An Affair to Dismember (2 page)

I racked my brain. Who was Randy Terns? Was he the new secretary of state? Really, I had to read a newspaper once in a while. What kind of responsible citizen was I?

“That’s terrible,” I muttered, a noncommittal edge to my voice in case Randy Terns was a war criminal or something.

“Yes, yes. Terrible. Terrible.” Grandma waved her hands as if everything was terrible. The sky, the trees, my car—all terrible. She grabbed my arm in a viselike grip and pulled herself close to make sure that I heard
every word. “I’m on Betty like white on rice to sell that old run-down excuse for a house. I’d love to get in some people who will fix it up. Look at me! I’m drooling over the thought of waking up, going out to get the paper, and not having to see that dreadful lawn across from my prize-winning roses.” She made air quotes with her fingers when she said “lawn.”

She turned to face the house across the street. “I bet you will be thrilled not to have to stare at that falling-down roof every day!”

Falling-down roof
. My brain kicked into gear, and I recalled the woman standing by her mailbox. Randy and Betty Terns were the neighbors across the street. I’d never had much interaction with them. And now Randy was dead. Found yesterday morning, deader than a doornail.

I hate death. I’m scared it’s contagious. At funerals, I feel my arteries start to harden. Medical shows on TV send me into neurotic fits. McDreamy or McSteamy, it doesn’t matter—I only see my slow, agonizing death from a terrible disease. Like Ebola or flesh-eating bacteria. Or a drug-resistant superbug yeast infection. If I found out that poor Randy Terns died of a heart attack, it would only take five minutes or so for my chest pains to start.

“Betty said she would think about it,” Grandma said with disgust. “Said she has a funeral to organize and a houseful of kids. Kids. Huh. The youngest is thirty-seven. Three of them still live at home. It’s time to push those birdies out of the nest, I say.”

She harrumphed loudly and kicked the cobblestoned driveway with her left Jimmy Choo. Gold-tipped. Very fancy.

“Five children. Why do people take things to extremes?” she continued. “Anyway, they come and go like they own the place, moving in and out whenever
they want. They’re holding on for dear life. A bunch of losers, the lot of them. I didn’t make an index card for any of them.” She looked at me expectantly, and I nodded vigorously in agreement, even though the most I saw of the “bunch of losers” these days were some faceless figures going to and from various cars.

Grandma patted a stray hair in place on her head and continued. “ ‘Betty,’ I told her, ‘you could buy yourself a condo on the beach for cash and have enough left over to last your whole life if you sell now.’ But she didn’t have time for me. You know, Gladie, that house is one of the biggest on this street. And it’s got a pool.”

Grandma let out a big why-are-people-so-stupid sigh. Then she slapped her forehead. “I almost forgot! I have news about the house next to ours, too.”

Geez. I really didn’t want to hear that another neighbor had died. I would need therapy.

“Don’t look at me like that, Gladie. It’s good news. Jean the real estate lady told me there’s been a bite on the house next door.” She nodded to the house on my left. “A big bite. A whale bite. A … a … what’s bigger than a whale? Whatever it is, it’s one of those bites. Anyway, I can’t talk about it yet. Might jinx it. Won’t you be happy to have that house filled?”

I was only dimly aware that the house next door was empty and for sale, but my real estate ignorance would be sacrilegious to Grandma. The town was her business, and it was supposed to be mine now, too. A couple of speed-walkers made their way past us, distracting us from talk of houses and death.

“Daisy Scroggins,” Grandma called out, flapping her arm at one of the speed-walkers. “You are the sweetest thing. How could I resist homemade chocolate chip cookies right out of the oven?”

The speed-walker, who I assumed was Daisy, stumbled in surprise. “How did you know I baked—” she
started, but stopped herself midsentence. “I’ll be back in fifteen minutes with a plateful, Zelda. It’s the least I could do.”

Grandma leaned into me. “Her daughter’s wedding is next month,” she whispered. “That was a tricky one, but in the end I convinced her to go for the plumber with one leg. She’s never been happier, of course.”

I had a familiar feeling of dread. Grandma’s shoes were hard ones to fill. When the moment came, would I know to fix up someone with a one-legged plumber?

