by Rita Lakin
Copyright
This ebook is licensed to you for your personal enjoyment only.
This ebook may not be sold, shared, or given away.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the writer’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Getting Old is To Die For
Copyright © 2008 by Rita Lakin
Ebook ISBN: 9781943772469
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
No part of this work may be used, reproduced, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without prior permission in writing from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
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Praise for The Gladdy Gold Mysteries
“This is one sassy and smart series with a colorful gang of senior sleuths.” —Mystery Scene
“Beyond the skillful blend of Yiddish humor, affectionate characters and serious undercurrents... picks up speed and flavor with some twists worthy of Agatha Christie’s archetypal dame detective, Miss Marple.”—Publishers Weekly
“What gives the book its warmth is the way Lakin has turned this group of friends into a family who are there not only for the fun and laughter but also for the heartbreak and tears.” —Romantic Times
“Young and old, Jewish, Protestant, atheist, all will love this tale told with clarity, wit and interesting characters. This is a must-read-mystery.”—iloveamysterynewsletter.com
“Rita Lakin shows a real flair for comic mysteries.... The plotting is expert, but die background color of life among older retired people is wonderful (and sometimes very poignant).” —Connecticut Post Forum
“This is a funny, warm, absolutely delightful tale... a must read.” —Mysterious Women
“An unforgettable romp... Lakin’s characters are zany, her writing is witty and crisp, and anyone who’s ever visited one can attest that her peek at life in a Jewish Florida retirement center is portrayed both accurately and tastefully.” —Cleveland Jewish News
“Wonderful dialogue and a touch of romance enlivens this delightful breeze of a tale.”—Kaw Valley (KS) Senior Monthly
“Sassy, funny and smart... Lakin sprinkles humor on every page, but never loses respect for her characters.” —New Hampshire Senior Beacon
“[Lakin] skillfully introduces comic relief so that it fits neatly with solving the mystery of who is the killer. It is a tribute to Lakin’s talent that she is able to mingle comedy and murder successfully Add another author to the impressive group of talented Jewish women mystery writers.” —Dade County Jewish Journal
“If getting old is this much fun, maybe I won’t mind! Miss Marple, move over Rita Lakin’s witty romp through a Florida retirement community is just the thing for what ails you!” —Parnell Hall
“So who knew a retirement community could be so dangerous—and so much fun. Lakin handles her characters with dignity, compassion and love, while allowing them the full extent of their eccentric personalities.”—Vicki Lane, author of Old Wounds
“A truly original voice. Great fun from start to finish. Plan to stay up late.”—Sheldon Siegel, New York Times bestselling author of The Confession
Dedication
This book is for James
with Love
from his Grandma
Introduction to Our Characters
GLADDY & HER GLADIATORS
Gladys (Gladdy) Gold, 75 Our heroine and her funny, adorable, and sometimes impossible partners:
Evelyn (Evvie) Markowitz, 73 Gladdy’s sister. Logical, a regular Sherlock Holmes
Ida Franz, 71 Stubborn, mean, great for in-your-face confrontation
Bella Fox, 83 The “shadow.” She’s so forgettable, she’s perfect for surveillance, but smarter than you think
Sophie Meyerbeer, 80 Master of disguises, she lives for color-coordination
YENTAS, KIBITZERS, SUFFERERS: THE INHABITANTS OF PHASE TWO
Hy Binder, 88 A man of a thousand jokes, all of them tasteless
Lola Binder, 78 His wife, who hasn’t a thought in her head that he hasn’t put there
