Raquel's Abel (29 page)

The limo passed the pillars at the entrance to the cemetery and started down the gravel road to the Blankenship mausoleum. Soon we crested the hill and could see the columned granite structure that housed every Blankenship except Regina, Grandmother, and me.

Regina laid her hand on my thigh. “Can you forgive me for wanting to put Grandmother into a home?”

I curled my mouth to let her know that was a silly question. “There was nothing to forgive.”

The driver stopped and I opened the door before he could open it for me. I handed him the key for the mausoleum. We waited until he had opened the door and turned on the light.

I walked past Daddy’s vault. Next to Granddaddy’s spot, Grandmother’s name was written out in very English looking letters: Mary Margaret Minor Blankenship April 21, 1926—. Soon the end date would be engraved there. I set the urn in her spot. I felt a smile crawl across my face as I realized they were finally together.

She had said they were truly in love. That made me wonder. Did Abel still want to marry me? If I were him, I’d certainly have doubts about a woman that just ran away while I was down on one knee. I hadn’t even looked back.

Regina reached up and straightened Grandmother’s urn in the vault so that the little wings on the sides were straight with the line of the wall. “I’m going to miss her.”

I thought about poor Maria Elena. She was so upset, she hadn’t been able to pull herself together to come to the cemetery. “No, Señorita,” she’d said. “I crying too much.”

I’d tried to persuade her to come any way, but she’d insisted.

I put my arm around Regina. “Let’s go.”

The driver dropped Regina off at her house.

As she walked up the walkway, I called, “Come over soon and tell me how your classes are going?”

She waved at me with a smile and kept on going. I could tell by the sureness in her step that things were going to be all right with her.

When I got home, Maria Elena was standing in the foyer looking like she was glad to see me. “I sorry I no go with you.”

“That’s all right. I’ll take you over to the mausoleum any time you want to go.”

She wasn’t crying, but I could by the way she was staring at me she was going to miss Grandmother very much. After all, she’d been Maria Elena’s entire life for the last five years.

“I was bringing in the mail for you.” She pointed to the table and stood there as if I should tell her what to do.

I looked at the stack of envelopes then turned to Maria Elena. “Just make yourself comfortable.”

“I no knowing what I should doing.” She laced her fingers together in front of her.

“It’s going to be lonely around here without Grandmother.” I picked up the letters and began to sift through them. Maria Elena was still looking at me. I felt like a mother with a three-year old who had run out of games to play. “You know, Maria Elena, you could start to put Grandmother’s things in boxes.”

“Her things?” she said as if Grandmother were still alive.

I was thinking of a reply when she began to nod her head. “Yes, I will taking care of her things.”

“If there are any if her possessions you want, Maria Elena, you can have them.” I watched her disappear up the stairs.

I spotted another envelope from the State of Virginia. I’d already gotten the bill. What could this be? I ripped it open. It was a bill from last year. They were saying I hadn’t paid the taxes from last year. That couldn’t be right.

I walked into the television room and sprawled out on the couch. How much more could I take? Tears built up and soon I was gushing.

“Don’t cry,” Abel’s voice whispered in my ear.

I looked to see Abel bent over me. His form was clearer than yesterday, but he was misty around the edges, making him look like he had a halo around him.

I sat up and he took a seat next to me. I let myself fall into his arms, but now he felt more like a soft pillow rather than the muscular well-formed man I was used to. “I’m so glad you’re here.”

“Hmmm.” He kissed me on my forehead.

“Wait. Why didn’t you come to the cemetery this morning?” I sat back up and looked at him.

His face grew serious. “Your grandmother wanted to have her ashes scattered over the Moscva River.”

“Abel, please. We’ve been down this path. She suffered from dementia. She was not Anastasia Romanov.” I felt so irritated at him that he wouldn’t accept the truth.

“You don’t really know that.”

“I do know that.” I jumped up from the couch and headed into the kitchen. There was only one thing to do.

A few hours later, the lady from Gretna was sitting across from me at the dining room table.

I choked back tears, thinking I was sitting just where Grandmother had died just three days ago.

The lady sat quietly across from me, waiting for me to say something. I knew I was doing the right thing, but I wasn’t happy about it. “I’ve had a chance to consider your offer and I’ve decided it’s a fair one.”

I waited for her reply, hoping they hadn’t found another property as nice as this one. If she didn’t buy it, I feared the house could be sold for back taxes.

“I’m very glad to hear that.” She leaned over to get something and then popped back up. “Where is it?”

