Same Old Truths (24 page)

“I know what you mean,” Sandy said, falling in step with Kay. “I was going to get some sodas for my little brood, but since you’re taking care of Mariah, I’ll just let you handle that one.”

God forbid you spend an extra buck-twenty-five on her. She’s watching your brat for you!

Kay tried to lose Sandy by jumping into the first short line she came to; Sandy remained close behind. Kay stared intently at the menu on the wall, trying to discourage any further conversation. The list of greasy, salty selections made her still-queasy stomach pitch in protest. Or was it the unsettling presence of her uninvited escort?

A cold lemon/lime soda ought to settle everything down.

Sandy, leaning uncomfortably close to Kay’s backside, nevertheless, continued to prattle on. “I wish this line would move quicker. I hate the thought of my boys out in the hot sun. I told Dave to wear a hat, but you know how stubborn he can be. I had the same argument with him last week when we were in Maui.”

Kay felt her feet go ice cold. Had she heard right? They went to Maui?

Oh my god… the tan.

Kay felt sucker-punched, but held on to enough of her wits to hide her confusion from Sandy. She became acutely aware of the concrete surface pushing up hard against the soles of her shoes.

The line moved, but Kay stood there frozen.

“Excuse me ma’am,” an elderly gentleman leaning out from behind Sandy said to Kay. “I believe the line is moving up.”

Kay forced herself to shuffle forward; the thought of refreshments at that moment piqued her fluctuating nausea. Rather than give in to her intense desire to collapse right there in a sick heap, she decided to confront the situation head-on.

Kay turned back to Sandy and, as dispassionately as she was able, said, “Ooh. You went to Maui. That’s why Dave canceled Mariah’s weekend.”

I could’ve sworn he said he was going out of town for work. Or did he? Oh god, I can’t remember.

Sandy treated herself to a wicked, self-satisfied smile. “That romantic husband of mine took me on a second honeymoon to Hawaii, complete with a gorgeous beach-front villa and our own private swimming pool.” She punctuated her audacious statement with two, “take that” bats of her eyelashes.

But how? Dave - he - I - he CRIED for pity sake! His creditors…his mother…

Kay could feel the color drain from her face. She was beginning to lose her grip, but hung on by her fingernails.

Of course, Sandy being the cunning predator that she was, smelled blood. “Kay? Are you ok?” she asked, testing her suspicions.

Kay managed a weak smile. “I’m fine. I was just trying to remember something…”

Kay stood there desperately praying Sandy would just continue on with her mission to rescue her overheated “boys,” and leave her alone. But once a beast smells blood, they have to go in for the kill.

“I guess I really should be thanking you. Dave would’ve never been able to take me on that trip if you hadn’t agreed to wait for your back child support.” Sandy turned up the evilness dial in her smile.

Kay’s head was swimming. “Say what?” she said louder than she’d intended.

She can’t possibly think I did it as a personal favor to Dave.

Sandy brought her face up close to Kay’s and snarled. “Look, Kay. My husband worked hard for his bonus. It wasn’t fair that the judge said he should give it to you.”

Bonus? What bonus?
There was never any mention of a bonus
.

Kay’s initial devastation was quickly turning to outrage. “I’m not sure what you mean about a bonus. Dave simply owed money -
to the girls -
and the judge ordered him to pay it.”

Sandy moved back. “That stupid agreement you forced Dave to sign gave you everything you wanted. Why shouldn’t he get a little something?

I got everything I wanted? Then why are you still here?

“Here you guys are,” a familiar voice wailed. From out of the circulating throng of people, Mariah emerged with a crying Little Dave in tow.

“Little Dave won’t stop crying for Sandy. Dad told me to come and look for her.”

“My god, can’t I have five minutes to myself without a search party being sent out?” Sandy said. She snatched Little Dave’s hand from Mariah. “Go tell your dad I’ll be right there,” Sandy barked.

