Wrong Side of Forty

by DeLeon, Jana

  “That’s fairly accurate, although any honest mother would admit to tripping all the time. I know there’s all kinds of books, but the reality is, kids don’t come with instruction manuals. They can’t because they’re all different. So are mothers.”

  “And Avery’s high IQ thing just added to the difficulty level.”

  Marina nodded. “It certainly made things challenging. Still does.”

  “I love Avery. You know I do, but at the same time, I’m so glad I never bowed to societal pressure and had one of my own. I wouldn’t have been good at it. I know that.”

  “And I have an enormous amount of respect for you for knowing that and refusing to give on it. I wish everyone took the decision that seriously and had the backbone to go against convention if that’s what was right for them.”

  “I will admit that the constant harping of older women got to me some when I was in my twenties. Not that I ever came close to relenting on my stance, but I did come close to punching a few for their smug ‘you’ll change your mind’ comments. Or my absolute favorite, ‘you’ll never know real love unless you have a child.’ What kind of bullshit is that?”

  “The kind said by a very narrow-minded person. You know how to love and you are loved. I love you to pieces. And you’re the most generous person I know.”

  “To you. Because you’re my other half. And to Avery, because she’s part of you.”

  “Regardless. You’re an awesome woman, Halcyon. I always wished I could be more like you.”

  “Now’s your chance. Fling all the rules out the door. It’s time for a rebirth.”

  “I think you’re right.”

  Halcyon rose from her stool and headed for the refrigerator. “To kick off this Era of the New Marina, we’re going to eat cheese and crackers. And raspberries. I bought some yesterday. They weren’t even on sale.”

  “You’re such a bad girl.”

  Halcyon smiled. “I saw Preston LeDoux eyeballing them and there were only four boxes left. So I bought every one of them.”

  Marina laughed. Preston was Chastity’s father and had been on Halcyon’s shit list ever since he’d hit on her at the town Christmas gala while his very pregnant wife was giving out punch.

  “I guess Chastity comes by her ‘skills’ genetically,” Marina said as she remembered. “I’m surprised no one has called Preston on his crap.”

  “He learned his lesson with me and he takes all his extracurricular business to New Orleans now. I heard he’s got a couple of women on tap over there. Do you really think there’s that much legal work in Last Chance that requires business trips to New Orleans? Complete with overnight stays?”

  “Really? And his wife doesn’t know?”

  “I’m sure she does. We usually do, no offense. But as long as she doesn’t catch him in her bed with one of them, then she can continue her weekly pedicures and her shopping trips to NOLA and her expensive champagne drinking habit.”

  “No! Why don’t I hear about any of this? I’m a hairstylist. We’re supposed to know everything that goes on.”

  “People aren’t going to talk about the LeDoux in the salon, not when Preston’s sister owns the place. She’d run tattling to big brother and then he’d sue everyone. He loves to sue people.”

  “I wish Patricia didn’t own the only salon in town.”

  “She’s a horrible person. Worse than him in a lot of ways. You know her dad paid off the principal for that whole homecoming queen thing, right?”

  “I always thought that was urban legend.”

  “Nope. I hooked up with the principal’s son a couple months ago and he confirmed that Big Daddy LeDoux was the source of his father’s new bass boat. Remember, we always wondered how he’d managed to swing that on his school salary.”

  “I wonder who should have won.”

  Halcyon raised one eyebrow.

  “You? Oh no! I’m surprised you didn’t dig up Big Daddy LeDoux and beat the crap out of him.”

  “It crossed my mind. I settled for setting cow crap on fire on his grave instead. I did it on Father’s Day and waited until I saw Patricia coming through the cemetery with flowers. She stomped it out and totally ruined a new pair of heels.”

  “How come you never tell me these things?”

  “Because you don’t approve of some of my more colorful behavior, and I don’t want you stressing about what I’m up to. You’ve had enough on your plate dealing with your mother.”

  “I would have approved of Patricia stomping cow poop in new shoes.”

  “Then I’ll keep you in the loop next time.”

