Southern Hearts (10 page)
The elevator in the old brick building that housed Thomas Thorton’s office creaked and moaned its way to the third floor. We knocked on the frosted glass that displayed his name, and a tall, slender gentleman in a new navy double-breasted suit swung the door opened and greeted us.
“Eleanor, I’m so glad to see you.” He took her wrist and then kissed her gingerly on the cheek.
“Hello, Thomas.”
“Kari, it has been forever since I’ve seen you. How are you?” He returned my smile and then kissed me on the cheek as well.
“I’m doing well. Thomas, thank you.”
“I’m glad to hear that. I was so sorry to hear of your father’s passing. Edward was a great man.”
“Yes, he was,” I said.
“Well, I have everything set up the way you wanted, Eleanor.” He led us into the library and we sat around a conference table that was stacked with law books, briefs, and legal papers. “I trust this is as you requested.” He handed my mother a typed document that was clipped at the top.
My mother perused it. “Yes.”
She passed it to me, and I looked at her for my prompt to read it. She nodded, and I did.
Last Will and Testament.
As the phrase hit me, my shoulders sagged. “Maybe Tami should be here too,” I said calmly.
“No.”
I watched my mother’s reaction, but I didn’t see a hint of anything. She was emotionless.
“Kari, your mother wanted you here so that you could be the executor of the estate.” He took a ballpoint pen from his suit pocket.
“Tami is the oldest. The responsibility should fall to her, not me.” I didn’t know what to say. I was hurt, though it was difficult for me not to acknowledge a sense of pride that my mother had bestowed me with such a task. I skimmed down the paragraphs one by one, folding the document back the way it had been and setting it down on the table top in front of me.
I wanted to argue my mother’s decision. I wanted to tear up the will and storm from the room. I wanted to cry. Instead, I took Thomas’s pen, flipped to the back page, and scrawled my signature, even though I wasn’t sure it needed one.
I would oversee all of my mother’s worldly goods, and I would disburse them as I saw fit. The money would be divided between Tami and me, with a large share put into trust for Megan and another portion put into a trust for any future children my sister or I might have.
The property and all of its contents would be split evenly, with the stipulation that we never sell it or give it away. The home had been in our family since it had been built somewhere during the early 1800s, and no matter what the circumstance, my mother made sure it would remain that way. From us, it would pass to Megan and then to her children. A large sum of money would be given to Marney, and she would be entitled to stay on with the family for as long as she wanted to. As I thought of it all, as the truth hit me, everything came together and I was overwhelmed with sadness.
I parallel parked in front of the meters on Field Street, snatched a handful of quarters from the ashtray, and fed them into the slot until the arrow pointed at two hours. I glanced at my mother, who eyed a skimpy negligee through the display window of Miss Maritone’s clothing shop as we walked the half block to Pauline’s House of Glamour. My mood was a doleful one. I wanted to be optimistic and accepting, as I knew my mother expected. I tried to appear upbeat even though on the inside I felt heartsick.
“We’re a little early, is Norma free?”
The woman behind the counter grinned. “I’ll check, Eleanor.”
I sat down, and my mother remained standing until an elderly woman came hobbling behind the stabilized bars of a walker.
Oh terrific
, I thought, rolling my eyes.
I’m gonna look like Elizabeth Taylor on steroids when this lady gets done with me.
It was a conspiracy. My mother knew darn well that these women would be miles from any knowledge of modern hairstyles. The woman that Norma had just finished got up from the salon chair, put a twenty-dollar bill in the pouch of her walker, patted her hand, and said hello to my mother. As she passed, I looked up. She could have been my mother’s twin. Their hair was exactly the same, and to my surprise she was at least twenty years my mother’s junior. I bowed my head, shaking it in bewilderment.
“Come on, chèr, Norma has a full schedule.” My mother wagged her arm toward me.
“Why? Is Glen Manor convalescent home running a special?” I asked under my breath.
chapter eight
I thought we’d take the tiki lights and place them around the outside of the stage and then scatter them down between the tent posts. What do you think?” Tami asked me.
