The Ladies' Room (27 page)

"It is gorgeous, isn't it? You don't think they'll catch pneumonia riding with the top down, do you?" I asked.

"If they did, they'd both die happy," Crystal said with a
laugh.

Later that night when everyone had gone home, I sat in the
living room in the dark, the quilt rack Billy Lee had given me
for Christmas close enough that I could touch it. Tomorrow I'd
find the perfect place for it in the sparsely furnished living
room.

Billy Lee had asked Crystal what her passion was. I asked
myself the same question as I sat there watching the ornaments sparkle on the tree. My first Christmas in my new house
had been beyond wonderful. My daughter was home. Momma
had been lucid for a little while. Billy Lee? Well, words couldn't
describe Billy Lee.

But what was my passion? I'd jumped into remodeling with
zeal, but the job was almost finished. We had some minor details in the new downstairs bathroom and the kitchen to finish
up, but that didn't involve stripping wood or the floor man's
putting us out of the house for three days. When that was finished, what then?

What was my passion?

Had I ever had one, even as a child? I had wanted to fly
airplanes, but that dream had disappeared when I put my Barbie plane away with the dolls. I'd wanted to go to college and
get a degree back when Drew and I first married, but that
didn't appeal to me anymore. I'd enjoyed fixing up the house,
but I didn't want to do that again. Billy Lee said I should write
the story of the past six months or so, but who would believe
such things?

My stomach growled, and I headed toward the kitchen to
have a late-night snack. There was so little furniture in the
dining room that there was no danger I'd fall over anything.
Just the long table surrounded by chairs and a few choice
pieces of glassware on the bookshelves. Gone were two rockers and two old overstuffed chairs with tables and lamps beside them, and the walls were bare except for a single quilt
hanging from an oak rod.

From the dining room I went into the kitchen and flipped the switch, bathing the room in soft light. I was still trying to
figure out whether I wanted a sandwich or just a chunk of turkey when I stepped on a slimy, squishy slug with my bare foot.
In horror, I hopped on the other foot to the sink, acrobatically
stuck the first foot in, and turned the water on full blast to get
the offending debris off me. Naturally, I soaked my pajamas
and had to change into a fresh set.

Evidently I raised such a ruckus that a sleepy Crystal came
downstairs to see what was going on.

She cocked her head to one side. "I heard some commotion.
Are you all right?"

"I'm fine"

"But ... wait. Aren't you wearing different pajamas?"

"Yes, I am"

She covered a yawn with one hand and grinned at me. "So
explain, young lady. What did you do to warrant changing
pajamas? Did you slip through the hedge to spend some time
with Billy Lee? Am I going to have to give you the daughter/
mother talk?"

Scarlet burned my cheeks. "Sit down, kid, and let me tell
you all about it. And, honey, what I did wasn't nearly as much
fun as sneaking through the hedge to steal kisses from Billy
Lee, which, by the way, I've never done"

Okay, so I'd kissed Billy Lee. But I hadn't snuck through
the hedge, so I wasn't lying.

She pulled out a kitchen chair. "Then we have to have a
serious talk. If you don't get busy, someone, maybe even Betsy,
is going to steal him right out from under your nose. Her eyes
glittered when she saw the furniture he'd built, and I could see
dollar signs in her eyes when he drove that vintage Caddy up
into the yard. She had no idea he had that kind of thing going
out there in his shop or that he owned a car like that. She's not
stupid. I'm surprised he's outrun the women of Tishomingo this
long."

"Advice noted and taken" I'd seen the new look in both my
cousins' eyes when they realized what Billy Lee was worth
and could do.

I went on to tell her about stepping on the slug, getting my pajamas wet when I stood on one leg and put my foot into the
sink to wash it off, and having to change. By the time I finished, she was laughing so hard, she couldn't breathe. It wasn't
all that funny to me, having just lived through the nightmare,
but it was good to see her laughing the way she had when she
was a little girl, from deep down in her belly.

She wiped at her eyes with the tail of her nightshirt. Could
a baby really be hiding in that flat tummy? What would she
look like when she was nine months pregnant and her tiny
waistline was gone?

"Momma, you are so funny. You've got to write this stuff
down, and don't leave out a word. I want to remember it just
like you told it. And write down other things you've done too.
In fact, you should write a whole book. Then, when I'm your
age, I can look back and read about exactly how crazy and
wonderful you were"

She yawned. "Look, it's past midnight. This has been the
best Christmas ever in the whole wide world. It will go down
in history, won't it, Momma? The Christmas of the Slug. The
Christmas when Billy Lee Tucker made me get up at seven in
the morning to cook, then gave me a handmade jewelry case.
The one when we sat down to dinner with Grandma, and
`Billy Bob Thornton' drove her home in his red Cadillac" She
looked into my eyes. "I love you, Momma," she said, and she
hugged me fiercely.

"You should have seen your grandmother at Thanksgiving.
That was when she first became convinced that Billy Lee was
Billy Bob Thornton, and she flirted and laughed and told stories that I wished I'd known when I was younger."

"Funny, he doesn't really look like Billy Bob Thornton. He's
a sight better looking ... more like ... like .. " Crystal
frowned, trying to think of who Billy Lee reminded her of.

"Harrison Ford?" I suggested.

"That's it exactly! Like he looked in The Fugitive."
"

"Don't tell your grandmother that. She really thinks he's
Billy Bob Thornton"

.,We've been through a lot, but we're in a good place, right,
Momma?"

I nodded happily, and Crystal gave me a brilliant smile, then
yawned again. "Okay, I'm going back to bed now. You stay out
of the kitchen and away from slugs. Good night, Momma."

