Far and Away

by Fern Michaels

  Chapter Nine

  Bernice served the lasagna, giving Toots a portion that would feed three people at the very least. Toots, unsurprisingly, didn’t have much of an appetite. But for appearances’ sake, she took a few bites. “When will Daniel return? He might be the only one able to reach Ida at this point.” As soon as she came downstairs, Toots had explained Ida’s condition without giving away what they really suspected. She didn’t want to frighten Bernice or Robert.

  “I’m not sure. He’s going to that attorney thing, a conference or something. Abby said Chris was going, too,” Bernice explained.

  Toots looked at Goebel. “Is that true?”

  “I think he mentioned something about going the other day when we spoke. Said if he wanted to offer pro bono services, attendance was required for those practicing in the state of South Carolina.”

  “Abby told me that Chris was going—at least I think she did. It doesn’t matter now. What matters is . . .” Toots wanted to say something about Ida’s soul, but knew this wasn’t the time or the place. Instead, she said, “I think now would be the perfect time for Bernice to reveal her big secret, don’t you?” She aimed her question at Goebel.

  “I told you I wasn’t going to tell any of you,” Bernice shot back. “You’re all too darn nosy, I swear.”

  Robert cleared his throat, wiped his mouth with a paper napkin, then reached for Bernice’s hand, and said, “Dear, I think maybe we should let them in on our little secret. They will know soon enough, don’t you agree?”

  Bravo for Robert, Toots thought. About time he spoke up for himself. Still, she couldn’t help but smile. He and Bernice were such an unlikely pair, but apparently their love of recipes and one another was much stronger than she’d first imagined. They were an adorable couple, but Toots wasn’t about to tell them that.

  “Oh hell, I suppose we should,” Bernice offered up. “I think we should at least wait until Daniel returns.”

  Goebel chuckled. “Makes one wonder what you two are up to, that’s for sure. Don’t you agree, Toots?”

  She couldn’t help it. She wore a grin the size of the moon. “I do. They’re not very subtle, if that’s what you mean. Just tell us and get it over with, Bernice. You and Robert plan on getting hitched, am I right?”

  Robert’s eyes twinkled like shiny stars. Bernice’s face turned a deep shade of rose.

  “All right, I might as well spit it out,” Bernice said. “Yes, we are ‘getting hitched’ as you so graciously put it. We wanted to get our marriage license this week. Robert wants to get married in the garden. Here. That is, if you don’t mind.”

  Toots’s eyes filled with happy tears. There was nothing she liked more than planning a wedding. She was quite experienced. She walked around the table and leaned over and gave Bernice a hug, then did the same to Robert. The pair beamed like lasers.

  Goebel got up and walked around the table to congratulate the pair. “This is the best news I’ve heard all day. Congratulations to you both.” He shook Robert’s hand and kissed Bernice on the top of the head. “You know, this gal here is about the best cook in the world. She makes a mean Southern fried chicken with white gravy.”

  Goebel remembered his first visit here years ago. He’d been more than a hundred pounds heavier, and never missed a meal back then, and most of them were fried and heavy. This group of women had worked their magic on him, and now Robert was about to succumb to the headstrong Bernice, and in doing so, he would gain the love and respect of the godmothers and their leader, Toots. He chuckled at his thoughts. These women were life changers, of that there was no doubt.

  “So,” Toots inquired, “when do you two want to hook up? I’ll take care of all the arrangements, if that’s all right with you two?”

  Robert looked at Bernice. “Whatever you want, dear.”

  Bernice rolled her eyes. She was getting as ornery as the rest of the women. “You’ve certainly had enough experience, that’s for sure. How many times has it been?” Bernice asked, then waved her hand in the air. “Don’t answer that. I’m afraid it will jinx me. And yes, Tootsie, you can plan my wedding. I don’t have time. Robert and I are planning to self-publish a cookbook. We’ve been taking computer classes at night to learn about the formatting.”

  So that’s where they’d been all those nights, Toots thought. “I think it’s delightful. We’ll have three authors in the group now. So, when do you want me to make this blessed event happen? I can have Jamie design the cake; she’s quite the expert at that.”

