What Happens in Texas

by Carolyn Brown

  Darla Jean looked from one to the other. No more bruises. Clean hair and shiny skin. The haunted look hadn’t completely left their eyes, but they’d come a long way since the first time she’d seen them.

  She looked at Misty. “What would you like to do with your life? Not today or even this year. I’m glad you have a job that lets you stay home with Layla. But when she’s in school, what would you like to do?”

  Misty looked at the carpet. “My dream was to be a real nurse.”

  “Really?” Lindsey asked.

  “I gave up on that years ago.”

  “Never give up on your dream,” Betty said.

  Misty raised her eyes. “I could do it, couldn’t I? When Layla starts school, I could. I could go to school in the days and work at night.”

  “See there. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.” Betty smiled.

  “And you?” Darla Jean asked Lindsey.

  “I’ll be doing just what I want to do. Work with little kids.”

  “Want a classroom where you are the teacher? That would only take two years more.”

  Lindsey nodded. “It’d take a lot longer by going nights.”

  “I looked into a program that would let you do the rest of it by computer online courses. If that’s your dream, you should save your money and buy a computer. Next year you could be taking classes and there’s usually a big turnover in the Blue Ridge school system. You might work your way right into a real teaching job,” Darla Jean said.

  Betty changed the subject. “And what is Layla going to be?”

  Layla giggled at Betty’s high-pitched voice.

  “Anything she wants to be,” Darla Jean said.

  Darla Jean was pleased with Lindsey and Misty. They’d shown remarkable signs of healing and moving on in such a short time. The bond they shared reminded her of the one Cathy and Marty had. And that was a good thing.

  * * *

  The list was long and the cart was full when Anna Ruth rounded the corner in Walmart and ran smack into another cart.

  “I’m so sorry!” She peeked around the end of the buggy right into Andy’s smiling face.

  “You are forgiven, sweetheart,” he said.

  Her heart did a couple of backward somersaults and her pulse raced. “I couldn’t see over the top of the cart. Aunt Annabel had a very long list for me to fill and…”

  She always talked too loud and too fast when she was nervous, and Andy’s smile made her hot, bothered, and antsy.

  “And it’s okay, Anna Ruth.” He moved around the cart and ran a finger up her forearm. “I’ve missed you.”

  Anna Ruth was on the way to falling at his feet, throwing her arms around his knees, and apologizing for leaving him, then in an instant she realized that if she was ever to have him, she’d have to play hard to get. It was the chase he liked.

  “Not one phone call, one rose, or even a note. I wouldn’t know that you’ve missed me at all.” Her voice sounded strangely normal in her ears.

  “You are blocking the aisle!” a shrill voice said behind her.

  “So sorry!” She whipped around to see Violet shooting daggers at her.

  “For God’s sake, Anna Ruth, move your cart to one side so I can get around you. What did you stop so fast for anyway?” Her look was meant to fry Andy on the spot, leaving a mess on aisle six between the laundry detergent and the soda pop. “Oh, I thought you and Catherine were involved.”

  Andy smiled at her, but it didn’t have the same effect that it did on Anna Ruth. “Who is Catherine?”

  “I guess you know her by Cathy.”

  “No, she’s keeping company with John. He owns the Rib Joint between Luella and Cadillac,” Andy said.

  Violet gasped. “She overthrew my Ethan for that?”

  “Hello! I thought I heard my name.” Ethan started around the end of the aisle going in the opposite direction. “Are we having a reunion?”

  “Looks like all of Cadillac came out for supplies tonight. We should’ve all made lists and just sent one of us,” Andy said.

  Awkward silence hung over aisle six like cigarette smoke in a honky-tonk.

  Andy finally asked, “How’s the election going?”

  Ethan smiled brightly. “Very well, I think. Lynn, honey, this is one of Cadillac’s policemen, Andy Johnson. This is Anna Ruth Williams who is a teacher over at Bells, and this is my mother, Violet.”

  “Pleased to meet all of you. Sorry we have to run, but we’re watching a movie at my house and it’s getting late. We just needed Pepsi and some popcorn,” Lynn said.

