Getting to Happy (47 page)

How long had she waited to hear those words: I’m sorry? And now here they were. It didn’t change a thing. She folded the letter and put it back in the envelope, then dropped it in the trash basket. As she got dressed, Bernadine wondered what he went to prison for. If his children were back in his life. If he’d ever had a visitor. If he was doing okay.

She hoped so.

Choosing a Future

“So are we good to go?” Joseph asked Gloria.

“We’re good to go, sweetheart.”

“You’re absolutely sure?”

“I said I loved all the swatches, Joseph. I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t mean it.”

“Okey-dokey, then. My, are we awful testy today.”

“Would you mind bringing me a strawberry-kiwi smoothie when you come back?” Joline asked Gloria.

“I would if I were coming back, Joline.”

“Where are you going?”

“To take care of some personal business, if that’s all right with you.” Gloria winked at her. Joseph winked at Gloria.
Tell her, honey.

Just then two of the three DVD boys strutted in.
Oh, hell,
Gloria thought. She didn’t have time to go through all those stupid movies right then. What were they doing there so early anyway?

“Hello, Miss Gloria. Everybody.”

“Hey,” the others said.

“Hi,” Gloria said. “Before you ask, I have to give you guys some bad news. We’re moving in the next couple of months and I don’t think we’re going to be able to keep supporting your venture, but please don’t be offended, because we have truly appreciated your services. Where’s Marvin?”

“Well, that’s one of the reasons we stopped by. He decided he was finished with hustling so he’s like in retirement and everything. He just started his first semester at Arizona State.”

“That’s nice to hear,” Gloria said.

“Yeah, he twenty-one and everythang but better late than never, if ya know what I mean.”

Gloria nodded. She didn’t know either of their names and wasn’t about to ask. “So what are you two going to do?”

“Not this. It’s illegal and they cracking down and we in no way, shape or form are interested in seeing the inside of nobody’s jail over this bullmess. You know we twins? Fraternal. Anyway, we gotta get real jobs or our moms said we gots to move outta her crib. College may not be in our cards, but we might be looking into trade schools.”

“I hope so. For both of your sakes. Please tell Marvin we wish him all the best.”

“Will do. Hold up. As our way of saying sayonara, we got a few freebies you can choose from. Is that all right, Miss Gloria?”

“That’s fine, baby. And thank you for being so nice. I’ve gotta run or I’m going to be late.”

“Well, for the little ones we got
The Aristocats, The Bad News Bears
—”

“Hold on a minute, son.” Gloria raised her hand. “I’ll take those two. What else do you have in that bag?” she asked as she put all her weight on one leg and her hand on her hip.

“Well, Miss Gloria—and clientele and employees—we’ve got
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Wedding Crashers, The Fantastic Four, Hustle and Flow, Happy Endings
and, just in this morning,
The 40-Year-Old Virgin.
Yours for the asking.”

“I’ll take one of each. Here.” Gloria whipped out two one-hundred-dollar bills and handed them to one of the twins. “Split it three ways and if I find out you didn’t, I will personally go over to ASU and sit on that campus until Marvin walks by me and I’ll ask him myself!” She started laughing, and then they started laughing and then Joseph along with Joline and Twyla and everybody else started cracking up, too. Nobody was doing hair or nails or pedicures. They were too busy rummaging through those satchels as if they were on a scavenger hunt.

“Thank you, Miss Gloria,” the young men said and politely put those bills in their pockets. “Good luck to you at your new spot. We’ll tell everybody we know with some money to come see you guys when they need to get their hair did and when their feet and nails is toe-up. You know they come in large numbers. Peace out,” one of them said as they walked out the front door with two fingers above each head.

Gloria hadn’t told anybody where she was going, not even her new partner. She still liked the sound of that—
partner
—but no one more than Joseph. He told just about everybody who walked in the front door. “Do be on the lookout for me and my partner’s new salon.” And: “Never been to Oasis before? Let me introduce you to my partner, Gloria Matthews-King.” Gloria had almost forgotten her maiden name was Matthews. She wondered if she would ever have a reason to stop using King. She couldn’t imagine it.

As she gathered up her DVDs, Gloria was a little nervous for a number of reasons. She had a check in her purse for $300,000. It had been in a drawer at home ever since the insurance company sent it to her months ago. She never bothered to deposit it. There was no reason to. Now that Tarik was going to be a single parent, he needed all the help he could get. Although he had balked at the idea, Gloria was going to give half of it to him for obvious reasons. He was planning to finish up those last nine units to get his master’s in criminology, but until then, one income wasn’t enough to feed, clothe and educate three kids. Make that four, since Tarik had filed for temporary custody of Brass. Adoption papers were next.

Gloria also intended to pay off that boat even though Tarik insisted they sell it. She put up a fuss until he insisted she name it, which she did:
What’s Going On?
What else could she call it? She had also agreed it was time she set foot on it, and today was the day. She wouldn’t fall apart; at least, she didn’t think she would. She needed to do this. Just like she needed to take off her wedding ring. She had picked up the pendant a few days ago and was wearing it right now.

They were taking the kids fishing in a few hours and Gloria was going to surprise them. Last night she bought Diamond a pink-and-lavender
Little Mermaid
pole. Blaze, a black-and-white
Dalmatians
one. Stone, who was all of eight now, got
Spider-Man.
She bought a real one for Brass, even though she would soon find out that he had a special type since he and Tarik were serious about this whole fishing thing.

