The Summer of Our Discontent (6 page)

Lottie stopped pacing. “For what?”

“We’re gonna have to take you in until this is sorted out.”

“Aw, hell no. I told you he put his hands on me first!”

“Lottie honey, don’t make this worse.” Rachel stepped closer. “We’ll go to the station, and you can give your statement.”

Chance stepped in a little too quick, and a dance that Lottie led began. There were only three steps. Lottie slammed Chance into the hood of the car twice and took a step back to ram Rachel, who had jumped onto her back, into the wall. It was a process she repeated a few times before she added a twirl and sent Chance flying into the front yard.

Rachel’s right arm was around Lottie’s neck. She was squeezing with all she had in hopes that she’d make Lottie light-headed enough to fall. If she let go, Rachel knew that she’d go flying into the row of hawthorns planted near the front walk just like Chance had. There was no way she could free up an arm to reach for her pepper spray or the radio, so she rode Lottie like a bucking bull, praying she’d tire soon.

“I don’t want to hurt you, Rachel.” Lottie grunted as she rammed her into the garage door again.

“I don’t want to hurt you, either. Please, just chill. You’re making this worse—oh,
ow
!”

The next ramming made Rachel loosen her grip. By the time she regained it, her arms were around Lottie’s waist, and she was on the move. Chance disentangled himself from the shrubbery and keyed his lapel
mic.
“Unit five,” he rasped out, not waiting for dispatch to acknowledge. “Lottie Bishop is headed south on
Fussell
. She’s on foot wearing Rachel like a hula skirt. We need backup like yesterday.”

Rachel was hanging on for dear life, digging the toes of her boots into the pavement in an attempt to get a foothold. Lottie would simply buck like a bronco, then Rachel’s knees began to take the brunt as they dragged. Chance shot out in front of them and sprayed Lottie in the face with pepper spray. This stopped the progression, but Lottie rubbed her eyes with one hand as she began to swing wildly with the other.

*******

As Faith helped the ambulance crew roll Paul out of the house on the stretcher, she noticed two more police cars in the street in front of the house. Rachel and Chance were slumped against the one that held Lottie, who was flopping around like a fish out of water. At one point, she pressed her angry face against the glass and pounded it with her meaty fist. “Open the door, bitch!”

Normally, Faith was quick with her snarky responses, but on that day, she had better sense than to tempt fate. Lottie’s wig was askew, her teeth were bared and green eye shadow was smeared all over her face. Faith tore her gaze away and got a good look at Rachel and Chance as the medics prepared to load Paul into the back of the ambulance. Rachel’s hat was gone, her hair looked like it had been teased to stand on end, and her uniform was in shreds. Chance was sporting a puffy eye and multiple cuts and bruises, his nose was bleeding, and his hair was full of tiny pink and white flowers.

One of the other officers handed Rachel a bottle of water. She held it in both hands and sucked on it until it caved. She set it aside and took a heaving breath. “I saw…my life…pass before me…like ten times while my face was buried in her butt crack. Somewhere on this street is my spleen. Someone please go and find it.”

Faith grabbed her kit out of the rescue truck as the ambulance drove past. “Do I need to call in another unit for y’all?”

Chance held up a finger. “I’ll have to get back to you on that when I start to develop sensation in my legs again.”

Faith handed him a roll of gauze. “Hold that under your nose, you’re bleeding all over the place.” She looked at Rachel, unsure which one of them got the worst of it. The knees were ripped out of her uniform, and the skin beneath was covered in road rash. “Y’all are a mess. Maybe you should go to the ER and get checked out.”

“Superficial,” Chance said as he caught his breath. “More insult than injury.” He looked at Rachel. “How about you?”

She smiled at Chance as she regarded him. “I’ll never have to shave my knees again. I really like the hawthorn bouquet you have going on in your hair.”

Chance squinted up at Faith. “Leblanc, you may as well follow us to the station because that’s gonna be your next call. We still have to get Lottie into lockup.”

Chapter Eight

One thing Faith loved about being a paid employee of the fire department was the schedule—twenty-four hours on and forty-eight off. Her hours benefitted Patty, as well, because she didn’t have to use Mrs. Roland as a sitter as much, and that saved her money. It was only nine, but Sophie and Kaycee had already worked up a sweat and had joined her on the deck where she drank her coffee.

They had a fine catch of frogs in an old birdcage and were debating what to name them when out of the blue Sophie asked, “Aunt Faith, what’s a vibrator?”

Faith was in mid-swallow and choked on her coffee. “Baby, where’d you hear that?” she asked as she recovered.

“My momma was on the phone with her friend Ms. Kim last night, and she said that Lottie Bishop kicked her in the
crouch
so many times that she didn’t know if she’d ever be able to take her vibrator for a test spin again.” Kaycee shrugged. “She only rides her bike and her car. I’ve never seen her ride a vibrator. We looked in the shed where she keeps her bike, but there’s only a lawnmower in there. Do you have one we can ride?”

“I…uh…no.” Faith bit the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing. “Kaycee, did you ask your mother what…that is?”

Kaycee looked terribly guilty. “I was supposed to be asleep, and she was already mad. I told her that Danny Morris said Lottie Bishop handed Momma her ass. And then Momma looked like this.” Kaycee furrowed her little brow, and her full lips became a thin line. “She told me not to say ass, and I’m not, I’m just saying what Danny said.”

“I have to go to the bathroom,” Faith blurted out. “You girls stay right here until I get back.” She was whimpering as she ran in through the back door and went straight into the pantry where she collapsed with laughter. Every time she recovered, she’d see
Kaycee’s
imitation of Rachel’s mad face and lose it. Then the vibrator and ‘crouch’ statement sent her into fits again.

