
Speak of the devil, and he shall appear. Billy Lee rapped once on the back door and poked his head in. "You're up early. Not sick, are you?"
I shook my head. "No, just trying to decide what to do with my bedroom. It's so pretty, I can't decide for sure what to put in there, and these magazines aren't a bit of help. Pour yourself some coffee, and help me make some decisions. I don't even know where to start to find something good enough to go in there"
"I ... I ... ," he stammered. "Well ... I've got something I want to show you before the workers get here this morning."
"You're being nice again."
"I am not. I'm just afraid you'll be nice and say you like what I've got to show you even if you don't, just because we're friends."
"I'm all through being nice. If I don't like it, I'll tell you."
"Promise?"
"You've got my word"
"Then follow me. And remember you promised."
I slipped my feet into a pair of rubber flip-flops at the back door and followed him across the yard, through the hole in the hedge, and into his yard. I'd crossed into the inner sanctum by invitation. I'm not sure anyone in town had ever been to Billy Lee's house. When we were kids, he'd always come to Aunt Gert's yard when we visited.
He didn't go to his house but made a turn to the left when we reached the gravel driveway, and he proceeded to that big metal building set down against the tree line at the back of his property. So much for thinking maybe he had biscuits and gravy on the table for breakfast.
He fished a remote-control device out of his pocket, opened one of the huge double doors, and stood to one side to let me enter first. Was this where a secret organization took fortyyear-old divorcees to offer them up to some pagan god? Was that why he'd been so nice to me on my fortieth birthday? Like the last-supper request of a person on death row, I'd been given a c
ouple of amazing days before being stretched out on a stone altar and a fire started under my chubby body.
If I'd realized I was going to be the guest of honor, I would have dressed better. Maybe worn the Capri set I'd gotten in Dallas. No time to run home and change, though. Billy Lee and his overall buddies would have to take me as I was. Hair a curly, tangled mess, paint-splotched stretch-denim jeans, and a shirt that looked like it had been around since Noah crawled off the ark.
I stopped dead in my tracks and stared wide-eyed at the biggest Harley motorcycle I'd ever seen. I couldn't see him sitting on that thing, much less riding it around town.
"Is that yours?" I asked.
He stopped and let me look my fill of the cycle. "Yes, it's mine. Do you like to ride?"
I reached out to touch it but drew my hand back. "I've never been on one but always thought it might be fun."
"You can touch it, Trudy. Your fingerprints won't ruin the paint. We'll go for a ride anytime you want to, but that's not what I wanted to show you."
I looked around to see if there was a Mercedes parked somewhere in the space we'd just entered, but all I saw were several doors and a glass wall in front of an office that held a computer, filing cabinets, a massive desk, and a couple of leather-covered chairs.
"What is this place?" I asked.
"My business.
"Well, pardon me," I snapped.
"No, I didn't mean that it wasn't your business and mine only. I meant it literally; it is my business, Trudy. This is Tucker Custom-Made Furniture. It is my place of business."
"You make furniture? For how long?"
"Fifteen years. After I got my degree, I figured out what I really enjoyed was building furniture. Gramps had a nice life-insurance policy, and it didn't seem right to squander it, but I gave myself a year to do what I liked before I made up my mind what to do with my life. One of my professors commissioned me to build a few pieces of furniture, and word got around."
"I'm amazed"
"Anyway, you said you wanted a sleigh bed for your new room, so before you go to the furniture store ..:'
"Billy Lee, are you offering to make me a special bedroom suite? That would be wonderful. I wouldn't have to waste time and energy and ..
The Ladies' Room Page 13