“Tiki torches? The last time we used those, it made the grounds look we were gathering for a Hawaiian luau. I vote for the string lights, gathered and stretched along the metal post.” I extended my arms and twirled around in hopes of giving the vision more creativity.
“The string lights make it look like a white-trash ball at the trailer park. No, I think the tiki lights are much classier.”
“What the hell is so classy about tiki torches?”
“Dad use to love the torches. He said the light was subtle enough to make even the most unattractive guest look favorable.” She arched her eyebrows.
“Well, considering every year Mother invites all her rapidly decaying old crones from her garden club, I can understand why he liked them. They are a homely bunch of withering dinosaurs that need all the lighting assistance they can get,” I said.
Tami sketched the layout and the table arrangement as we walked closer to the water.
“Who are you bringing to the party?” she asked.
“I wasn’t planning on bringing anyone.” I hadn’t even thought about it. My mother would surely be expecting some well-mannered local gentleman to be on my arm, and I was sure that as the next few days came and went, if I didn’t mentioned anyone specific, come the afternoon of the party, she would have a spare all lined up and ready to go.
“Remember that last guy Mom finagled me into taking? Man, what a weirdo! He kept asking me if I thought he needed collagen to make his forehead look fuller.”
“That toothless wonder was worried about his forehead? Talk about having your priorities twisted to shit.”
“He had teeth.” I chucked. “They were just short and you couldn’t see them when he smiled.”
Tami laughed.
“I think I’ll go stag, thank you very much!”
“You haven’t told Mom yet about...?”
“No.” I paused, yanking a piece of marsh grass from below me. “I came close last week, but I got interrupted, then my nerve came and went. I think it would be better to wait until after the party, anyway, like I had originally planned.”
“Does Mom look...” She put her sketch pad to her side and turned toward me. “Does she look okay to you?”
“Okay how?”
“I don’t know, she just looks more worn down than I’ve seen her in the past. She gets tired easily and she takes more afternoon naps than she used to, and her eyes are more drawn inward and gray. Mom looks so old, Kari, much more then I remember.” She let out a pronounced sigh.
I hadn’t told my sister about our visit to Thomas’s office, or that I knew Mother had made some amendments to her will. It bothered me that she didn’t know, and even more that I couldn’t tell her.
I wasn’t sure what my mother’s reasoning had been in that regard, but I knew when my mother wanted Tami to know, when she was ready, she would tell her.
“She seems fine. I haven’t noticed, I guess. Have you said anything to Marney about it? She’s the one who’s around her every day. She would surely notice a difference if there was one.”
“She thinks it’s just the stress of the party. But it seems like more to me. I don’t know. Maybe I’m just missing Dad. It’s always hardest this time of the year, not having him here.” She leaned back and then slid up onto the wooden stage that was positioned behind us. “I miss him. I was angry with him when I got here, all that shit with Bradley. But I think I was just feeling uneasy about coming home and knowing he wasn’t going to be here. The last few years it didn’t hit me as hard as it seems to be this year, maybe because you weren’t here and I had convinced myself that he was off with you somewhere.”
“I know. I miss him too.” I braced my palms along the edges of the platform and pulled myself up next to her. “I forget how beautiful it is here, how serene. Remember when we were kids and Dad put up that hammock between the two cypress trees out in the middle of the bayou?” I laughed, pointing to the exact location. “And that time you were taking a nap on the couch and he picked you up and took you out and placed you right in the middle of it?”
“That wasn’t funny!”
“He waded out with his pants rolled up to his knees and set you right in the dead center so it wouldn’t sway one way or another.”
Tami smiled slightly at my amusement.
“Then he stood there just out of your sight, waiting for you to wake up.” I roared with laughter. “What a baby, you started crying.”
“I thought I was having a nightmare.”
I laughed even harder. “You got so scared, you pissed your pants. God, that was funny, you were so petrified of the water.”
“Not of the water, of the snakes,” she corrected. “He didn’t let me fall, though. I remember it started to swing as I sat up, but before it could twirl around and dump me in, Dad scooped me up into his arms and hugged me. That was a dirty trick, but he was always right there.”
“Yeah, and to snatch up your pissy pee pants. I would have let you fall in and rinse off first before I carried you anywhere.”
