Lessons for Lexi (3 page)

“You do have the finest collection of
stick figure pornography in the entire world.”

“Ok,” Raj responded. “Texas is as good as any other place.”

Lexi looked around her apartment and
for the first time in months, realized she had nowhere to be and nothing to do.
“Let’s go to Austin.”

Chapter 3

The
Hussners
were an Austin
institution. They had a well respected southern name that JT used in his
marketing. A well respected southern name was great for advertising in cattle
and real estate. What it
wasn’t was
trendy. JT hoped
to change all that with Lexi Logan. As she was being stubborn, he’d decided to
push her to the back of his mind and deal with another problem; his aunt.

Althea Hussner had never been married.
At the age of 67, she looked relatively the same as she did at the age of 21.
She was tall, heavy set and would have probably made a more attractive man. She
was also a stern, outspoken, intelligent matriarch. When her sisters had gone
off and gotten married, she’d maintained the household and she continued to do
so with an iron grip. A lot of the time, JT thought half his aunt’s problems
with Faith were because of her fear that Faith would want to take up residence
in the family home.

He didn’t know how to reassure her that
that would never happen. There was no polite way to tell her that living in
that house was his idea of hell.

Althea’s somber housekeeper opened the
door before he could even knock. “Ms. Hussner is waiting out back for you,” she
informed him as though the guillotine awaited him.

“Thanks.” JT walked through the
familiar pristine hallways until he reached a sun porch in the back. Althea sat
at a table, her hands feeling through the yarn she was knitting, even though
her eyes couldn’t see it. Althea Hussner had another reason for her slight bitterness.
Since her early thirties, her vision had gotten progressively worse. By the
time she turned 60, she was completely blind.

“It’s about time you arrived.” She said
stiffly. “I’ve had my lunch held up awaiting your arrival.”

“I already ate.” JT responded, just to
annoy her. He moved across the room to sit in a chair more designed for beauty
than comfort.
 
“Why am I here again,
Althea?”

“You’re still seeing her, aren’t you?”

“I told you last time I was here; I’m
not breaking up with Faith. You can keep the house,” he reminded her calmly. “I
hate this house.” His last conversation with his aunt had been a threat to give
the house to his brother if he didn’t end his relationship with ‘that hussy.’
As the oldest Hussner, the house was traditionally his. But his aunt was
planning to forgo tradition to keep him and Faith apart.

Althea sighed. “I give up. You win.”
She slumped in her chair. “It’s yours.”

JT raised an eyebrow. He didn’t really
want it, but her change of heart surprised him. “Why?”

“Do you have any idea how difficult it
is to be blind and live in this mausoleum?” She let out a humorless laugh. “It’s
supposed to be your home. I’m tired of handling it. If you want to move Faith
in, be my guest.”

“I don’t want it.” JT responded
immediately but his mind raced. He had always thought she wanted the home, but
apparently, she had just been place holding it. He was expected to move into
the secluded place?
 
His heart wasn’t in
ranching or ancestral homes. He did not want the Hussner family home.
 
“If you can’t handle it alone, we can hire a
nurse.”

“I am not an invalid.” Althea huffed.
“I will not be treated like one.” She turned her sightless eyes in his
direction. “Why can’t you move in with Faith? This is a family home, after all.”

Family.
He was not
ready for family. He hadn’t even considered family. “Althea, it’s not really
the right time for me. I need to be in the city for work. Maybe I could find
someone to stay with you. Not a nurse,” he interrupted before she could
protest. “Like a companion.”

He could have sworn his aunt smirked
before she nodded in agreement.

One week later, JT was seated at an
outdoor café with Althea. Despite the heat of Austin in June, Althea was dressed in a heavy,
grey shapeless dress and a large brimmed hat. She spent ten minutes complaining
about the heat before JT interrupted and offered to take her inside. She
declined with a long suffering sigh and he broached the subject of Althea’s
potential companion. He’d interviewed several, but still hadn’t found one that
Althea would agree to.
 

“How about the
Spanish lady?
Maria?”

Althea snorted. “What good is a
companion I can’t understand?”

“Ok, the guy with the Masters in
Horticulture.”

Althea was offended. “I am not living
with a strange man.”

“Fine, who will you live with then?”
His frustration was starting to boil over.

“I’ll know them when I meet them JT.
For now, just keep interviewing.”

JT shook his head, knowing that his
aunt was being impossible on purpose. He only hoped eventually he’d find
someone she was satisfied with.

***

Only two tables away, Lexi was
complaining to Raj about their limited ability to find a place to live.
 
“I don’t want to do a BSDM commune. Leather
makes me itchy.”

“They’re the only ones who will take us
on short notice,” Raj said dejectedly. He didn’t mention that it was a gay man’s
commune and he doubted Lexi would be a welcome addition. “Why don’t we just get
an apartment?”

Lexi let out a deep sigh as she tipped
back in her chair. “Apartments are paperwork and responsibilities. I want to be
free Raj.” Lexi was trying to get something back. It was a feeling she’d had
years before, the lightness of no responsibility, no one depending on her.
Everyday felt like it was filled with opportunities.

“What happened to Pinchpenny?” Lexi was
referring to the commune organizer they’d lived with 10 years before.
 
The commune they’d been a part of had been a
throwback to the 60’s style. Modern communes tended to focus on economics, but
Pinchpenny’s commune had been one part family, one part activism. Lexi had been
at more protests and ‘legalize it’ rallies than she could remember.

“He’s living in his van.
Turns out, protesting for legalized weed is not a good idea when
you depend on your illegal weed sales to make a living.”

“Just as well,” Lexi muttered as she
leaned her head on her hand. “We’re getting too old to be tending pot plants
for a living anyway.”

“So what now?”