Jose let out a bloodcurdling scream. He jumped up from the rosebushes, clutching his hand. It grew redder by the second and started to drip.

“What did I tell you?” Grandma shook her head and clucked her tongue at him.

“I cut off my finger,” he yelled, his eyes wide with terror.

“No, you didn’t,” Grandma insisted. “It’s just a scratch. Good thing I told you to be careful. Let’s go in, and I’ll wash it.” Jose followed Grandma into the house, holding out his hand in front of him as if it was a snake. I took that as my cue to hop in my car.

I drove a block before I realized I didn’t know whether to go to Burger Boy or Chik’n Lik’n. I could have gone to Bernie’s Rib Shack, my grandmother’s favorite, but it was in a strip mall next to Weight Wonders, and I didn’t want to face any dieters while getting an order of baby backs. I decided on Burger Boy because it was the closest and had the quickest drive-through.

My grandma’s house was one of the oldest in town and located right in the center of the historic district on Cannes Boulevard near Main Street. The houses were a mishmash, most built in the haste of newfound money during the gold rush in the nineteenth century. The gold had run out pretty quickly, but people stayed on to enjoy the mountain views. The town had never grown
to much of anything, topping out at around four thousand people.

I drove south out of the historic district toward Orchard Road, where just beyond, hundreds of acres of apple and pear trees stood as a beacon to all those who came up the mountain for the town’s famous pies.

Burger Boy was at the corner of Elm and Park, a few blocks before the orchard and across the street from Cannes Center Park. The park had been established about 150 years before in a wise attempt by the town’s founders to preserve and protect the natural beauty of this little corner of Southern California paradise. It was a huge expanse of rolling hills, sagebrush, and eucalyptus trees. It used to have a lovely gazebo in the center with park benches all around, where they held weekly concerts and regular picnics. Then, in the late fifties, a few bored and prudish housewives caught some couples kissing on the park benches, and they lobbied to have the benches removed. It was decreed that the park should be used for brisk exercise and that lounging on benches and in the gazebo would only lead to trouble and moral decay. The gazebo fell into disrepair. Gone were the kissing couples, and with them went the concerts and picnics. Today, brisk exercise was relegated to the historic district and the little park on Main Street. Cannes Center Park welcomed mostly skateboarders and teenagers searching for a little excitement in the bucolic small town.

Across the street from the park, Burger Boy had location, location, location and a killer dollar menu. It was a gold mine, a favorite of locals who did not particularly enjoy pie or tea.

An explosion rocked my car, jolting it forward a few feet before it slowed to normal. “Whoa, Nelly,” I said, patting the dashboard. “No more car farts. I need you a while longer.” I called them car farts. My mechanic
called them a cataclysmic end to the catalytic converter. He had grumbled something to me about being one car fart away from total destruction and probable death, but I couldn’t afford to fix it. Besides, it ran fine as far as I was concerned. It was a 1995 silver Cutlass Supreme, and I had gotten it for free when I worked at a used car lot for one month. I loved it, even though it had more rust than silver paint, and the interior was ripped, with foam poking out in tufts.

I rolled into the parking lot past a group of skateboarders hanging out in front, their skateboards leaning up against their legs as they packed away burgers, fries, and shakes. I followed the drive-through sign, winding through the parking lot toward the talking Burger Boy. I opened my window, and the smell of french fries hit me like nectar to the gods. Really, happiness was truly easy to acquire if you’re honest with yourself. Maybe I could start eating right tomorrow.

Burger Boy’s mouth was open in a big smile, and I yelled in its direction. “I would like two Burger Boy Big Burgers. No pickles. Extra cheese, please. Two large fries, and a Diet Coke.”

There was a long silence, so I tried again. “I would like two Burger Boy Big Burgers, please!”

“Dude!” a voice shouted back at me.

“Yes, I would like two Burger Boy—”

“Dude! It doesn’t work!”

I leaned out the car window and tried to look into Burger Boy’s mouth. The voice sounded much clearer than usual, but I still didn’t understand what it was saying.

“Hey, dude. Like, the drive-through doesn’t work, man.” A skateboarder rolled up to my car, a shake still in one hand.

“Didn’t you hear me? I’ve been yelling at you for, like, forever.”

