by BL Miller
She stopped at the nearest convenience store to gas up the car, not bothering to pull up to the furthest pump. Let them wait, she thought to herself while putting the nozzle into the tank. She put exactly five dollars worth of gas into the tank before entering the store. Once inside, she picked up a street map of Albany County and headed for the back where the soda coolers were lined up. While opening the case with one hand, Delores used her other to stuff the street map into her pocketbook. She approached the pimply-faced clerk with a bottle of Pepsi in her hand.
"Seventy-five cents for the soda and five for the gas," the clerk said. Delores pulled a worn bill out of her jacket pocket along with a one-dollar food stamp. The clerk nodded and returned her a quarter, completely unaware of the shoplifting. As she always did, Delores could not resist smirking as she exited the store, having once again gotten away with getting something for nothing.
The station wagon sputtered and worked its way through the congested traffic of Albany into the quieter suburb of Loudonville. In the village where the average income was well into six digits, the rusted out Ford with fake wooden panels stood out in stark contrast to the newer vehicles of Ronnie's neighborhood. Delores made two wrong turns before finding Cartwright Drive, blaming both of them on the street map and not on herself. Deciding the large mansion at the beginning of the street had to be number-one, she pulled the uninspected and uninsured car into the long driveway, stopping it just behind a bright blue Jeep Cherokee. She removed the key from the ignition and waited for a moment while the car continued to run before it finally gave a dying gasp and went silent. Drips of oil stained the driveway as she rolled down the window to reach the door handle. No doubt about it, she thought to herself. This has to be Number One Cartwright Drive. If Rose knew the person who owned this place, well that certainly was worth investigating, Delores reasoned. She spotted the shoveled flagstone walkway that circled the lawn and led to the large double-door entrance and followed it.
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Ronnie was working on her computer when she heard the rattling sound of a car pulling into her driveway. A quick look at the bed confirmed Rose was still sound asleep. She stood up and walked to the window, blue eyes widening at the sight of the brown, white, and rust colored station wagon sitting in her driveway. "What the hell…?" The window rolled down and an arm reached out for the handle. She watched as a rotund woman, poorly dressed, stepped out of the car and looked at the house. Ronnie's first thought was it was either a lost traveler or one of those annoying door-to-door salespeople. She took another look at the peacefully sleeping woman and decided to intercept the unexpected arrival before the doorbell could wake Rose.
Ronnie opened the door and realized this was no door-to-door salesperson. A black knit cap with a pompom at the tip covered the head of a woman who appeared to be in her mid-forties while a dirty yellow jacket littered with various stains covered the upper body. She held an oversized purse in hands that bore no gloves and her feet were covered with a pair of sneakers which had long ago stopped being considered white. The dark-haired executive looked down at the shorter woman and frowned. "May I help you?"
"Um, yes," Delores said, looking up with surprise. "How did you know…"
"I heard your…" Ronnie paused as she tried to think of a tactful term for the bucket of junk.
"…car…park in my driveway. What do you want?"
"I'm looking for someone and I was told you would know where she is. Her name is Rose Grayson."
"Who told you that I would know where she is?" Ronnie now knew who the woman standing before her was and she was not the least bit happy with the revelation. She had promised to bring Rose's checkbook to the hospital but with the unexpected release and everything that had happened since, there had not been any more mention of the subject. As far as Ronnie knew, Rose had not mailed out anything since coming to her home. So how did this leech find her?
"I stopped at her old apartment and they told me you had paid her rent." Delores shivered and looked pointedly at the door. "Can I come in? It's pretty cold out here, you know."
Ronnie mentally cursed whoever it was that created manners and stepped back, holding the door open. "Come in, Miss…?"
"Bickering, Delores Bickering," the rotund woman said, walking past the executive and pulling her knit cap off to reveal straight brown hair that looked in need of a good cleaning. "So you're V. Cartwright?"
"Yes," Ronnie said without bothering to elaborate further. Now she was faced with a moral dilemma. She could pretend Rose was not here and send Delores packing, but that risked upsetting the young woman. Then again, she was not sure she wanted to let the vulture near her companion. Reluctantly she accepted that the decision was not really hers to make. "Wait here."
Ronnie crossed the room and entered the office, making sure to close the door behind her. She knelt onto the bed and placed her hand on the sleeping woman's shoulder. "Rose…Rose honey, wake up."
"Hmm?" Green eyes opened and blinked wearily.
"We have company, you have to get up."
"Company?" She gave a healthy yawn and rubbed her eyes. "Who?"
"Delores." Ronnie did her best not to let her annoyance show through.
"Delores? Bickering? Here?" Rose's eyes widened.
"Delores. Bickering. Here." She watched as the words sank in and the blonde's demeanor changed. "Hey, if you don't want to see her…"
"No, if she went to all this trouble to find me then I owe her at least that much."