Lexi was about to answer him when a
blond man appeared at her right side. “Excuse me, would you mind if I took this
chair?”

“That’s fine,” she informed him
absently.
“I know, we could be carnies!”

“Excuse me?” The blond man was watching
her with confusion.

“Not you, my friend.” Lexi pointed at
Raj. “It would be really weird if I were inviting you to become a carnie with
me. We just met.”

The man was now watching her as he held
a dangling chair under his arm. “You’re joining the carnival?”

Lexi nodded somberly. “We have to. Our
commune closed down.”

“We are not becoming carnies.” Raj
informed her definitely. “We did that right after high school, remember?”

Lexi tilted her head as the blond man
watched her with a bemused half smile.
“Oh, yeah.
It
was not as glamorous as I thought it would be.”

The blond man smiled at her. “Well,
good luck to you.”

“JT, what it
taking so long?
I’m getting a heat rash.” An elderly woman shouted from two
tables over.

“Sorry, that’s my Aunt Althea.” JT gave
Lexi an apologetic smile as he turned back to his aunt. “I’m coming; I was just
getting you a chair to replace your wobbly one.”

“Don’t bother. We need to move into the
shade. I swear this table is in the middle of the street.” Althea fanned
herself dramatically.

“Sorry,” JT smiled down at Lexi. “I
guess I won’t need this.” He put the chair back down.

“Why don’t you join us?” Lexi pointed
to the awning they were sitting under. “We’re in the shade.”
 

“I really couldn’t…”

“You heard the girl,” Althea demanded.
“Do you expect me to move over there myself? It would be just like you to let a
defenseless old blind woman to stumble her way out of the boiling sun.”

“You’re as defenseless as a tank,” JT
muttered under his breath. Lexi laughed as he went back to collect his elderly
aunt.

“You think he’s gay?” Lexi asked Raj,
her eyes lighting up. “I mean, he’s spending the day with his auntie for Christ’s
sakes. Times like this, I’m glad my best friend is a gay man. If he’s straight,
I’m calling dibs. If he’s gay, then he’s all yours, but we both get to look at
him.” Lexi gave the blond man a once over while his back was to them. “I mean
yum, right?”

“Lexi, that’s…” Raj didn’t get a chance
to respond before JT was arranging his aunt in a chair and pulling a seat up
next to Lexi.
 
Lexi had a moment of
indecision when they were making introductions. Her show was syndicated in
several states, but she didn’t think she had a following in Texas. She relaxed and placed her hand in
his.

“I’m
Le
..
Ow
!” Lexi jumped back when Raj kicked her under the
table.

Raj was focused on JT instead. “She’s
Alex, I’m
Ra..adford
?” From
across the table, Lexi snorted.

“Radford?” she mouthed at him as JT
turned to order. He shrugged helplessly. For some reason, Raj was really
nervous around JT and his aunt. She didn’t understand why. JT could hardly be
one of her listeners. He was way too conservative looking. And the aunt was
blind. She could have said her name was Lexi Logan and he would have just given
her a blank look. She was sure of it.

***

“Alex and Radford,” JT turned to study
them. The blond was cute and very young looking. Her most overwhelming feature
was easily her two different colored eyes. She reminded him of a golden
retriever puppy he’d had as a kid. The man with her was a dark skinned, trendy
looking Indian guy, who had women doing double takes on both sides of the street.
“So you’re not going to be carnies?”

Even the way she responded was puppy
like. Her eyes lit up and she bounced in her seat a little. “No, we’ve done
that one.
Bad memories.
I snorted a line of tobacco
with the carnies.”

JT shook his head, slightly lost.
“What?”

“Well, during set up, we weren’t
allowed to smoke in the tent, so a lot of guys chewed tobacco. Anyway, this one
guy, I forget his name, brought this stuff back called snuff.” Alex shifted in
her seat. “As I like to try new things, I decided to give it a shot. Unfortunately,
I did it wrong.” She shrugged. “I mean the name sounds just like sniff, how the
hell was I supposed to know you’re not supposed to snort it an entire line of
it!”

Althea choked on her tea a little but
Alex failed to notice her distress.

“Anyway, after that, I got super
dizzy.”

“And then she vomited on an elephant,”
Radford reminded her helpfully.

“Oh yeah, I vomited on an elephant.” Alex
held up a hand, “and that was my first and last experience with snuff.” She
focused on JT. “Have you ever tried it?”

“Snuff?”
JT shook his
head.
“No, never.”

“I dabbled a little in my youth.”
Althea responded.

“You did?”

“Your father
and I, dear.
We made ourselves sick with that stuff one weekend while
your grandparents were out of town.
 
The
trick is to only take a pinky nail full at a time.”

JT’s mouth dropped open at his aunt’s
advice, but Alex took it in stride.

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Alex tilted
her head. “Anyway,
me
and Radford here were just
trying to decide what to do on our summer vacation.”

“Are you two college students?”

“Perpetually.
I’ve been
trying to get my degree in heating and refrigeration for the past 10 years.”
She pointed to her friend. “Radford is going to be a paralegal someday.”

“In answer to your question,” Radford
interrupted her, “we’re on hiatus from our jobs at a university. What do you
do, Mr…?” he prompted JT meaningfully.

“It’s Hussner. JT Hussner. I’m in
marketing.”

He kept talking about his job, but he
realized that Alex wasn’t listening. Instead, she was staring at him, her
unusual eyes wide, as though she’d seen something terrible. “Are you ok?”

She snapped out of her trance and her
eyes brightened again. “I’m fine; I just realized I have to go.” She sprung out
of her chair so fast it rocked dangerously close to falling over. “I have an
appointment.” Radford stood to join her, apparently not at all surprised by her
abrupt departure.