The Curl Up and Dye (7 page)

“I can walk,” she said.

“No, ma’am. Whether you admit it or not, you’re not far from passing out. Just let me help you, okay?”

Rachel nodded as T. J. jumped out and ran inside. He came back within moments with a nurse pushing a wheelchair.

“Well, my goodness, Rachel. Were you part of that wreck?” the nurse asked, as T. J. helped Rachel out.

Rachel nodded. “Yes, and it’s a wonder I’m still in one piece. I got hit by two different cars.”

T. J. knelt beside her and casually laid a hand on her knee. “I’ll be on my way now. They’ll get you all checked out.”

Rachel grasped his hand with a shaky grip. “Thank you for being so kind,” she said.

T. J. flashed a big smile. “Totally my pleasure, ma’am. I hope you feel better soon,” he said, and stepped aside as the nurse wheeled her away.

He told himself that if she looked back, he had it made, so he waited, watching, making bets with himself. And when she suddenly turned around and peered around the nurse to see if he was still there, he gave himself a silent thumbs-up for calling it right and waved back.

He swaggered all the way back to the truck. He made another bet with himself that the next time he saw her, they would go straight to his house for some sexual healing, as well. Married women were the best fucks. They were always grateful for the attention and already attached, which meant he walked away free when it was over. It never occurred to him that his ex-wife, Laverne, had fallen into that category, or wonder if his errant behavior with other women while still married to her had caused her unexpected exit with ole’ Buddy. The sorry bastard.

***

By quitting time, everyone in Blessings knew about the wreck. LilyAnn heard about it from at least a dozen people, none of whom had actually witnessed the accident, but all of whom still seemed to have all the pertinent details.

She was sorry Rachel Goodhope had been involved, but not sorry enough to give her a call to see how she was. She listened absently as she rang up the shoppers’ purchases while watching the back of the store. Mitchell was putting up stock, and he never put it in the right place. Eventually she wound up having to move it to coincide with the shelf stickers the next morning. She wasn’t sure whether he was that dumb or that lazy. Either way, it always made extra work for her.

The pharmacist had a line in front of the checkout window, and she had a line up front. Whatever was going on with the citizens of Blessings, it appeared they were all getting sick at once. She kept using hand sanitizer and hoping for the best because she didn’t want what they had.

What she wanted was to go home.

She’d held herself together about as long as she could today. The fact that she’d bawled like a baby at The Curl Up and Dye was humiliating, but it had happened and there was nothing she could do to change it. She had one more day to get through, and then she had Sunday off. It wouldn’t come soon enough.

The door opened again, letting in a brief blast of cold air. Lily sighed. Would this day never end?

When the last customer in her line finally went out the door, she breathed a quiet sigh of relief, but it was short-lived as T. J. Lachlan came swaggering up the aisle toward the register. When he shoved a packet of condoms and a tube of K-Y Jelly across the counter, her heart skipped a beat. Without looking up, she swept them across the scanner and dropped them in a sack.

“That will be fifteen dollars and forty-four cents, please.”

T. J. had expected the tall blond to react to the condoms with either a giggle or a blush. The fact that she did neither intrigued him. He paused, waiting for her to look up, and when she did, he was slightly surprised at how pretty she was—overweight but pretty. He’d had a fat girlfriend or two in his day and didn’t mind it.

“Cash or credit?” Lily asked, waiting for him to react.

“Oh. Sorry there, honey. I guess I was daydreaming.”

She didn’t respond to his flirting, and it ticked him off just a little that he’d gotten zero reaction. Even if he didn’t want her, he wanted her to want him.

“Cash it is,” he said, and slid a twenty toward her.

Lily made change, counted it back to him, and handed him the sack with his purchases.

“Have a nice day,” she said.

“You, too.”

Lily knew he was staring, but she couldn’t bring herself to meet his gaze and looked at his shirt collar instead.

Giving her up as a lost cause, he grabbed his sack and hurried back to his truck. A trip to the supermarket was next on the list. If he was ever going to get that painting finished, he needed groceries in the house.

T. J.’s exit had momentarily emptied the pharmacy of customers, and Lily took it as a sign that it was safe to leave. She’d already stayed fifteen minutes past her quitting time and didn’t want to get caught by having to help close. She waved at Mr. Phillips as she headed toward the front door with her things.

