Gloria’s Secret

by Robin Alexander

  “I think I may have just broken my ankle or possibly my leg.”

  Adrienne stopped giggling and was out of the bed in a flash to survey the situation from all angles. “I can lift you into the bed, but there’s no way I can steady your leg at the same time. Should I go get Wanda?”

  “Are you crazy? How would we explain this? You’re gonna have to help me back onto the bed. We’ll deal with my leg once I’m up.”

  She knelt behind me and put her arms under mine. “Okay, take a deep breath and let it out slowly.”

  I did as she instructed, and in one fluid motion, she lifted me onto the bed.

  “Son of a bitch!” My voice sounded like I’d inhaled helium.

  “Sweetie, we still have to get your leg through the footboard,” Adrienne said as she steadied my injured leg.

  It nauseated me to think about having to move it again. “Just a minute.” I grabbed a pillow and bit into it, then nodded. She reached through the footboard and supported my leg with her forearm as I scooted backward until it was free. The move didn’t hurt as much as I expected, but I was covered in sweat when I finally lay back and rested. “You know what really sucks? I never got my bread pudding.”

  “What bread pudding?”

  “Mom made it for dessert, and we never got any.”

  Adrienne rolled her eyes. “Focus honey.”

  “I’m focusing on bread pudding. It takes my mind off my leg.”

  “We’ve got to get you to the hospital, it looks terrible.”

  “What do you think the chances are of us getting out of this house unnoticed?”

  Adrienne stroked away the strands of hair matted to my face. “I’d say slim, but we’ll try if you’re up to it.”

  “Okay, here’s the plan. You go get dressed, then help me get into a pair of sweats. If we survive the trip down the stairs, we’re home free.”

  Adrienne smiled down at me sadly. “I hate to leave you even for a few minutes. It’s obvious you’re in pain. We could always call an ambulance.”

  “No way, they’ll wake everyone in the neighborhood. I’m still clinging to the hope that we can get out of here without the entire Tate clan coming with us.”

  Adrienne dressed in record time and gave me a sponge bath so there would be no evidence of our escapade. She managed to get me into a pair of sweats and one shoe.

  We’d gotten halfway down the hall and were contemplating the stairs when the door to my parents’ room opened and my dad stepped out looking disheveled.

  “What are you doing?” he asked.

  “I…fell on my way to the bathroom and twisted my ankle.”

  Mom pushed past Dad and gasped when she looked at my steadily swelling ankle. “Why didn’t you call for help?”

  “We were trying not to wake the whole house,” Adrienne said.

  “Margaret, why don’t you get dressed? I’ll help the girls down to the car, then I’ll come up and dress.”

  “Okay, wait,” I said, holding up a hand. “If we can get some help down the stairs, Adrienne and I can manage the rest.”

  “I can’t just go back to bed and let you leave this house hurt in the middle of the night,” Mom said indignantly.

  “Okay, but you both don’t have to go,” I said. “I feel bad enough about this already.”

  The door to Jeff’s old room opened and Wanda stepped into the hall. “What’s wrong?” she asked around a yawn.

  “Hayden hurt her leg. I’m going to drive them to the hospital,” Mom said.

  Wanda’s eyes grew wide. “How about you let me drive, you can sit in the back with Adrienne and Hayden?”

  “Okay,” Mom said. “Blake, help them down the stairs. I’m going to get dressed.”

  There was no way the three of us were going to make it down the stairs side by side. Dad turned his back to me. “You’re going to have to lay over my back and I’ll carry you down.”

  “I weigh a lot more than I look.”

  “Get on,” he said, ignoring me.

  Adrienne helped me position myself, and I lay across his back, wrapping my arms around his neck. He lifted me with a grunt and we slowly descended the stairs. When we got to the bottom. he didn’t stop, but carried me through the house to the garage and straight to Mom’s van where he settled me inside.

  “Thanks, Dad,” I said with a groan. All the movement caused my leg and ankle to throb.

  “I’m going to get dressed. I’ll be back down in a minute.”

  “No, Dad, please. Wanda and Mom are coming. It’s bad enough that I’m forcing them out of bed.”

