Blood Sisters

by Melody Carlson

  “You can just give me a phone call, if that’s easier,” said Martha over her shoulder. Then she stopped and turned. “I mostly wanted to talk to you about Eli. I saw him today.”

  “Eli...” Judith’s voice trailed off. “Is...is he all right?”

  “Oh, sure, he’s as right as rain. I’m the one who’s getting worried.”

  “Oh...” Judith bit her lip, then instantly made herself stop. She must stay in character, even if no one was looking. “‘Well, I’m sure he’ll be fine.”

  Martha frowned. “I don’t know how you can be so sure of that.”

  Judith shrugged. “Well, it was his choice to move here. He knew what he was getting into.”

  Martha stood on the walkway, her head cocked curiously to one side as she studied Judith. Judith knew that her flippant response had probably offended the older woman, but just the same she kept her expression nonchalant, void of emotion, refusing to show how much this whole situation was upsetting her. Perhaps it was simply best to just get it over with as quickly as possible.

  “I thought you said Eli was your friend.”

  Judith looked down at her watch again. “I’m sorry, but I really need to go now.”

  “Sure.” Martha turned and walked slowly away, shaking her head as she went.

  Judith went back inside, closing and locking the door, then she leaned against it and took a deep breath. Her stomach twisted as she slowly exhaled and told herself to maintain her focus. You are trying to expose the truth, she reminded herself sharply. If Martha understood what was up, she would support you wholeheartedly right now. But there was no way to share this with her. Better to hurt her like this, Judith told herself sternly, than to risk everything. She took another calming breath, and then dialed Adam’s number.

  “Hello?” A man answered the phone in a gruff but warm tone.

  “Hi, is this Jack?” guessed Judith. She quickly identified herself and inquired after Adam.

  “Sorry, Judith. He’s not home from work yet. Usually gets home before this, but every now and again you just never know when he’ll be in.”

  “Hmm…” She considered leaving a message, but wasn’t sure how much she should say. “I’d hoped to catch him. Well, maybe you could just let him know I’m meeting some old friends for dinner this evening.”

  “Oh, did you and Adam have plans?”

  “Well, not actually. But he’d asked me to call him about something tonight.” She looked at her watch nervously, for now it really was getting close to six-thirty. “So, just give him that message. I have to go now. My friends are expecting me at the Timber Topper in just a few minutes.”

  “Okay, Judith, I’ll be sure to let him know. If I see him, that is.”

  “Thanks, Jack.” She hung up the phone and sighed. Hopefully Adam would figure out what she meant by meeting friends. God, help me, she thought as she ran out to the car, mentally bracing herself for the evening ahead.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  TO JUDITH’S DISMAY IT appeared that nearly all the tables at the Timber Topper were filled. The place was buzzing with what seemed to be locals eating, talking, and a number of them smoking. Well, so much for being inconspicuous. Despite it being Friday, she’d hoped to find the diner quiet and deserted. But it seemed her first meeting with the Morrisons was destined to be a public affair, with plenty of curious onlookers who would probably wonder and gossip.

  “Sorry, we don’t have any tables available,” said a blonde teenage girl from behind the cash register. “But you can go ahead and take a seat at the counter if you like.”

  Judith read Katie on her name tag. “Say, is Glenda Miller your mom?” she asked, knowing full well this was just an avoidance tactic to announcing exactly who it was she was planning to meet here tonight.

  The girl nodded glumly. “Yeah, she’s the slave driver who made me work on a Friday night when I could’ve been out having fun instead.”

  Judith smiled. “I knew your mom in high school. You remind me a little of her.”

  “Oh, great!” Katie groaned. “Now you’ve really made my night.”

  “Sorry,” Judith laughed. “I meant when she was younger, back in high school, you know. Your mom was really pretty and quite popular back then.”

  Katie rolled her eyes dramatically. “Yeah, I can just imagine.” Then she smiled slightly. “Sorry about that, guess

  I’m just a little fed up with Mom tonight. Now, would you like to sit here at the counter or—”

  “Actually, I’m meeting some people.” said Judith, glancing across the filled tables. “Do you know the Morrisons, by any chance?”