  Ethan picked a couple of two-liter bottles of Pepsi from the shelf and pushed the cart toward the checkout counters.

  “He doesn’t drink Pepsi or eat popcorn,” Violet whispered.

  Anna Ruth shrugged. “Guess he does now.”

  Why didn’t Violet get on around her and go about her business? Anna Ruth had moved her cart against the Tide detergent to make room.

  “That haircut is horrible and she should do something with those bushy eyebrows. Did you see her fingernail polish? Of course you didn’t because she wasn’t wearing any.”

  Anna Ruth could have strangled Andy for leaving her there to sympathize with Violet. But Violet, despite her years, was a club sister and she needed her right then. So she took two steps forward and hugged the woman.

  “I didn’t see her nails. I was too shocked. But she does need a trip to the hairdresser. You and Aunt Annabel always taught us when our hair turned gray, we should put it up or cut it off, not wear it hanging on our shoulders.”

  Violet shivered. “How could he do this to me? How old do you think she is?”

  Anna Ruth made a show of checking her watch. “Really, I expect she’s Ethan’s age and that’s premature gray, Violet. It’s just so tacky not to color it, don’t you think? I’m so sorry but I’ve got to go. Aunt Annabel has an order for a cake tomorrow and she’s waiting on the powdered sugar. Why don’t you come by the house and talk to her when you get done in here?”

  “My head hurts. I’m going home to put a cold cloth on it. I may never come to Walmart again if that woman shops here.”

  Anna Ruth drove to her Aunt Annabel’s house with a new purpose. She’d let Andy Johnson chase her until she caught him. He needed a good wife and once they were married, he’d never cheat again. It was midlife crisis and a messy wife that sent him into her arms. Now that the dispatcher had moved on, she could control the midlife crisis.

  * * *

  The hankering for a bowl of red beans with a spoonful of picante sauce stirred up in them hit Agnes at nine thirty. She grabbed the thick red robe that Cathy had given her for Christmas and snapped it all the way up the front. The back door was open and the kitchen empty. She looked in the refrigerator, opened several containers, and found no beans. She slammed the refrigerator door and found half a black forest cake left on the cabinet. She sliced off an enormous chunk, put it on a plate, and was halfway to the table when Trixie jumped off the bottom step and yelled, “Boo!”

  Agnes threw the plate straight up and let out a string of cussing that would have scared the hair right off of a billy goat’s chin. The swearing and the scream stopped when she saw a long brown streak sliding down the yellow daisy wallpaper. The rest of the cake slammed against the floor with such force that it splattered chocolate on Trixie’s bare toes.

  “Look what you’ve done. Gone and ruined good chocolate cake, so you can damn well clean up the floor. Marty and Cathy are crazy as hell for letting you move in here.”

  “You clean it up. I didn’t make the mess. You did.”

  “You caused it so you are cleaning,” Agnes said.

  Trixie laughed and held up her chocolate-iced foot. “Want to lick it off so we don’t waste it?”

  Agnes narrowed her eyes and then laughed with Trixie. “Scared the shit right out of me, girl. But I betcha I scared you with my shotgun. Own up to it. There was a man in your bedroom, wasn’t there?”

  “Why did you
care?”

  “I didn’t. If I could’ve been sure it was you, I’d have let him slit your throat. But I was afraid he’d drug Cathy across the hall and was hurting her. I didn’t know who he had in there until you came out of the bedroom. Then I was so damn mad I wished I would’ve stayed at home.”

  She leaned forward and whispered, “It was Andy.”

  Agnes slapped the table. “I knew it. Does Marty know? She hates that man.”

  Trixie shook her head.

  “Hmpph! I’ll tell her.”

  “No, you won’t, because she’ll think you’ve lost your mind and have you declared incompetent and put you in a nursing home. I visit my mother every Sunday and Wednesday. I could drop by and see you.”

  Agnes exhaled loudly. “You’d do that, wouldn’t you? Make Marty believe I was going crazy?”

  “You came in here ranting again about a man in my room and threw cake at the wall when I wouldn’t let you go upstairs.”

  Agnes bit back a grin. “I’ll get even. You know I will.”

