What Happens in Texas

by Carolyn Brown

  “As chairman of the Council committee on this, I feel that we need more time to think about it,” Violet said.

  “You really think that is the smart way to go, do you?” Agnes said. “The people who care anything about the town are in this room and they’ve voted. It’s going to cost the taxpayers to have a formal vote on it, and besides, you know nobody turns out to vote on these things. Unless it’s got to do with the school board or the President of the United States, folks can’t even be paid to come out and vote.”

  “Oh, okay, give me the paper. I’ve been authorized to sign the thing if there was enough support for it. I’m sick of hearing about it,” Violet said.

  “And I want it fixed so this don’t come up every time you get your panties in a wad,” Agnes said.

  Violet’s gold fingernail glittered when pointed at Frank. “Fix it! I don’t want to have to deal with that old bag over this ever again.”

  “Thank you,” Cathy said.

  Violet shot her a dirty look, but she signed the paper.

  “New business?” Violet asked.

  “Concession stands for the festival still in my court?” Anna Ruth asked.

  “Yes, they are.”

  Agnes stood up slowly.

  Violet rounded the podium and stood in front of it, chin up, daring her to say a word.

  Ethan rose to his feet.

  Cathy did the same.

  “It’s time for us to go now. Frank has another client he has to see this evening.” Agnes turned her back to Violet, daring her to stab her in the back with the letter opener on the podium. “Thank you, everyone, for helping us out here tonight. My nieces will knock fifteen percent off anyone’s breakfast ticket tomorrow morning from eight to nine for their gratitude. At the Jalapeño Jubilee, they’ll have the buffet open from lunch through supper both, and believe me, their beans, greens, fried catfish, and pecan cobbler are worth stopping by for alone. And they’ve got the best pepper jelly and picante in the whole damn state. Remember now, Ethan, anytime your mamma has a hankering for fudge, you just call me and I’ll be glad to whip up a batch for her. Let’s hear it for a real good vote tonight and getting this thing settled once and for all.”

  The room roared with applause.

  Agnes left with her lawyer, nieces, spiritual adviser, and Trixie all trailing behind her. She’d never felt more like a queen.

  When they were in the church parking lot, Trixie exploded. “Who gave you the right to knock fifteen percent off the breakfast tomorrow or to make us stay open for lunch and dinner at the Jalapeño Jubilee?”

  “That will be cheaper than buying a nasty old vacant building full of roaches and rats and remodeling it so you could move the business. People will remember that they got a damn good breakfast for a good price and come back later. It’s a good idea, so shut up your bitchin’.”

  * * *

  Cathy had not signed a secret paper in her own blood when she was invited to join the Blue-Ribbon Jalapeño Society. She had not vowed to stand before a firing squad to protect the members of the club. Nor had she held up her hand and recited after Violet that she would put the friendship of the other members, including Violet and Anna Ruth, before all her other friends.

  It was not a college sorority but a community club that gave a small scholarship at the end of each school year to a local high school senior girl for college. Cathy had received that scholarship, so when her mother said it was time for her to give back, she’d agreed to join.

  Evidently, the rules had changed from the time Cathy had been asked to join and when Anna Ruth had. Because Anna Ruth had a very different idea of what the club meant.

  Cathy was flipping through a seed and plant catalog, thinking about whether begonias could survive beside the west side of the front porch next spring. Trixie was looking through a catalog where she bought her ceramic paints at good prices when she bought in bulk. Marty had just gotten a new book with car parts in it that day and she was engrossed in it.

  The back door burst open and there was Anna Ruth. No knocking. No calling beforehand; she just stood there with her chin quivering and tears running down her cheeks.

  Had her Aunt Annabel taken sick with a dreaded disease and only cobbler or tarts would heal her?

  Anna Ruth brushed at her cheeks. “We’ve got to make peace. I would just die if we didn’t have the club, and it’s suffering from all this bickering. I’m here to forgive you, Trixie.”

  “Forgive me? You’re the one who was sleeping with my husband,” Trixie said.

