The Queen of Cool (16 page)

“
Thanks Manny,” Lo leaned
into the car to talk to him. “I know you’re trying to help. I’ll
talk to Lisa and Larry about exhuming Mom and Dad. Larry will let
you know when he comes on shift.”

Manny nodded and Lo closed the door. She
gave a quick look around her and went into her mom’s house where
Lisa was waiting.

“
Well?” Lisa
asked.

“
Nothing good,” Lo
said.

Lisa gave Lo a fierce hug.

Q

Thursday afternoon—4:45 p.m
Fairmount Historic District, Fort Worth, Texas

Days: 39

“
Okay, is everyone ready?”
Lo asked.

She looked from Mandy to Alisha. Lisa, Earl
and their kids were tucked tight together on the couch. Having
stopped by on his way to work, Larry was standing near the living
room door of her mother’s house. Yazmin already had her bag and
jacket to leave. Sober, shaven, and clean, Mutt tucked himself
against the back wall.

“
Mr. Larry and I want to
see it before we leave,” Yazmin made a “get on with it”
gesture.

“
Okay.” Lo hit a button and
the television advertisement began to run.

“
Hi, I’m Lo.”

She wore a push up bra under a black
short-sleeved turtle neck and tiny cut-off blue jeans shorts. Her
blonde hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and she was holding a
child’s fairy wand.

“
You probably know me as a
Fitness Queen,” Lo beamed her big television star smile. She waved
her wand and a press photo appeared of Lo in a bikini holding her
winning Ms. Fitness Olympia statue.

“
Some of you might even
remember this,” Lo waved her wand and a photo of her, with Don’s
arm around her, after winning Arlington Heights Homecoming
queen.

“
What you may not know is
that I am now, the Queen of Cool,” Lo waved her wand and a paper
crown appeared at a jaunty angle on her head. She crossed her arms
and smiled at the camera.

“
As your Queen of Cool, I’m
here to grant you your greatest desire – a reliable air
conditioning company,” Lo said.

“
Our staff of reliable
technicians…” Lo turned and waved her wand behind her. The men and
women they’d hired appeared behind her wearing red checkered shirts
and jeans. Turning back to the camera, Lo winked. “… are here to
make your every air conditioning wish come true.”

“
Need a new system?
Installed by friendly, trustworthy folks who clean-up after
themselves?” Lo waved her wand. Wearing a red checked shirt tied
under her breasts, tiny jean cut-off shorts and carrying a similar
wand, Mandy appeared standing next to the air conditioning system.
They cheered for Mandy. “Your wish is granted.”

“
Looking to have your
current system run at its tip-top most energy efficient? Want it
serviced by folks you can trust to give you an honest assessment
and service?” Lo waved her wand and Alisha appeared, wearing jean
shorts and a red checkered top and a similar wand. Mutt appeared
just after Alicia wearing a checkered shirt and jeans. They cheered
for Alisha and Mutt. “Your wish is granted.”

“
Want a new system or
repairs, but can’t pay for them right now?” Lo waved her wand and
Lisa appeared, wearing jean shorts and a red checkered top, with
her own wand and an adding machine. Earl whistled for Lisa. “Your
wish is granted with easy financing.”

“
Just to prove
that I
am
your Queen,” the camera moved in close to Lo’s
face. She batted her false eyelash-enhanced blue eyes and smiled.
“I’m granting you a full checkup with one of our technicians for
only $99. That’s right – $99. And we’ll never charge you if there’s
no work to be done.”

Lo gave a quick look over her shoulder and
looked back.

“
Let’s make this our little
secret,” Lo winked and raised her finger to her lips. “You never
know what evil witch queen might come after your Queen of
Cool.”

Lo winked again, then laughed as if she’s
told a joke. Waving her wand over her head, she disappeared,
leaving the phone number and website address in her wake.

They applauded and Lo bowed.

“
What do you think?” Lo got
up to turn the player off. “Anything we should change?”

“
Love it!” Yazmin hugged
Lo. “It’s very fun that you used a picture with Mr. Don in it. I
love that the most. I wouldn’t change a thing.”