Denny Ryan, 42 The handyman. Sweet, kind, mentally slow
Enya Slovak, 84 Survivor of “the camps” but never really survived
Tessie Hoffman, 56 Chubby, recently married to Sol Spankowitz
Millie Weiss, 85 Suffering with Alzheimer’s
Irving Weiss, 86 Suffering because she’s suffering
Mary Mueller, 60 Neighbor and nurse, whose husband left her
ODDBALLS AND FRUITCAKES
The Canadians, 30-40-ish Young, tan, and clueless
Sol Spankowitz, 79 Reluctant husband
Dora Dooley, 81 Jack’s neighbor, loves soap operas
THE COP AND THE COP’S POP
Morgan (Morrie) Langford, 35 Tall, lanky, sweet, and smart
Jack Langford, 75 Handsome and romantic
THE LIBRARY MAVEN
Conchetta Aguilar, 38 Her Cuban coffee could grow hair on your chest
NEW TENANTS
Barbi Stevens, 20-ish, and Casey Wright, 30-ish Cousins who moved from California
AND
Yolanda Diaz, 22 Her English is bad, but her heart is good
NEW YORK CHARACTERS
GLADDY’S FAMILY
Emily Levinson, 46
Dr. Alan Levinson, 50
Elizabeth, 21
Erin, 19
Lindsay, 11
Patrick, 10
JACK’S FAMILY
Lisa Berman, 44
Dan Berman, 46
Jeffrey, 13
Jeremy, 11
Molly, 3 months old
EVVIE’S FAMILY
Joe Markowitz, 77 Evvie’s ex-husband
Martha Evans, 48
Elliot Evans, 49
Gladdy’s Glossary
Yiddish (meaning Jewish) came into being between the ninth and twelfth centuries in Germany as an adaptation of German dialect to the special uses of Jewish religious life.
In the early twentieth century, Yiddish was spoken by eleven million Jews in Eastern Europe and the United States. Its use declined radically. However, lately there has been a renewed interest in embracing Yiddish once again as a connection to Jewish culture.
b’shert…fate
chutzpah…gumption
halvah…pastry
kvell…glow with pride
nu…so? or well?
Oy…oh no (disgust; frustration)
schlemiel…a loser
shmattes…rags; old garments
tuckus…rear end
Words like “Senior,” “Elderly,” and “Old” are out. Nearly four thousand seniors responded to a survey as to how they would like to be addressed.
Celebrities like Quincy Jones, 73, responded with “The Silver Foxes.” Judge Judy, 63, offered “The Better-Than-Evers.”
Write-in selections, to name just a few:
“Seasoned Citizens”
“Geri-Actives”
“Bonus Years”
“Sage Age”
“XYZ Group” (extra years of zest)
“Third Half”
“Melders” (combining middle age with elders) “Rewirement” (not retirement)
Alan Brown, 66, of Plantation, Florida, perhaps said it best and funniest. “Metallic Stage. For the silver in your hair, the gold in your teeth, the tin ear you’re developing, the platinum credit card you’re being offered, the titanium implant in
your hip and the lead in your behind.”—From the article by David Oliver Relin in Parade magazine, March 2006, cosponsored also by the Harvard School of Public Health and the MetLife Foundation
NEW YEAR’S EVE 1961
RIVERSIDE DRIVE, NEW YORK CITY
“It’s not even midnight and they’re celebrating already. What about my celebration?” Emily Gold, eleven years old today, four hours and fifteen minutes away from the actual moment she was born, was doing her own countdown. “Five minutes later my birthday would have been on January first. In the next year.”
“Mmm.” Gladdy made agreeing, reassuring sounds as she took the icing out of the fridge. She knew those facts continued to awe her adorable daughter; recounting them had become her last-day-of-the-year ritual.
Emily leaned out the window as far as she could. The apartment’s fourth-story fire escape blocked her view, so she kept wiggling for a better look. “You should see those people down there hanging on to one another. They’re blowing horns and wearing funny hats. But I still don’t see Daddy.”
She pretended to pout, but Gladdy knew how excited her daughter really was. Emily would never admit that she liked having her birthday on the biggest, most exciting night of the year. She blew her breath out, showing her mom the wispy cloud it made.