When she finally did re-emerge, Sophie asked, “Aunt Faith, do you have a sick stomach? You were gone a long time.”

“No, I’m fine.” Faith sat and hoped the girls had found a new topic to discuss.

“Did you wash your hands?” Sophie asked.

Hygiene was one topic Faith could handle. “I never leave the bathroom without washing my hands, even if I just go in to blow my nose. Always wash your hands, that keeps you from getting germs that can make you sick.”

Kaycee raised a brow. “Can kissing somebody give you germs?”

Aw, damn, Faith thought as she nodded. “If they’re sick, it can. It’s a pretty day. Maybe later I can set up the sprinkler and y’all—”

“My momma might get sick,” Kaycee said, looking worried. “Her friend Ms. Kim came over the other night. She comes after I go to bed, but sometimes, I hear them laughing and I can’t sleep. I needed water, so I went to get it, and Ms. Kim was kissing Momma. Her head was doing this,” Kaycee tilted her head back and forth, “and she was pulling Momma’s hair.”

Faith had nearly chewed through her cheek. “You need to stay in bed at night. There are trolls that—”

“Momma says not to listen to Aunt Faith when she tells stories,” Sophie said, looking at Kaycee, “because she’s crazy.”

Faith slapped the arms of her chair. “Okay, I think it’s plenty warm enough, let’s hook up that sprinkler.”

*******

Rachel’s knees were still stiff and sore as she limped into the house. Bev looked at her sympathetically. “I know
Kaycee’s
camp isn’t a vacation, but, baby, you sure do look like you could use one. You should’ve soaked longer in the tub yesterday. It would’ve helped with the soreness.”

“Have there been a lot of full moons lately because every nut in this town seems to be losing their minds?” Rachel pinched the bridge of her nose as she sat down at the kitchen table. “Clint
LeBougeois
blew a whole section of Adam Knight’s new wooden fence down with a potato gun because he swore it was on his property. When Chance and I pulled up, there were potatoes flying all over the place, and Adam was threatening to set Clint’s house on fire.” Rachel shook her head. “Momma, in the middle of this, Gina
LeBougeois
was serving up lemonade like it was a Fourth of July party or something.”

Bev shrugged like Rachel had been talking about an argument about potato salad recipes. “I need to call Gina. I still have her cake plate. I made fresh chicken salad, it’s in the fridge.
Kaycee’s
over at Sophie’s. They’ve been playing in the sprinkler since this morning. I’d hate to see that water bill.” Bev’s face colored a bit. “Honey, Kaycee asked me what a vibrator was today. She’s fairly certain that it’s something one takes for a ride. You should talk to her about that.”

“Where on earth did she—” Rachel’s lips thinned to a narrow red line. “I’ll talk to her.”

Bev leaned down and kissed her on the cheek. “You need to start going to bed earlier, you look very tired.”

“I will. Love you.”

“Love you, too, baby. Kiss Kaycee for me and tell her I’ll see her tomorrow.”

Too tired to move, Rachel sat at her kitchen table staring off into space. Instead of a one-track mind, she usually operated on about ten, and all of them were busy. The trip preparation train flew by closely followed by the vibrator chat express. One carrying flaming potatoes rushed past with Gina
LeBougeois
in the caboose waving a pitcher of lemonade. The Leblanc train thundered through, Faith in the engine car shooting her the finger. Kim who was supposed to be a friend turned kissing bandit’s train whizzed by, Kim’s face on every car looking heartbroken from Rachel’s rebuff. More followed with bills, barking dogs, dry cleaning that hadn’t been picked up.

She clamped her eyes shut and covered them with the heels of her hands. All she wanted to do was feed Kaycee dinner and get her bathed, then she’d take a long bath followed by bed. Bev was right, summer camp wasn’t a vacation, but it was a change and at times could be peaceful when the kids were all asleep. She needed a break. With a weary sigh, she got up and headed to Faith’s house to get Kaycee.

Faith’s yard was so waterlogged that the heels of Rachel’s boots sank into the lawn. Flowerbeds rich with color surrounded the deck and bordered the fence. She marveled at how someone so mean could create something so beautiful, but then it occurred to her that Faith was full of shit. It was no wonder plants flourished at her touch.

Kaycee came running up to her and threw her wet body around one leg. “Momma! I had so much fun today.”

Rachel smiled and hugged her close, despite the fact that Kaycee had soaked the lower half of her body. “I’m glad, kiddo.”

“Ms. Aunt Faith made us turkey sandwiches for lunch, and we had ice cream yogurt stuff, and she let us play in the water all day. I love her!”

“That’s great, my love. Now would you please go knock on her door and tell her thank you for having you over? We need to get home, so you can get cleaned up and have dinner.”

“Aw, Momma, I wanna play.”

“You’ve played all day, and it’s getting late. Mosquitoes will carry you off. Besides, you can play all day tomorrow. Now hurry up, please.”

Disappointed, Kaycee ran back over to where Sophie was still dancing in the water and whispered something in her ear. Then she ran up onto the deck and knocked on the screen door. Faith appeared seconds later, and Kaycee relayed her thanks. Rachel reluctantly gave a half-hearted wave to which Faith only nodded. Kaycee ran back and walked alongside Rachel to their house.

“Ms. Aunt Faith said she has some ice packs she can loan you for where Lottie kicked you.”

Rachel’s nostrils flared as her lips disappeared. “I’m good, thanks.”