  Katie’s gaze narrowed as she studied Judith carefully. “You’re meeting the Morrisons?”

  Judith nodded, keeping her face blank. “Yes, have you seen them here tonight?”

  “They’re back around that corner.” Her voice went flat as she turned around and walked into the kitchen.

  Interesting, thought Judith as she made her way back through the dining room, past the bathrooms and around the corner, to a more secluded area. Katie didn’t seem to approve of the Morrisons. And for some reason that gave Judith a small glimmer of hope for this town. Perhaps not everyone was under Mr. Morrison’s thumb. She felt eyes upon her as she walked past the tables. Some people actually paused in conversation as she passed by. Obviously, this town wasn’t used to strangers. Or perhaps word had already gotten around about who she was or that she’d once been friends with Jasmine Morrison. Perhaps she was just being paranoid.

  Just as she turned the corner, she saw them. Older, of course, but still very much the same. Mr. Morrison was sitting up straight with his back to the wall, sipping a cup of coffee as he conversed with a foursome at an adjacent table. But as Judith approached them, he turned and looked up at her, watching with a cool, calm, almost nonchalant expression. Then Mrs. Morrison (Judith wondered if she should really call her Ellen in front of Mr. Morrison) waved and smiled her way, nervously glancing at her husband almost to check whether such actions were permissible or not. He excused himself from the two couples at the other table, then slowly stood and stretched out his hand to her.

  “Evening, Judith.” he said in a relaxed Southern drawl as he gave her hand a firm shake, his cold, blue eyes never leaving hers.

  “Hello, Mr. Morrison.” she said with her warmest smile. “It’s so good to see you again after all these years.” She turned and smiled at Ellen. “And you too, Mrs. Morrison. You’ve hardly changed at all.”

  “Oh, don’t be silly,” she scolded with a smile. “And don’t you go forgetting how I told you to call me Ellen when we spoke on the phone. We’re both grown women now, Judith, no sense in acting all prim and proper like.”

  “Have a seat, Judith,” said Mr. Morrison.

  “Thank you.” She sat down and looked at both of them and nodded. “Yes, I’m sure I would’ve known you both anywhere. You really haven’t changed that much.”

  “Well, goodness, Judith, you certainly have,” gushed Ellen. “Why, you’re all grown up now. And a fine-looking young woman too.”

  Judith laughed. “Not really young though.”

  “Well, you look young enough to my way of thinking. Better than me—” Ellen patted her carefully styled hair. “Why, just look at all this silver hair the good Lord has blessed me with.”

  “And I think it looks lovely on you.” Then Judith turned her attention to Mr. Morrison and grew more serious. “I hope that Ellen conveyed to you how terribly sorry I was to hear about Jasmine.” She paused and shook her head. “I was so shocked and saddened by it. I mean, even though we’d lost touch over the years, I will always remember Jasmine as one of my all-time dearest friends.”

  He nodded with a pained expression. “Yes, it was a shocking tragedy for all of us.”

  “And I just felt so bad for you and Ellen. It seems there’s no greater loss than losing a child.”

  “Yes.” said Ellen. “And I hope you don’t mind, but I told Burt about
your son and husband too.”

  “May I express my sympathy to you as well.” said Mr. Morrison, a very formal expression over his stern features.

  “Thank you. It’s not easy to get over these things, but it seems to be getting better with time.”

  “They say that time heals all wounds, dear,” said Ellen as she patted her hand. “We just have to learn to move on and get back to our normal lives, put the past behind us.”

  Judith understood Ellen’s desire to change the course of their conversation, but she felt she needed to bring up Constance first. Besides it would appear as if she were trying to talk about something else since she would have no way of knowing that Constance was no longer living. “And how is your other daughter, Constance, doing?” asked Judith brightly. “She must be in her mid thirties by now. Although I still think of her as that little girl with all those blonde curls.”

  Mr. Morrison cleared his throat. “We lost Constance about a year ago. She was in an accident.”

  “Oh, I’m so terribly sorry.” Judith saw Ellen’s chin tremble, and she felt truly awful for bringing up another painful subject. She reached for the older woman’s hand and looked directly into her eyes. “How hard this all must’ve been for you.”