  “It’s no trouble, hon.”

  It was like a flashback to my childhood when I was still in his good graces. Somewhere under that tough exterior, the dad I knew was still alive and well.

  I reached over and squeezed his arm gently. “We’ll be fine, and I heard you say earlier that you had to go into the office tomorrow. You need your rest.”

  Wanda and Mom raced into the garage as though I was in a life-or-death struggle.

  Mom fished her keys out of her purse and handed them to Wanda. “We’ll be back soon, Blake.” She kissed Dad on his cheek. He stood in the garage with his hands in the pockets of his robe looking a little lost as we backed out.

  Four hours later, we pulled back into the garage. X-rays revealed a hairline fracture in the tibia and fibula just above my ankle. I also had a sprain to boot. And now, I was sporting a nice blue cast that came just below my knee and covered my foot up to my toes.

  I’d been given a dose of pain medication at the hospital that made me want to love everyone and laugh at everything else. I giggled as Adrienne, Mom, and Wanda pulled me from the van and helped me position my crutches.

  When we got into the house, Mom asked Wanda to run upstairs and get some blankets. She turned to me and smiled sadly. “Honey, I’m afraid you’re going to have to sleep on the couch tonight.”

  “Why?”

  “There’s no way you can make it up those stairs on those crutches.”

  “I most certainly can,” I argued with a giggle.

  “No arguments, Hayden Marie, you’ll break your neck on those stairs.”

  Adrienne excused herself and stepped into the restroom. I figured that she agreed with Mom and was willing to let her do the arguing.

  “Mom, I’m feeling a little queasy. Would you get me a Coke?”

  “Of course, honey,” she said with a worried expression and scampered off into the kitchen.

  I crutched my ass across the living room as fast as I could go and started up the stairs. Seconds later, I could hear Mom and Adrienne softly calling for me.

  “Heeey, y’all,” I hollered from the top of the stairs. “I made it.”

  Mom looked up at me as her face turned red with anger. Adrienne just rubbed at her brow and shrugged when my mom looked at her.

  “If you weren’t already hurt, I’d beat you right now,” Mom said as she climbed the stairs toward me.

  I took off as fast as my new peg legs allowed and passed Wanda in the hall with an armload of blankets.

  “Won’t be needing those.” I giggled. “Sorry you made the trip.”

  I could hear Adrienne apologizing to my mother and Wanda from the hall as I climbed into the bed feeling very proud of myself.

  Adrienne came into the room and closed the door with a half scowl that bordered on a grin. After she set the Coke on the bedside table, she helped me out of my clothes. “Your mother is livid, Hayden.”

  “Like Cujo?”

  “That’s rabid, dope head.” Adrienne shook her head and laughed as she undressed. She crawled into bed and rested her head on my shoulder. “Do you remember the first time you touched me?” she asked with a yawn.

  “Yep, I fell down and busted my head. I woke up in the hospital the next morning.”

  “I hope this isn’t going to be some sort of tradition with you,” she said with one final yawn, then drifted off to sleep.

  I was glad that sleep claimed
her before I had to admit there would be many more trips to the hospital with me.

  Chapter Thirteen

  The next morning, Adrienne helped me shower while I hung my leg out of the tub. My ankle throbbed and it made me grumpy. “Why can’t the hospital just fill the damn prescription when they send your ass packing in the middle of the night? We can put a man on the moon, but they can’t figure out how to make a waterproof cast? And why can’t—”

  “Whoa, hon.” Adrienne held up her hands in surrender and backed away as though she thought I might explode. “I think you need to eat something and have a couple…maybe a dozen cups of coffee. Let me get you downstairs and I’ll come back up and shower.”

  I cuffed her arm playfully. “I’m impressed with your style, love. You’re sending me into the momma lion’s den to face the music for last night alone.”

  “Yep, so start hopping.”

  I entered the kitchen meekly and found Mom and Wanda sitting at the table. Mom pulled out a chair and promptly had me sit while she propped my wounded leg on another chair.

  “I’ve made waffles this morning, but I’m not sure I want to share them with you.”

