The Wedding Pearls

by Carolyn Brown

  “What is it?” He shut the door with his bare foot and wrapped his arms around her.

  “I have to talk about it or I’m going to explode. I can’t bear this burden alone another day and I need some support or I won’t be able to handle Lola and my heart is breaking, Branch,” she sobbed.

  “Ivy?” he asked.

  She shook her head and the weeping got worse. “It’s Frankie.”

  His blood ran cold as ice water. “What about Frankie?”

  “I’m not supposed to tell and I have to and I’m already feeling guilty and . . .”

  He picked her up like a bride and carried her to the bed, laid her down gently, and then stretched out beside her. With one arm under her and the other rubbing her back as warm tears landed on his chest, he waited.

  “She’s got a brain tumor and she’s only got a few weeks left and she’s already sleeping more and more and that’s the sign that it’s coming to an end and I haven’t had enough time with her and I shouldn’t be telling you this,” she said between hiccups.

  “I’m so sorry.” His drawl had a definite catch in it.

  “And she and Ivy aren’t going home. They’re going to tell Lola and you and Melody on Friday and you are going to drive them to the fancy assisted care place where Melody is going to work on weekends for community service.” She paused to catch her breath. “And my heart is breaking and I can’t sleep alone tonight but we can’t . . .”

  “We don’t need to do anything.” He kissed her salty lips. “I’ll hold you and you can talk and I’ll listen.”

  “Thank you,” she said. “Oh, no! Frankie paid so much money for my room and I’m not using it.”

  “Shhh.” Branch put a finger over her lips. “You took a shower or a bath in your room and your things are there and besides, money doesn’t matter right now to her. I’m not surprised to hear that Frankie and Ivy are both in their last days. I’m sad because I like both of the old hussies, but I’d be worried about either of them not having the other one. It’s like they need each other.” Tears welled up in his eyes with a couple finding their way down his cheeks.

  “Everyone needs someone.” Tessa laid her cheek next to his, blending his tears with hers.

  “Yes, they do, darlin’,” he said softly.

  “And tonight I need you, Branch. Not for sex but to hold me,” she whispered.

  “Is this your first time to lose someone really close to you?”

  She nodded.

  “I lost my grandpa when I was sixteen. He was the one who introduced me to ranching and losing him broke my heart. Trust me when I say you’ll get through it because you are a strong woman, but don’t believe that shit about time making it better. After a while you can remember them and the happy memories, but it’s bittersweet because you’ll also remember the pain. The memories, for the most part, take first place, though.”

  “Tell me about your grandpa. Mine died when I was too young to remember,” she said.

  Branch massaged the tense muscles in her back. “He was my mother’s father and a ranching man, but it was a side job like mine. He told me he was happiest when he was on the ranch and not in the big oil business office in town. I remember him saying that if you gave a rancher a million dollars he’d ranch it all up in a few years but he’d be happy doing it.”

  “What does that mean?” she asked.

  “That making a living at ranchin’ isn’t easy and ranchers are a stubborn lot. They’ll use up their last dollar and last bit of common sense to stay on the place they love.”

  “I understand that.”

  Seconds ticked off the clock in a long, comfortable silence as his hands continued to work on her back.

  “I like the way I feel in your arms, Branch,” she murmured.

  “Me, too. Let’s get some sleep, darlin’. Things always look better in the daylight.”

  “I sure hope you are right, because right now the next couple of days aren’t lookin’ too promising.”

  The next morning, Tessa shot the journal a dirty look and walked right past it. She took a long shower, hoping that when she came out the need to write about the previous night would be gone. It wasn’t, and she had thirty minutes before it was time to check out and find a place that served breakfast. Finally she picked it up and scrawled in a tight little script that later she wouldn’t recognize as her handwriting.

  Angry night: I don’t want to write this because when I do it makes it real and I could pretend until now. I know that I wrote about it before, but now it’s the last day and tomorrow Frankie and Ivy will be in that glorified nursing home and I’m angry. God, I wish I could hit something. I’ve never known such anger.