Tami knocked her shoulders into mine as we laughed.
“Did you know back then?” Tami asked curiously, once we had regained our breath.
“Know what?”
“That you had feelings, odd feelings for women or girls?” Her tone changed, turning nervous.
“I don’t know. Sometimes I think about being in elementary school and looking at the girls in my class, thinking about the ribbons in their hair and then looking at their legs and their ankle socks like Megan wears. I think at the time I just thought they were pretty and that I wanted to be more like them. It was certainly never anything sexual. But maybe, thinking back, that was an indication. I never looked at the boys and thought about those things. I think I’ve known for a long time, but it was just buried so deep inside of me, and fear kept me from recognizing it.”
“I’ve wondered what it would be like. With,” she swallowed hard, “with a woman.”
I turned toward her in shock.
“I mean, I don’t have those feelings for women. I love men! But I have thought about it.”
My mind flashed on Regee. I knew a smile was painted across my face. “It’s a marvelous experience.”
Tami’s color changed from flushed to pale white. “You’ve...?” She motioned toward her crotch with her index finger, then moved it back and forth just below her navel.
I smirked.
“Who?”
“Regency,” I confided.
“Oh my God, you tramp!” She chuckled. “You’re sleeping with the gardener’s daughter? That sounds like a bad line from a Danielle Steel novel.” She leaned in closer. “That day on the boat,” she coaxed me. “That was the day?”
I smiled, raising my eyebrows in affirmation.
“Was it...nice?” The corners of her mouth raised and her eyes crinkled as if she had just taken a sudden bite from a tart lemon.
“Oh, nice doesn’t really even touch the surface. It was amazing.”
“So are you guys...?”
“No, we don’t even know each other. I mean, aside from that day.” I stopped, not wanting to reveal too much. “And another, we haven’t even really talked.”
“Well, I will say one thing for you, little sister, you can spot the flower through the weeds.”
I smirked at the eloquence of her metaphor.
“I guess we should get back to work.” Tami huffed in the hot air. “Okay.” She jumped off the stage.
“I’m gonna run up to the house for some lemonade.” I slid down to the grass beside her. “You want some?”
“No, thanks.”
“Okay, be back in few,” I called out, sprinting toward the house.
“Hi, Auntie.” Megan said softly as I approached the porch.
“Morning, peach blossom.” I put my hand over the top of her head and patted it.
“I’m helping Marney peel the potatoes for the potato salad,” she said happily.
“Marney is lucky to have you helping her.” I kissed her on the cheek and moved inside.
“Where’s my sugar?” Marney called out as I entered the kitchen. She turned up one cheek, looking at me sideways until I moved to her side, putting one hand around her shoulders and pressing my lips gently to the cool rose of her cheeks.
“Marney.” I took a glass from the cupboard and then pulled the refrigerator open. “Does Mom seem...” I didn’t know how to ask without the hint of alarm shadowing my voice. “Has Mom been feeling all right lately?”
I had lied to Tami earlier. I had noticed. The first morning, the day I had arrived, I remembered being startled by how sunken in and hunched over my mother had become. But I had pushed the thought from my mind almost as instantaneously as it appeared. I think I was afraid; my dread had kept me from asking, not wanting to acknowledge it.
“Putting on a party is hard work, Kari. You girls are a godsend, that’s for sure.” Marney looked up toward the heavens with her palms pressed together.
“It’s more than just the party and the arrangements. Mother doesn’t look well to me. She fainted from the heat last month. She has lived through the sticky hot summers of Louisiana for sixty-six years. She’s probably been out tending to her flowers for at least half of those, and all of a sudden she is overcome by the heat?”
Marney wiped her hands on the dish towel dangling from the oval holder affixed to the counter’s side. “Sometimes things are better left as they are, Kari.”
“There is something, isn’t there?” I put my drink down quickly.
“I’ve done said more with my big mouth than my brain wanted me to.” She put her arm around me, pulling me into her, then pushed me away and grasped my shoulders like she used to when I was a child. “Talk to your mama, Kari. Ask her these questions.”
“You know I can’t talk to her. If I can’t talk to her about the simple things, how can I talk to her about this?”