by Joy Argento
“How is she doing?”
“The same. It really doesn’t look like she is ever going to wake up. But, there’s a piece of me that is still holding out hope. You know what I mean?”
“I know exactly what you mean,” Hope nodded as she spoke. She continued to enjoy the food as they talked.
“I know it’s dumb. I know what the reality of the situation is. But I can’t seem to help it. My mother acts like Gram could wake up any minute. She refuses to face this.” Carrie poured a little more wine into her glass.
“That must be very hard on your mom. It’s her mother, right?” Hope took another slice of fresh Italian bread from the basket in the center of the wooden table. She buttered it with homemade herb butter from a small glass bowl.
“Uh-huh,” Carrie said. “They were never very close and I think my mother is feeling really guilty about that now.”
“You have a brother, right?” Hope used her piece of bread to soak up some tomato sauce from her plate.
“Actually, I have two brothers. My brother Todd is in the Marines, he’s stationed in Okinawa right now. My brother Sammy lives with his wife and kids in North Carolina. They came to see my grandmother when this first happened, but they couldn’t stay long because of their jobs and the kids’ school.”
“And what about your dad?” Hope asked.
“My dad left when I was ten. The last I heard, he was remarried and living somewhere out West. I don’t hear from him much and that’s okay with me. He wasn’t much of a father when he was around.” Carrie finished her glass of wine and refilled the glass with filtered water from the pitcher on the table. “So what about you, do you just have the one sister?”
“Yes, Marcy is my only sister. She is ten years older than me, so at times she acts more like my mother. Well, at least she thinks she has the right to act like she’s my mother. She tends to be very opinionated and bossy. I know she means well but sometimes she drives me crazy.”
“My brothers are both younger than me, so I get to boss them around. Those are the rules. The first-born gets to be the boss. I believe it’s on my birth certificate.”
“That explains my sister’s behavior then.” Hope nodded her head and smiled.
“Are you from around here originally?”
“Born and raised. My parents still live in Penfield. That’s where I grew up. Of course it was mostly farmland when I was young. We lived right next door to a horse farm. It is so built up now. There is a bank or drug store on every corner.”
“Do you see them often?” Carrie asked. She ate another bite of her bread.
“I see them every couple of weeks or so. My dad comes over and helps me with things around the house, yard work, small repairs and things like that. He was so much help to me when Tom was sick. I’m not sure I could have gotten through it without my dad.” She smiled at the thought of her father. “My mother drives me a little crazy. She has a tendency to treat me like I’m still a little kid.”
“That can’t be easy,” Carrie said.
“It’s not, but I do my best to ignore her constant “suggestions”, as she calls them.” Hope finished up the last of the food on her plate and wiped a spot of tomato sauce from her mouth with her napkin.
“Would you like more lasagna or bread?” Carrie asked.
“No, thank you. I’m stuffed. That was delicious. You’ll have to give me your secret online recipe.”
Carrie laughed. “I’ll give you the copy I printed. But I have to warn you that I got a few drops of sauce on it while I was making this.”
The women carried on a comfortable conversation while they cleared the table and loaded the dirty dishes into the dishwasher. Carrie took a couple of Tupperware containers from her cupboard and made up a take-home package of leftovers for Hope to take with her. “I’m trusting you with my good Tupperware. That means I get to see you again when you return it.”
“Or it means you’ll lose some good containers,” Hope said with a chuckle.
Carrie was sure she would see Hope and the containers again. She smiled at the thought. She put the Tupperware in a plastic grocery bag and put it on the counter.
When the last of the food was packaged and put away Carrie asked, “Would you like to see my art room and the drawings I was telling you about?”
“That would be great. Lead the way.” Hope followed Carrie down a small hallway to the room on the end. A slight smell of oil paints and turpentine greeted them as Carrie opened the door.
“Here they are,” Carrie said as she led Hope over to the pile of drawings that she had sorted through earlier. She spread them out on the small table so that Hope could get a better look at each one.
“These are great,” Hope said. “May I?” she asked before picking one up.
“Oh sure, go ahead.”
“Carrie, I am really impressed. Did you use a model for these or are they out of your head?”
“These are just rough sketches out of my head. They are just to get an idea of how I want the poses to be. But if you decide you want to pose for me, this is basically what I would want you to do. See how I drew in the material here.” She pointed to a drawing on the table. “The material covers up the breasts. There isn’t any actual nudity. Not that I’m against nudity,” Carrie laughed. “I just want these to be really sensual without being sexual. Does that make sense?”
“Yes, and I would love to pose for you.” She smiled at Carrie.
Carrie couldn’t help but smile back. “Really? Oh that would be so great. I am so excited about this.”
“Well, you haven’t seen me with my clothes off yet so you may change your mind when you do,” Hope teased.
“Oh, stop it.” Carrie playfully slapped at her arm. “I think you are going to be perfect for this. It will be great.” Carrie’s enthusiasm bubbled to the surface and spread across her face in a big grin.
Hope finished looking through the drawings and glanced around the room. “Can I look at what you are working on?” She pointed at the painting on the easel.
“Feel free to look at whatever you want.” Carrie stepped back to give Hope more room to move around. Hope spent a moment looking at Carrie before walking to the easel. She bent over to get a better look at the painting.
Carrie found herself looking directly at Hope’s butt. She forced her eyes away and shook her head. But her eyes found their way back to the sight. I’m just checking out the model from an artistic angle, she reasoned. Okay, now stop it. What would she think if she saw you ogling her? And why are you ogling her anyway? You don’t ogle. You especially don’t ogle women.