  Ellen wrapped her fingers tightly around Judith’s. “Yes, both girls gone, barely a year apart. I could hardly bear it.” Her voice broke and she reached for her purse, then pulled out a handkerchief.

  Judith took a deep breath then looked evenly at both of them. “Well, at least you still have each other. How long have you been married anyway?”

  A weak smile crept onto Ellen’s lips. “We just celebrated our fiftieth last winter.”

  “Congratulations. That’s quite a milestone these days when so many marriages end in divorce. You should be proud.”

  “And how is your mother, Judith?” asked Ellen. “Did she ever marry again?”

  Judith told them about her mother’s life, about George and their cruise. Then Katie came to their table and asked to take their order. The teen wrote down their order in a cool and impersonal manner, with perhaps just a trace of hostility mixed in.

  “Teenagers can be so rude these days,” said Ellen as soon as Katie was out of earshot. “Back in my day, it was “yes, ma’am, yes, sir.’ Nowadays, you’re lucky if you can get the time of day from one.”

  “Well, at least our Cedar Crest teens aren’t as out of control as the ones you see in other parts of the country,” said Mr. Morrison in a voice that demanded their attention and respect. “We don’t see all those tattoos and pierced body parts and wild-colored hairstyles the way you do in some of the bigger cities.”

  “Not so much in Southern cities, mind you,” said Ellen defensively. “But you wouldn’t believe the kinds of things Burt says he saw up in Seattle.” She pronounced the name of the city as though it was Sodom or Gomorrah.

  “What were you doing in Seattle?” asked Judith innocently.

  Mr. Morrison studied her carefully, as if trying to figure her out. But she simply smiled back at him without even blinking. “Business,” he said.

  “Well, I know that I, for one, have gotten sick and tired of city dwelling,” said Judith, turning to Ellen now. “And since I’ve been here in Cedar Crest I’ve found myself considering the benefits of living in a quiet and controlled community like this.”

  Ellen nodded. “Yes, I feel so much safer here.”

  “Even safer than in the South?” asked Judith.

  “Oh, yes, most definitely...” Ellen glanced over to her husband as if to secure permission to speak further.

  But instead, he continued. “The South has changed a lot in the last fifty years, Judith.” He spoke as if she should be familiar with such things, and to play along she nodded, a concerned look upon her brow as he continued, “Yes, when I was a boy, we knew what to expect from folks. And people knew their place in this world and, believe me, they kept it. As a result, life was peaceful and quiet back then.”

  “Yes,” Judith agreed. “That’s as I’ve always imagined the South to be—peaceful and quiet. Folks pleasantly sitting out on their front porches, sipping their mint juleps, and visiting with their neighbors. All nice and slow and friendly.” She hoped she wasn’t laying it on too thick.

  Ellen smiled with a faraway expression in her eyes. “Yes, it used to be like that. Oh, of course, my daddy would never let us kids drink a mint julep, but the rest of what you said was fairly accurate. I sure do miss those days.”

  “But what happened to change things?” asked Judith.

  Again, those icy blue eyes studied her as if he knew exactly what she was up to, as if he could see right through her. “Well, I know you were just a child, Judith, but do you remember the sixties at all?”

  “Well, it’s not my most brilliant period of history,” she admitted honestly. “But I do remember Kennedy getting shot, and the miniskirt and, of course, the Beatles.” She laughed. “I guess I was too busy just being a kid back then.” She glanced back at Ellen. “I suppose the thing I remember most of all from the sixties was being best friends with your daughter. We had so much fun as children.” She looked back over to Mr. Morrison, hoping to catch him off guard now. “And I remember you too, Mr. Morrison, and how you took us fishing and the times we cut down Christmas trees and drove over those old, narrow logging roads. Mostly I remember things like that from the sixties. Happy things.”

  He nodded and almost smiled. “Yes, I suppose that’s the best way for you to remember the sixties. But those of us who are older remember the sixties with great sadness. For us it was the end of a good era and the beginning of something dark and ugly. And that’s a big part of the reason that we find ourselves more at home in Cedar Crest than we do in Jackson, Mississippi.”