  “I’m taking the bigger part and forgiving you for slapping me. Now, let’s hug and be friends. Put the past where it belongs and forget about it.” Anna Ruth came at her with both arms open.

  Trixie stood from her chair and backed up. “Don’t you touch me, woman. You might be making everything right with your Maker by forgiving me, but I’m not in a showing-the-love mood tonight.”

  Cathy bit back a giggle. Had Anna Ruth been drinking?

  “Anna Ruth, you slept with Andy when he was still her husband,” Marty said.

  Trixie shook her head emphatically. “You forget anything you want to. I’m going to bed. Cathy, if you let her come up the stairs, I’m calling Agnes.”

  Anna Ruth melted into a chair and helped herself to a piece of sweet potato pie. “Oh, Cathy, I tried. What am I going to do?”

  “How old are you?” Marty asked.

  “Twenty-five.”

  “Grow up. You are not a cheerleader in high school. Trixie is not going to be your BFF. And neither am I,” Marty said. “I’m going up to my room, Cathy. Trixie won’t have to call Agnes if you let her up the stairs. I’ll kick her back down the stairs myself.”

  “But you are my friend. You voted for me!” Anna Ruth wailed. “Only you understand, Cathy.”

  The heavy stomping down the stairs left no doubt that Trixie was on her way back to the kitchen.

  Cathy raised one eyebrow.

  Trixie pointed at Marty. “You voted for her!”

  “You didn’t.” Cathy gasped.

  “Why would you do that? I didn’t even want the damn position, but why would you vote for her? After the fit you threw over Andy and you go and vote for that hussy to be in the club with y’all. Dammit, Marty!”

  “Why?” Cathy asked.

  “Oops!” Anna Ruth smiled. Granted it was a weak smile but it was there all the same. “Maybe next time you’ll get into the club, but I wouldn’t bank on it, not after what you did to Ethan.”

  “You can go to hell.”

  “That is rude!”

  “And sleeping with my husband wasn’t?”

  “He was unhappy, but he couldn’t leave you because you have mental issues like your mother and you also have a drinking problem. I believe him. Any woman that would rather cut up paper than make Andy happy isn’t right in the head.”

  Trixie went straight for the cabinet, took out the Jack, and poured two fingers in a water glass before she sat down at the table.

  Anna Ruth stood up so fast that her chair hit the floor with a bang. “I thought he was just shooting me a line, but you just proved he was right.”

  Trixie held up her hand and giggled. “My name is Trixie. I’m crazy and I’m a drunk. And I cut paper up into little hearts and flowers. I’m disgusting. That’s why my best friend just voted for the likes of you in her fancy-schmancy social club.”

  Anna Ruth stormed out the back door without a backward glance.

  Trixie laughed so hard that she snorted. “So that’s the story he tells his women,” she said when she could talk. “Mamma has Alzheimer’s. She’s not crazy. And a couple of drinks a week does not make me a drunk. Anna Ruth got screwed in more ways than one.”

  Anna Ruth poked her head back in the kitchen. “Don’t talk about me.”

  “You are supposed to be gone, not eavesdropping on the back porch. Be careful—I hear insanity and alcoholism are both contagious,” Trixie said.

  Anna Ruth came inside but kep
t her distance. “It sounds like she completely lost her mind. Do you need help getting her to the institution?”

  “I think I can manage on my own,” Cathy said.

  “My phone number is in the club daybook. Call me if you need me,” Anna Ruth said seriously and disappeared into the darkness for the second time.

  Marty opened her mouth as if she were about to say something.

  Trixie put up a palm. “Not a word. Not a single solitary word. I’m mad at you and I may not forgive you and tonight you don’t get to say anything at all. I’m going upstairs to read the latest Candy Parker novel. It came in the mail today,” Trixie said.

  “You’ll love it. It’s her best yet,” Cathy said without thinking.

  “You’re shittin’ me,” Trixie said.

  Marty sat down on the bottom step with a thud.

  Cathy blushed. “No, it really is better than her last one about the fireman. This cowboy one will make your eyeballs fog over.”