“I’m leaving now.”

“Have a good evening, LilyAnn. See you tomorrow.”

She buttoned up her coat and jammed her hands in her pockets as she started the walk home. When she passed by the fitness center, she kept her eyes in front of her and her stride long and even. Considering how weird Mike was acting, her one visit there was likely to be her last, because working out after work wasn’t happening. She was too tired to mess with it at this time of day.

The streets were already filling up with traffic, mostly from the locals all heading to the football stadium. It was Friday night in Blessings, which meant high school football. She ducked her head against the cold wind that had come up and kept moving.

On a normal Friday night, she and Mike would be doing something together. Either going to a football game or having all-you-can-eat shrimp at Granny’s Kitchen. Sometimes they just rented movies and made sandwiches and popcorn and stayed inside. Her heart hurt. The cold shoulder he was giving her felt as bad as when Mama had married Eddie and moved away.

Her eyes welled up all over again, but it didn’t matter anymore. It was almost dark, and no one was paying any attention to her or what she was doing. Her reluctance to go home to an empty house was what prompted her to turn right instead of left at the next corner, and before she knew it, she was on the way to All Saints Cemetery. With all that was going on in her life, she had a notion that it was time to let Randy Joe know she was ready to move on.

It was about an hour before sundown, which gave her plenty of time to speak her piece before they locked the cemetery gates. The wind caught the hem of her coat and blew it into a bramble bush as she walked through the gate. For a moment it felt as if someone had grabbed it in an effort to hold her back, which gave her the creeps.

She reached down to pull it free and, as she did, saw Mr. Gerty sitting on a bench just inside the gate.

Everyone in Blessings knew Mr. Gerty. He’d been coming to the cemetery to visit his wife’s grave on a regular basis for the past twenty years, and in the beginning, LilyAnn had seen him daily. While her visits had thinned out, his had remained steadfast. Lily thought that made sense, considering how many years he and his wife had been together before she died.

He was sitting on the bench with his chin down, the coat collar pulled up around his neck.

“Bless his heart, he drifted off to sleep and is going to wake up in the dark,” Lily muttered. “I better wake him up and send him on his way.” When she got closer, she called out. “Hello, Mr. Gerty!”

Lily knew he was hard of hearing, and sat down on the bench beside him and patted his arm.

“Hey, Mr. Gerty! It’s getting dark. Time for you to go home.”

This time the silence was shocking.

“Oh no,” Lily mumbled, and reached for his hand. It was colder than the air—and stiff. Her vision blurred as she felt for a pulse. There was none. “Sweet Lord.”

Her eyes were already filling with tears as she dialed 911.

“911. What is your emergency?”

“This is LilyAnn Bronte. I’m out at All Saints Cemetery. Mr. Gerty is here sitting on a bench, and I think he’s dead.”

“Oh my word!” the dispatcher said. “Stay on the line with me while I dispatch an ambulance.”

Lily dug in her purse for a tissue. A few moments later, the dispatcher was back talking to her.

“Have you tried to do CPR?” she asked.

“No, ma’am. I don’t know how long he’s been sitting here like this, but he’s way past that. He’s very stiff and his skin is cold.”

“I’m sorry. Are you okay?” the dispatcher asked.

Tears were running freely. “Not really. Can I hang up now?”

“I want you to stay on the phone with me until the ambulance arrives, okay?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Lily said and, a few seconds later, heard a siren approaching. “I hear a siren now.”

“Just stay with me until they arrive,” the dispatcher said.

LilyAnn nodded, then realized the dispatcher couldn’t see her, but it didn’t matter because a police car had just pulled up at the gate, and the ambulance was turning the corner.

“The police and ambulance are here. I’m hanging up now.”

She disconnected without waiting for permission because she needed to blow her nose.

Lonnie Pittman happened to be the one on duty, and he recognized LilyAnn as he ran through the gate.

She looked up. “Hey, Lonnie. We keep meeting in the strangest places, don’t we?”

Lonnie felt sad. LilyAnn was crying, but she’d stayed beside Mr. Gerty. It was a very touching sight for a hardened cop. He squatted down in front of them to check for a pulse in the old man’s wrist.