“Close that window! It’s already freezing in here.” Gladdy shivered despite the fact she wore two sweaters over her brown woolen dress. Damn that landlord of theirs. He only allowed the super to heat up the radiator twice a day, for one hour at a time. Twelve stories high, six apartments on each floor, and nobody ever listened to the tenants’ complaints. What a harsh winter this had been. And living near the Hudson River with its frigid winds only made it worse. She wished it were spring. Winters always depressed her, with the icy brilliance of the sun and the oppressively long black nights.
Emily pulled herself inside and shut the window.
Gladdy shivered again, but it wasn’t from the cold. She hugged herself and looked at the clock. She, too, wished Jack would get home. Their neighborhood, even the area around the university where Jack taught English, was becoming unsafe. Drugs were starting to be a problem. She didn’t like her husband coming home in the dark.
“Don’t you want to help me decorate your cake?” She picked up a spatula and beckoned Emily, who joined her at their red Formica and chrome kitchen table.
Emily’s long brown hair was damp and stringy from the night air and she shook it wildly, laughing as she did. She took the spatula from her mother and continued the smooth flat layering of the icing.
“Do you think you’ll ever pick another kind of cake on one of your birthdays?” Gladdy asked.
“No, never. Chocolate and vanilla’s always gonna be my favorite.”
The older her daughter got, the more they looked alike. Same oval face, same greenish-gray eyes. Same straight hair that refused to curl. Emily was tall for her age and lanky, the way Gladdy had been at her age. No one ever doubted they were mother and child.
“Tell me again why I was born on New Year’s Eve.”
Gladdy leaned over and kissed Emily’s forehead. “You ask that every single year.”
“And you always give me the same silly explanation. I can’t believe you planned it that way. ” Gladdy smiled. “You were my New Year’s Eve present for your daddy.”
“When I grow up no one will ever remember my birthday. My friends will all be too busy drinking champagne and making silly resolutions.”
“Don’t worry. There’s no way they can forget this date, nor would they ever forget someone as wonderful as you.” She reached out and gently wiped a bit of chocolate off Emily’s cheek.
The icing finished, the eleven candles placed carefully with the extra one to grow on, Emily raced to the window again. “What’s taking Daddy so long?”
“He’ll be here soon. He needs to finish the revisions on his textbook.” Gladdy felt a twinge of guilt saying that, when at breakfast that morning she’d chided Jack for the very same thing. In fact, she remembered ruefully, they quarreled about his being late for his child’s party. Something they rarely ever did.
“Nobody has to work on New Year’s Eve.” Emily pouted. “And where’s Aunt Evvie and Uncle Joe and Cousin Martha? Even they’re late.”
Gladdy smiled. Emily may have her mother’s looks but she sure has her aunt’s impatient disposition and endless energy. “Well, I’m sure they’re walking carefully, so they don’t fall on the slippery ice.”
“I’ll bet they get me the same present. Every year another Barbie doll. Don’t they know I’m too old for that?” Emily hoisted herself onto the red kitchen counter and dangled her legs. “And you and Daddy will give me books again.”
“You love to read.”
“Of course I do. I just want to be surprised sometime.”
“Remember what your daddy says about books?”
“Yes, I do.” She mimicked, “ ‘Books are the windows of the soul. With books you’ll never be lonely.’ ”
She jumped down and raced to the window, opening it again. “I think I see Daddy coming. I recognize how he swings his briefcase. Now my party can start.”
Gladdy smiled and walked over to the window to join Emily. Jack always waved to them before he came up. She didn’t want to miss it. She reached out and gently guided a wisp of Emily’s hair behind her ear.
Jack had named their daughter after the poet Emily Dickinson, hoping his beautiful child might one day be a poet, too.
Suddenly a Dickinson quote popped into Gladdy’s head.
Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me—
It was then she heard the scream.