  Wanda shot me a grin but said nothing in my defense.

  “I’m sorry, Mom. I just didn’t want to sleep on the couch, especially with a leg that feels like it weighs fifty extra pounds.”

  Mom put a plate down in front of me and ruffled my hair. “I understand, but in the future, let us help you before you break something else.”

  “I guess shopping is out,” Wanda spoke up.

  “Why? I can still shop with this cast.”

  “How are you going to manage walking around the mall on those crutches?” Mom asked as she rejoined us at the table.

  “I have experience with these.” I pointed at the crutches. “I’ve broken a leg before.”

  “We could put her in a wheelchair,” Wanda offered. “They have them at the mall.”

  “No wheelchairs, I’ll be fine.”

  Mom ignored me. “We could do that, couldn’t we?”

  “No we couldn’t. I’ll be fine on the crutches.”

  “It’s not up for debate, Hayden,” Mom said. “If we shop, you ride. And don’t think I’ve forgotten that you lied to me last night and blatantly ignored what I told you about the stairs.”

  I stopped trying to argue. I’d made up my mind to hobble off as soon as we got to the mall.

  A little later, Adrienne joined us and I noticed Mom served her a hot waffle right off the press. No sooner than she’d finished her breakfast, the phone rang. Mom answered it and looked at us both. “This is Iris wanting to speak to one of you.”

  Adrienne took the phone and walked into the living room to talk. Mom and Wanda left to get dressed, so I crutched out onto the porch. I settled into the swing and lit a cigarette. A while later, Adrienne joined me. The look on her face set me ill at ease.

  “Is something wrong at the inn?”

  “The inn is fine, no more break-ins.”

  “But?”

  “Iris found another doll this morning in the bar. It was wearing cloth from your shirt…”

  “And?”

  “Its leg was broken.”

  “Which leg?”

  “I asked Iris the same thing.” Adrienne smirked. “It was the left.”

  “Ha! My right leg is broken, they missed.”

  Adrienne rolled her eyes. “Your leg is broken nevertheless.”

  “Right, but it had nothing to do with a poopoo doll.”

  “Voodoo doll,” Adrienne corrected.

  “No, poopoo, because those dolls are nothing but bullshit unless you believe in their power.”

  “You have a point,” Adrienne said, but I could tell by the look on her face my argument didn’t put her at ease.

  “It was coincidence, love. Besides, you know how goofy I am, something is always bound to happen.”

  “That’s real reassuring.”

  We gathered around the van as Mom and Wanda argued over who was going to drive.

  “How about I drive?” I offered. They turned and looked at my foot, then resumed the squabble. Mom made it clear that it was her van and she was going to drive.

  Adrienne and I climbed into the back as Wanda, who is not Catholic, crossed herself and climbed into the passenger’s seat.

  I leaned over and whispered in Adrienne’s ear. “Fasten your seat belt and you may want to keep your eyes closed.” We shot out of the garage and down the driveway at what felt like Mach 5.

  Since it’s below sea level, New Orleans has some of the worst roads. To make matters worse, the live oaks that have been there for centuries have roots that grow under the pavement and add to the buckling. Most drivers exercise caution when driving over these portions of road, but my mother wasn’t like most drivers. We went airborne at least three times before hitting the main drag. The van’s suspension creaked and groaned from the abuse.

  “Mom, go easy. Remember I’ve got a bum leg back here.”

  She turned and looked over her shoulder while apologizing. All three of us screamed in horror until she looked back at the road.

  It was when Mom began to navigate a traffic circle that Adrienne took my advice and buried her head into my shoulder. Mom was pointing out the local landmarks and everywhere her head turned, the wheel was sure to follow. The van changed lanes erratically, causing other cars to swerve to avoid us. Horns blared, tires screeched, Wanda prayed out loud, and Mom drove on oblivious.

  When we arrived at the mall, Wanda emerged from the van on shaky legs and glared at me. “When we argue over who is going to drive home, you back me up or you may have more than a broken leg to contend with.”

  I wasn’t sure if she was threatening to break something else on me or warning me that Mom was going to be the death of us all.