  In for a dime, in for a dollar. It was harder to put a cat back in the bag than to let it out. And Cathy had just let the wildcat out of the bag.

  “I can’t believe you read Candy’s books,” Marty whispered.

  “Why?”

  “I never see them in your room or lying around like Trixie’s books.”

  Cathy stood up. “My name is Cathy Andrews, and I’m disgusting. I’m addicted to erotic romance. Candy Parker’s are my favorites, but I’ll read any of it. That’s the reason I broke it off with Ethan. I would rather take my e-reader to a back booth of the Rib Joint and read than spend time with him. Until I am willing to toss my e-reader in a trash Dumpster to spend time with a man, I will not get engaged again.” She raised her right hand. “So help me, God! And for the record, I do feel sorry for Anna Ruth. But I don’t feel a bit sorry for you, Marty. That was downright mean to vote for that witch.”

  “I am Candy Parker,” Marty said.

  “You read it too? I thought you were too busy chasing hot cowboys to read about them,” Trixie said.

  “You are who?” Cathy asked.

  “I don’t read it, Trixie. I write it. I am Candy Parker. I chose a pen name because I didn’t want to embarrass my sister. This is too rich for words.” Marty laughed.

  “Does that mean I don’t have to wait? I can read them before they go to the publisher?” Cathy asked.

  “Hell no! You’d take a red pen to them and give me a complex. You have to wait until they are completely finished,” Marty said.

  Trixie started up the stairs.

  “Hey, you aren’t going to be mad at me, are you?” Marty hollered.

  “Yes, I am, and it’s going to last a long time.”

  “What can I do?”

  “I’ll think of something and it won’t be pleasant. I can’t believe you did that. I had to find out from that bitch’s mouth. You didn’t even come and tell me. Why, Marty?”

  “I can’t tell you.”

  “Well, I’m not going to forgive you until you do.”

  “It’s going to be between us, isn’t it?”

  “Damn straight.”

  * * *

  If you can’t buy it at Walmart, you don’t need it, was another of Trixie’s mother’s sayings.

  She could almost hear her mother saying the words as she tossed things in her cart at the Sherman Walmart store. It had been the last time they’d gone out shopping and with very little help Janie could remember some things. That time she’d been herself right up until checkout time when she looked around her and started crying. She didn’t know where she was or who Trixie was and she was terrified.

  Trixie picked up a bottle of shampoo and turned the cart down the center aisle. A display of bubble bath on an end aisle took her eye and she didn’t even see the cart coming around the next corner until it rammed into hers.

  She looked up into Andy’s dreamy eyes.

  “I’m sorry. Oh!” the man said.

  “Hello, Andy.”

  “Trixie.” He nodded. “How are you?”

  “Just fine. You?”

  “Lonely.”

  “Break up with the new dispatcher or did she break up with you?”

  He took a couple of steps toward her and ran a forefinger down her bare arm. “I’m lonely for you. I always came back home to you, Trixie. What’s the big deal?”

  She didn’t feel a single tingle. No sparks. No extra heartbeat. Nada. Zilch. Should she tell him he was losing his charm?

  Hell no! If she did, she’d have to put up with his whimpering because Andy couldn’t live without his sex appeal.

  She didn’t feel anger either. No visions of strapping him out spread-eagled in a fire ant bed and pouring honey all over his body.

  She felt nothing but indifference. Marty would be so glad that she was finally, finally moving on.

  She picked up his finger and dropped it. “But I’m bordering on crazy and I have a drinking problem and I read erotic books which is where I’m headed right now. I hear there’s a whole new shipment over in the romance books.”

  He looked into her eyes. “I bet I can do a better job than any of those men in books. You still got those black furry cuffs?”

  “I’m not sure you could get Anna Ruth to believe that line, and I gave the cuffs to Marty. You want to talk to her about them?”

  “Come on, Trix. You know I’ll never love a woman the way I do you.”

  “Poor baby,” she said and pushed on past him toward the book section.

  “I won’t wait around for you forever.” He raised his voice.

  “I can always hope.” She didn’t look back.

