by Joanne Fluke
“I know,” Perry gave a little smile, as if he knew what she was thinking. “It’s really expensive to live there, but our place is the smallest unit and it comes with our scholarship. All we have to do is vacuum the hallways, clean the windows in the lobby and the spa, and replace burned out light bulbs. And the college placement service found us jobs. Sherri works all weekend as a student secretary at the English department, and I’m on the city grounds and maintenance crew. I work a half-day Friday and all day Saturday. Our tuition’s paid and between the two of us, we earn enough for books and personal stuff.”
“Sounds like a good deal to me,” Herb said.
“It is. Not bad for two kids from the Home. And now we’re the chief fundraisers. Right before we do our dance number, I have to get up to make a pitch for donations to the Home.”
Hannah thought Perry sounded a little bitter, but she didn’t comment. It couldn’t have been easy growing up as an orphan in the Winnetka County Children’s Home. Herb, however, wasn’t that restrained.
“Sounds to me like it’s payback time,” Herb said. “The Home helped you out and now that you’re successful, they expect you and Sherri to help them out.”
“You’re right,” Perry replied, and a frown crossed his brow. “Sherri doesn’t seem to mind doing it, but girls had it a lot easier at the Home. There were fights every night in the boys’ wing, and most of the time they just left us alone to slug it out.”
Hannah said nothing. She knew the Home was doing the best it could with overcrowded conditions and not enough staff.
“It wasn’t all one big happy family, the way they try to make you think it was,” Perry continued. “There were rough times, especially for the boys. You have no idea how many times I had to fight just because I took dance lessons.”
“I’m sure you did.” Hannah did her best to smooth things over. “It must have been very difficult growing up without your parents.”
“Not really. We never knew them.”
Perry’s face was hard and Hannah decided the hurt was too deep for platitudes. She glanced at her watch and said, “Do you want me to go check on Sherri? She’s been gone for over five minutes.”
“Would you?” Perry looked grateful. “Thanks, Hannah. I’d really appreciate it.”
Herb stood up and Hannah exited the row. She walked up the aisle to the lobby and took the hallway to the ladies room. As she opened the door she heard the sound of someone being very sick. A moment later there was a flush, and Sherri came out of a stall.
“Are you okay?” Hannah asked her.
“I think so.” Sherri headed for the sink and splashed some water on her face. She dried it with a paper towel, washed her hands and dried them, and then she turned to face Hannah. “Did Perry send you to check on me?”
“It was my idea, but Perry seemed glad that I offered.”
“He worries too much. I’m really a lot better now. I can go back to my seat.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to see a doctor?” Hannah asked, reaching out to feel her forehead and hoping that she wouldn’t take offense. “You don’t feel hot. I don’t think you’re running a fever.”
“I couldn’t be running a fever. I’ve been taking aspirin every four hours for a week now.”
“Maybe you’d better see Doc Knight and find out what’s the matter. If it is the flu, he can give you something stronger than aspirin.”
“I don’t think I need a doctor. I should be okay now. I took some antacid for my stomach.”
Hannah wasn’t a great believer in over-the-counter remedies, but she decided not to say that. Instead she handed Sherri a tissue from the dispenser. “You’d better fix your makeup. Your lipstick’s smeared.”
“Thanks.” Sherri turned to the mirror to wipe off her lipstick and apply new. “I think you’re right, Hannah.”
“About what?”
“Food poisoning. I made some tuna salad and I forgot and left it out on the kitchen counter. I stuck it in the refrigerator the next morning, and I ate it for dinner that night. Maybe it went bad. I heard you’re not supposed to leave things made with mayonnaise out in hot weather.”
Hannah shrugged. “I guess that could be it. How long ago did you eat the tuna?”
“I don’t exactly remember. Maybe a week ago, or a little longer? I just bet that’s it.”
“It could be,” Hannah said, but she doubted it. As far as she knew, a mild case of food poisoning didn’t last a whole week. Or maybe it did. She’d studied literature, not medicine.
“We’d better go.” Sherri turned from the mirror and slung her purse over her shoulder. “Perry gets nervous if I’m gone for too long. I think it’s the twin thing. We were all we had for so long, and he looked out for me in the Home and everything. He forgets I’m grown up now and I can take care of myself.”
There was a knock on the ladies room door and Hannah opened it to find Perry standing there. “Is everything okay?” he asked.
“I’m fine, Perry,” Sherri said, giving him a big smile. “I just had a little stomach trouble, that’s all.”
“Okay. As long as you’re sure you’re all right.” Perry waited for her to exit the ladies room, and then he took her arm.
“Are they ready to show us the wings and the dressing rooms?” Hannah asked, following the pair to the hallway.
“Yes. They’re going to take us in groups of five. The first ten have left, so we’d better hurry.” Perry turned to Sherri. “Ready?”
“You bet! I’m…” Sherri stopped and Hannah watched in horror as her face turned pasty white again. “I have to go back in. I’m so sorry. I’m sick again!”
Once the ladies room door had closed behind Sherri, Hannah turned to her twin. “Take her to the doctor,” she said. “I think this is more serious than mild food poisoning or the flu.”