  Toots was rambling. Of course Bernice knew Jamie could bake. She’d practically adopted her. Jamie had lived in the guesthouse for three years before purchasing a beautiful old house in Charleston, and when she wasn’t at the Sweetest Things, she could be found at her new house, scraping paint off the solid oak floors. Being in a relationship with Mike, a pilot she’d met and who appeared to be madly in love with her, and she him, completed her. Once lonely and down on her luck, she’d put every bit of her energy into the bakery, had opened another one, and now landed an occasional guest spot on the Food Network since rising to fame in the world of pralines. Toots was proud of her and never forgot to tell her so. Jamie was like a daughter to her. That Jamie and Abby were practically best friends pleased Toots immensely.

  Life was good. Except for the issue with Ida, but she wouldn’t think about that until Sophie came downstairs with a plan to rid Ida of whatever evil being had taken possession of her.

  “So, just tell me when you two want to get hitched, and I’ll take it from there,” Toots said, struggling to keep her thoughts from returning to the negative but worried sick over what was happening in her bedroom.

  Bernice turned to Robert. “It’s his choice, but it can’t be on the evenings we have classes. Tuesdays and Thursdays are out.”

  As usual, Robert smiled and agreed. “A weekend would be best for all of us, unless Toots thinks it’s a bad idea.” He looked to her for an answer.

  “You’re right. Weekends are perfect. Most of the time. I’m assuming you’ve a lengthy guest list?” Toots inquired of Robert.

  “No, just Mavis and Wade on my side. And Daniel. He’s almost like my son now. It is okay if I refer to him as my son, isn’t it?” he asked Bernice.

  “Shit! He’s old enough to be a grandfather himself, but to answer your question, yes, you may consider him a son.” Daniel’s own father had taken off when he was very young. “He likes Daniel very much, you know that?” Bernice directed her question to Toots as if she needed her approval.

  “Daniel is crazy about Robert, too. I think you all will make a nice little family, but first things first. You said you were planning to get your license. Would you like me to take you to the courthouse this afternoon? I don’t have anything scheduled. Abby might stop over with the twins later, but I can call her and tell her I won’t be here. Plus, I can share the good news. Or would you rather tell her together?”

  “Let’s tell her together. Can you call her now and invite her over?” Bernice asked excitedly.

  Toots was about to agree to this when she remembered the situation upstairs. It wouldn’t be wise to bring those children in this house with Ida still lingering in a state of semiconsciousness upstairs. She wasn’t about to tell Bernice what they suspected, so she went with the first thing that came to mind. “I just remembered. Abby told me she had to take the babies to see Dr. Pauley today. Something about their one-year checkups.” There. That sounded perfectly feasible to her. She was becoming quite the liar these days.

  “Well, we can fill her in the next time she pops in. It’s not like this comes as a big surprise, right? It was obvious to all of you that we were eventually going to end up getting married.” Bernice stated this in a very matter-of-fact way.

  Goebel piped in. “Sophie and I suspected there was something in the works, but you never know about these things. I thought Tootsie and Phil would be making an announcement when Abby was kidnapped, but I was wrong about that.”

 
Toots squinted her eyes like two arrows. “I barely knew the man then! I know I have a bad record in the marriage department, but I’m not going to up and marry the first man that comes along!”

  “Shit! I’ve upset you. I didn’t mean to,” Goebel apologized.

  Toots got up and started clearing the table. They’d barely touched their food, but it didn’t matter. Lunch was just a reason to stay in the same room together. “No need to apologize, Goebel. I do have a track record. Some I’m ashamed of, some I’m not. I am old enough to acknowledge my mistakes and wise enough to know when to laugh them off. Two of those marriages were real. Six were not.”

  They all knew that John Simpson, Abby’s father, had been the love of her life. He was husband number one. He’d died in a car accident when Abby was just a baby. Chris’s dad, Garland Clay, ranked high on the list, but, like all the others, he’d died too soon. Only the good die young, she thought.