“What?” I just wanted her to get those papers out, and I wanted to sign them, and I wanted to get this over with, now that I didn’t have to feel guilty about uprooting Grandmother.

“My briefcase,” she said a little too loudly. “I can’t find it. I put it right here when we sat down, but…” She lifted up the tablecloth and looked around the legs of the tables and chairs.

She’d walked in with it. Where could she have put it? I knelt on the floor to help look under the table. “Maybe you set it in the kitchen on the way in.” That didn’t sound right, though. I’d have noticed if she did that.

It smelled like an Abel Rollins prank. I came into the kitchen slapping my feet loudly on the floor so he’d hear me. “Where is it?” I whispered agitatedly.

I saw something move outside. I looked out the window and saw Abel standing there. He was very hazy, but I could see the self-satisfied look on his smug face. Even as mad as I was he still looked cute, like a bratty little child you have a hard time staying mad at.

Footsteps sounded across the kitchen floor. I looked back to see the lady from the Gretna Foundation walking toward me. “This is so embarrassing. Please, I do apologize. I must have neglected to bring it.”

“That’s all right.” I wondered where Abel had put the briefcase.

“Please, I will be out here first thing tomorrow morning and we’ll get these papers signed and we can work out the details after that.” She had her coat draped over her arm and she was still looking all over the floor for the briefcase she knew she’d brought with her.

“Tomorrow will be fine.” By then I’d have Abel Rollins straightened out.

I saw the lady to the door, all the while reassuring her that tomorrow would be fine. I could imagine how she’d felt, thinking she’d lost that ten million dollar cashier’s check. Knowing Abel though, she’d find it very soon, that is, after she was far from here.

I turned around after I’d closed the door and saw Abel running up the steps.

“You come back here.” I set off in a run, but I felt a pull from the sore skin around my belly button. The antibiotics cleared up the infections, but I was getting more and more uncomfortable. I needed that operation. I had to ascend the stairs at a slower pace, but I was going to catch him.

I followed him down Grandmother’s wing. He was making me so mad. He was running, then turning around, just to anger me. He was such a child.

“Come,” he called as he disappeared through the closed door to Grandmother’s room.

I opened the door and saw Maria Elena standing in front of the bed. “Señorita, you need to see.” She held out her hand and moved to the side.

On the bed lay necklaces and rings, loose red and green gems, and unmistakable Fabergé eggs.

I bent over the bed to examine them more closely. Inside one of the eggs was a photograph of the Russian royal family. I felt like I’d faint. I sat down on the bed. “Maria Elena, where did you find these?”

“There a trunk in her closet. All these years, I thinking it empty.” She held up a necklace for me to see.

I looked at it closely. “It’s just like the one you have on.” It was identical to the one I’d taken to the jeweler.

“It the same, but much more beautiful.” She pointed to the one in my hand while she fingered the one around her neck.

Now I understood. The one I’d taken to the jeweler was an imitation of the authentic one. “She wasn’t crazy,” I said to myself. “Poor Grandmother couldn’t get any of us to listen to her.”

Abel materialized in front of me.

I was speechless as I saw him there in my father’s smoking jacket again.

“Please forgive me,” he said.

I held my hands out and I felt his manly hands engulf mine. “It’s you who has to forgive me.” I swallowed hard. “That is, if you can find it in your heart to do so.”

Maria Elena took a step back. “
Hay
no, the ghost. I leaving.” She ran toward the door and closed it behind her.

“My heart beats for you.” He smiled so widely, dimples I’d never seen before appeared in both of his cheeks.

“My life has changed so much in the last year, having the operation, losing weight, and, and, best of all, falling in love with you.”

His edges undulated, the halo effect disappeared. He was whole again.

“You don’t have to explain.” He sat down next to me on the bed. “I don’t just love you when you’re in a good mood or when things are going well. I love the whole Raquel.”

I remembered how he looked at me when I’d weighed four hundred pounds, when my hips were wider than many door jams.

His hand slipped from my hand to his pocket. “I will ask you again and I will continue to ask you to wear my ring.” He pulled the box out again and flipped it open. “Although I’m afraid it pales in comparison to your grandmother’s jewels.”

We both turned and looked at the jewels spread out on the bed behind us.

“No, don’t think that.” I gazed fondly at the tiny ring with its dainty pearls around the diamond. I held my left hand out, extending my ring finger. “This is the ring I want to wear.”

He glided it over my nail, then over my knuckle. It fit perfectly.

His mouth neared mine and I tasted his lips. My arms encircled him and I pulled myself closer to him.