The Ladies' Room (18 page)

I carefully untied the bow and laid the ribbon beside me.
The knife was sharp and cut right through the tape. When I
folded the paper back, I was holding an antique copy of Gone
With the Wind.

"Do you like it?" he asked.

"I love it," I whispered, and tears flowed down my cheeks. I
wiped at them with one hand and held the book with the other.
Forget the bulldozer. I was holding a vintage copy of my favorite
book. I could cry if I wanted to.

"Open it up," he said.

With reverence I looked inside to find I was holding a firstedition volume of the book, and right there before my eyes
was Margaret Mitchell's signature. The book was in perfect
condition with a flawless dust jacket. Published in 1936. All
one thousand plus pages in my hands, and it was mine.

To talk aloud in the presence of such a treasure would be
next door to sinning, so I whispered, "This is too precious for
human hands to touch. I'm going to have one of those special
tables built for it in the living room. You know, one of those
with glass on all four sides and the top, so I can open the book
up to this page and let people look and yet be selfish enough
that no one can touch it but me."

"Well, happy birthday one more time. We've got a big day
tomorrow. There's a Gone With the Wind museum here in the
house. Then we'll tour the haunted hotel and do some shopping," he said.

"You can't leave me now. Sit here a while longer while I
take this all in. It's not midnight, so my birthday isn't over," I
said.

"If you want me to, I'll sit here until dawn," he said.

"Be careful what you agree to do. Billy Lee, I'm in awe that
you did all this for me. There aren't enough words in the
world to tell you what it means to me. When is your birthday,
so I can give you a wonderful surprise?" I leaned across the
settee and kissed him on the cheek.

"You already did. My birthday was the day of Gert's funeral,
and I thought it would be the saddest day of my life. Turned out
I got the best present ever. A new neighbor and friend."

"I'm the blessed one," I said.

When the clock in the parlor struck twelve times, I finally
let him go to his room after kissing him on the check once
more, wishing I had the courage to really kiss him. But friends
and neighbors didn't do that. Besides, I was so newly divorced
that I sure didn't need to be looking at Billy Lee as any more
than that.

He touched his cheek where I'd kissed it. "I enjoyed the day
as much as you did."

"Impossible," I said.

it was dusk when we piled into Billy Lee's old truck and
headed east to the football field for the fireworks show. He
circled the parking lot twice, ignoring several open spots.

I pointed. "Right there is one. If you don't park soon, we're
going to miss the whole show."

"But you can't see the fireworks from there. I'm looking for
a good vantage point so you don't miss anything, and I want to
be able to hear the National Anthem."

"We don't need to see from here. We're going to be sitting
in the stands. Fifty-yard line, halfway up, if there's room."

Billy Lee parked and looked at me a long time. "You sure
about that, Trudy?"

"Polish up that bulldozer. It's time for us to do some plowin',"
I said with a light heart.

A few seats were left front and center, so we climbed the
bleachers and claimed them. Billy Lee wore a red-and-whitestriped short-sleeved T-shirt under his overalls and looked
almighty patriotic to me. I'd dragged out one of Aunt Gert's
T-shirts decorated with the American flag done up in sequinsat least most of them were still attached-to go with my faded
jeans, which I'd had to roll twice at the waist.

We listened to the National Anthem and heard a poem written by a local man, then a prayer from a preacher. It was after
the prayer that Marty and Betsy settled in behind me. Daisy
Black and her daughter were to my right. I pretended none of
them were there. Maybe if I didn't officially see them and smell
the smoke on Marty's breath, they'd all disappear.

It didn't work.

Daisy nudged me with an elbow. "I heard you're doin' a
right nice job on Gert's house"

"Yes, we are," I said.

"Heard Billy Lee was helping you. What's that boy know
about remodeling, anyway? Never knew him to work a day in
his life."

"Billy Lee is a man, not a boy, and he's quite knowledgeable about carpentry, Miz Daisy," I whispered right back.

