by Anna Burke
“And I’ll tell Bernadette.”
Two heads snapped up, looking at her to see if she was serious. Seeing the set of her jaw, they both blanched with terror.
“We won’t do it again. Please don’t tell, Mrs. B. It’s not just about my job,” Brien said with great conviction, “that woman has powers.” Tommy nodded solemnly in agreement.
Jessica knew exactly what they meant. If she had to choose she’d rather face Uncle Don and spend a couple days in jail than push Bernadette too far. They both looked absolutely miserable.
“You two get out of here, now!” Jessica reached for the big leather Buti tote sitting on her dresser and pulled out her keys. “Take my car,” she said, tossing the keys to Tommy. Tommy brightened instantly and snatched the keys right out of the air.
“You still love me, Jessica, you do, you do,” Tommy said with a smile of relief on his face. She did.
It’s tough when you’re young and you lose someone your own age, shattering the illusion of invulnerability before you have your feet planted firmly under you. After Kelly died Tommy never quite got it together to figure out what he wanted from life, much less how he was going to get it. He took courses at College of the Desert, the local community college, without ever settling on a direction. He dabbled in computers and videography. He got excited about a career in xeriscape so he could design desert landscapes, until he actually tried working outdoors in the desert heat.
Jessica thought about the tattered ruins that remained of her own well-planned life and let out a huge sigh. “The best laid plans,” she thought. She held out her arms and Tommy rushed into them for a hug, starting to sob again.
“It’s okay, Tommy,” she said patting him on the back, tears welling up in her eyes as a rush of maternal feelings engulfed her. Frigging biological clock! Fueled by fertility drugs, she had plunged into a primordial soup of hormones from which she was still emerging months later. Jessica looked up just as Brien took a step toward them raising his arms.
“Don’t even think about it,” she said. Brien stopped mid step.
Tommy wiped his eyes on his sleeve. “Get it back to me tomorrow and in perfect condition or else,” Jessica admonished. They nodded their heads obediently and left the room.
Jessica was exhausted but relieved to find out she wasn’t going completely nuts or hadn’t gone too far down the road toward alcoholism. She was living too close to the edge, though. It was time to take a step back toward normalcy, whatever that meant at this point in her life. Jessica finished cleaning the room, even changed the sheets and made her bed. A shower would be great but the next thing she needed to do was patch things up with Bernadette. Tightening the cord on her soft chenille robe, like a fighter about to enter the arena, Jessica padded in bare feet out to the kitchen to find Bernadette.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Life is an extravaganza! Figuring out how to hang tough and make the most of the wild ride is the challenge. On my way to Oahu to join the rock musician and high school drop-out I had married in Tijuana, I was nabbed as a runaway. Eventually the police let me go, but the rock band broke up. Our next stop: Disney World, where we trained to be chefs. More education landed us in academia at The Ohio State University. For decades I researched, wrote, and spoke about a number of gloriously nerdy topics. Retired now, I’m still married to the same sweet guy and live with him near Palm Springs, California. I write the Jessica Huntington Desert Cities Mystery series set here in the Sonoran Desert, a spectacular place to ponder life’s mysteries while relishing the delights of the desert resort cities. Book 1, A DEAD HUSBAND, was released December, 2013. Book 2, A DEAD SISTER, released April, 2014. Book 3, A DEAD DAUGHTER, OUT SOON.