“Me, too.” Perry said, looking more than a little frightened. “I should have taken her earlier.”
“It’s not your fault. She didn’t want to go. But you should take her now. And tell Doc Knight to put it on my bill.”
“That’s not necessary. You don’t have to pay our bill. I know Doc’ll let us pay him something every month until we can…”
“No,” Hannah interrupted him, thinking fast. It was obvious that Perry wouldn’t accept what he thought was charity. “I need a few things done at The Cookie Jar, and you can do them whenever you have a spare minute.”
“Like what?” Perry looked a bit suspicious, like he wasn’t quite sure if Hannah had real work for him or not.
“You can mix up concrete, can’t you?”
“Sure.”
“I need my back step repaired. It’s got a crack and it’s only going to get worse this coming winter. And then there’s the pantry.”
“What about the pantry?”
“We’re reorganizing it and we’ve got heavy bags of flour and sugar, and great big containers of various supplies. I don’t want to lift them, and Lisa shouldn’t lift them either.”
“How did they get in the pantry in the first place?”
“Most of our supplies are trucked in from a warehouse and the driver carries them into the pantry for us.”
“Okay,” Perry said, and he seemed to accept her explanation. “I can pour a new back step for you and help you move things around in the pantry. When does this have to be done?”
“The step should be finished by the end of September. The pantry can take longer, say by the beginning of November. We need to get everything set in place before our holiday rush.” Perry began to look suspicious again and Hannah figured she’d better not be so generous with her timelines. “Of course I’d like everything done before then, but that’s the longest I could wait.”
I’ve got Wednesday afternoons free,” Perry told her. “How about next Wednesday at one? I can do your back step then.”
“That’s just fine,” Hannah said, even though it wasn’t. There wasn’t a thing wrong with her back step and she’d have to figure o
ut some way to crack it so that Perry could repair it. “I’d better get back to Herb. It’ll be our turn to go backstage pretty soon. Do you want me to tell someone that Sherri’s sick and you took her to the doctor?”
Perry shook his head. “I know this stage like the back of my hand and so does Sherri. I can’t even count the number of times we’ve danced here. If anybody asks, just say we’ll see them tonight.”
“Okay. Tell Sherri I hope she’s better soon.” Hannah gave a little wave and went back into the auditorium. As she walked toward her seat, she realized that now she’d have to take time out of her busy schedule to reorganize their perfectly organized pantry. It was time she really couldn’t spare, especially since it was an unnecessary task.
There was a low whistle and Hannah turned to look. Herb was standing at the rear of a line that had formed in the center aisle. She’d been so deep in thought she hadn’t even seen that the seats they’d occupied earlier were now vacant.
“Did Perry take her to the doctor?” Herb asked when Hannah had joined him in line.
“Yes. She was really sick.”
“With the flu?”
“I don’t know. I felt her forehead. I don’t think she was running a fever, but she said she’d taken aspirin.”
“How did you ever get her to agree to go to the doctor?”
“I didn’t. I told Perry I thought he should take her, and he agreed. I promised to pay for it.”
“Perry’s touchy about taking charity. How did you get him to agree to that?”
“I told him I had a job for him at The Cookie Jar and he should consider it an advance on his salary.”
“Do you have a job for him?”
“I do now.”
Herb reached over to pat her on the back. “That was a really good deed, Hannah.”
“Thanks.” Hannah gave a fleeting thought to all the extra work she’d created for herself in her attempt to manufacture a job for Perry. And as the line moved forward, she muttered, “I should have known that no good deed goes unpunished.”
Chapter Eleven
Hannah had barely had time to run home to feed Moishe and Cuddles before she had to drive back to Jordan High. She’d taken her designated seat at two minutes before the final call for contestants, and Herb, who’d looked a bit panicked at her late arrival, had given her a relieved smile.
Now, forty-five minutes after the curtain had risen, the talent show was running smoothly and everyone seemed to be having a wonderful time. Hannah was clapping right along with the rest of the audience to the beat of Kenny Kowalski’s All-Girl Accordion Band when Herb tapped her on the shoulder.
“We’d better go,” he said. “There’s only one act after this, and then we’re up. We’re going to end the first half.”
“But how about Perry and Sherri? I thought they were ending the first act with their dance number.”
“Not anymore. I ran into Perry in the lobby and he said Sherri can’t dance tonight. He’s going to give his little talk for donations to the Children’s Home right after intermission is over, and then he’s going home to make sure Sherri’s okay.”
“Did he take her to see Doc Knight?”
“Doc gave her something to settle her stomach and said she should rest.”
“Was it the flu?”
“Perry didn’t say. I can tell he’s worried about her, though. He looked really upset.”
Hannah slid out of the row. She’d taken the seat on the aisle so that she wouldn’t have to climb over people’s knees and feet. She thought Herb was jumping the gun a bit. The Langer sisters were up next and they always sang two encores. He was probably nervous and wanted to take a little time to calm down after he’d donned the clothing and persona of his magician, The Amazing Herb.
Once they’d traversed the hallway and gone through the door that led backstage, Hannah let Herb lead the way. There were lots of obstacles and it was easier to follow than to lead. When they reached the rear of the backstage area, Herb turned right to enter the men’s dressing room, and Hannah turned left.