"Rose." She took the younger woman's chin in her hand. "You don't owe her a thing. Whatever she did for you in the past you've already paid back and then some, I'm sure." She gentled her tone, realizing it was not helping. "I'm sorry, I know you feel you owe her and I shouldn't be telling you how to think or feel." She withdrew her hand and sat back. "I just don't like to see you being used and I'm afraid that's exactly why Delores is here." She picked up the brush and began to straighten out Rose's sleep-mussed hair.
"Ronnie?"
"Mm?"
"Would it be too much to ask if I could borrow the shirt you wore yesterday? I can cover the rest of my body with a blanket."
"It will be a little big on you but it's fine with me." She leaned back and used her long arm to pluck the gray button down shirt from its position across the back of the chair. Rose pulled off the nightshirt at the same time and when Ronnie straightened up she was greeted to the sight of firm young breasts. She reluctantly tried to keep herself from staring by concentrating on helping Rose get her arms through the sleeves. "I'll let you button it up while I get the chair ready," she said abruptly, leaving the bed and retrieving the folded up wheelchair from the corner. A few minutes later Rose was comfortably settled in her chair, the afghan tucked neatly around her legs and hips. "You ready?" Ronnie asked.
"Yeah," came the half-hearted reply. The last person she wanted to see was Delores. She hadn't replied to the last letter and had no doubt in her mind the former foster mother would bring up the subject of money, especially after finding out where she was living. "Ronnie?"
"Yes?"
"Could you…I mean, if you don't mind, would you…stay with me?" She hoped Ronnie's presence would keep Delores from asking about money, but more than that, she wanted the emotional support she knew her friend would give. She smiled when she felt the warm hand squeeze her shoulder.
"I'll be right there, don't you worry," Ronnie said.
Delores turned from her inspection of the various ornaments still dangling from the streamers and gasped when she saw Rose in a wheelchair. "What happened to you?"
"I was hit by a car," the young woman replied. "How did you know where I was?"
"Your landlord told me," she said smugly. "So did you sue the guy who hit you?"
"The police don't know who it was. He took off after the accident."
"They couldn't find him? That's a shame. If they found him, you could have sued. I know a good lawyer that'll help you if you need him. He represented
me when I slipped in some water in the supermarket. Got me almost four thousand dollars." Delores stepped into the sunken part of the living room and flopped down on the leather couch, drawing a disapproving look from Ronnie.
"So, come tell me what you've been doing. I haven't heard from you in almost two months now." She reached into her oversized pocketbook and pulled out a worn vinyl cigarette case and lighter, lighting one up without a thought.
"I don't allow smoking in my home," Ronnie said.
"Oh, don't worry, I have my own ashtray," Delores replied as she pulled a small brown one out of her purse.
"No, I don't allow smoking in my home," the black-haired woman stressed, not caring a bit about the glare she received from the large visitor, but caring a great deal that Rose did not make a sound of objection.
"Oh, that's fine." Delores took one long drag before butting out the cigarette. "So Rose…" She exhaled, filling the air around her with the translucent smoke. "How long are you staying with Miss Cartwright, or do you live here now?"
Rose blinked in surprise and looked to her benefactor, asking the same question with her eyes. Ronnie swallowed, uncertain of how to answer. What do you want, Rose? There was no doubt in her own mind that she wanted the fair-haired woman in her life, and in her home. Does leaving the decision up to me mean that you want it too? Looking into Rose's eyes, Ronnie inhaled deeply and took a chance, letting her heart guide her answer. "She lives here."
Rose opened her mouth, then closed it, shock taking away her ability to speak for a moment. "Yyes, that's right." Her voice cracked and she fought to keep a smile off her face. "So, what brings you up to this area? Visiting Isabel again?" she asked, referring to Delores' sister.
The large woman nodded. "The Tupperware came in. You know she'll never get around to delivering it to me. If I don't come down and get them she'll end up using them herself or selling them to someone else for the money just like the cookie episode. You remember that, don't you, Rose?"
"Isabel collected all the money for the Girl Scout cookies but didn't have it when it came time to pay for them," Rose explained to Ronnie.
"Sounds like quite a family," the executive said dryly.
"Not to mention that her kids got into them before they were delivered," Delores added, always ready for a chance to run the rest of her family down, even if she were guilty of the same things.
"Anyway…" She turned her attention to her former foster daughter. "So what do the doctors say?
I hope you went to a real hospital and not just down to the clinic. You know they don't know anything down there. I fought with them for five years over Jimmy and they never did find anything wrong with him," Delores said. Rose nodded politely thinking to herself the reason they never found anything wrong with her foster brother was there was never anything wrong with him. Jimmy was the picture of health during the time she stayed with them, yet Delores dragged him from doctor to doctor, insisting that some dreadful rare ailment affected her younger son.
