Happiness Key (22 page)

Wanda turned up her hands. “I couldn’t say. One of two things happened. The first is that our Herb up and left his family, just disappearing into thin air. Louise looked for him, then she looked some more, and finally she had him declared dead, because she and that little girl needed help. Turns out her timing was fortunate, because in 1950, Congress made a bunch of amendments to the law about who could get Social Security, and Louise was suddenly eligible for some money on her own, since she was a widow caring for a dependent child. She got that, too.”

“You
have
done a lot of research,” Janya said.

Wanda smiled and looked pleased. “Thank you. I had to ingratiate myself after the unfortunate pie incident. Now, that second possibility? It’s darker, you bet. Maybe
Louise knew our Herb was just off gallivanting, as men are wont to do. She couldn’t get a cent out of him, so she decided she’d just see if she could pretend he was dead and ask the courts to make it happen. Maybe he even told her to go ahead, and he’d just stay out of the way.”

“It could be somewhere in between,” Tracy said. “Maybe she hoped he was alive. We don’t know how long she waited before she had him declared dead, because we don’t know when he left her. I checked on the law, and right now Florida says you have to wait five years, but I don’t know what the time period was then. No matter what, Louise had to wait a long time, hoping he’d come back or knowing he wouldn’t, until she could finally go to court.”

“Did we ever find out when Louise was struck by the car and died?” Janya asked.

“I checked on that, too.” Wanda pulled out a piece of paper. “Down at the newspaper office. They printed this for me from microfilm. Her obituary from 1963. That’s how I got Pamela’s name. And you can all read this, but I’ll tell you the important thing. There was no other family mentioned. She was survived by her daughter and not one other person.”

“That made Pamela twenty when her mother died,” Tracy said, counting on her fingers. “I wonder what happened to her, where she went, what she did. Maybe she was in college by then. Now that we have her name, we ought to search the records here in town. Schools, hospitals, down at the courthouse. Maybe Louise even filed a will and we can find that, too. But if we don’t find her here, maybe we ought to look for Pamela in Maine, where Herb was really born. His family wouldn’t have been in Louise’s obituary.”

“That’s something to do, all right. When he was still
Clyde, he graduated from high school up there in Augusta. So we can try that and see. But we’re up against a real stickler here. Because Kenny says finding a woman once she’s married is real hard. Even if we find mention of her in the sixties, who knows what she calls herself now?”

“I’ll run her name on the Internet,” Tracy said. “But unless she never changed her name, and unless she has a job or hobby with a public profile, we’re back to square one.”

Alice had begun cleaning up, so the other women helped her take dishes to the sink. She filled it with soapy water and began to wash. Olivia said good-night and went to call a friend from school, and the women were alone in the kitchen.

“Louise’s story is a sad one,” Janya said. “Except for her daughter, it seems she was all alone at the end.”

Wanda took a dish out of the drainer and began to dry it as naturally as if she did it every day. “You grow up, you think you just make enough friends, marry the right man, you’ll end up with people all around you. Then things happen, and suddenly, you’re more alone than you imagined you could be.”

“Yes, when you think of your future, you do not expect to be living thousands of miles from everyone you loved,” Janya said.

Tracy had noticed that Janya was not her serene self. She had attributed it to the fight with Wanda, even though the two women had obviously reconciled. Now she wondered if Janya was homesick. And why wouldn’t she be? Maybe Louise had been lonely and maybe she hadn’t, but the women in the room understood the word all too well.

“I’m not
that
many miles away,” Wanda said. “I can
drive back to Miami when I need old friends or my children. But I never expected the man I married to start acting like
he
was thousands of miles away.”

“You grow old….” Alice put more dishes in the drainer before she finished. “Those friends? Gone, just like that. They die, or go off to live with children or move…into retirement communities.”

Janya was wrapping the cake. Tracy began to wipe the counter with a sponge. She found it odd that they all seemed so at home here, doing jobs women had done for centuries and chatting about themselves as they did.

“I know you don’t think I have anything in common with you,” she said, “but you’d be wrong there. I lost my husband, my home, my security, my friends and my family right before I moved here. Bummer, huh?”

“What happened to your family?” Wanda asked.

“Well, CJ was a crook, and not above taking money from anybody to shore up bad business decisions. He was also a man who could look you in the eye, tell you he could make the sun come up an hour earlier, and you would believe him. In a place like Bel Air, my father’s not what they call rich, but by most standards he made a great living, and he had lots socked away for retirement. He planned to retire by sixty, even though my mother laid claim to her share of his investments during their divorce.”