  Halcyon frowned and leaned over her sink to look out the window. “Good God. What are those two doing together? And coming up my walkway? Hell has officially frozen over.”

  “Who?”

  “Adelaide Blanchard and Dottie Prejean.”

  Chapter Seven

  Marina stared at her sister. “Dottie and Adelaide are together?”

  The doorbell rang and Halcyon shook her head. “Nothing good can come of this.”

  “Probably not, but I’m dying to know what they want.”

  Halcyon pursed her lips. “There is that. Well, let’s find out, shall we? We could make it through the apocalypse with the wine stores I have. A couple of old ladies shouldn’t kill us.”

  She walked to the door, threw it open, and stared at the two women on her porch.

  “I hope you’re not about to hit me up for one of your charity things,” Halcyon said.

  “Please,” Adelaide said. “There’s not a charity in the world that would send me to your doorstep.”

  “We need to talk to Marina,” Dottie interrupted. “It’s important. Is she here?”

  “The plot thickens,” Halcyon said as she stood back and waved them inside.

  Adelaide practically stomped into the kitchen, caught sight of the bottle of wine, and dumped a good portion into a pink glass container at the end of the counter.

  Halcyon looked at her with all the frustration that a mother has when looking at a belligerent teen girl. “That’s a vase, not a cup. I would tell you to get out more among real people so you could learn normal social graces, but I’m afraid to since you might decide to come here.”

  Adelaide tossed back a big gulp of the wine and waved her hand in dismissal. “Tastes the same regardless. I once drank whiskey out of a rubber boot.”

  Dottie shot Adelaide a look that was half disbelief and half fear, then looked back at Marina. “We were at the salon earlier today having our hair done.”

  “Ha!” Halcyon said, choking on her wine. “You’ve never done your hair in Patricia’s place and that one looks like she does hers with a Weed Eater.”

  “I have been known to trim it up with gardening shears,” Adelaide said.

  Halcyon stared. “Did you miss the line where they handed out girl genes?”

  Adelaide nodded. “I missed the one where they handed out giving a damn, too.”

  “Anyway,” Dottie said loudly. “We heard about your troubles with Harold and that—”

  “Hoochie,” Adelaide interrupted.

  “Do people still say that?” Marina asked.

  “We’ve never gotten confirmation that Adelaide is ‘people,’” Halcyon said.

  Adelaide gave her the finger and served herself another round of wine.

  Dottie took a deep breath and started again. “The bottom line is that we were concerned, with Patricia being Chastity’s aunt and also your employer, that there might be trouble for you.”

  A wave of dismay passed over Marina. “Oh crap. I hadn’t even thought that far. I mean, I figured Patricia would side with Chastity, but I guess I didn’t think that my job might be on the line.”

  Halcyon let out a stream of cursing and Adelaide gave her an approving nod.

  “That bitch will do anything to stay in Preston’s good graces,” Adelaide said.

  Dottie nodded. “And I’m afraid keeping Princess Chastity up on a pedestal is a priority fo

r him.”

  “No way Patricia wants to lose the income Marina brings in,” Halcyon said, but she didn’t sound convinced.

  “She’d just push all Marina’s customers off to Helen,” Dottie said. “I never see Helen working when I walk by the salon.”

  “That’s because she sucks,” Adelaide said. “I get a straighter cut with my gardening shears. All I had her do earlier was a simple roll, and half of them had fallen out before I was a block away.”

  “If Patricia forces clients on Helen, they’ll go somewhere else to have their hair done,” Halcyon said.

  “Where?” Dottie asked. “The nearest shop is across the bayou in Double Deuces, and with the age-old feud between the two towns, no one will want to do business there. Anywhere else is going to be a thirty-minute drive or better, and that’s assuming you don’t run into road construction, bridge outages, and farmers moving their heavy equipment.”

  “Or a crawfish migration,” Adelaide said.

  “Might as well go to New Orleans,” Halcyon said.

  Dottie nodded. “Except most don’t have the time to drive all the way to New Orleans for a hair appointment or the money to pay the steeper prices it costs in the city.”