  Judith pretended to take this all in. “I see.”

  “Do you?” Again, those penetrating eyes.

  She smiled and shrugged innocently. “Well, probably not everything. But I think I understand some of it. And I think I’ve been longing for a quieter, calmer sort of life too. A place where a person can feel safe and secure from danger.”

  “Yes, dear,” said Ellen again eagerly. “That’s exactly how we feel when we come home to Cedar Crest.” Just then Katie began to place their orders on the table.

  Before Katie stepped away, Mr. Morrison bowed his head and began to say a blessing. Judith felt Katie’s eyes burning down upon them as they all sat quietly with bowed heads waiting for him to finish. Judith wondered if she’d ever felt such humiliation and hypocrisy as she did in that flash of a moment with Katie Miller watching them. She longed to stand up and say that this was all wrong, that she was just playing a stupid role, that her intentions were really good. Dear God, she prayed silently with clenched teeth, please, if it’s your will, please, help me keep this charade up.

  “Amen,” said Mr. Morrison. He smiled as he looked at his plate, the first full smile she’d seen on him all evening, then he picked up his knife. “Mm-mmm. I just love their chicken-fried steak.”

  The threesome grew quieter as they began to eat. Judith now observed that Ellen’s hands shook just slightly as she cut her meat, and how her eyes darted back and forth across the room like a frightened bird. But all the while she kept a pleasant, albeit frozen, expression on her face, and like clockwork she would toss out some insignificant comment about the food or the weather just to keep an amicable feeling at their table.

  “It just occurred to me that the Fourth of July is only a couple of days away.” said Judith, trying to do her part to keep the conversation going too. “I don’t know where the time has flown.”

  “Do you have any plans to celebrate?” asked Ellen.

  “Oh no. I don’t really know anyone—”

  “Oh, then you must join us out at the lake!” Ellen’s eyes lit up, then she glanced uncertainly to her husband, and in her little-girl voice spoke, “Is that okay with you, Daddy? Wouldn’t it be fun to have Judith over that day?”

  H
e scowled, then scratched his head. “Ellen, you might’ve jumped the gun. But I suppose I can see what I can do. You do remember that we’re having a special weekend at the club for the Fourth.”

  “Oh, I know, Daddy, but you could go to your silly old meetings and Judith could stay up at the house with me.” Ellen turned and smiled warmly at Judith. “She’d be such good company for me—almost like, well, you know...” Her voice drifted away and her eyes grew misty.

  “I’ll see what I can do.”

  “I don’t want to be any trouble,” said Judith.

  “Oh, honey, you’re no trouble at all,” Ellen reassured her. “It’s just those silly rules, you know. You see, the lake’s a private club and we have our members-only rules.” She winked at her husband. “But then, Burt’s the president of the club, so I think he might be able to wheedle his way around things a little, just this once anyway.”

  “I hate to be a bother.”

  “Don’t you worry about it, Judith.” Ellen patted her arm. “It’ll be just fine, you’ll see. Daddy’ll work everything all

  out.” She patted the napkin to her lips. “And now if that snippy little waitress would ever show her face back here again, I’ve got me a hankering for a big piece of that coconut cream pie.”

  “I remember how you used to make the most wonderful lemon meringue pie, Ellen,” said Judith. “Do you still love to cook?”

  “Of course. And lemon is Burt’s favorite too. In fact, I guess I’d better make sure to whip one up before the Fourth for you two.” She smiled at Mr. Morrison. “You know, Burt, having Judith with us feels almost like family.”

  This seemed to soften him a bit. “Well, we did help raise her, didn’t we?” He smiled at Judith now. And to her surprise there actually seemed to be some warmth attached to it.

  “You sure did,” said Judith. “I told Ellen earlier today how you were such an important father figure to me as a child. It was good of Jasmine to share you with me. I don’t ever recall her being jealous or anything.”

  “You two used to have such fun,” said Ellen. “I still remember that time you and Jasmine dressed up in those old kimonos that Burt brought me from Okinawa, from back when he was in the navy. And I remember how he came down so hard on you two.” She smiled as she shook her finger at her husband.