  “Bring it on, old girl.” Trixie leaned a little more until her nose was just inches from Agnes’s.

  “I’m getting the rest of the cake and I’m taking it home with me, and if you scare me again, I’m throwing it at you,” Agnes said.

  She shifted the rest of the cake into a carryout box and carried it out into the darkness as if it were pure gold.

  Trixie giggled all the way to her room. She hated Agnes when she first moved in, but since that night with the shotgun, Trixie had slowly changed her mind. They’d built a crazy friendship and she’d probably be even sadder than Cathy when the old girl died. She sat down at the ceramic table and worked on an owl for Agnes’s birthday coming up in December. She intended to make a card to go with it that said something witty about an owl seeing everything at night.

  A fedora! That’s what her owl needed. Trixie could fashion one with some felt and craft glue. Then she’d put a couple of mothballs in the cavity and stick duct tape over the hole at the bottom.

  Chapter 20

  The devil that robbed Janie’s memories gave them back occasionally. Usually only in five-minute sections, but Trixie was grateful for anything she could get but expected nothing.

  That Sunday afternoon, Trixie and Jack showed up at the door and Janie smiled brightly. “Hello. I thought you might come today. It is Sunday, isn’t it? Hello, Jack. I haven’t seen you in quite a while. I see you’ve got a bag, Trixie. Does that mean red beans and greens and maybe some of Clawdy’s pecan cobbler? You still play dominoes?” She sat on one side of the card table, dominoes stacked up like LEGO blocks in front of her.

  When Janie was herself, she loved hugs and she hugged back. When she didn’t remember, she didn’t want Trixie to touch her at all, not even pat her shoulder. That day she hugged back and then laughed. “Mercy, honey. You are going to crush me. I’ll still be right here tomorrow. You don’t have to get all the hugs today. I’ve had dinner already, but if you’ll set that aside, I’ll get the ladies to heat it for supper.”

  “I like your hugs. You smell wonderful.”

  “This is the same perfume I’ve worn since you were a little girl. Don’t see that it would be any different today than yesterday.”

  “You are right.”

  Janie opened her arms. “Your turn, Jack. Remember when you were a little boy and you loved hugs?”

  Jack hugged her tightly and then sat across the table, leaving the chair next to Janie for Trixie. “You are still beautiful, Janie.”

  “You always were a charmer,” Janie said. “Now what are you two out doing today?”

  “Visiting with you,” Trixie said. “And then we are going to buy furniture.”

  “Now that sounds serious,” Janie said.

  Jack smiled. “I just bought a new house in Cadillac, and Trixie is going to help me with the furniture.”

  Janie returned the smile with a slow wink. “She’s good at decorating and making things from nothing. So, Jack, you are back in Cadillac?”

  “I am now. I quit the military a couple of years ago and moved back.”

  Trixie laid her hand over her mother’s. “Mamma, let’s talk about you.”

  Janie jerked hers free and put it in her lap. “Who are you? A new nurse. I don’t remember seeing you here before.”

  The devil had snatched back his gift after a tiny glimpse.

  Trixie took a deep breath and straightened her back. “Yes, ma’am. I am your new therapist. Would you like to color? We have princess coloring books in the drawer and we have almost new crayons.”

  “No, I’d like to play dominoes. Daddy says I’m the best. I can beat both of you,” she said.

  Jack laid a hand on Trixie’s shoulder as she set up the game and whispered, “You had a moment there. That’s good at this stage, isn’t it?”

  She swallowed hard before she nodded. “It is. I’m just greedy.”

  Janie pushed the score pad and pencil away from Trixie and in front of Jack. “Might as well not be greedy today. I won’t let you win. Young man, you keep score. Greedy people might cheat.”

  “Tell me all about your daddy as we play,” Jack said.

  Janie leaned across the table and whispered, “My daddy is dead but I have a friend. Do you know Clawdy Barton? She’s my best friend. Sometimes Mamma lets me stay at Clawdy’s place all night.”

  “My mamma knows Clawdy,” Jack said.

  Janie straightened up and looked at him. “Who are you?”

  “I’m Beulah’s son, Jack.”