"You know he's in college now."
"Really?" Rose had not thought he would make it through high school. "What's he majoring in?"
"Acting. Someday he'll get his own series just like Seinfeld. He even got an offer to play downtown," she boasted, as if downtown Cobleskill was anything to brag about. "Yup, they're doing Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Andy Gibb played the lead on Broadway, you know."
"Now there's someone to look up to," Ronnie drawled, earning her a slightly raised eyebrow from the young woman. She gave Rose a slight pout but quickly returned to her normal bored expression as Delores continued to ramble on and fill the young woman in on all the trivial events that had happened in her family recently. Eventually, as Ronnie suspected it would, the conversation turned to money.
"You know the state stopped paying for Jimmy when he turned eighteen. It didn't occur to them that I needed that extra money each month for the other kids. One in college and four other kids still in school."
"Doesn't Jimmy help out?" Rose queried.
"He only works weekends at Fred's gas station. He needs that money for gas to get back and forth to school."
"Sounds like Jimmy needs to get another job and help out," Ronnie quipped, earning another disapproving, albeit brief, look from Rose. Delores shifted, focusing her attention on the young woman and wishing that the dark-haired woman would go away. To her delight, it was at that moment the phone rang and Ronnie excused herself for a moment. The scheming woman leaned forward in her seat.
"The State doesn't care. The idiot social worker doesn't care either." She paused, sighing for effect. "It's so hard when you're alone, you understand that, don't you, Rose?"
"Yes," she replied. Delores smiled inwardly.
"You know how hard it was when you were there, all the sacrifices I had to make just to keep you and the others out of the state orphanages and group homes." She watched, pleased, as Rose nodded. The hook is set, now to reel her in, the dumpy woman thought. "You must be getting some kind of disability money, aren't you?"
"Actually, no. I didn't get any benefits at Money Slasher and I haven't applied for anything." Rose's head drooped, a visible expression of her knowledge as to where the conversation was going and her inability to speak up and stop it.
"But you're living here. You can't tell me someone like her lets you live here rent free. You must be paying her something."
"I think that's a matter between Rose and I," Ronnie said as she reentered the room, her tone effectively ending the subject. She did not miss the quick look of relief which passed her way from the grateful woman. She also could not miss the way Rose's shoulders were slumped.
"Well I don't see what the big deal is. I just asked a simple question." Delores tried to appear hurt, but no one was buying it.
"And it was answered," Ronnie replied firmly as she took her seat. She crossed her arms, making it clear that she was not leaving the room again. She had no doubt that if she had not returned the leech would have guilted Rose into giving her money. Ronnie would be damned if she were going to let that happen.
"I think Rose is old enough to speak for herself, don't you?" Delores made no attempt to hide her anger. She had only one shot left. "Rose, I think you should come stay with me until you recover. I always took such good care of you when you were a child."
There it was. The threat was on the table. Delores was making Rose choose between her and Ronnie and the overweight woman was confident the quiet child she once knew and controlled would come forth and pick her.
"I…I…" Rose felt the pressure closing in around her. It had been so automatic to do whatever Delores bid for so long. Now she actually had a choice, an option to make up her own mind. Submit to the long-standing status quo or plunge forward into the unknown with Ronnie. She lifted her head and gazed into soft blue depths, seeing only warmth and concern. "I…I don't want to leave." She said it to Ronnie just as much as to Delores. She watched the executive release a breath and give a small smile. On the other hand, the former foster mother looked furious.
"Rose, I want to talk to you privately, or does she make all your decisions for you?" Delores glared at Ronnie.
"Rose is her own woman," the black-haired woman said. "I don't control her, or manipulate her," she insisted. Her own temper was rising rapidly and Ronnie's thoughts centered about throwing the fat woman out on her ear and hopefully out of Rose's life.
"Then why don't you let her tell me that for herself?" Delores snarled, visibly upset her plans were crumbling around her. "You don't know how hard I worked to keep a roof over her head when no one else would."
"You took her in because of the extra money from the State. That's all there is to it." Ronnie stood up and began pacing. "Have you once asked her if there's anything you could do to help her? No, you asked what happened and then went into your own little world of problems, half of which would be solved if you got off your lazy ass and got a job instead of living off of everyone else." She deliberately a
voided looking at Rose, certain she would see disapproval in her eyes. She knew she should stop, let her friend fight her own battles, but she would be damned if she was going to let Delores Bickering bully Rose into giving her one more cent.
"I don't have to listen to this," the large woman said angrily, rising to her feet and retrieving her pocketbook. "Rose, you're letting this bitch control you. You're going to turn your back on me?
On the only family you have?" She stepped up onto the main level and headed for the door.
