Iced Tea (20 page)

“Sure you do.
 
I’ve seen you do rainbow trout.
 
I’ve even seen you do the white fish in milk in the oven thing.
 
You asked if I had a request, I’m requesting fish.”

“How about if we forget about the fish, they have boneless rib eyes on sale at Publix, I’ll grab some, and we can have the guys grill them while we do the other stuff and catch up in the kitchen.
 
They replaced the grill out by the pool at my apartment complex, and they have a really nice setup out there.”

“That sounds perfect.
 
You sure you want to splurge on rib eyes?”

“Why not?
 
Maybe all that protein will kick my brain in gear and I’ll actually figure out this whole conundrum.”

“What time?”

“I’m not positive.
 
We’ll say six, and if I check with AJ and that’s a bad time, or Jessie can’t make it, we’ll talk.
 
If we don’t hear from each other, six will work.”

“Six it is.
 
See you then.”

I didn’t even have to ask her to bring dessert.
 
That’s a Teagan thing.
 
She knows.
 
She’s a good sister.

And the powers kicked back in.

Thank you God.

Sisters!

I missed that.

I would do anything for my sister.

Wouldn’t Jerkface?

Wouldn’t Jerkface’s sister do anything for him?

I called Billy again.

“Cara, this is a surprise.
 
Two calls so close together.
 
Am I sick?”

“Very funny Billy.
 
I have a question for you.
 
Do you know where Louis is buried?”

“Why certainly.
 
I presided over a small graveside service when he was interned.”

“I could have sworn someone told me that he was cremated, and I thought that was against the rules for a Catholic.”

“Cara, you really need to spend more time with the Church.
 
The ban on cremation was lifted in the 1960s.
 
Since the late 1990s, the cremated remains of a Catholic are to be treated exactly the same way un-cremated remains would be treated.”

“Well, I can’t be held accountable for rules that changed before I was ever born, Billy.”

“Cara, I don’t know how to break this to you, but the rules of the Church, with rare exception, have been around since long before either of us were born.”

“Good point.
 
So where is he?”

“Who?”

“Louis.”

“You really need to put your blinker on before you change subjects so quickly, you could cause injury.”

“Teagan always says I’m going to give myself whiplash.”

“Teagan is a smart woman.”

“Louis?”

“Oh, well, he’s buried on the north…”

“Billy, I barely know my right from my left, I do not know where north is.”

“If you’re standing at the foot of Bernie’s grave.”

“Okay.”

“And you look toward the freeway.”

“Okay.”

“He is buried at about one o’clock, probably the third row in, in the new section.”

“That section is for cremated people?”

“Yep.”

“I didn’t go over there last time I was out to talk to Bernie because I thought that was another baby section, the headstones were so close together, and I just couldn’t do more babies.”

“The death of a child is the most difficult.”

“Billy, I gotta go, but I really appreciate your help.
 
Oh, and before I forget, I promised Bernie the last time I was at the cemetery, that I would get down to the soup kitchen and help out every once in a while.
 
Who should I talk to about that?
 
Do I just show up?”

“No, there’s a schedule.
 
You remember Alice from school.
 
I think she was in your class, maybe Teagan’s.”

“Alice with the beautiful dark long hair?”

“Yep, that’s her.
 
She’s in charge of scheduling.
 
I’ll have her contact you through the email address I have for you.”

“Thanks Billy.
 
By the way, does she still have all that beautiful hair?”

“No, she actually has more of it now.
 
It’s long, a little darker, and very thick.
 
She hates it.
 
Complains about it all the time, but I guess her husband loves it.
 
She has two little girls with just the same hair.”

“I hate her.”

“Cara, don’t be that way.”

“Fine, she’s a lovely person.
 
I hate her hair.
 
That’s better than envy right?”

I hung up as he chuckled.

When I confronted Jerkface, when he was still Joe-the-cop, about following me to the cemetery, he said that he didn’t have his car that day, that he’d been using his sister’s truck, and then when I said that I thought his car was at the cemetery, he said that his sister had lost her fiancé recently.
 
So smooth I didn’t even think about it, and I bet she would have backed him up, too.
 

I have no doubt that he was following me.

No doubt.

The question is, why?

More puzzle pieces.

Okay, you know what?
 
I’m even boring myself.
 
I keep asking the same questions over and over, and I’m not getting anywhere.

Time to change my brain.
 
Easiest way to do that is to repeat my favored mantra, every time my brain gets in the Jerkface loop.

I am healthy, I am wealthy, I am thankful, I am thin.

I am healthy, and thin, and always thankful.
 
Wealthy, well, they say you’re supposed to visualize what you want as if it’s already real, and it’ll materialize; you’ll manifest it into your life.
 

There are worse things to visualize than being wealthy.

I’ll share.
 
It’s not purely selfish.

I puttered around the house for a little while.
 
Got all the preparations done for dinner.
 

I sent off a little thank you note to Jovana for all that she is doing for my family.
 

I called and checked in with some of my brothers and sisters.
 
I’ve been woefully neglectful of them lately.