  How could fate give them to me and then take them away? I feel like I’m already going through the steps of grief. Denial and now anger. I don’t know that I can ever accept this so I’m mad and that’s okay because it’s my right to feel like this.

  Yesterday was a fun day with the pictures and the whole business here at the haunted whorehouse. Most of all I liked the cattle drive and seeing it through Melody and Frankie and Ivy’s eyes at the same time. It was old meeting new. Old fading out to give way to the new. Frankie and Ivy’s last day on this trip. Melody’s future on Monday at school with a new perspective.

  Then there was the dancing with Branch. I felt like I was floating on air. Do all dancers feel such freedom? If so, no wonder they love it so much. And I do believe that Frankie is right. Neither Lola nor I have been as clumsy since she told us that she’s in love and since I have my antiawkward kisses. So love, whether long lasting or physical, must have something to do with it. Or maybe it’s all psychological and we want to believe Frankie.

  I told Frankie that I love her today and I meant it. The very grandmother that I didn’t want to get to know has stolen my heart and I do love her. That old saying comes to mind: it’s better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all. Loving this new family puts a whole dimension into my life, indescribable with mere words, but it’s there all the same.

  And I have to write about my feelings when I broke down and told Branch about Frankie. It was as if a weight lifted from my shoulders. I realize I broke a sacred secret but not by many hours, because she’s going to tell us all tomorrow and I will need his support to get me through the announcement. If I don’t have his support, then there’s no way I can give Lola my shoulder to lean on when she hears the news.

  It’s so much easier to record the sequence of events than to put into words the emotions and feelings that those events create inside. Mama was wise to give me this journal for the personal side of this trip. I’ll never forget this trip . . . not ever.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  Tessa had almost forgotten that it was their last night on the trip, the last hotel, the last supper they’d eat from paper plates or takeout containers in Frankie’s room. She’d almost forgotten that it was the final time all six of them would share meals and watch reruns of old sitcoms on television.

  Almost didn’t count except in horseshoes and hand grenades, though.

  And the heavy feeling in her heart felt a hell of a lot more like a hand grenade was about to explode than a lucky horseshoe was touching it. She hung back when Lola and Branch called it a night and waited until Melody was in the shower to say her piece.

  Talking past the lump in her throat wasn’t easy, but she had to try one last time, for Lola’s sake as well as her own. She swallowed three times before Frankie laid a hand on her shoulder.

  “We know what you are going to say and the answer is no,” she said softly. “We made up our minds before we ever left Boomtown, and we’re not reversing our decision.”

  Ivy’s expression was purely impish as she shook her head. “Come on now, Tessa. It can be a party or it can be a funeral. We’ve decided to make it a party. Life has been good to us so we’re going out with a bang the way we want to, not all sad and melancholy. You and Lola will come and see us every day and bring us doughnuts a
nd pizza and whatever the hell else we want that day. You’ll keep my flask full and not tell a damn soul about it and make sure there’s Dr Pepper in my little dorm-size fridge.”

  “They’re going to tell you that drinkin’ and smokin’ will kill you.” Frankie laughed until she got the hiccups.

  Ivy slapped her on the shoulder. “Be damned if it won’t, but since I’m dyin’ anyway, I’m not givin’ up either one. I bet they tell you that it’s the liquor we’ve put away in our lifetime that’s put that booger in your brain.”

  Frankie wiped her eyes with the edge of the comforter. “Hell, no, it was the sex. They tell young boys that pleasurin’ themselves will make them go blind. Well, on girls it puts big old slimy boogers in the brain when they have too much sex and then stop dead for thirty years. I should’ve bought me one of them sex toys when Lester died.”

  They both fell back on the bed and clasped each other’s hands as they laughed even harder.

  Tessa clapped her hands. “This is not funny.”

  “Hell, yes, it’s funny,” Frankie said. “Living has been a blast and we’re not going to let the finish line drag us down.”

  “Amen, Sister Frances.” Ivy giggled.