  When we got inside the mall, Mom and Wanda went to the map to look for the information center where the wheelchairs were kept.

  “Oh, Adrienne, look at this.” I hobbled to the nearest store hoping that they would be distracted and forget about the chair. The ruse worked for a while, then Mom, the bird dog, sniffed out the chairs and my ass was promptly ordered into one.

  I rode along with a petulant scowl on my face. I’d been stripped of my independence and become subject to the whim of the one pushing the chair. My driver was Margaret Tate. She operated that rolling chair much like she did her van. We bounced off every wall, bench, and foolish pedestrian that came within five feet of us. But the absolute worst of it was that Mom had the power to steer me to the clothes she thought would look best on me.

  Adrienne, my love, my heart, and ultimate betrayer, was browsing at will, and judging by the smirk on her face, was enjoying the ongoing argument between Mom and me.

  “I hate pink.”

  Mom held up another sweater for my perusal.

  “Hate the neck line.”

  She hadn’t learned her lesson yet and held up another.

  “Hate floral prints.”

  “Hayden.”

  “Mom.”

  “Okay,” Mom said with a dramatic sigh. “Is there anything you see that you don’t hate?”

  “You see that table with the striped sweaters, that’s more my style.” I pointed to a display that she’d breezed right by—intentionally.

  “They’re so masculine looking,” she said with a frown.

  “Mom, look at me.” I jerked both thumbs at myself. I was wearing an old sweatshirt and a pair of long shorts that rested right at my knees. “Do you see anything on this body that says princess neckline with a pink floral print? I don’t wanna look like a lumberjack, but I’m not going to dress like Barbie.”

  Mom let out another long sigh. “Okay.”

  I tried to wheel myself toward the clothes I wanted to look at, but the crutches that lay across my lap snagged on everything. I growled in frustration and looked up at my mother with the sweetest smile I could fake. “Mom, would you push me over to the manly sweater
s that you hate?”

  “You’re pushing me,” she warned.

  The next battle of wills occurred at the checkout. Adrienne and I had picked out two sweaters each, and Mom was determined to pay.

  “Mom, we’ve got it,” I said as sweetly as I could.

  “I want to do this for you both,” she countered, pushing away the credit card Adrienne held, and handed the clerk her own instead.

  “Well then, I’m buying lunch.”

  Mom finished her transaction and turned to me. “Hayden Marie, I will pay for what I choose to pay for, and there will be no more argument from you.”

  I shrank down in the chair as far as it would allow. “Mom, I just don’t want you spending a lot of money on us. You rarely buy anything for yourself.”

  “I haven’t been able to shop for you since you were in junior high,” she said with a sad smile. “Let me do this.”

  “Okay, and I want steak for lunch.”

  Pants were next on the agenda. We went into one of the larger department stores in search of jeans, which I soon found out would be hard if not impossible to get over my cast. I settled on a couple of pairs of cargo pants that had wide legs. Adrienne picked out a couple of pairs of jeans. We each had two outfits, compliments of Mom, to last the next five days if the weather stayed cold, but we were happy with that. Mom, however, was not.

  “Hayden, you’re going to wash these clothes to pieces before the end of the week,” she said.

  Adrienne stepped in and tried to rescue me. “We’ll have no use for these clothes on the island, it’s always warm. And you’ve been so generous to us. We can’t continue to take advantage.”

  Mom’s eyes softened when she regarded Adrienne. “You can leave the clothes here at the house and use them when you come back for a visit if it’s cold.” She touched Adrienne’s arm as she spoke. “You’ll come back, won’t you?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Then we have some more shopping to do,” Mom said. “Consider it an early Christmas gift from me.”

  Our shopping adventure continued, and I was afraid Mom and Adrienne would lock horns. Adrienne spotted a sweater that she loved, but when she saw the price tag, she decided against it. Mom tried to talk her into it, and I even offered to buy it when I thought it might be awkward for Adrienne to allow my mom to pay for it. Adrienne finally put her foot down and the debate ended. Like me, Mom had learned Adrienne had her limits, and unlike me, Mom wasn’t going to push her.