Elaine Orr - Jolie Gentil 04 - Any Port in a Storm (24 page)

They hadn’t left until about eleven-thirty, so I figured they’d get something to eat and not be back at the hospital until at least eight or nine o’clock.
Aunt Madge and Harry barely stayed at all. I knew she didn’t have guests, so I figured they were looking forward to having the Cozy Corner all to themselves. Not that I was supposed to know that.

I had just finished breakfast and a nurse had taken out my IV when the door to the room slid open.
It took me a minute to realize the couple standing in the door way was Hayden’s parents.

“Come on in,” I said.

“Thank you. We haven’t met,” the woman said. “This is my husband, Alberto Grosso, and I’m Mary Patricia.”

I nodded.
I decided not to tell them I’d hidden in the choir loft during Hayden’s funeral. “I’m sorry you lost your son,” I said.

“We lost him a long time ago,” said Mr. Grosso.

“Please, sit,” I said.

They pulled a couple of plastic chairs close to the bed.
We were all silent for several seconds.

“We feel very badly about the lawsuit,” Mrs. Grosso said.

“Thank you…” I began.

“Please,” Mr. Grosso said, and I nodded.
“We were so upset, and when Veronica and Mary Jo suggested it, and Mary Jo had already asked the lawyers to draw up some papers, we just did what they suggested.”

“It was very foolish,” Mrs. Grosso said.

“You were hurting,” I said. It felt very odd to be comforting people who had tried to sue the daylights out of me.

“We’ve learned a lot the past twenty hours or so,” Mr. Grosso said.

“Things I’d like to know, I bet,” and I tried to look encouraging without appearing giddy.

“Yes,” Mrs. Grosso said.
“We learned that our son-in-law,” she pursed her lips, “was a very bad influence on Hayden. It appears that he actually sent Hayden to find people to sell his horrible drugs to.”

“Veronica and the children are with us at the moment,” Mr. Grosso said.
“I hope to God she leaves the bastard this time.”

I noted the words “this time” and just nodded.

“Just a couple days ago,” he continued, “she went to the garden shed in their yard. He, Ricardo, kept it locked, said there were lawn chemicals and such, and he didn’t want the family near it.”

“And Veronica would never do anything that would break a nail.”
Mrs. Grosso gave a small smile and touched her husband on the hand. He squeezed her hand.

“Anyway, someone tried to break into the shed, and he was very upset about it.
So, when he went to work, she couldn’t find a key, so she just broke a window. And…” Alberto Grosso looked as if he might cry.

“They found marijuana,” I said, softly.

They were dumbfounded, so I continued. “We had heard Hayden seemed to be selling something in small plastic bags to local kids. I never saw this,” I said, quickly. “A couple friends thought that’s what they saw on the boardwalk one evening.”

They kept looking at me.

“And I talked to Agnes Flaherty.
She is not very fond of Ricardo Bruno.”

“You talked to Agnes?” Mrs. Grosso almost gasped.

“I was trying to figure out what the heck was happening,” I said. “I looked up a bunch of newspaper articles on line, and saw about the accident…” I couldn’t finish the sentence. How do you say, “Where your son almost killed a girl and then left her in the car?”

“Ah,” Mr. Grosso said.
“And Veronica said you stopped by.”

“Yes.
I mentioned to her I wasn’t sure about going to see you, but to be honest, half the reason I went was just to see if I could piece together why Hayden seemed to have walked into my life. Via my friend’s daughter, Alicia.”

Both the Grossos had a pained expression.
“We think that had something to do with Mary Jo,” Mr. Grosso said.

“Is she really just fourteen?” Mrs. Grosso almost whispered.

I nodded. “I don’t think there was any harm done.”
In other words, I think she’s still a virgin.

“Mary Jo has been very close to Hayden.
She’s his godmother. We think, we aren’t sure, that she wanted him to go to your town, specifically, to look for Ricardo’s buyers,” Mr. Grosso had a distinctly ugly look, “so that he could somehow annoy you. Something to do with her brother.”