“I might know where this is going,” Wanda said. “I can smell it.”

“You got it. CJ talked Daddy into investing in his companies. On paper it looked like Daddy would do so well he’d be able to retire on time without worrying about anybody or anyone, old wife, new wife. So he talked my mother into going along with CJ’s plan. No problem there. She thought CJ
was
the sun. Only in the end, she got burned like everybody else. Because when CJ went down,
he took them right down with him. Now Daddy’s going to be straightening teeth until he’s eighty, and my mother had to sell the house I grew up in, ten thousand square feet with a prime view of Catalina Island, and move to a bungalow in Del Rey. And this is my fault, you understand. Because it was my idea to marry a crook.”

She hadn’t realized how worked up she had gotten, but by the time she finished, she’d been clipping her words as closely as a Disneyland topiary.

“And so they more or less kissed you off,” Wanda said.

“My father’s second wife has given orders that I’m never to cross their threshold. My mother is slightly kinder. She met me for lunch the day before I flew here. Of course,
I
paid and
she
ordered lobster salad.”

Wanda sputtered. Tracy glared at her; then she snorted. In a minute they were both laughing.

“How can you laugh at such a thing?” Janya asked.

“Because…” Tracy wiped her eyes. “Because they aren’t worth crying over. I was just something to barter with. Right from the beginning. I never realized it until my whole life turned to sh—” She looked at Alice, and changed her mind. “I went along with it all. I guess I deserved what I got.”

“This is like an arranged marriage,” Janya said. “Your parents steered you to this man? The way mine steered me where they thought I should go?”

“Your marriage was arranged? No way! Really?”

Janya lifted one elegant brow. “And yours? Was it not arranged? Only subtly? You were to marry a rich man who would please your parents. Did they pay for your wedding ceremony and party? Did they give you wonderful gifts to take into your marriage the way Indian parents do? We call it a dowry, but is it so different?”

Tracy was stunned. She had never,
never,
thought of
her life that way. Arranged marriages were conducted on the other side of the world.

She was still trying to figure out what to say in return when she heard footsteps in the other room. She realized Lee was staring at them from the doorway. And not happily.

“What on earth is going on here?” he asked.

Alice turned. Tracy caught a glimpse of her face. She looked uncertain, even frightened, although Tracy was sure she had to be imagining that.

“Your generous mother-in-law invited us for cake, Lee,” Tracy said. “And we’ve been having a wonderful time. Alice knows how to entertain a crowd.”

“Alice should not be entertaining anybody. Alice needs rest and quiet.”

Janya spoke before Tracy could. “Perhaps she has had too much of both and needs friends, Mr. Symington. She has been happy with us, and we’ve been delighted with her.”

“And what would you know?” He sounded as angry as his words. “Somebody like you has no idea what Alice needs. You’re not even from here.”

Janya did not back down, which surprised Tracy. In fact, she took a step forward. “The country I come from has nothing to do with this. Sometimes strangers can see what’s going on better than family can.”

“Exactly what do you mean by that? What do you think is going on?”

Tracy stepped between them. “Hey, look, Lee, Janya just means you might be too close to the situation. When we’re with Alice, she has a great time. You’re naturally worried about her. But maybe she’s not as fragile as you think.”

He didn’t reply. She noted a muscle in his jaw working
hard, as if he were suppressing whatever he had intended to say.

“I thought…you would be gone. I didn’t want to disturb you.” Alice sounded tired, maybe even defeated.

“So you waited until I left.”

Silence stretched on, and Tracy thought he wasn’t going to continue. Then Lee sighed. “I’m sorry. I apologize to all of you, especially you, Mrs. Kapur.” He looked at Tracy, not Janya, when he said it. “I was out of line. It’s just that excitement isn’t good for Alice. The consequences show up later.”

“I’m fine, Lee,” Alice said with dignity. “And these are my friends.”

He nodded. “Again, I apologize. I had no right to be so upset. There’s just a lot to worry about.” He smiled at his mother-in-law, a thin smile that looked as if it had been manufactured from next to nothing. “And I worry because I care. You know that.”

Tracy was becoming a fan of apologies, but this one did little for her. This was a side of Lee she hadn’t seen before, and she didn’t like it.

“Shall I go out and come in again?” This time he smiled ruefully, and more genuinely, at all of them. “Could we pretend this never happened?”

“You are very kind to apologize,” Janya said stiffly. “And now, I must go home.”