Kay wasn’t going to allow Sandy to take up one more second of Mariah’s morning. She was officially relieving her of duty. Kay put her hands on Mariah’s shoulders and gently pulled her close. “I think it’s best if Mariah stays with me now. It’s almost time for Cory’s band performance and I don’t want her to miss it.”

Sandy glared at Kay, then at Mariah, then back at Kay.

“Next!” came the cry from behind the concession stand counter.

With a big huff, pulling her little boy behind her, Sandy pushed past Kay and walked up to place her order. Normally, Kay didn’t tolerate line-cutters, but she was still reeling from Sandy’s stunning revelation. Cutting ahead in line paled in comparison to having your ex-husband take his new wife to the one place he had always promised to take you but never got around to it. And not only did he take her on
your
dream vacation, he tricked you into paying for it.

Try as she might, Kay couldn’t get the picture of Dave and Sandy lying on the soft sand of a gorgeous Maui beach at sunset out of her head. She felt a jagged arrow rip through her heart as she imagined Sandy laughing up at Dave as he exclaims, “You’re right. She really is an idiot.”

Well, she’d have to be if they were able to slip a bonus past her and her attorney. For a brief moment she considered calling Judith and raising a stink. But then she remembered the notarized agreement, created without benefit of legal counsel. It would be too humiliating to admit to her lawyer she hadn’t learned her lesson the first, second OR third time.

Her life, since last September, flashed before her eyes. The pain and humiliation were almost unbearable. But the more she thought about it, the more she realized it wasn’t Dave’s repeated offenses causing her anguish. It was the fact he’d succeeded in shattering her belief that she’d finally moved on and he couldn’t get to her anymore.

“
Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in
.”

For a moment, Kay thought the corners of her mouth might just turn up at the gangster movie quote that popped in her head. Unfortunately, the scene she had just played out with Sandy wasn’t from a movie, and she wasn’t Michael Corleone. The smile didn’t come.

“Next!”

Exactly. What next?

Kay felt as if she was drowning. She had no recourse. There was nowhere to turn. She was locked in.

So she did the only thing available to her in that moment. She took Mariah’s hand, pushed down another wave of nausea and ordered a large popcorn and two sodas.

17

New Old Friends

Kay kept her eyes peeled on the blinking tail lights of the motorcycle escort being forced to avoid oblivious,disrespectful drivers whizzing past their motorcade. The last thing she needed was to be the cause of a ten-car pile up. She sighed, dismayed that all the fun had gone out of driving the hearse.

Maybe a little “Stayin’ Alive?”

She popped her Saturday Night Fever CD into the car’s player but instead of resurrecting her customary funeral procession merriment, the pulsating, infectious beat only annoyed her. She hit the Stop button and drove in glum silence.

Probably more respectful to my passenger, anyway.

If there was one bright spot in this moment, it was the fact she was away from the office and didn’t have to deal with the daily email from a guilty Dave. She could feel his desperation screaming to her from the Subject line. It usually said “I’m So Sorry” or “Can We Talk?” but she never bothered to open them; she already knew what he wanted - and it wasn’t to beg her forgiveness for making a fool out of her. He was simply frantic to stop Kay from invoking Article 7, Section II of their agreement.

While he hadn’t actually breached any of the stipulations, they were both aware the agreement was based on a pack of lies. To her way of thinking, that was enough to render the entire thing null and void. She just didn’t know how binding their notarized document was or wasn’t. But as long as he was unsure too, she was going to avoid him as long as possible. Her confidence had been completely shattered.

But those emails weren’t the only reason she was happy to be away from the mortuary. She still loved her job but ever since (or maybe because of) her accursed run-in with Sandy the previous month, the mortuary had become an inhospitable place to be. Nothing seemed to be the way it once was - everything had gone out of focus and she was having trouble fitting back into the picture. She felt disconnected and lonely.