“Yes, he’s definitely dead, and it appears that he’s been so for some time. How long have you been here?”

“I just got here, saw him sitting on the bench, and thought he was asleep. I sat down to wake him up and then…” She shrugged and blew her nose again.

“You can get up now,” he said.

LilyAnn looked at the old man and then shook her head.

“If it’s okay, I’ll just stay here until the ambulance arrives. He passed alone. I think I’ll wait until they take his body away.”

Lonnie sighed, then saw the ambulance, patted Lily’s knee, and got up.

“They’re pulling up now. Be right back.”

Lily glanced at the old man’s face. He looked so peaceful—like he’d just fallen asleep. She looked down the pathway toward the plot where his wife was buried.

At least he wasn’t alone anymore.

Mike and his dad were in the front yard visiting with Thomas Thane, their neighbor from across the street, when they began hearing sirens. Blessings was a small enough place that the sound of an emergency somewhere usually touched them all.

“I wonder what happened,” Don said.

“I have a scanner in the house. I could go check,” Thomas said.

“Never mind,” Don said. “If it’s bad, we’ll all find out soon enough.”

“I’m going to the porch to sit down,” Mike said, and walked away, leaving them in the yard.

He was tired of the chitchat and hated that he was already feeling shaky, although, thanks to LilyAnn, his ear infection was cured. When he’d begun getting dizzy, he’d completely forgotten about his childhood propensity for getting inner ear infections and had only himself to blame for the accident.

As he sat, he could still hear the sirens and wondered again what was going on. He glanced toward LilyAnn’s house. It was still dark. He frowned. Her car was in the driveway, but she’d walked to work again this morning. She should have been home by now.

A neighbor from down the block came outside, saw the men standing out in the yard, and came running.

“Did you hear? They found someone dead at All Saints Cemetery! Didn’t give a name but—”

Mike stood up. The image of LilyAnn walking with her head down and her shoulders slumped, as if she bore the weight of the world, flashed through his mind. He began replaying their last conversation and the confusion he’d seen on her face. He’d been so lost in his own disappointment that he hadn’t given any thought to what his reaction would do to her. All those years of grieving for Randy Joe and never moving on—he’d never thought about her being despondent enough to take her own life.

His gut knotted. If she
had
gone to that place in her head, the cemetery would be a logical place for her to do it. Right beside Randy Joe’s grave.

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. She wouldn’t! Please God, not LilyAnn!

The sirens stopped.

He walked off the porch, past his dad and neighbor, and stopped on the sidewalk. The streetlights came on as the sun finally set. He could hear the traffic from Main Street, which was only four blocks due north. Several cars went speeding past the street where he was standing, most likely thrill-seekers going to gawk at the cemetery so they could claim firsthand experience tomorrow at the coffee shops.

And still no sign of LilyAnn.

His heart was pounding and he wanted to cry. He’d never been this scared—ever.

Please
God, please.

And then he looked up the street, and the relief was so great that his eyes filled with tears.

His dad walked up behind him. “Hey, isn’t that LilyAnn?”

Mike nodded.

“Her steps are dragging. I’m gonna walk up to meet her.”

“Dad, no,” Mike said.

Don stopped, then frowned. “Look. Whatever’s going on between you two has nothing to do with the fact that I helped raise her. If you don’t like it, go in the house.”

Mike blinked. He hadn’t heard that tone of voice from his dad since he turned twenty-one. His shoulders slumped, but he stayed put, watching. He saw his dad stop—saw LilyAnn say something and then cover her face with her hands. When his dad put his arms around LilyAnn, Mike swallowed a sob, turned on his heel, and went into the house.

“Hi, honey, where’s your dad?” his mother asked, as he strode through the living room.

“Still outside. I’m going to lie down.”

Carol frowned. Something was going on. She walked out onto the porch just as her husband followed LilyAnn inside her house. She waited. A few moments later, the lights began coming on in the house, and as they did, her husband exited, then started across the yard. When he saw her, he lengthened his stride, and when he got to the porch, he took her in his arms.

“Don! What’s wrong?” Carol asked.