His shorts hung down well past his knees, and he wore a T-shirt that announced the price of beer bongs. “Dude, I just thought of something,” he went on. “If I didn’t say anything, you would still be talking to the Burger Boy. So trippin’.” He thought this was riotously funny and got so caught up in his own giggles that he didn’t hear me when I said thank you and backed out of the drive-through lane.

I was disappointed about the drive-through, but I still had to get lunch. I was careful to lock up my car before I walked to the front door, passing the four skateboarders deep in conversation. Their attention was drawn to the sky.

“Dude, like, I think it’s an eagle, man.”

“No way, dude. It’s an owl.”

“I don’t know, man. It’s pretty big.”

“Dude, it’s been up there, like, you know, forever.”

“Oh, man. It’s been up there since last week at least. Maybe it thinks it’s a tree or something.”

“Cool.”

I looked up. Sure enough, an owl was perched on top of a telephone pole. I don’t normally notice wildlife, don’t know much about it, but two years before, I had had a job typing up a doctoral thesis on the endangered Madagascar red owl, and now I was staring up at one on a telephone pole at Burger Boy.

“Check it out. An eagle is up there,” one of the skateboarders said, pointing it out to me.

“Actually, it’s an owl,” I explained.

“Oh, dude. She so burned you. I told you it was an owl.” This came from the beer bong skateboarder, who I figured had held on to a few more brain cells than his friends.

“It’s an owl from Madagascar,” I informed them.

“Cool.”

“It’s not supposed to be here,” I said. “It’s highly endangered,
and it’s nocturnal. I don’t understand what it’s doing here.”

They looked at me with empty stares. I had the strongest urge to knock on their foreheads to see if anyone was home.

Two things were certain: the four great geniuses were not about to help the endangered owl, and if I didn’t help it, I would be responsible for driving the Madagascar red owl that much closer to extinction.

I sighed and dialed information on my cellphone. A minute later I was on the line with animal control, which proceeded to pass me to seven different offices around the state before I got to wildlife management. They said they couldn’t get someone out here due to budget cuts and would I be so kind as to shoo it off or get it down.

“Get it down?” I asked.

“Yes. If it’s too weak, just go up, grab it, carry it down, and take it over to animal control. We’ll handle the rest.”

“What if it has rabies or something?”

“Ma’am, birds don’t get rabies. Just throw a shoe up there or something. It will fly away. It probably is enjoying the view.”

The wildlife person hung up, and I stood there a moment, looking at my phone. Our tax dollars at work. Sheesh.

“We have to shoo it down,” I told the skateboarders.

“What? With our shoes, man?”

“You know, shoo. Like, shoo fly,” I said. “But in this case, with our shoes. Throw your shoes up there to shoo it away. We have to make sure it’s okay.”

The beer bong guy was the first to take off his shoes, and the rest followed. I guessed he was kind of their leader. They threw their shoes up at the owl in unison, and I shielded myself from the onslaught of laceless,
skull-embossed sneakers as they made their way back down to the ground. I looked up, and sure enough, the owl was still there. He hadn’t even blinked, which made me think he was in distress of some kind. Possibly more distress than what I was feeling at being stuck with a bunch of pothead skateboarders having to save an endangered species because my government wouldn’t fund its budget properly.

“Okay. Well, that didn’t work,” I said. “So one of you is going to have to go up there and get it down.”

The guy who had thought the owl was an eagle looked at the telephone pole and whistled. “I don’t know, dude. Can’t you get electrocuted or something touching one of those poles?”

“No, no. This is a telephone pole. There’s no danger with a telephone pole,” I said. I was almost sure there was no danger with a telephone pole.

“I’m not much into climbing, man,” said the beer bong guy. And that seemed to clinch it for all of them. Without saying goodbye, they put on their shoes and rolled off into the park.

I waited a moment to see if some nice passerby would pass by, and then I kicked off my flip-flops, grabbed the pole, and started climbing. I got about halfway up before I got stuck on a metal doohickey and started screaming.

I was surprised and impressed that it only took about seven minutes for the police to come. Cannes was a very small town, and I didn’t know it had so many police. Two squad cars and an unmarked car with a flashing light on its roof drove into the parking lot. I was amazed I had garnered so much attention.

“What the hell do you think you are doing?” one of the policemen yelled up at me.