“Thank you for understanding.” Lee was beginning to sound like the man Tracy had thought she was getting to know. She wondered what, if anything, had happened at the barbecue to upset him.

“I’ve got to go, too,” she said.

“And me,” Wanda added. “I’ve got some work to do tonight.” She looked at Tracy and wiggled her eyebrows. “A few phone calls that need to be made.”

They all thanked Alice, and Lee saw the women to the door. He pulled Tracy aside before she could follow the others down the path.

“Listen, I thought about this, and you’re right about Olivia. I’ll register her first thing on Monday morning. And I’m sure you’re right about Alice, too. She’ll be fine until Olivia gets back in the afternoons. Thanks for nudging me a little. Before and, well, now.”

She felt better. Everybody had bad days, and Lee did have a lot on his plate. “You’re welcome.” She rose up on tiptoe and kissed his cheek to show he was forgiven.

Had anyone ever brought up the subject, Tracy would have snickered at the idea of an early-bird special. Had she been asked where she wanted to eat, she would have said any place except a noisy tourist restaurant that flung plastic baskets with greasy clumps of dough on every table right along with the menus. Yet here she was, late on a Thursday afternoon, sitting at the Dancing Shrimp with her neighbors, gazing at the early-bird chalkboard. Worse, as she debated between fried scallops and deviled crab, she was finishing her second hush puppy.

From the head of the table, Wanda was waving a straw like a scepter. “Nobody makes hush puppies as good as we do. Nobody else puts shrimp right inside them.”

Tracy was calculating calories in her head, a skill she had learned along with her ABCs. She had eaten a meal’s worth already, and she hadn’t even ordered. Worse, she could feel her hand struggling to reach for another hush puppy.

“And I told you, Janya, we have a vegetarian selection
every single night. See, right there.” Wanda pointed to the place on Janya’s menu.

“Eggplant parmigiana. I will learn something.”

Wanda looked pleased. In fact, Tracy thought Wanda had looked positively radiant since Wednesday afternoon, when all the women had accepted her invitation to dinner. Even Alice and Olivia were with them. In fact, the date had been arranged with Lee’s schedule in mind. He was in Tampa at a seminar, and Tracy had promised she would keep an ear out for Alice and Olivia tonight. She just hadn’t mentioned she would be doing it at the Dancing Shrimp or, later, the dog track.

She still couldn’t believe she was going to the dog track.

A young server arrived to distribute drinks and take their dinner order. Even at this hour—or maybe because of it—the restaurant was bustling. The tables were jammed together, with fish nets, plastic pelicans and loudspeakers playing top-forty music just over the women’s heads.

To be heard, Wanda had to raise her voice to something approximating a shout. “So, where are we now with Herb?”

Tracy told herself one more hush puppy couldn’t possibly add more than say, an ounce, to her slender frame. What was an ounce?

It was gone in two bites. “Yesterday I stopped by city hall and asked if Pamela’s name turned up anywhere. It was a big waste of time. If she’s living here, everything’s under a married name. I called the local high school and asked if they keep alumni records, but they don’t.”

“Well, I’ve got something we can try,” Wanda said. “After we’re done here, I thought we’d go see if the house Herb lived in before the war is still standing. We’ve got
the address from that welding certificate of his. Hall Street. It’s a long shot, but maybe somebody there remembers the family.”

“That was almost seventy years ago,” Tracy said. “What are the chances?”

“I’ll be happy to do something else, but that neighborhood’s over by the track, so why not give it a try?”

Tracy was running out of things to try. Maribel had promised to list Herb’s house as a rental starting in July, but she wasn’t optimistic about Tracy’s chances of renting it during the hottest part of summer. For now, Tracy wasn’t planning to start clearing out Herb’s things, but when the time came to do so, she figured she and the other women would have to move on.

“I don’t see what it can hurt, but it’s possible we’ve found out all we’re going to.” Tracy looked around the table and read the other women’s expressions. “Hey, we tried. Don’t look so down.”

“All his things. His plants, his little mementoes. It seems so sad,” Janya said. “And to think that his daughter will never know he’s gone.”

“Or maybe that he was alive for a whole lot of years when she
thought
he was dead,” Tracy pointed out.

Wanda finished the last hush puppy and signaled for a replacement basket. “It’s the darnedest thing, but I just feel like we got to keep going.”

They changed the subject. Olivia told them about her first week at youth camp, and the women applauded when she announced that her team had won the relay at the weekly swim meet. Alice told them how she was coming on the tablecloth. Wanda gave a rundown of that week’s
All My Children.