  “You could start a carpool,” Adelaide said. “That Cadillac of yours will probably hold five people…four if you pick a bunch of wide butts.”

  “I have no desire to become bayou Uber,” Dottie said.

  “She’s right, though,” Halcyon said. “If the options are Deuces or driving to NOLA, then a lot of people are going to be stuck with Helen. Good God, can you imagine all the selfies on Facebook once Helen gets a hold of half the population’s hair?”

  Marina blew out a breath. “What am I going to do? It’s not like there’s other options around here for employment for hairstylists. And I wouldn’t trust that old car of mine to make a commute anywhere, even if a position magically appeared in one of the neighboring towns.”

  “I wouldn’t trust that car of yours to back out of my driveway,” Halcyon said. “What about doing hair out of your house?”

  “You mean the fishing camp that is soon to be my residence?” Marina asked. “How many people are going to want to drive out to the boondocks to have their hair done? The road isn’t even paved. And I don’t have the equipment to do hair on my own or the room to install it there even if I did.”

  Adelaide and Dottie exchanged worried looks.

  “I’m sorry we sprang this on you,” Dottie said. “But we didn’t want you to be waylaid again. And we were afraid you might not have thought about that situation with everything else you have to deal with.”

  “No, that’s fine,” Marina said, her mind racing with the possibility of being broke, relatively homeless, and unemployed. “I’m glad you told me. And you’re right—I hadn’t made it that far in my thinking. Apparently, I’m a step behind on everything lately.”

  Halcyon slammed her fist down on the counter. “Someone needs to take the LeDoux down about ten notches.”

  “Now you’re talking,” Adelaide said and lifted the vase.

  “Preston is a cheater, his wife is a drunk, and his daughter is a sleaze, and yet this entire town seems to overlook everything,” Halcyon said. “I don’t get it. He can’t sue everyone.”

  “It’s not just lawsuits,” Dottie said. “This probably won’t surprise you, but Preston’s grandfather was an unscrupulous sort. Back when oil crashed, he bought up a lot of commercial mortgages that were in default and made some loans to people to keep their businesses afloat.”

  Marina closed her eyes and groaned as Dottie’s words brought everything about Preston and his attitude into focus.

  “How many?” Marina asked.

  Dottie shook her head. “Maybe half the town. Some turned things around and paid him off, and some just closed down or sold out, but he’s still got leverage on enough people to keep them from going against him. At least openly.”

  “Those idiots better not vote for him when he runs for mayor,” Halcyon said. “That’s anonymous.”

  “We can only hope they don’t chicken out at the polls,” Dottie agreed. “But unfortunately, anything Preston can see firsthand is probably off the table.”

  “So no one will hire me and no one will rent me space, even if I had the money to open my own shop,” Marina said. “I might as well pack up and move. Well, technically, I’m already packed. One less thing.”

  “No!” Halcyon said. “That piece of crap you married is not going to be the cause of you leaving your hometown. If you want to at some point, that’s an entirely different thing. But not like this. Not while I’m still breathing.”

  “I just sharpened my shovel,” Adelaide said.

  “What does that have to do with anything?” Dottie asked.

  “In case there’s a need for a hole,” Adelaide said.

  “Too much work,” Halcyon said. “Dump them in the bayou and let the gators do the work.”

  Marina held up her hands. “No one is digging a hole or feeding gators. There are better solutions to my problems.”

  “But not nearly as fun,” Adelaide said. “I’m making a new bed for roses. Just so you know.”

  “I thought you planted roses last year,” Dottie said.

  “The cats peed on them so they all died,” Adelaide said. “That makes it the perfect spot for Harold…he hates cats.”

  “Nobody is killing Harold,” Marina said. “At least, not anyone in this room. If someone else takes a shot at him, then that’s another story.”

  “That story might be worth a fresh bottle of wine to celebrate,” Adelaide said as she tipped the last of the wine into the vase.