“I’ll tell you in a minute. Right now I want to hold you.”

Carol was a woman wise in the ways of men. Don Dalton wasn’t a man for drama, so she wrapped her arms around his waist, hugged him back, and led him inside.

“Talk to me,” she said.

Don sat down on the sofa, then grasped her hands.

“Remember Mr. Gerty?”

“Oh, yes… the retired postmaster. What about him?”

“LilyAnn found him on a bench at the cemetery. She thought he’d gone to sleep, but he was dead. She’s pretty broken up about it.”

“Oh dear Lord!” Carol gasped. “That poor girl, and poor Mr. Gerty, too.”

“Where’s Mike?”

“Laying down in his room.”

“Well, he can get his ass up and go talk to LilyAnn,” Don muttered. “I’ve had just about enough of this cold war between them.”

Carol frowned. “I don’t think we should meddle in—”

“I’m not meddling. I’m telling him a fact of life,” Don said. “And set another place at the table. She’ll be having supper with us tonight, and I don’t give a damn how uncomfortable they both are. We’re family and I want this crap over with.”

He stomped out of the room.

Carol rolled her eyes, then got up and headed to the kitchen.

Don opened Mike’s door without knocking. Mike was lying on the bed, staring up at the ceiling.

“Get up,” Don said sharply.

“Why?”

“I said, get up. Get your ass across the yard to LilyAnn’s and tell her to come eat supper with us.”

“I don’t want—”

“This isn’t about what you want,” Don said. “She doesn’t need to be alone tonight. She found Mr. Gerty on a bench at the cemetery. He was dead. She’s pretty broken up about it.”

Mike swung his legs off the bed. “Oh shit,” he muttered, and began looking for his shoes.

Don kicked them toward him with the toe of his boot.

“I don’t know what’s going on between you two, but you’re pouting and she’s sad, and whatever the hell it is, fix it. We’re having Thanksgiving dinner together next week, and I don’t intend to eat across the table from you two with those hangdog looks on your faces. Understand?”

Mike stood up and fired back at his dad in the same angry tone.

“What’s wrong between us is that I’ve been in love with her since the tenth grade and she has never known it. After all these years, she still doesn’t see it, no matter how much time we spend together. Now she’s on a big kick to restart her life because there’s a new man in it, and once again, it’s not me.”

Don sighed. “I’m sorry. That’s got to be the worst feeling in the world. But I have one question for you. I know you spend time with her, but have you ever once told her how you feel?”

Mike’s face flushed. “No. I don’t want to see the disgust and rejection.”

“Then you have nothing to be pissed about. She’s in the dark, son, and you’re the only one with answers. Either put up or shut up, and quit making everyone else miserable with you. Now hurry up and get over there. Your mom’s making a place for her at the table as we speak.”

He walked out as abruptly as he’d entered.

Mike shoved a hand through his hair in frustration and headed for LilyAnn’s.

***

LilyAnn had made it all the way to the kitchen before she broke down in sobs. She kept remembering all the years she’d seen Mr. Gerty kneeling at his wife’s grave, talking to her as if she was still alive. She’d done the same thing at Randy Joe’s until she’d run out of things to say, mainly because their relationship was barely a year old before he passed, while Mr. and Mrs. Gerty had been married forty years before she passed.

They’d had a lifetime of history together.

She and Randy Joe barely had a year’s worth of memories before he died.

While Mr. Gerty had been given twenty more years to live, he’d chosen to spend it with the dead. If fate hadn’t turned her life around, she might have come to a similar end. Life was hard, but nobody promised it would be easy, and it damn sure wasn’t meant to be wasted. The only good thing about the whole awful event was that Mr. Gerty’s loneliness had come to an end.

She was getting up to get some tissues when she heard footsteps on the porch and then a series of rapid knocks, but she ignored them. Whoever it was, she didn’t want company.

The knocks ended, but seconds later she heard a key rattling in the lock. She ran into the living room just as the door flew inward.

“Mike! What the fuck? I thought someone was breaking into the house.”

“By using a key? And while we’re talking, I can’t believe you just said ‘fuck.’”

She glared. “If I wanted company, I would have answered the door, and I felt like saying fuck because this has been a fucked-up day.”