Billy Lee whispered, "Problem?"

"Miz Daisy was admiring my bulldozer."

"Bulldozer? I didn't know you bought a bulldozer. What
are you going to do with a piece of equipment that big?" Daisy
said.

Billy Lee and I both giggled.

"So you finally came to your senses and decided to bulldoze that place?" Marty asked from behind me.

Momma always said that a true lady never lets someone
know when he's riled her; otherwise, she's giving away her
power and her crown. My crown might be a bit tarnished, but
I was not about to give it to Marty or Betsy. It was Independence Day: I was free. I could say whatever I wanted and live
however I wanted. And I had a signed first edition of Gone
With the Wind.

"No, I'm not thinking of tearing down the house. I plan to
live in it. Billy Lee and I are working on refinishing every
piece of woodwork in there. It's been fun."

"So you've been Dumpster-diving for friends since Drew
divorced you?" Betsy said.

She and Marty both laughed as if she'd just cracked the
next biggest joke to make the Internet rounds. Billy Lee stiffened beside me, and it hit me like a bolt of lightning. He had
known there would be talk if we went to the fireworks together.
That was the reason he'd wanted us to watch the fireworks from
the parking lot. Chalk one up for Billy Lee. Take one away from
smart old Trudy.

I pasted a big smile onto my face, not unlike that of a secondgrader when the school photographer urges her to grin, and I said, "Oh, no, Betsy, the only things I find when I Dumpsterdive are loudmouthed relatives."

Billy Lee let out a lungful of air and said, "You do a fine job
of heavy-equipment operating, Miz Trudy."

"Thank you"

"I thought maybe you'd have gotten over that hateful spell
by now," Marty said.

"I'm not sure I'll ever get over it," I told her as the first fireworks lit up the sky.

"Well, don't come around where I am until you do," Marty
said.

"I was here first. If you don't want to be near me in this
mood, maybe you'd best stay out of my space."

She hopped up and grabbed Betsy by the arm. They stomped
down the bleachers just as a colorful red burst lit up the sky.

"Those are your cousins. You need to make peace with
them, instead of taking up for a man who can't even hold down
a job," Daisy scolded.

"Why, Miz Daisy, are you going to throw stones from your
glass house?" I asked, all wide-eyed and innocent.

She snapped her mouth shut and watched the fireworks
without saying another word.

Billy Lee, I mused, worked harder than ten men. He'd keep
at it all day, then go out to that monstrous-sized shop behind
his house. As I watched the fireworks explode, I wondered
what went on in that building. Whatever it was, it had to bring
in big bucks, because that book he'd given me for my birthday
wasn't a dollar-store sale item. The one time I'd checked online at rare-book sites for a first-edition copy of Gone With the
Wind, the price had boggled my mind.

After the fireworks display we went home to sit on the porch
and have a cold Coke right out of the can. The past three days
had been a fairy tale, and we'd driven the whole way home
without a single argument as we discussed the ghost in the
haunted hotel, the price of the quilts in the antiques store on
the main street of town, and even the next step in our refinishing job. Billy Lee and I had become best friends, and we were
happy sitting on the porch in each other's company, listening to the tree frogs and crickets in our part of the world. They
didn't sound quite as southern as their bayou cousins, but the
concert was lovely.

"Glad to be home?" he asked.

"I had a wonderful time. It was three days of indescribable
wonder, but the closer we got to home yesterday, the more excited I got. Sitting here, right now, I just realized that this old
house has become home to me. It gives me those warm, fuzzy
feelings I read about in big old fat romance books."

"That's the reason I live in the house next door. I don't need
anything bigger, and it's home. Sharing Jefferson with you
was wonderful, Trudy."

"Sharing it with you was beyond wonderful, Billy Lee."

He tossed his soda can into the recycling bin.