  Frankie shook her finger under Ivy’s nose. “You call me that again and you’ll be going before I do because I’ll put a crimp in that hose that shoots oxygen in your shitty lungs.”

  “I could still whip your ass with a hand tied behind my back and a blindfold on my eyes, so don’t threaten me, you old broad,” Ivy said.

  “Could not!”

  “Could, too!”

  Tessa couldn’t keep the smile at bay. “You are both crazy as outhouse rats.”

  “That’s pretty damn crazy,” Ivy said.

  “Not as crazy as a Missouri mule,” Frankie chimed in.

  “Get your stuff straight. That brain booger is wiping out your thinkin’ ability,” Ivy said. “Outhouse rats are crazy. Missouri mules are stubborn.”

  “Well, you two are both. Good night.” Tessa eased off the foot of the bed. “I’ll see y’all at breakfast in the morning. What time are we leaving out of here?”

  “Ten o’clock on the button. We’re having dinner at our new place and you are all staying to have our first meal with us,” Ivy said.

  “Hey,” Frankie said. “Just one more thing before you go, Tessa. I wouldn’t mind hearin’ about your engagement to Branch before I do a swan dive off the diving board and wind up on the other side of eternity.”

  “Frances Beauchamp Laveau!” Ivy exclaimed. “I told you—”

  “Hush. I’m going to say what I think from this minute forth. I’ve got a perfect excuse. My brain is getting eat up. You have to be nice because all you got is lousy lungs.”

  “I’ve only known Branch three weeks.” Tessa blushed.

  “Time ain’t nothing but the hands of the clock moving around in endless circles,” Ivy said.

  “Or numbers on a calendar. Listen to your heart, not your mind,” Frankie said. “Now get on out of here and let us get some rest.”

  Tessa heard the elevator door ding as it opened and rushed to catch it. Lola had left ten minutes ago to meet everyone in the dining room, but Tessa couldn’t imagine swallowing anything, not even coffee. It had taken every second of those ten minutes to stare at her reflection in the mirror and give herself a severe lecture.

  Branch held the door back with his hand until she was inside. “Last day.”

  “Don’t remind me. I’m not sure I can face them this morning. I tried to talk them out of it last night, but they were laughing and joking and acting like it was a big party,” she said.

  He took her hand in his and squeezed gently. “I hope when I’m eighty years old and get the kind of news they have that I can approach it the exact same way. Be glad that you’ve got that kind of DNA in your system, Tessa. It’s a great legacy.”

  “You’re right. Thank you for that,” she said.

  Ivy waved at them when they reached the dining room. “Well, look what the cats drug up and the dogs wouldn’t have. Y’all sure are slow this morning. They’ve got some really good danish and strawberry cream cheese to put on bagels this morning.”

  “I’m going home today,” Melody singsonged.

  “So are we,” Ivy and Frankie pitched in right behind her.

  “I see Hank today.” Lola came in third.

  They all looked up at Branch and Tessa.

  She couldn’t think of a single thing to say and could have kissed Branch right smack on the lips when he said, “We need coffee today.”

  “Well, get it poured and grab some breakfast. We’re having a CEO meeting in my room soon as everyone can get there, and blastoff this morning is at ten sharp,” Frankie said.

  “CEO?” Lola asked.

  “Yep, or is it CTJ? Frankie never can get those damn letters all straight. It’s a wonder she didn’t say FBI or CIA meeting. But it is an important meeting and since y’all are all members of the Molly-bedamned committee, you have to attend,” Ivy said.

  “CTJ?” Melody frowned.

  “Come to Jesus,” Ivy said.

  Frankie slapped her thigh. “Well, you’re on the ball today. You get the whoopee button for the whole day for that one, Ivy Dupree!”

  “I’d bow, but if I did I’d put a kink in Blister’s tubing and besides, the way I got it figured there’s enough juice in his canister to get us to where we’re going, so y’all don’t waste too much time gettin’ your coffee. This wagon train leaves at ten sharp,” Ivy said.