They demolished the next basket of hush puppies, too, then their dinners. Tracy had asked if the cook would grill
her scallops, but they arrived looking exactly like the hush puppies. Wanda had virtuously asked for extra cole slaw instead of fries, then snitched fries from every plate she could reach. Janya said the eggplant was good, although she thought it needed more spices. Alice beamed through the meal, as if this unexpected treat was the finest thing that had happened to her in months.

Tracy wondered if their quest to find Herb’s family was less about Herb and more about them.

When they finished, they piled into Wanda’s car, which was just large enough for the five of them, and drove to Hall Street, where Herb had lived when he was still an apprentice welder named Clyde Franklin.

“Well, the chances aren’t good anybody will remember the family,” Wanda said, driving up and down the street of three- and four-story apartments and condos. They were all a little shopworn and weathered, with narrow windows and flimsy iron balconies. But they weren’t old enough to have housed Herb or his wife and baby daughter.

“One step forward, two steps back,” Tracy said.

“I guess there’s no point in asking around,” Wanda said. “Even if his house was still sitting right here, this would have been enough of a long shot.”

They drove another five miles or so, and waited in a short line of traffic to pay the parking fee and go through the entrance to the Sun County Greyhound Track. Wanda followed the signals of a man wearing a fluorescent safety vest and parked at the end of a row. The lot was large, but only half-full.

“You are certain Olivia can come inside?” Janya asked.

“As long as she doesn’t drink or gamble. You’re not planning to do either, are you, kiddo?” Wanda asked.

“Can I drink a Coke?”

“You certainly can.”

“That’ll be good.”

Tracy had been to the Kentucky Derby and Preakness with CJ. She’d been to Monte Carlo in Monaco, and the Bellagio in Las Vegas. She had never been to the Sun County Greyhound Track. And now she knew why.

The complex was smaller than she’d expected. A three-story building faced what was probably the track itself, and just beyond that stood something that looked like a grandstand. Stepping out of the car into a wave of steaming air, she saw that the asphalt parking lot was buckling, and weeds crowded the cracks. Beyond them, the building was painted a soft Caribbean-blue, but even from here, she could see that the paint was peeling.

“Wanda, you’re sure they still have races here?” Tracy asked.

“The last hurricane that came through did a bit of damage, okay? But it’s still in business. This is the last week they’ll race until November. But they’ll have simulcasts from other tracks, and we can still come in and bet.”

“You need to explain why this is fun.”

“What’s not fun?”

“Watching a pack of dogs run around a track when the temperatures are climbing into the nineties every day.”

“There’s talk they’re going to tear the whole complex down and build a fancier place, maybe a casino with slots and poker, if they can get the Sun County voters to agree. That would probably suit you better, but right now this is all we got. You going to make a fuss?”

“Nope, I just needed some education.”

“You got that right.”

As they crossed the lot, Wanda explained how the races worked, drilled them on the best ways to bet, and defined
words like “exacta” and “trifecta.” She had a command of the facts that reminded Tracy of a college professor grooming his class for finals. They paid their dollar admissions and found a table on the pockmarked concrete terrace that overlooked the track. Tracy took one look at her program, which was as complicated in its way as half the papers she had signed to end her marriage, and gave up.

Janya did, too, and they smiled at each other as they set their programs on the table. But Alice and Wanda were poring over theirs as if they held all the mysteries of the universe.

They ordered drinks, and popcorn for Olivia, and listened as the loudspeaker squawked a welcome between staticky bursts of vintage rock.

“It’s not as busy on a Thursday night as some,” Wanda said.

“How often do you come?”

“I was coming a lot…before I started doing other things in the evenings.”

“Really? What kind of things?” Tracy asked innocently. “What could keep you away from
this?
”

“I mostly spend a lot of time on the telephone with my friends.”

Tracy pretended to look fascinated. “You do have the most active social life.”

“I’d be happy to give you a pointer or two. Right now, though, tell me what you want to bet and I’ll go do it for you.”

“Who do you favor?”

Wanda went into a long explanation, which ended with “…but my favorite dog’s named Chase the Suspect.”

“Well, that makes sense, considering your husband’s profession,” Tracy said. “But you’re saying, after every
thing you just told us, odds and all that other garbage, you just go by the dog’s name?”

“You got it. Of course, he wins whenever I’m here.”

“Your dog’s running tonight?”

“First race. That’s why we came.” She pointed to the program.

“Well, if we’re just betting names…” Tracy lifted the program and scanned it. “How about California Girl?”