“
Great job sis,” Larry
said. He raised a hand. He was taking Yazmin home on his way to
work. They left together.

“
So you like it?” Lo
asked.

“
It’s perfect, Mom,” Alisha
said. “We’re all in it, and I have to say: watch out Fort
Worth!”

“
You guys look
spectacular,” Lo said. “I love your wands! They are like mine but
not exactly. Brilliant. I didn’t even notice them when we were
filming.”

“
We did it on the last
take,” Alisha said. “You were lying down by then.”

Lo nodded.

“
What’s the tagline?” Earl
asked.

“
Your wish is granted,” Lo
said. “If we’re all right with this, the ad will start running
tomorrow.”

“
Do it Lo,” Lisa said. “I
bet the phones will ring off the hook!”

“
I hope so,” Lo said. “I
think we could all use something other than this sad stuff to think
about. So everyone agrees?”

She looked from nodding person to nodding
person.

“
Great,” Lo said. “I’ll go
call the ad agency.”

Leaving her family in the living room, she
went through the garden to her hideaway on top of the garage. She
made it almost all the way before she started crying.

She didn’t want to move on.

She was leaving Don behind.

She’d rather die than leave Don behind.

She threw herself on her bed and sobbed
until the storm subsided. She clenched her jaw and dialed the Los
Angeles ad agency. She forced herself to smile through the
conversation. After she hung up, she sat on the side of the bed
trying to force herself to return to the party. Unable to keep the
darkness at bay, she climbed into bed and pulled the covers over
her head.

Q

Friday morning—10:45 a.m.
Justice Center, Fort Worth, Texas

Days: 40

Lo sat in
Don’s truck trying to talk herself into going into the Justice
Center. It was time to change her status to widow and become “an
entity” in her own right. Don had been dead forty days, and there
was no telling when their accounts would be released. She had to
open her own bank account. She had to regain her own name. She had
to… move on. She had to
move
on
. She
had to
move
on.
She
had to move on. The words echoed around her
brain.

She just didn’t want to.

With a sigh, she picked up the form with
Don’s death certificate and a copy of her driver’s license clipped
on the back. She grabbed the clutch purse she’d borrowed from Mandy
and got out of the truck.

“
Good job Lo,” she
whispered to herself. “One step in front of the other.”

She went into the building. After a quick
chat with the guard, she stood at the elevators. When the elevator
dinged and opened, she stepped on. The doors were just closing when
she heard: “Hold the door.”

She put her hand in between the doors and
they popped open for a tall, broad-shouldered man about her age. He
gave her a kind of smile and got on the elevator. They took the
elevator to the third floor.

“
I’m sorry to bother you,”
the man said as the elevator came to a halt. His voice was straight
out of the bayou. “I couldn’t help but see that you’re changing
your name today. I need to do that but… I downloaded the forms
online last night and couldn’t make heads or tails out of them. I
was going to throw myself on the mercy of the clerk. But…I can see
you have the forms all filled out. I wondered…”

“
You can copy mine,” Lo
said. “I’m changing my status to widow and…”

Her face clouded and tear storms threatened
the tight hold she had on her eyes.

“
I’m registering as a
widower,” he said. His face was a mask of the pain Lo felt. “If you
wouldn’t mind?”

“
I don’t mind,” Lo said. “I
didn’t fill these out. My husband’s lawyer sent them to me. I just
printed them out and signed them. So I kind of cheated
too.”

The man gave her a big toothy smile and they
stepped off the elevator. He held out his hand. She shook it
automatically.

“
I’m Sy,” the man said.
“Simon Monquist. You don’t have to say who you are. I’d know you
anywhere. You’re Don Down’s wife, Lo, Lorraine Downs.”

Lo nodded. They walked to the clerk’s
office. Sy pulled out the form he needed and began copying her
form.

“
It’s nice to finally meet
you,” Sy said. “Don helped me and my wife, Renee, when we first
moved here from New Orleans. We’d have been lost without him. We
met at a fundraising event, but there were so many people there, I
bet you don’t remember.”