  Janie twisted her mouth to one side and studied her hand. She laid out a double six in the middle of the table. “We don’t talk when we play. We concentrate.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Trixie said.

  Janie nodded. “Shhh!”

  Halfway through the game, she yawned. That meant she was ready for a nap and would grow agitated if everyone didn’t leave. Then she looked up, life came back to her eyes, and she pointed.

  “Would you look at that? Cathy Andrews, I haven’t seen you in years. And who have you brought with you today? It’s so good to see you. Mercy me, but we’re having a family reunion, aren’t we? Trixie and Jack are here. All we need is Marty and we’ll have everyone. We could make sugar cookies and all you kids could decorate them.”

  Cathy crossed the room and gave her a hug. “That would be so much fun. I remember making cookies at your house and you made the best icing for them.”

  “Now who is this handsome young man?” Janie held out her hand.

  “This is John…” Cathy hesitated.

  “I’m her brand-spanking-new boyfriend,” John said quickly and kissed Janie’s fingertips.

  “Well, it’s about time. Unfold a couple of those chairs and have a seat. Shall I call down for some coffee and cookies? This is a fancy hotel, you know.” She winked.

  Trixie touched Cathy’s arm and whispered, “Thank you!”

  Janie was lucid enough to talk to them for ten minutes and then she yawned again. “I don’t know why they send so many doctors and nurses in to see me some days and none others. I’m sleepy now so if y’all are through, you can go so I can take a nap.”

  Cathy stood up first. “Yes, ma’am, we’ve got other patients to see. Is there anything else we can do for you?”

  She pointed to Jack. “That one can cover me with my afghan.”

  “I’ll be glad to,” Jack said.

  Trixie wanted to hug her again, but Janie adhered to a strict code when the life went out of her eyes. It said that she wasn’t allowed to hug anyone she didn’t know or take candy from them either.

  Cathy wrapped an arm around Trixie’s waist as they made their way slowly toward the lobby. Several of the nursing home residents were gathered in the lobby where a local preacher led them in singing “I Saw the Light.” Old voices blended with young and the music echoed up and down the halls.

  Cathy squeezed Trixie tighter. “She did see the light for a little while there, didn’t sh
e? Do you think us being together triggered a memory? I should come more often,” Cathy said.

  “Who knows what works and what doesn’t, but it seems to help when y’all visit.”

  * * *

  The Sherman city park was alive with screaming kids running from swings to monkey bars or to the merry-go-round, the tetherball pole, or the springy riding toys. Jack slouched onto a wooden bench and pulled Trixie down beside him.

  “This is my favorite spot in the whole world,” he said.

  “I thought we were going furniture shopping,” Trixie said.

  “We are in a little while. Cathy and John wanted a few minutes to get an ice-cream cone and Marty is running late.”

  “What are we really doing here, Jack?”

  “Watching the kids play. I love kids. They are so innocent and rambunctious. Someday I want a dozen to bring to the park on Sunday.”

  “You better be getting a woman in your life pretty soon if you want a dozen,” she said. “I wanted kids when I was first married. But it didn’t happen. Andy never did want any. Guess he got his way and the way things turned out, it was for the best. I wouldn’t want to have a kid going through what I am with my mom. Jack, who’s going to take care of me when I get that horrible disease?”

  Jack air slapped her on the shoulder. “Trixie, nothing says you’re going to get it. And if you do, you’ve got all of us to take care of you.”

  “I love you, Jack Landry.”

  “I know, darlin’, and I love all four of you wild girls.”

  “Four?”

  “Yep, four: you, Cathy, Marty, and Darla Jean. Darla Jean is more like a cousin. You other three are my sisters.”

  It took fifteen minutes for her to finally giggle over the antics of one little four-year-old boy attempting to tame a caterpillar on a spring. Like a bull rider, he held one hand up and kicked back and forth with imaginary spurs. His father kept an eye on his wristwatch and his mother yelled, “Eight seconds and the crowd goes wild as Jason takes home the bull rider’s silver buckle.”

  The boy fell off the side of the caterpillar, landed on his feet, swept his hat off, and bowed. His mom and dad clapped and whistled even louder.