“Hand over your money. We’ll keep it simple. California Girl to win, okay? Give me two dollars.”

Tracy remembered being with CJ when he had lost thousands and it hadn’t fazed him. She parted with the two dollar bills as reluctantly as if they were glued to her hand.

Alice bet on a dog named Dancing Dervish. Janya abstained when none of the names in the first race impressed her. Wanda left to take their bets to the window. By the time she returned the race had begun. She didn’t look happy.

“What’s wrong?” Tracy asked.

“Chase the Suspect injured his front leg when they were unloading him from the van. Looks like he won’t be running tonight. And I wanted you to see him.”

Tracy had her eye on the race, a pack of dogs wearing what looked like colored harnesses and muzzles. She was not impressed. Judging by the loudspeaker, the nearly black dog running toward the end was California Girl.

“So we’ll just have to come back in the fall,” she said.

“I got the feeling maybe he’s run his last race.”

Tracy glanced at Wanda and away from the dogs. “What happens to them? They go off to be somebody’s pets?”

“The lucky ones, maybe. The guy standing behind me at the window didn’t think he’d be one of ’em.”

Tracy abandoned the race and her choice, who was now bringing up the rear. “You mean they…” She checked to see if Olivia was listening, but the girl was standing at the railing watching the end of the race.

“He’s got so much heart. He doesn’t deserve a bad ending,” Wanda said. “You should have seen that dog run.”

“I can’t believe… They just…” Tracy shrugged.

“They got rescue organizations that take them sometimes.”

“Then maybe that’s what will happen.”

“This is kind of a shabby place, case you didn’t notice? Kind of second-rate, with second-rate dogs and owners. They have a vet, have to. But the guy behind me was saying this vet would rather put a dog down than try to fix him. Especially if his racing career is about over.”

There were a lot of things about the world Tracy had been happier not knowing. And here was another one. Revelations were coming thick and fast, and she wasn’t that fond of any of them.

“I’m going to see if I can find him,” Wanda said, getting to her feet. “Maybe they’ll let me pay his vet bill or something and take better care of him.”

“They’re not going to let you near the kennels,” Tracy said, standing, too. “I’m sure they don’t let just anybody back there.”

“That dog gave me so much pleasure. I’d come here, and there he’d be, running his little heart out. I used to think he knew I was watching and he was doing it just for me.” Wanda reached down and got her purse. “You coming or not?”

Of course she wasn’t coming. Tracy couldn’t imagine why Wanda thought that was a possibility. Then, in the same way her hands had reached for those hush
puppies—six of them!—her legs began to move. She waved to Janya before they could take her too far away.

“We’ll be back.”

Janya did not look convinced. “Please stay out of trouble. I have not yet had my first driving lesson.”

Wanda made a bed for Chase in the corner of her kitchen, using an old blanket and a pillow. She was fairly certain dogs didn’t need pillows, having grown up with hunting dogs who slept in wire enclosures with nothing but dirt and straw to keep them comfortable. Still, she figured the pillow wasn’t going to hurt anything. And sure enough, the dog curled up on the blanket and rested his head on the pillow, like that was the way he had always slept.

“So, tell me again what your husband is going to say?” Tracy asked.

“You just can’t let go of that, can you?”

“I wish I could be a fly on the wall.”

“You’re sure good at being a fly in the ointment.”

“You were going to take this dog and run if you had to, weren’t you? If I hadn’t been there?”

“To sweet-talk the owner, you mean? I never saw anybody turn on that much sunshine in my entire life. I thought I’d go blind.”

“It worked. Along with whatever amount of money you put in his hand.”

“It did,” Wanda said grudgingly. “But you know he just made you think it was your charming personality and my contribution that done the deed, don’t you? We saved him a hassle, that’s all. As far as he was concerned, this dog was just a piece of his past. One too many injuries to these legs of his. Chase here would have been lucky to
meet his maker at the hand of a vet. I hear sometimes they just take them out back—”

Tracy held up her hand. “No more, okay?”

“He’s a mighty good-looking dog, isn’t he?” Wanda gazed down fondly at Chase the Suspect, forever more to be known simply as Chase. The owner, a nasty-looking man with an unlit cigar clenched in the corner of his mouth, had told them Chase was a blue brindle. Which meant he was a soft bluish-gray, with streaks of tan and darker gray woven through his coat. The owner had promised to send Wanda the dog’s papers, but she was pretty sure she would never see them. And what did it matter? Chase wasn’t going anywhere.