"Sleep well, pumpkin"

I thought about what Crystal had said about writing down
stuff about the past year. If I did, then maybe someday when
she was bone tired and her rebellious child had dealt her a
week's worth of pure misery, she could read the silly slug story
and laugh as hard as she had that evening.

She didn't have morning sickness the next day and was still
sleeping soundly when I made my way to the kitchen. Billy
Lee had let himself in the back door and was frying bacon
when I got there. He picked up a mug featuring Maxine making a wry comment about mornings on it, filled it with coffee,
set it in front of me, and returned to the bacon.

"Eggs or pancakes?"

"Both. I'm starving."

"I guess it was a pretty good Christmas if you're hungry
enough the next morning for both eggs and pancakes," he said.

I'd started lifting the mug toward my mouth but suddenly
spilled the coffee onto my white sweatshirt. I sighed. Coffee
stains did not come out of sweatshirts.

"You going to let Crystal sleep this morning?"

I nodded. I didn't tell him that I didn't want to share him
and that I treasured the moments we had alone.

"Good. I want to talk to you about something important,
and I don't want her to hear."

My heart stopped. What could it be? Was something wrong?
Or did he want to make sure that Crystal knew we were just
friends?

"What?"

"Her dream is to have a greenhouse someday, and we could
give her that now. It will keep her busy and give her something to keep her mind occupied while she's waiting for the
baby. I figure we could attach one end to the shop and build it
to the south. That way she'd have it right close to the house"

I'd been so busy with the holiday preparations, I'd given little thought to actually acting on what Billy Lee had called
her passion.

"What do you think? Or have I overstepped my boundaries?"
he asked.

"I think you're a genius. It's a wonderful idea. When can
we start, and is this the right time of year to do that? But
would you mind having the greenhouse on your property?"

"I've got plenty of room for it. She can get started and begin
lining up clients to sell to all year round, and she can do even
more in the spring when people want to come straight to a
greenhouse for their bedding plants. I did a lot of research
online last night, and I've already drawn up some plans for
her to look at. The only thing is, I don't know if ... if . . ." He
stammered, and his voice trailed off.

"Yes?" I asked, mystified.

"I've always wanted a family, Trudy," he blurted. "Gert was
like my grandmother. Even though I'm not Crystal's father,
would you be willing to share? May I at least be her friend and
help her out in this way?"

"Share what?" Crystal asked sleepily from the doorway.

"You," I answered honestly. "Billy Lee and I would like to
share in your future. How would you like to start building a
greenhouse next door?"

That opened her big blue eyes wide, and they glittered like
the lights on the Christmas tree. Her passion was digging in
dirt, Billy Lee had discovered. His was working with woodand making miracles. I think I found mine late the night before, when I couldn't fall asleep and actually wrote down the
story of the Christmas of the Slug. It would be great if someday I actually wrote something that would sell, but if I never
wrote for anyone but my daughter, that was all right too.

Brochures and a sketchbook were spread out over the
kitchen table. It was day one of the planning stage. Crystal
had visions of hothouse orchids and begonias dancing in her
head. Billy Lee was designing and erasing as she told him
what she had learned in her horticulture classes.

I sat in front of the cabinets on the kitchen floor discovering
some of the aftereffects of being raised during the Great Depression. Aunt Gert had saved absolutely everything. I was
sorting through stacks and stacks of plastic margarine containers, along with anything else that had a lid on it. The trash
cans were still crammed to capacity from the Christmas detritus the garbage truck hadn't yet picked up on its holiday
schedule, so the big black bag I was filling up would have to
be stored in the garage until we could make a run to the dump.
I stood up with a moan.

.,You want me to take that out?" Billy Lee asked.

"It's not heavy. I can do it. Ya'll about to decide how big to
make that thing?"

"Momma, I'd be happy with a plastic-covered bamboo hut
to start with, but Billy Lee wants to make it permanent, with
glass and steel."

"If this is truly your dream, then best to make it right," I
told her.

I slipped on one of Gert's old jackets and threw the bag over
my shoulder. If the jacket had been red, I might have looked
like a Johnny-come-lately Santa Claus, but it was a faded green plaid. I probably looked more like a bag woman who'd had a
good day Dumpster-diving.

I'd tossed the bag into the garage and was on my way back
to the house when I heard a weird mewling beside the back
porch. I stopped dead. After my recent experience with the
Christmas Slug in my kitchen, I wasn't feeling very trustful
about any unexpected critters. What if it was a rat the size of a
mountain lion throwing off pitiful noises so I'd come nearer,
and then it would scare the bejesus out of me?

I heard it again and carefully crept closer. If it was a rat,
Crystal and Billy Lee could cart my carcass to the funeral
home. At least the divorce was final, and Crystal would now be
my only living survivor, so she'd get Aunt Gert's inheritance,
and Drew couldn't touch a dime of it. I carefully peeked behind
the scrap lumber the carpenters had piled up beside the porch.

It was not a rat but a cat-a big fluffy ball of gray and orange fur curled up around two baby kittens. She looked up at
me with the same pitiful eyes that Crystal had had when she'd
showed up on my doorstep a week before. Half expecting the
momma cat to claw my hand off to nothing more than a
bloody nub, I carefully reached down to pet her.

She purred, and my heart melted. I tucked her two kittens
into the jacket's patch pocket and draped the momma over my
arm. The purring got louder as I carried her into the house, as
if she knew those babies couldn't survive outside in the winter,
and I was their salvation.

Neither Billy Lee nor Crystal looked up.

"Hey, look what I found."

Crystal was on her feet and had that momma cat in her
arms in an instant. "Oh, isn't she beautiful? But we can't keep
her. Daddy is allergic to cats"

The look on her face was one of horror. "I'm so sorry. That
just slipped out"