She was also going to send five thousand of her money for the Katrina victims. Savannah had sent her a link to the same website she, Robin, Michael and Bernadine—who sent what she could—had all used.

Gloria was setting aside a nice sum to guarantee Oasis was going to be one of the hippest, sexiest, up-to-the-minute-state-of-the-art salon-and-spas in Phoenix. Her partner was matching this amount. The workstations were being custom-made by some guy who ripped off Italian designers. The website was going to be “off the hook,” thanks to her nephew John Jr. Years ago when she had a bar, most of the clients thought “open bar” meant “never closed.” She closed it. Some folks were often sipping and no one knew who they were. But times had changed. Gloria and Joseph decided that most of those young alcoholics were now middle-aged and their credit cards didn’t get declined, not to mention that they acquired something that can come with age when you do in fact mature, and it is called discretion.

Everybody was excited about the new all-natural hair and skin product lines, not to mention unique jewelry (some of which would be made by Ms. Sparrow), and if all went according to plan, Gloria and Joseph were considering interviewing four new stylists.

“I’ll see you guys tomorrow afternoon,” she said and waved to everybody.

Her first stop was Weight Watchers. To weigh in. Nothing lost yet, but that’s okay. Soon.

Next, she drove to Good Vibrations and parked right in front.

“Welcome back,” the same young woman who was there before said.

“I can’t believe you remember me,” Gloria said.

“Sista, I never forget a face.”

When Gloria pulled up to the dock with the little fishing poles in tow, the kids ran toward her, then stopped and stared at their poles as if they were something foreign. “What’s that, Gawa?” Blaze asked.
Lord is she getting tall,
Gloria thought.

“I think they’re called fishing poles,” Gloria said.

Diamond smiled and walked over to Gloria and stood on her toes. “Thank you,” she whispered as they both ran back toward Tarik and the boys. They were standing on the pier with their lines already in the water. “Hey, Ma,” Tarik said. “We might have to stop by Fish and Chips tonight because you know not much is running this time of year.”

“Gawa, is that a
Spider-Man
fishing pole?” Stone asked.

“Sure looks like it,” she said.

And Brass, who, at fourteen, was now almost as tall as Tarik—six feet and a few inches—walked over and gave Gloria a hug. “Hi, Grandma,” he said. She held out a grown-up pole for him. “Oh wow!” he said, and instantly became eight years old again. “Dad, check this out! You must have spent a mint on this, Grandma! This is sweeeeet!”

“Ma, where’s mine?” Tarik asked and winked at her.

Gloria smiled but couldn’t take her eyes off the boat, which was over to their left. After they helped the kids get their little poles assembled—which didn’t take much—Gloria decided to walk over to take a look at the boat while they fished. “I’ll be right back,” she said to them.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to come with you, Ma?”

“I’ll come with you, Gawa,” Blaze said and dropped her pole on the rocks.

“No, it’s okay. Gawa would like to go on the boat alone, if you don’t mind. Please pick up that fishing pole, Blaze. Money does not grow on trees.”

“No, it does not!” Diamond yelled and then giggled.

Blaze did exactly as she was told but stuck her tongue out at Diamond. The boys were staring into the water as if they could will the fish to jump on the end of their lines.

As Gloria got near the boat, she looked at the name
What’s Going On?
and smiled. She ran her hands across the smooth wood and walked up the ramp until she was standing on the boat. Her heartbeat was steady. In fact, as she walked around the deck and headed below, Gloria was calm. She sat on the little sofa and rubbed the cushion, feeling the thick threads that formed the tapestry. “Marvin, you would’ve liked this boat, baby,” she said. “But guess what? I like it, too. I wish you were here to enjoy it. You’re probably on a golf course up there. Just do me a favor, baby. Every time you see Tarik taking this boat out, know you’re welcome to come aboard.”

And she got up.

“Gawa, where are you?” Blaze asked, ducking her head until she saw Gloria.

“Ma, you all right down there?” Tarik asked, coming down the steps behind Blaze, with Diamond on his back. Stone and Brass stood behind them.

“I’m fine,” she said. “Really, I am.”

“Good,” he said.

“So, how many did you guys catch so far?”

“That would be a negative,” Brass said. “But ask us if we care?”

Breathe

“I knew I wasn’t going to like yoga,” Savannah says to her girlfriends. They’re heading toward the parking lot. They’ve just finished taking a yoga class.

“It was hard doing that stuff,” Gloria says. “I was embarrassed as hell when I fell over trying to do that doggie pose.”

“It was kind of funny, Glo,” Robin says. “But I didn’t laugh. Just so you know.”

“Savannah,” Bernadine says. “You and Robin have been saying you wanted to try yoga for months. So stop whining.”

“I liked it,” Robin said.

“Because you’re already flexible, that’s why,” Savannah says. “Why was everybody so serious? You’d think they’d at least crack a smile doing those poses, since yoga’s supposed to make you feel so good.”

“You smile from inside,” Bernadine says.

“You need to stop talking like this,” Savannah says.

“You are going a little far,” Robin says.

“First of all, Bernie, we know you got off doing this New Age stuff when you were in rehab, and we know yoga is all the rage and it’s good for the soul and everything, but don’t expect us to just fall in place on our very first time, damn,” Savannah says.

“You’re right.”

“Plus, you told us the class was for beginners,” Gloria says.