Kay was dying to reach out to Ruth but her usually-supportive friend seemed to be otherwise preoccupied and unavailable. And it just wasn’t Ruth’s distracted presence that had Kay flummoxed. Ruth’s matronly appearance had undergone a surprising and unexplained transformation of late. Gone was the ever-present tight, gray bun and in its place sat a saucy, short do, colored in warm, light brown tones. And instead of drab, shapeless dresses and unattractive polyester pantsuits, Ruth was now sporting figure-flattering fashions in a variety of eye-pleasing colors. Something mysterious was going on.

Kay didn’t feel comfortable butting into this new Ruth’s personal business. She just sadly accepted the fact their friendship had, for whatever reason, returned to pre-marijuana intervention days.

Ruth’s makeover wasn’t the only puzzling change at Salinger’s. Ed’s attitude toward Kay had, inexplicably, gone cold and “all business.” She couldn’t be certain, but he even seemed to go out of his way to avoid her when possible.

At first she was hurt and disappointed. She kicked herself for entertaining the possibility that Dave’s comment about Ed “having a thing” for her might be true. But then she figured it was probably best not to go down that path. Her dad’s voice of experience echoed in her head. “Never shit where you eat.”

Still, would it kill him to smile at me every now and then?

Then there was Uncle Owen. He had turned his humiliation at trying to buy Kay’s silence into outright hostility. Kay found out that knowing people’s secrets was a dicey situation to find yourself in. Now she understood why witnesses in murder trials so often turned up dead.

Oh my god. What would Owen do if he found out I knew about the limousine?

Leo was the only one who didn’t treat Kay as if she was an alien from the planet Zeebo. He seemed to sense Kay’s displaced state and went out of his way to draw her back in. His attempts were obvious and awkward, but Kay appreciated his effort.

After the morning’s funeral service, Kay hid in the break room hoping for a quiet lunch. She didn’t have much of an appetite so she sat there absentmindedly pulling little pieces of crust off her sandwich, and stacking them into small pyramids. When Leo arrived he took one look at Kay and debated whether or not to disturb her; she looked so forlorn he just couldn’t resist.

“Hey, Kay,” Leo said. “Guess who I saw the other day?”

Kay stared blankly at Leo, not really interested in playing along.

He pulled up a chair next to Kay, scooted in closer and lowered his voice. “It’s someone with a juicy secret you and I have talked about before.” He sounded like a game show contestant trying to get his partner to give the winning answer so they wouldn’t go home with the consolation can of Simonize.

Awwww. How sweet. He’s trying to bribe me with dirt about Uncle Owen.

She wasn’t exactly in the mood to gossip but she couldn’t leave Leo twisting in the wind. His puppy dog expression was just too pitiful.

“Ok, Leo.” Kay said with a sigh. “I give up. Who did you see the other day?”

Leo sat up straight and smiled with satisfaction. Kay thought if he’d had a tail he would have wagged it.

“Lindy O’Malley.”

At first, the name didn’t register with Kay. Then it all came rushing back. The streaking dog. The immovable body. The ashen-faced police officer wilting to the ground before her eyes. Their disgraceful escape.

Kay shuddered. “Did she talk to you? What did she say? Did she bring up anything about that night?”

Leo laughed and shook his head. “She came into Gil’s the other morning when Frank and I were having coffee. She walked over, real friendly-like and said hello.”

“Hello? She just said hello?”

“Well, no. Not just hello,” Leo said.

Kay could feel her heart racing. She didn’t know how she’d ever explain her irresponsible behavior to Ed. If he was unhappy with her now, she could only imagine how he’d react if he knew she’d left the scene of an accident.

Well, I guess, technically it wasn’t an accident.

“I got the feeling
she
was the one worried about being ratted out. I could tell by the way she was looking at my eyes. You know, kinda like she was waiting for me to say something.” Leo said.

“And did you?”

“Did I what?

“SAY SOMETHING,” Kay shouted.

“Of course I did. I had to.” Leo said.