“
Do you own a pie shop?” Lo
asked. She blinked at her foggy memory.

“
That’s right. I own Simple
Simon,” Sy said. “Don helped me set it up. You should come by for a
pie. I know Renee’s going to want to meet you. I’ll never hear the
end of it if you don’t. She’s the social one, and I’m…”

Realizing what he’d just said, his face
flushed and his eyes filled with tears. He nodded to Lo and
finished copying her form. He held her form out to her and they got
in line together. He cleared his throat.

“
So why do you have to
change your name?” Sy asked. “Donny must have taken care of
you.”

“
Our accounts are frozen,”
Lo said. “I have to become my own entity so I can have my own bank
accounts and stuff. First time for me.”

“
Me too,” Sy said. “Renee
had ovarian cancer. The hospital bills are affecting my credit
rating and the business will fail. So I have to… do this… do this
for Renee. She’d be crushed if the shop went under. But… Renee took
care of all our money and stuff, even for the business. I haven’t
had an account myself either. Ever.”

They moved up a person in line.

“
Renee and I got married
when we were just kids,” Sy said. “Sixteen and crazy.”

“
I was sixteen when I
married Don,” Lo nodded. “I guess you understand.”

“
How hard this is?” Sy
nodded. “I understand. I’m in the same boat.”

Lo gave him a sad smile. It was nice to
think she wasn’t completely alone in all of this mess. She took a
step forward. She was digging in the clutch for her driver’s
license when he said:

“
I saw you at the hospital.
You know the day…” Sy swallowed hard. “You know, the day Don
died?”

“
Oh?” Lo asked.

“
Renee had just died,” Sy
said. “I was coming out from her room. You were standing in the
emergency room waiting area. You looked really lost, really alone.
I think I noticed you because I felt the same way.”

“
Renee died the same day
Don died?” Lo asked.

“
She did,” Sy said. “It
gives me great comfort to think she wasn’t alone on the road to
heaven. Donny would always help a woman in need.”

“
That’s a nice thought,” Lo
gave him a soft smile. “Thanks.”

“
My Renee loved Don,” Sy
said. “I was never jealous though. Old Donny loved the hell out of
you. When he’d stop by in the morning, he’d linger for a story or
two. But if he came in the evening, he was all business. ‘Lo’s
waiting on me,’ he’d say. He didn’t want to miss a second of his
time with you.”

“
We were very happy,” Lo
said.

“
We were too,” Sy said. “I
guess that’s why I noticed how happy he was to be seeing you soon.
It’s unusual to meet people who are in love like Renee and I
were.”

“
Did you and Renee have
kids?” Lo asked. “Don had a couple of girls before we married.
They’re great, but I’d think having our child would make it easier…
for me… now.”

Lo stood at the front of the line.

“
We never had kids,” Sy
said. “Renee was a few months pregnant when Katrina hit. Everything
that happened, my dad’s suicide, her mother’s death, that horrible
muck of water, death everywhere, no clean water, no food, moving,
everything… She lost the baby our first night in Fort Worth. We
found out about the cancer right after that and… She was worried
I’d care, but I never loved her less for not being able to have
kids. I didn’t care. You guys have kids?”

Not trusting herself with words, Lo shook
her head.

“
What about the one you’re
carryin’?” Sy asked.

Lo gawked at him. She shook her head. Sy
pointed to her abdomen.

“
Next!” the clerk
called.

Lo ran to the desk and threw the papers at
the woman. The woman checked her driver’s license with the copy Lo
gave her and then stamped everything. Lo pushed the money at the
clerk and ran out of the office. She was halfway down the stairs
when she heard Sy call her name from the top of the stairwell.

Freaked out by the man’s seemingly intimate
knowledge of her and her life, she ran all the way to Don’s truck.
Surrounded by the big truck and smell of Don, she let out a breath.
She was driving out of the parking lot when she spotted that
weirdo, Sy Monquist walking to his car. She carefully avoided the
man and sped to her mother’s house. She was about to pull into the
garage when she sighed.