I nodded.
“Alicia and her mom volunteer with me at the food pantry. Hayden probably figured that would really make her mom and me angry, and maybe a little afraid. Him being so much older.”

Mrs. Grosso took a tissue from her purse.
“I just don’t know what we did,” she said. Mr. Grosso put his arm around her shoulders and kissed her on the cheek.

“You didn’t do anything, or not do.
Things just…happen.” I thought about telling them about Robby and decided not to. “If anything, Ricardo probably was a bad influence.”

They both nodded.
“But it’s really no excuse,” she said.

I shrugged.
“He was what, five years older or so? I bet Hayden looked up to him.”

They nodded again, and looked at each other.
“We should probably go. We do want to be sure you don’t have any legal fees,” Mr. Grosso said.

“The lawyer I talked to was a friend of my aunt’s.
He only charged me one hundred and fifty dollars.”

“We want that bill right away,” Mrs. Grosso said, as she stood.

Mr. Grosso nodded.
“My checkbook’s in the car…”

I shook my head.
“Give it to…” I thought for a minute. “Some kind of drug rehab place.”
I’m such a sucker.

Mrs. Grosso started to sob quietly into her hands and Mr. Grosso put his arms around her and drew her to him.
They stood like that for maybe fifteen seconds, with him patting her on the back.

I wished I knew what to say to make them feel better.
They were almost at the door when I thought of something. “You know, Agnes Flaherty told me something. She said her parents didn’t want her to talk to Hayden, but they did keep in touch a bit. He sent her chocolates often. One of her friends brought them to her.”

Tears spilled down Mrs. Grosso’s cheeks.
“Thank you,” she whispered, and they were gone.

I’D BEEN LYING very still, thinking about my conversation with the Grossos, when there was a light knock and Scoobie stuck his head in.

“I didn’t hear any tinkling,” he said, and grinned at me.

“You’re so subtle. Come on in.”

When it was clear he was alone I gave him a questioning look.

“Those two are still getting ready. We didn’t want to pay for two rooms, so they brought in a cot. George and I had a fight over it, and Ramona ended up sleeping on it.”

“I’m sorry I missed all that,” I said.

“You look like yourself,” Scoobie said. “I’m really glad.”

“Me, too.
So, where have you been lately?” I asked.

“Giving George space,” he said, simply.

“He’s such a turd,” I said.

“Gee, a new word for boyfriend?”

“Very funny. Don’t stay away, Scoobie. I miss you.”

“Yeah, I told him he’d have to figure it out.”
He smiled. “He said if I was there you always talked to me, and he just wanted a chance.”

I shook my head.
“That’s so strange.”

“What?” Scoobie asked.

“George at a loss for words.”

He nodded.
“Kind of as if you had a hard time talking.” He walked over and gave me a hug, and I kissed him on the neck.

“Ooh la la,” he said, and sat down.

“You’re a dork. How’s school?”

“Really good, actually.
We’re taking turns learning how to position people on the table for x-rays.” He pulled a small piece of paper from his pocket. “You can imagine all the comments about prone positions.”

“I imagine you contribute to them.”

He opened the paper. “You’re going to love this one.”

There once was a man who wrote,

Though not every word would you quote.

He set his sights quite high.

For Jolie she was nigh

Now on the clouds he does float.

My eyes were moist, but I managed to say, “That’s really awful.”

He laughed.
“Yeah, I’ve been too busy to focus on it. Later.”

“You know, I like him, but George and I don’t really know each other…”
I made a shrugging gesture.

“He thinks you were made for each other,” Scoobie said.
“So, no pressure.”

IT WAS SATURDAY evening, but instead of sitting in the movie theater George had rented a movie called
The Notebook
, and he was trying to get Aunt Madge’s DVD player to recognize the disc.

George had to move a vase of flowers Lester sent so that he didn’t knock it over when he tried to convince the DVD to actually show the movie.
From the look on his face, he didn’t like the note on the card, “Next time call me. Hugs, Lester.”