He sighed.

“Dad told me what happened.”

She snatched the key out of his hand. “So now you know. What do you want?”

“I am to bring you over for supper. Your place has already been set. Dad has chewed my ass for making you sad, and I’m sorry on all accounts.”

Lily’s eyes narrowed angrily. “That is the most pitiful excuse for an apology I’ve ever heard.”

“It’s all I got,” he said, and folded his arms across his chest.

She glared.

He glared back.

“Either you come with me, or Dad will come back and get you. Don’t you get it? When our parents are around, we are no longer in charge of our lives.”

She rolled her eyes. “Whatever. I have to wash my face.”

“I’ll wait.”

“I’m changing the hiding place for the extra key,” she muttered.

Mike wanted to put her over his knee. “Fine. Hurry up, okay? I need to sit down.”

“Then for the love of God, sit down!”

She took the extra house key and dropped it in her pocket as she went to the bathroom.

Mike sat because it was that or pass out. He hadn’t exerted this much mental energy on frustration since high school.

His phone rang. He looked at caller ID and sighed.

“Hi, Mom.”

“Is she coming?”

“She’s washing her face.”

“Good.”

The line went dead. He disconnected and dropped the phone back in his pocket just as Lily came back.

He got up and opened the door.

She sailed out, locking it behind her, then dropped the key back in her pocket.

They walked across the yard in silence.

“We’re here!” Mike yelled, as they entered his house.

“We’re in the kitchen,” Carol called.

Lily dropped her coat on the sofa and followed Mike to the kitchen.

Carol smiled and waved when she saw them.

“Sit, sit. Soup’s hot and there’s plenty for seconds.”

“Smells wonderful,” Lily said, as she scooted into a chair and unfolded the napkin in her lap.

The first bite was warm and comforting, and the conversation soon turned to innocent gossip about locals Carol and Don knew.

Mike snuck glances at LilyAnn every chance he got, but he was careful. His parents were too damn nosy about his business, and the last thing he wanted was them feeling sorry for him that he’d wasted his life loving a woman who didn’t love him back.

Still, after nearly dying last week, there were far worse things than settling for second best. He was alive, and while there was life, there was hope.

***

Rachel and Bud Goodhope were playing cards with Willa Dean and Harold Miller when they heard the sirens taking off all over town.

“Oooh, I always hate that sound,” Willa Dean said, and stuck another chip in the guacamole dip and popped it in her mouth. “Yum, Rachel. You make the best guacamole.”

Rachel smiled. “Thank you so much. Cooking is one of my passions.”

Willa Dean wiggled her eyebrows at Rachel, and then they both broke into giggles.

“What’s so funny?” Bud asked.

Harold rolled his eyes as he discarded a card and drew another.

“Don’t ask them stuff like that. You know it has to do with sex. Once a woman passes forty, everything revolves around sex.”

Willa Dean glared. “Harold, the best thing for you right now is to keep your mouth shut.”

Harold’s eyes widened and then he nodded. Ever since Willa Dean had caught him strutting around their bedroom in her underwear, she’d been hell to live with. He’d thought for sure she would divorce him and tell the world what he liked to do, but to his surprise, she did not. She’d taken matters into her own hands and bought herself a vibrator. Now when she disappeared into the extra bedroom, he took himself out of the house.

The sirens faded in the distance, then stopped.

“I wonder what’s happening? Sure hope it’s not another wreck.”

“You were really lucky, girl,” Willa Dean said.

Bud patted his wife’s arm. “For that we are both very grateful.”

“Yes, we’re very grateful,” Rachel said.

A few minutes later, their phone rang.

“Excuse me a minute,” Rachel said, and got up to answer.

They could hear her talking in the other room, and when they heard her gasp and then cry out, they knew something bad had happened. A couple of minutes later she came hurrying back.

“You will not believe what happened. LilyAnn Bronte found Mr. Gerty sitting on a bench in the cemetery. He was dead and stiff as a board. Can you imagine sitting down beside that?”

“Oh dear Lord,” Willa Dean said. “Poor Mr. Gerty. At least he’s finally with his sweet Ina again. As for LilyAnn, I cannot imagine what she must be thinking.”