  “Let’s stop all this talk of bad marriages, okay? You win some, you lose some. Right, Toots?”

  “You’re absolutely right. Personally, I consider myself to be a winner. The day I met Abby’s godmothers, and, of course, the day I met Bernice, were two of the best days of my life.”

  No one said a word as Toots carried a stack of plates to the sink.

  Chapter Ten

  Tuesday, September 6, 1955

  Bishop Verot Catholic School

  New Jersey

  “So, what did you think of Sister Clara Marie?” Sophia asked Teresa.

  “Not much really. This math is too easy, so I guess she is a bit behind in her curriculum. I learned this stuff in fifth grade. I don’t think I’ll need to cheat on the exams.”

  “She’s an old biddy. I would bet my last smoke she’s ninety years old if she’s a day. Can you imagine being that old? Try not to get too close to her. Her breath smells like rotten cheese. I don’t think she bothers to brush her teeth.”

  Teresa laughed. “I’ll try not to.”

  They walked down the hall together and out the front door. The end of their first day of seventh grade. “You wanna hang out and wait for the other two?”

  “Ida and Mavis?” Teresa asked.

  “Yeah. I think they want to hang out with us. What about you?”

  Teresa wasn’t sure what Sophia meant and asked her. “Do I want to hang out with them, or do I mind if they hang out with us?” She wasn’t sure. She probably came off like a total jerk, but she’d just met this girl today. She was still feeling her out.

  “Both,” Sophia answered immediately.

  Teresa thought about it. They seemed like nice girls. Her mother would let her invite them over, that much she knew. Ida seemed a bit uppity, but Teresa knew girls like her were really just scared and acted all haughty just to cover up their fears. They were new to Catholic school in general and this one in particular, just like her. Yes, she thought they deserved a chance to become friends. “I like them. Mavis is funny.”

  “She’s a sweet girl, but Ida . . . I ain’t so sure about her. She’s kind of a bitch, don’t ya think?”

  Teresa laughed, then felt bad for doing so. It was wrong to poke fun at others. Her mother reminded her of this at every opportunity. She wouldn’t mind being friends with the other two girls. “I think she’s a bit . . . unsure of herself, that’s all.” She didn’t want to talk about a girl she hardly even knew.

  “She thinks her shit don’t stink, but I like that about her. It takes a lot of balls to carry around an attitude that big.”

  The girls both laughed.

  “Here they come.” Teresa pointed to a cluster of kids coming out of the main entrance.

  “You sure you wanna invite them to walk home with us?” Sophia asked before they made their way over to the edge of the sidewalk, where a group of kids had gathered.

  Not wanting to lose what little ground of coolness she’d gained, she held her hands out as if she were palming the world. “Shit.” She laughed. She sort of liked using that word. “Well, shit, I think we should invite them to walk home with us. The more the merrier.” Did she really just say that? She sounded exactly like her mother.

  “I think so, too. Who knows when the uppity girl might come in handy? Something tells me the nuns are going to like her,” Sophia said, “and it certainly can’t hurt to have a friend they approve of, especially given what they think of me.”

  Teresa saw Mavis and motioned for her to come over. Ida was with her, so Teresa would assume she’d follow Mavis. She did.

  Sophia took charge of the girls the second they entered their circle. “Where do you guys live? We need to figure out the best way home, meaning the longest route. That’ll give us plenty of time to smoke and plenty of time for the smell to wear off before we’re home.”

  “Smoke?” Ida whispered. “Are you serious?”

  Sophia removed her cigarettes from the inside of her bra. She shook the pack, catching a cigarette with her full lips. She removed the pack of matches from her shoe, lit up, then whipped another smoke out, lighted it off the glowing red tip of hers and held it out for Teresa.

  Looking left and right, then behind her, Teresa took the cigarette, her hands shaking like dry leaves in the fall. She didn’t live that far from the school. Just one more reason her parents had decided to send her here instead of Our Sacred Angels of Mercy. Her mother had suggested she could walk to the school in the afternoons, and they could walk back home together. The look of mortification on her face must have spoken volumes because her mother never mentioned walking her home again. She looked around again just to make sure her mother wasn’t lurking in the shadows. Seeing that the coast was clear, she took a puff from her cigarette but didn’t inhale. She would practice that when she was alone. For now it was enough just to hold the smoke in her mouth, then blow it out in one long, silvery stream.