I was feeling pretty good, but I got really tired after I’d been up for awhile, so we were staying in for our first date.
That and the fact that Aunt Madge said she’d sic the dogs on us if we went out.

The doorbell rang.
George stopped cursing at the DVD player. “Want me to get it?”

“I guess if it were Harry he’d just walk in.”

George came back a minute later with Megan and Alicia.

“Great to see you guys.”
I got up to accept the single rose Alicia was carrying. She started sobbing before I even got to her.

I walked to her and pulled her into a hug.
“Hey, it’s okay. It’s okay.”

I looked at Megan, and she was actually smiling.
She mouthed, “She’ll be all right.”

“Come on Alicia, sit next to me on the loveseat.”

“I’m sorry,” she gulped, as we sat.

“You’re fine,” I said.

“Better than fine,” George said, looking supremely uncomfortable.

Megan drew a finger across her throat in the universal sign for
shut-up
. He sat on a kitchen chair and buried his head in his hands.

He better not have any teenage girls.
Why am I thinking about that?

“Come on, Alicia, here’s a tissue.”

Aunt Madge walked out of her bedroom, took in the situation, and said, “This calls for ice cream.” She walked to the fridge, and Megan sat in a chair near the loveseat.

“I was so rude to you, Jolie,” Alicia said, and then blew her nose.

“The only time I was worried was when you said you wouldn’t help at Harvest for All.” I smiled at her.

“I called it the stupid food pantry,” she whispered.

“I think I’ve heard Jolie use that term,” Aunt Madge said. She set a bowl of chocolate and strawberry ice cream in front of Alicia, and a plain chocolate in front of me.

“You thought I was being mean to someone you liked,” I said.
I picked up my bowl. “Come on, this’ll make anything feel better.”

Megan got up and went over to serve a bowl for herself, and George continued to look helpless.
Alicia took a spoon of ice cream, and then caught sight of Mister Rogers. He was sitting on his haunches, very straight and still, and if a dog can have a worried look on its face, he had one. Miss Piggy was just a couple feet from him. She did a tight circle several times, sat, got up and did it again.

“I scared the dogs,” Alicia said, smiling a bit.

“Yep, they’re a couple of wimps,” I said.

We ate in silence for a couple of bites, and Alicia looked at me.
“I really am sorry.”

“You and I are cool.”
And we were.

MEGAN AND ALICIA didn’t stay long. I knew Aunt Madge was going out with Harry, and I figured George was going to start the movie after she left, which would be soon. I had read the summary of the movie on the back of the DVD. One of the reviewers called it “a love story for the ages.”
Who would have pegged George for a romantic?

Aunt Madge had finished getting ready and came back into the sitting room.
Her hair this week was a kind of light auburn, and she had on a soft green dress with a tan sweater. “Well aren’t you ready for fall,” I said.

She started to say something, but we heard the side door open.
George grinned at me. “It’ll be nice to see Harry,” I said.

She gave both of us a ‘put a cork in it’ look and went out to greet Harry.
They came back into Aunt Madge’s living area and Harry gave me a jaunty wave. “You’re looking better all the time.”

Aunt Madge picked up her purse from the table.
“I know you’ll be in good hands, Jolie,” she said.

“You know, there aren’t any guests.
If you guys were to stay at Harry’s we can hold the fort down here,” I said.

I have absolutely never seen Aunt Madge turn brick red.
Or Harry, for that matter.

THE MOVIE HAD BEEN over for about ten minutes, and George and I were lying on the floor, using every pillow from the living area and a couple from my bedroom. There was a kind of “now what?” atmosphere in the room.

“So, what next?”
George asked.

“Mmm.
I’m not sure. I don’t exactly want to rush things,” I said.

“I’m pretty sure we aren’t doing that,” he said, and propped himself on an elbow to look at me.

I smiled at him. “Remember how mad I used to get at you?” I asked.

“That’s not the conversation starter I was looking for,” he said, but he grinned back at me.

“Who wants to talk?” I asked, and leaned over to kiss him. Kissed him for a really long time.