  She didn’t stop at the book aisle but went on to the toys where she bought two princess coloring books and a new box of crayons. Only eight. Any more confused her mother.

  After she checked out, she drove straight to the nursing home. If it was a good day, she wouldn’t need the coloring books, but if it wasn’t, they could color. That always calmed Janie down and sometimes it even sparked a little memory.

  Trixie hoped Janie was lucid that day. Her whole world was coming apart and she needed someone outside her tight little circle of friends to talk to. She needed her mother worse than ever. Did the whole town know that Andy was cheating behind her back? And the new thing with Marty voting for Anna Ruth—that stung. Granted, Trixie had said if she did get it, she wouldn’t ever put that gaudy jalapeño pin on her lapel or even on a ratty old T-shirt, but why would Marty vote for Anna Ruth? She didn’t even like her, so why would she want her, of all people, in the club?

  “Hello, are you new here?” Janie asked when Trixie rapped on the door.

  “Yes, I am. Do you like to color?”

  Janie clapped her hands. “Oh, yes, but my colors are all broken.”

  “I brought new ones. Do you mind if I color with you? I have two new princess books.”

  “What fun!” Janie patted the card table in front of her. “We can color right here. New colors?”

  “That’s right.” Trixie swallowed the disappointment as she brought out the books and the crayons.

  “I want the blue one. Cinderella’s dress is blue,” her mother said.

  “May I have the yellow one?” Trixie asked.

  Janie picked up the box, removed the yellow one, and handed it to Trixie. “What’s your name?”

  “Trixie,” she answered.

  Even hearing her daughter’s name brought no response.

  Janie opened the book and started on the very first page, just like she always did. Her coloring books were all beautifully done, but she never colored random pages. They had to be done in order or it upset her.

  “What’s your name?” Trixie asked as she colored.

  “Janie. My daughter wore a blue dress to the prom when she was a junior in high school. I sewed it for her and hand beaded the bodice. It was lovely.”

  “What was her name?” Trixie asked.

  Janie stopped for a minute. “I don’t remember. Could I have the yellow? Cind
erella’s hair is yellow. My daughter married a man right out of high school. He had shifty eyes.”

  “We can trade,” Trixie said. “Was your daughter’s hair yellow?”

  “No, it was brown, like yours.”

  “Just one daughter?”

  “Yes, and she ran away. It was because she married that man who kept looking at other women, I think.”

  Janie looked up and there was light in her eyes. “Hello, Trixie! I’m so glad you came today. Did you bring me some beans and greens? I’ve had a hankering for some of Clawdy’s cooking lately. Oh, what I’d give for a big old heaping spoonful of her pepper jelly on a hot biscuit.”

  Trixie swallowed twice. “Hi, Mamma. I didn’t bring anything from Clawdy’s, but I’ll drive back to Cadillac and get whatever you want if you are hungry for that kind of food. You look pretty.”

  “No, just bring them next time you come see me.” She smoothed the front of her dress. “I still love this dress. I told them to get it out today in case you came. It’s what I wore to your wedding.”

  “Yes, it is,” Trixie said. “That was fifteen years ago.”

  “It’s still a good dress though, and you said I was pretty that day.” Janie stopped coloring and looked up. “You look happy.”

  “I am. Andy and I divorced.”

  “I’m not surprised. Why did you leave him?”

  “He cheated on me more than once,” Trixie said.

  “Well, then you should have left him.”

  “Mamma, why didn’t Claudia ever put your name down to be in the social club?”

  Janie smiled. “Honey, I never married your father, and I came from the wrong side of the tracks. The social club didn’t want me, but that was okay. I didn’t want them either.”

  “I left Andy because he was having an affair with a younger woman named Anna Ruth…”

  Janie went back to her coloring but butted in, “Anna Ruth’s mamma married the man that got her pregnant. When I got pregnant, I decided I didn’t love the man I was with, so I didn’t marry him.”

  Trixie kept coloring. “Marty voted for Anna Ruth instead of me to get into the social club. Agnes was on the ballot so she voted against her too.”