  “You two ain’t gonna smoke?” Sophia asked them.

  “No, I don’t think so, but you go ahead. I don’t care one way or the other,” Mavis said.

  “Well I do, and I won’t be sticking those nasty things in my mouth.” Ida raised her chin a notch higher than she normally carried it.

  “Look, Ida, I don’t give a flying fuck if you smoke or not, okay? I’m tryin’ to be nice here, show you the ropes, you get it?” Sophia’s Jersey accent was more pronounced when she raised her voice.

  Ida nodded, then took Mavis’s hand. “We’ll follow you two.”

  In pairs, they walked to the end of Conway Street, where the road split. “I’m to the right, and down a street,” Sophia announced.

  “Me too,” Teresa added.

  “That makes three of us. I just moved into the neighborhood. Spring Street, last house on the right,” Mavis told them.

  “Well, I am one street over from Spring Street. Eucalyptus Avenue. So I guess this means we’re all walking home together?” Ida said, though her tone was much friendlier this time around.

  “I guess it does,” Sophia said. “Okay, if we’re gonna be friends, let’s stop this formal shit. Call me Sophie. I hate being called Sophia. You got any nicknames?”

  Teresa did but wasn’t sure if she should tell them or not. Most likely, they would never meet her father, so they wouldn’t hear his stupid nickname, but then again, she did like the new secretiveness Sophie seemed to inspire. “My dad calls me Toots. If any one of you tells anyone else, I will personally . . . beat your ass.”

  There! She was starting to sound more and more like her new best friend, Sophie.

  Sophie cackled with laughter. Ida rolled her eyes. Mavis smiled, showing the most perfect set of teeth Teresa/Toots had ever seen.

  “I won’t say a word,” Sophie promised.

  “Me either,” Mavis added.

  “I suppose I will keep that horrid name between the four of us, too.” Ida said it as though she were doing them all a favor.

  Sophie stopped when they reached the end of the street, where they made a right turn for their respective homes. “We need to do someth
ing to seal this . . . oath. We need a . . . handshake.”

  Teresa liked the idea immediately.

  “I think that’s a fantastic idea! I’ve never had a secret handshake before,” Mavis said excitedly.

  “Oh, I suppose I can join in. It’s not like we’re under oath or anything,” Ida added in her know-it-all way.

  “Listen up, Ida. This is going to be better than taking an oath. This bonds us all together. We have to swear on our lives that whatever we shake on will always remain between the four of us unless we decide differently.” Sophie watched the others, wanted to make sure they knew she wasn’t acting silly. This was serious shit. She’d never had a close friend before, let alone three close friends. Billy Watson didn’t count.

  “Are you in or not?” Sophie asked them.

  “I’m in,” Teresa said.

  “So am I,” Mavis repeated.

  “Of course I will join in. It’s not like I’ve had a better offer,” Ida disclosed.

  “Then let’s do it,” Sophie announced.

  Toots held out a hand. Sophie covered it with hers. Next came Mavis, and lastly, Ida. They repeated the process in the same order.

  They looked at one another, then rested their gazes on Sophie since this was her idea.

  “On the count of three . . .”

  “One. Two. Three.”

  “When you’re good, you’re good!” Sophie shouted, and they all joined in. “When you’re good, you’re good!”

  The handshake couldn’t have gone off any better. It was as though they’d been doing this all their lives.

  “Well, that was fun! Do we have to keep our secret handshake a secret or just what we’re shaking on?” Mavis asked.

  Again, they all looked to Sophie. “I think we should keep both a secret. What about it, Tootsie?”

  She laughed. “I do like having secrets, so I agree with Sophie. Let’s keep this between the four of us.”

  “Then let’s swear with our secret handshake that we’ll keep the secret handshake a secret.” Mavis was giddy when she spoke.