  Halcyon sighed. “As much as I hate to admit it, my sister is right. Marina’s already served time being married to Harold. No use in her serving more over his death.”

  Dottie motioned to Adelaide and rose from her stool. She reached over and patted Marina on her arm. “This will all work out, honey. And if there’s anything I can do, you let me know. I can’t stand a cheater. I watched my father do it to my mother her whole life and I swore I wouldn’t tolerate it for one minute. You did right by leaving. And you’ll be the one to come out ahead in the end. I truly believe that.”

  Everyone went stock-still and Marina stared. In the forty-eight years Marina had known her, Dottie had never revealed anything private. The fact that she’d shared such a personal thing about her mother was both surprising and touching. Marina wasn’t even sure what to say. She finally settled on “thank you.”

  “Keep the vase,” Halcyon said to Adelaide as she hopped off her stool. “I can’t look at flowers in it knowing your lips were on it.”

  Adelaide grinned. “Cool. Next time, I’ll drink out of your Waterford crystal.”

  Feeling restless, Marina walked to the window and watched as the two women went up the driveway, still arguing. Halcyon closed the door and shook her head.

  “It’s like Steel Magnolias filmed a follow-up right here in my kitchen,” Halcyon said.

  “They are an unlikely duo,” Marina said. “But it’s nice that they tried to help me.”

  She started to turn away, then noticed a man standing at the edge of Halcyon’s yard, looking toward the house. It was the same man she’d seen across the street from Harold’s house that morning.

  “Come here,” Marina said, motioning to Halcyon. “Hurry.”

  “Are they scrapping on my front lawn?”

  Marina pointed. “Do you know that guy?”

  Halcyon leaned forward and studied the man for several seconds, then finally shook her head. “Never seen him before.”

  “I have. This morning across the street from Harold’s house. He was standing there, just like he is now. Not doing anything. Just standing.”

  Halcyon frowned. “I don’t like it.”

  “You think I do? What in the world could he want? You think he’s a PI or something? That Harold is having me followed?”

  “For what? He’s the one cheating.”

  “I know, but why was this guy standing around staring at the place I used to live this morning and the place I now live this evening?”

  “Let’s go ask him.”

  Before Marina could protest, Halcyon hurried to the front door, threw it open, and strode across her front lawn.

  “You!” she shouted as she walked. “Who are you and what are you doing here?”

  His eyes widened and he looked a tiny bit afraid. A second later, he hurried off down the street. Marina took off after Halcyon and they half jogged, half limped to the end of the block but when they checked the streets, he was nowhere to be seen.

  “I need oxygen,” Marina said, wheezing.

  “I need a defibrillator,” Halcyon said. “How did he move so fast without running?”

  “And where did he go?”

  “It’s like a horror movie. You know, where the cute girl is running like she’s in the last leg of the 1,200-meter relay and the scary dude is just loping along but always gaining on her.”

  Marina frowned. “Except this guy didn’t look scary.”

  He wasn’t a big guy. Maybe five ten and thin, not muscular. His haircut was the typical corporate job. If he’d been dressed in slacks and a dress shirt instead of purple skinny jeans and a white T-shirt, he could have passed for her banker.

  “Of course he wasn’t scary,” Halcyon said. “I would have brought my gun if he was scary. But that doesn’t make him lurking around houses any less creepy.”

  “It’s definitely a ten on the creepy scale.”

  “You sure you don’t recognize him? His haircut didn’t look like the usual barbershop hack job most of the guys around here have.”

  “Definitely a salon cut, but I’ve never seen him before. And I took a really long look at him this time. You sure he’s not one of your past admirers?”

  “Please. You know my rules. If I can kick his butt and I can’t fit in his pants, it’s a no. And I’m betting I’d be two for two on that one. Come on. Let’s get back to my house before people start wondering why we’re standing here.”

  Marina took one last glance up and down the street but the strange man in the purple pants had simply vanished. She supposed he could be ducked behind a bush or a car, but why? And why hurry off when it was clear that Halcyon was addressing him? The only answer she could come up with was because he was up to no good.

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