"That's a three-point basket for you"

"It hit bottom. Last week it would have made more noise
when it hit all the other cans in there"

"Oh?" I remembered the cans I'd tied onto the back of
Drew's car.

"Had you forgotten about vengeance?" he asked.

"Guess I had, at that."

"That's good. See you tomorrow morning, then?"

"I'll be up and ready to go to work. Especially now that I've
seen what lies beneath all that ugly."

He brushed a quick peck onto my cheek and said, "Good
night, Trudy."

I could hear him whistling all the way to his house, as I held
my hand to my cheek to see if it was really as warm as it felt.

Momma was having a good day when I got to the nursing
home the next evening. I'd taken a shower and put on the new
Capri set I'd worn in Jefferson so she wouldn't be ashamed of
me. She looked up from her recliner, where she was watching
a Golden Girls rerun, and smiled. "Trudy, I'm so glad to see
you. Did you have a good birthday? I'm sorry we didn't get to
go out and have lunch."

I didn't notice Lessie sitting in the shadows until she whispered into my ear as she left. "She thought she was five years old the past three days. Played with a doll and sang nursery
rhymes. It's just in the last hour that she's been right."

I nodded and mouthed, "Thank you"

"Well, did you?" Mother asked.

"Oh, Momma, I did have a wonderful birthday. Let me tell
you all about it." I pulled up a folding chair, took her hand in
mine, and told her everything, even about the book.

"Well, I suppose since it's an old book, it's not improper
for you to keep it. Now, if it had been a personal item, like
something you wear, then you'd have had to refuse it," she said
seriously.

"You are so right, Momma," I allowed. "Do you remember
anything about Billy Lee's relatives?"

She patted my hand and held her head high. "Well, of course
I remember them, Trudy. They lived right next to Granny Molly
and Aunt Gert all my life. Best neighbors in the world. They
had one daughter named Wilma, and she was a couple of years
older than me. She was really, really smart but kind of slow in
another way. Book learning came easy to her, but she'd been
born late in their life, and she was . . "

"A nerd?" I asked when Momma stammered. I held my
breath, fearful that she'd drift back into the gray fog.

Her eyebrows drew together as if she was trying to remember. "That's what you would have called her in your day. In our
time she was just odd. Anyway, they lived in that little house
right beside Gert's place. You did tell me she left that house to
you, didn't you? I'm glad. You need a place to live, and it was
a fine old house. You can make it nice again, but it'll take lots
of work. Have you lost weight? Your face looks thinner."

"Yes, Momma, I have. You were telling me about Wilma
Tucker."

She nodded and went on. "Oh, yes. Wilma was one of those
girls who never, ever had a date. She wasn't a very big girl, but
she dressed all wrong. She wore old-granny oxfords and her hair
pulled back in a tight bun like her mother's. The rest of the girls
were all wearing cute little bobs, but not Wilma. She graduated
from high school before me, and we'd see her around town with
her mother or at church. And that's about it."

I sensed she was leaving something out. "But when did she
get married?"

Momma lowered her voice to a whisper. "She married a
truck driver, and he died, and then Billy Lee was born. Most
of us didn't even know she was expecting until he was already
born"

She smoothed her hair back with her hands. "Looking back,
it seems like one day she was skinny as a rail, wearing dresses
that hung on her frame, and the next day she was carrying
around a baby boy. When Billy Lee was about two years old,
she took sick and died. His grandparents raised him. They
died within a year of each other when he was in college. He
just kept on living in that house. He's a hermit kind of person,
but he doesn't bother anyone. Gert said he was the best neighbor a person could have"

I had to know more. "Why does Billy Lee go by Wilma's
maiden name?"

"Don't know. I guess after the truck driver died, she decided to keep her maiden name and gave Billy Lee the Tucker
name. He's a good man, just odd like his mother. He proved it
on your birthday. Who'd give a girl an old book for a birthday
present? He should've given you a bouquet of flowers."