I tried to focus on what I want to do when I grow up.
 
I need a job.
 
I need income, not out-go.
 
So far my efforts to become an entrepreneur are not getting me very far, at least not in the way of income.

I played around with my hair for a while.
 
I made sections, about the size of a smallish hot roller, twisted my hair, and wrapped it around the roller.
 
I’m pretty sure I read somewhere that your hair will look full and more wavy than curly.
 
That would be good.

I dug out my makeup and played with some colors.
 
Baby pink and medium gray eye shadows.
 
Having blue eyes, those particular shades make my eyes pop.
 
I tried a really red lip, just for the sake of drama, thinking I could be Jessica Rabbit, at least from the neck up, but I looked more like The Joker.
 
I’m pale like that.

I scrubbed off my lips but left my eyes as they were.
 

I went to the kitchen and pulled the meat out of the fridge, cause my uncle says you’re supposed to have it closer to room temperature when you start to barbeque it.

AJ got home first.
 
He took a quick shower and then went out to make sure the grill was clean and working.
 
For some reason, the people in my apartment complex have a real problem acting responsibly about the community grill.
 
It really isn’t all that difficult to keep the sucker clean, and to let the office know if you used the last of the propane, but some people just don’t get it.

Good news, all is well with the grill.

Teagan and Jessie showed up on time.
 
Teagan stuffed some kind of goodness in the fridge, I’m assuming dessert, and Jessie went back out to the grill with AJ.
 
They decided to take a drink out to the pool, watch the swimmers, and start the meat in 20 minutes.
 

That would give Teagan and me time to talk.

“What kind of potatoes do you want?
 
I can zap some baked potatoes in the microwave, we can do fries, we can skip potatoes and just do meat with some bread and fruit, or I’m out of options and we can just gnaw on meat.”

“How about baked?
 
Do you have anything to put on them besides butter?”

“Actually, you’ll be shocked and amazed to find out that I do.
 
I have everything and then some.
 
AJ eats like a normal person so I’ve been trying to keep that kind of stuff in the house.
 
Be impressed.”

“I’ll be impressed when I find out what you have to put on the potatoes.”

“I have butter.
 
I have cream cheese stuff.”

“Cream cheese?”

“Sorry, sour cream.”

“Okay.”

“I’ve got catsup, scallions, salsa and mushrooms.”

“You have mushrooms?”

“I know, fungus in my house, it’s hard to believe.”

“It sure is.”

“Let’s see, I’ve even got Bacon Bits.
 
I don’t know what else, I don’t put anything but butter on mine, but the fridge and the cupboards are full, you can search around and see if anything else is appropriate.”

“This is major growth, Cara.
 
Next thing you know, you’ll even try some of it.”

“I wouldn’t hold my breath if I were you.”

“What kind of bread have you got?”

“I have some really good french bread from Publix.
 
It was still warm when I grabbed it.
 
I got multiple loaves.
 
I’m gonna warm one with just butter on it, one without butter on it, one with garlic butter sauce I stole off the Internet.”

“It’s not really stealing it if it’s on the Internet for everyone to see.”

“True.
 
They have it up there in restaurant quantities, so I have a couple of pounds of the stuff in the freezer.
 
I just hack off a piece and melt it when I want some.
 
You know what, if I zap some in the microwave, it gets all frothy on top, and I eat it with a tortilla.”

“You?
 
A tortilla?
 
What is the world coming to?
 
Next you’ll tell me you tried a hamburger.”

“I’ve never had a hamburger, and my guess is, I’ll die a hamburger virgin.”

“You are so weird.
 
Oh, I forgot to tell you.
 
I am trying a new wrap tomorrow, you want to come?”

“A wrap, like a chicken wrap for lunch, wrap?”

“No, Dingleberry, a wrap like a body wrap.”

“And you say I’m weird.”

“There’s nothing weird about a body wrap.”

“Right.
 
It’s perfectly normal to go take all your clothes off in front of a stranger.
 
Have him or her slime you with glop.”

“It’s a her, and it isn’t glop.
 
It’s a proprietary blend of all kinds of good stuff, and don’t forget the dry brushing.”

“Right, that’s real advanced, somebody you don’t know takes a brush and tries to scrub your skin off.”

“That doesn’t happen.
 
It’s good for cellulite and dry skin and about a hundred other issues that might not be annoying you right now, but you are headed for.”

“I’m not gonna let somebody scrub my skin off, slather me with gunk, wrap me up like a mummy, hose me down and call it pampering.”

“You’re such a dweeb.”

“I can live with that.”

“For the record, that isn’t what happens, and I think you’d really enjoy it.”

“I’m not going.
 
I don’t do body wraps.
 
If you want to do that, and you think it’s worth your time and money, more power to you, but I’m not doing it.”

“Subject change.
 
Have you done anything about the trunk Bernie gave you?
 
Have you looked at anything yet?”

“Nope.”

“What’s going on with you Cara?
 
There was a time in the not so distant past that we couldn’t have held you off that trunk.
 
You’ve had it all this time and you haven’t even opened one thing?
 
What’s up with that?”