TWO LOST SOULS
It’s nine-fifteen A.M. My sister, Evvie, who is seventy-three to my seventy-five, sits in my tiny kitchen in her bathing suit drinking coffee. Our towels are draped around our shoulders since the air conditioning is turned up high. September weather here in Fort Lauderdale has been especially hot. We aren’t saying much because by now we are talked out. The phone rings. Evvie sighs.
“What do I tell them this time?” I ask as I match her sigh for sigh.
“Same as you did last time. We’ll be down when we get there. Let them splash around ’til then.”
I answer the phone. This time it’s Sophie. I guess the girls are taking turns. “I know we’re late,” I tell her before she can say a word.
She speaks so loud, I have to hold the receiver away from my ear. “Soon everyone will leave.”
“Good,” Evvie whispers.
“They’re still waiting for you,” I report to her.
“That’s exactly why I’m up here, instead of down at the pool. If I stall long enough they’ll go home.”
I hold out the phone to her. “You want to tell Sophie?”
“No. You handle it.”
“We’re on our way,” I lie.
“You’ve got to face them sometime,” I tell Evvie, hanging up the phone.
“Later, better than sooner.”
I walk over and pull her out of the chair. “Enough. Come on. You’ve got to get on with your life.”
Evvie laughs bitterly. “Gladdy, that’s what I keep telling you.”
Neither one of us is in great emotional shape. Evvie can’t pull herself together since her tragic love affair with Philip Smythe ended, and I’m not in great shape, either, thanks to Jack acting like a yo-yo. Here today, gone tomorrow. I’m still upset that my boyfriend—the second Jack in my life— no longer wants to see me because of a silly quarrel. He feels I chose my girls over him. I fear I’ve lost him forever.
It’s been worse for my sister, though. Our private investigation team, Gladdy Gold and Associates, thought we were taking on a minor case at a posh retirement facility in Palm Beach, but it turned out to be dangerous for Evvie. She truly fell in love for the first time in her life, and it was almost the death of her. Evvie is overwrought with despair and can’t face anyone; she’s bee
n hiding out, mostly in my apartment, ever since.
The doorbell rings. I don’t need to guess who. It’s the girls, ignoring our pathetic excuses and coming to drag us out of here. Evvie is rigid with fear. I kiss her cheek. “Just remember, all our neighbors think you’re a hero, so get into your actress mode and convince them.”
We are a rather ragtag group of seniors. We’ve all lived in Lanai Gardens in Fort Lauderdale for give or take twenty-five years. During those years we each had our own selection of friends. But as husbands and friends passed away, we regrouped. So now it’s Evvie and me and three other women who take care of one another. Since I’m the only one still driving I seem to be the leader of this oddball pack of different personalities.
Our girls peer in through the screen door. Ida, arms folded, taps her foot impatiently. Sophie, grandly attired as usual in a color-coordinated bathing outfit from top to toes, has her hands on her hips. Bella meekly stands still, ever worried about making waves in our little private universe.
Here’s a hair color update on our little gang. Ida, salt and pepper. Bella, totally white. Sophie, who changes color on a whim, flaunts her new shade of the month: apricot. Me, still lots of brown but getting grayer by the minute. However, Evvie’s recently dyed vivid auburn hair shows no gray returning yet. I imagine every time she looks in the mirror she thinks of Philip, the man who made her feel young and beautiful again.
“So, nu,” Ida says. “Coming or not coming?”
Evvie pushes open the screen, which makes them all jump out of her way. As she heads for the elevator she calls back at them, “Come on, let’s get the show on the road.”
The pool is The Pool. Attendance required. The gathering place of the residents of Lanai Gardens, Phase Two. Home of breaking news. Gossip hot off the griddle. Touch base time. With all the usual suspects. However, there are a few new permutations and combinations. Irving Weiss is not in attendance. Millie is now in a permanent Alzheimer’s facility and he visits his beloved wife every single morning. Mary Mueller, our in-house nurse who saved Millie’s life, drives him there every day.