  “They’re going to tell Lola the news. I’m glad you’re going to be there.” Tessa filled two cups with coffee.

  “Just take deep breaths and hold my hand,” he said. “Bagels for two and danish for four. We’ll have to take it up to their room but I’m hungry, so if you don’t want to eat half the danish, I’ll polish off all of them.”

  No wonder people brought food to funerals and wakes. It gave folks something to talk about other than doom and gloom. It fed their bodies and in doing so kept them from going insane with grief.

  “If you want four sweet rolls, you’d best add two more, because I’m not sharing mine,” she said stoically.

  He carefully stacked two with cherry filling on the side of the already bulging paper plate. “We need sideboards. You okay with that coffee, or do you need a little pick-me-up kiss before we go to the CTJ meeting?”

  “I think I’ve still got a little antiawkward juice left in my system, but after this meeting I might need two kisses,” she answered.

  “I’ve got them ready and you can choose whether you want cherry- or pineapple-flavored AAJ kisses.”

  She cocked her head to one side and frowned. “What?”

  “Antiawkward juice kisses,” he said.

  “You are trying to take my mind off the coming announcement and I appreciate it, but all that alphabet soup stuff confuses me. You do realize that I am a very natural blonde, don’t you?”

  “You don’t get to play that blondie card with me, darlin’. I already know how smart you are.”

  Frankie and Ivy were sitting on the sofa with Melody on the floor in front of them and Lola rocking back and forth in the desk chair when Branch and Tessa reached the room.

  “Melody, darlin’, scoot over there by Lola and let these two have the coffee table for their breakfast. It’s already nine thirty and we don’t want them to ride two hours on an empty stomach.”

  “I’ll sit on the end of the bed,” Melody said.

  Tessa set the coffee down and eased down to the floor, crossed her legs Indian style, and laid a paper napkin in her lap. The sundress was her last clean piece of clothing, and she sure didn’t want to make a bad impression on the people at Frankie and Ivy’s new home by showing up with jelly and coffee stains on her skirt tail.

  “Okay, here’s the deal,” Frankie said. “And I’m going to spit it out because I don’t know how to say it all gentle like. I’ve got a brain tumor that can’t be operated on a
nd it can’t be shrunk with radiation or killed with chemo. It’s growing every day and sometime in the near future I’m going to go to sleep and not wake up.”

  “And,” Ivy started, “my lungs are getting worse every day and the doctor said before we left that I’d be stretching it if I lived three months.”

  “That said, we’ve decided we’re not going home. We are going to a fancy-shmancy place in Beaumont. Our room is ready and we’ll be there until this life is over. We’ll have no tears or begging, Lola. It’s our decision and we didn’t tell you because we wanted this to be a fun time.”

  “No!” Melody threw herself on the bed and sobbed with both hands over her eyes. “I won’t let y’all die. I won’t.”

  “Darlin’ girl, you don’t get a vote in that part of the business, but you will be working in the place on weekends, so we’ll get to see you,” Ivy said.

  “Mama, please don’t do this.” Silent tears streamed down Lola’s cheeks.

  Tessa crossed the room and gathered Lola in her arms, their tears mingling together as they wept on each other’s shoulders. Frankie crossed the room and joined them. “You both know I can’t let anyone cry alone, especially my girls. So let’s get it out and be done with it, then be happy with every bit of time we’ve got left.”

  “I have to cry because y’all are crying, but this is going to be the last time.” Ivy pulled the tubes from her nose and wrapped all three of them into her arms. “So let’s sling snot and cry like babies just like Frankie said. And Lola, it’s already done. Tessa has agreed to stay on the rest of her vacation. But you will have to postpone your honeymoon a few weeks, because your mama and I don’t want to miss a minute that we can have with you and Tessa.”

  “But”—Frankie picked up a box of hotel tissues and ripped handfuls from the box to pass out to everyone—“we do want you to get married a week from tomorrow like you said, because I want to put the necklace on you. And we’re going to get all dressed up in our bling and the wedding can be in our room.”