She was only a few steps from the dressing room door when it opened and the Langer sisters emerged. They were talking about something among themselves, and although they smiled and acknowledged her with a wave, they didn’t stop to chat.
Hannah entered the dressing room to find it deserted. That was fine with her. She didn’t want to answer any questions about the ugly purple dress that she was about to don. She slipped out of her jeans and blouse, untied the plastic that covered the monstrosity, and unzipped it. Then she gritted her teeth as she pulled it on over her head, and zipped it back up.
The whole process of dressing in her magician’s assistant costume took less than five minutes, especially since she didn’t stop to put on makeup or primp in the wide horizontal mirror on the wall. It was illuminated by a line of lightbulbs running above the glass, but Hannah took pains to avoid her reflection for fear it would demoralize her. It had been bad enough when The Amazing Herb and his assistant had won first prize in the Tri-County Fair Talent Show. If they won again tonight, and she hoped they would for Herb’s sake, Norman wouldn’t be here to take their picture and use Photoshop to change the color of her bilious dress!
Thinking about Norman brought about a nervous little ping in the bottom of her stomach. She still couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. He hadn’t sounded like himself on the phone, and she hadn’t heard a peep from him since he’d left that short message on her answer machine. It simply wasn’t like Norman to stay away an extra day, especially when he’d told her how much he missed Cuddles.
Hannah turned a chair away from the mirror and sat down to wait until it was time to go. She paged through a magazine that someone had left, but that only occupied her for the first two songs that the Langer sisters sang. The third song was one she knew and she mouthed the lyrics as they sang. Then she took time to brush her hair without benefit of mirror, and listened to the applause as they finished their act.
The applause went on for several minutes. It wasn’t that the Langer sisters were that good, but they did have a lot of relatives in attendance to cheer them on. There was a silence and then, just as she’d predicted, they went into their first encore. It would be a while before they were through and there was no sense going out to wait in the wings early. She might run into Bradford Ramsey and he was the last person she wanted to see!
The sisters were singing the ever-popular Danke Schoen in German, a sure hit in a county that still had a large share of German speakers. Hannah listened for a moment and tried to interpret the words. She’d picked up a little German over the years, but most of the lyrics were beyond her. When the sisters switched to English to sing it all through again, Hannah’s thoughts turned back to Norman.
In the message he’d left for her, he’d said that he wasn’t coming home as planned because he had some things to take care of. Whatever they were, they must be important. Norman was a man who didn’t do many spur-of-the-moment things. He simply wasn’t a spontaneous person. It wasn’t normal for him to leave a message saying he’d changed his plans at the last minute and was staying away an extra day. And why hadn’t he called The Cookie Jar to talk to her personally? Was he avoiding the questions he knew she was bound to ask?
Hannah told herself to stop worrying, that she’d find out soon enough, but of course that didn’t work. She had two choices. She could sit here and worry about Norman, or she could stand in the wings to wait for Herb and take the chance of running into Bradford.
She came to a decision immediately. It was cowardly to sit here simply because she didn’t want to deal with Bradford Ramsey. Thank goodness he didn’t remember he’d dated her years ago! Even when Michelle had invited him to Hannah’s condo for dessert this past Christmas Eve, Bradford had looked puzzled, as if he were still trying to place her. He hadn’t remembered exactly who she was when he’d stopped in at The Cookie Jar to say hello to the Mayor and Stephanie and that was a good thing.
With a little luck, he wouldn’t remember her tonight either, and there would be no awkward conversation about the past with him.
The moment she decided, Hannah was up and moving. Their act was scheduled to enter stage left, and their guide had reminded everyone that stage left meant the entrance to the left as you faced the stage from the audience.
Hannah stepped out of the dressing room and crossed the backstage floor, careful to avoid the thick cables that snaked across the floor, the sandbags that held backdrops aloft, and the shadowy shapes of staircases that went up four steps to a landing and then right back down four steps to the floor. If these staircases were positioned correctly on the stage, it would look as if the actor were climbing up a flight of stairs and disappearing from view.
Hannah found a spot in the wings and glanced out at the lighted stage. The Langer Sisters had taken one curtain call and now they were beginning another encore, the crowd-pleasing Beatles hit, I Want To Hold Your Hand. The audience began to clap along with the beat, and Hannah was tapping her foot to the music when she heard a familiar and very unwelcome voice.
“Hello, Hannah.”
She didn’t need to turn around to know who was standing there. It was Bradford Ramsey. She sent up a little prayer that he still hadn’t put two and two together and remembered what they’d been to each other, and then she turned with what she hoped was a polite but neutral expression on her face.
“I’ve missed you, Hannah,” he said, standing much too close to suit Hannah. “I miss those days with you in my class…or maybe I should say I miss those nights. We had some fun back then, didn’t we?”
He remembered her! The sword of Damocles had descended and the hair on the back of Hannah’s neck bristled. “I don’t miss anything about it,” she said, brushing past him to wait for Herb in another spot, a spot as far away from the man she’d once thought she loved as she could get.