“You are an amazing artist,” Hope said straightening back up and turning to Carrie. Carrie brought her eyes up quickly. “How come you don’t do this full time?”
“Because I like to do things like pay my bills and buy groceries,” Carrie laughed. “It is really hard to make a living just doing art. So I have a day job, but my art is how I keep my sanity.”
“Sanity is highly overrated,” Hope grinned. “I gave up on it years ago.”
“You are so funny,” Carrie said. She enjoyed Hope’s humor as well as her company.
Hope continued looking with great interest at each piece of art in the room. “Very nice,” she said when she had examined the last of it. She brought her eyes from the art and looked at Carrie. Carrie blushed when she realized she had been studying Hope the whole time Hope had been studying her art.
“Um, should we have dessert? I made red velvet cake. We can have it in the living room.” Carrie busied herself stacking the loose drawings on the table as she talked, glancing up once again at Hope.
“I love red velvet cake. Keep feeding me like this and you’ll have one chubby woman as your model.”
“I doubt that. Why don’t you make yourself comfortable in the living room and I will go get it ready for us. Would like some coffee, too? I have decaf.” Carrie shut the lights and the door as they left the room.
“Decaf would be good. Let
me help you.” She followed Carrie back into the kitchen. “What would you like me to do?” Hope asked as Carrie measured the coffee into the coffee maker.
Carrie pointed to the cupboard to the left of the sink. “There are small plates in there and the cake is on the counter in the corner. There is a cake knife right next to it. You can cut us both a piece of cake.” She continued making the coffee.
Five minutes later the two women walked into the living room, each carrying a piece of cake and cup of coffee. They sat across from each other, enjoying their dessert and each other’s company. The conversation ran the gambit from Carrie’s art to Hope’s son to Carrie’s favorite hand lotion.
“I am going to try that lotion,” Hope said. “I am constantly washing my hands, seeing I have my fingers in people’s mouths all day long.”
“Does that have something to do with what you do for a living or is putting your fingers in people’s mouths just a hobby?” Carrie asked with a straight face, but a smile in her voice.
“Yeah, I just do it for fun,” Hope grinned. “I’m a dental hygienist, so it kind of comes with the territory. I went back to school when my son started kindergarten. I wanted to do something that wouldn’t take forever to get my degree and would bring money into the house. It definitely isn’t my passion.”
“What is your passion?” Carrie asked.
“I guess that would be writing?”
“Then why don’t you write?”
“I went to college with the intention of majoring in journalism. I really wanted to be a writer. I dropped out after my first semester because I was pregnant with Derrick. I got married five months before he was born. I put my career goals on the back burner so I could take care of my child and new husband. My ambitions took a back seat to their needs. I figured that being a dental hygienist would be a good choice because I knew the hours would allow me to be home with my family at night.”
“And what about now?”
“Now?” Hope repeated. “Hmm, now I guess I am just where I am. I haven’t really thought about it much.”
“Do you still write?”
“I write poems and short stories, but I don’t ever do anything with them. I haven’t even showed them to anyone. They are just written in notebooks stacked in my closet. I haven’t written in probably a year or more. I just haven’t had anything inspire me lately.”
Carrie put her coffee cup on the end table. She slipped off her shoes and pulled her feet up under her. “I would love to read your stuff if you’d let me. I think it’s time they came out of that closet.” She picked up her cake and licked some frosting from her fork.
“I’m not sure how good they are. I would hate to have them bore you.”
“I doubt they would bore me. But I understand if you don’t want to show me. I won’t push.”
“I’ll think about it. How about that?” Hope asked.
Carrie tilted her head. “Okay. I can live with that.” She took a bite of her cake.
“Is Derrick your only child?”
“Yes, one and only. He always wanted a little brother, but I thought one child was enough for me. So I got him a puppy instead.”
Carrie laughed. “And did that satisfy him?”
“No. But it helped. You know how you hear about parents getting their kids a puppy and the parents end up doing all the work?”
“Yes.”
“Well, we got this puppy…the cutest little mutt…and Derrick actually took care of it. Derrick was seven at the time. He named him Mork and Derrick really did all the work. He fed him and took him for walks and just loved that dog to pieces.”
Carrie finished up her cake and reached for her coffee again. “That’s great. Is he still with you?”
“No, when Tom got sick and Derrick went to college in Buffalo, it just got too much for me to take care of him. My sister and her husband took him. So, at least he stayed in the family. I didn’t have the heart to ask for him back after Tom died. They really love that dog. Derrick and I have visitation rights. It has worked out fine, and my sister has twin boys so Mork gets lots of attention.”
“That’s good. Can I get you more coffee or another piece of cake?”
“No, thank you. It was great, but I couldn’t eat another bite. I won’t have to eat for a week now.” Hope stole a quick glance at her watch. “I hate to do this but I need to get going. I have to work in the morning. I imagine you do, too.” She rose from her chair and picked up her empty cup and plate.
“You don’t have to do that,” Carrie said indicating the dishes Hope was carrying to the kitchen.
“That’s all right,” Hope said, setting the dishes down on the counter. Carrie retrieved the leftovers that she had packaged for Hope and walked with her to the door. She plucked Hope’s coat from the coat rack and handed it to her.
“I had a really nice time, Carrie. Thank you.”
“Me, too.” Hope gave Carrie a quick hug and took the bag of leftovers that Carrie held out.
“Thank you so much for coming over.”
Carrie closed the door after Hope left and headed back to the art room.
Chapter 7
Hope fingered the piece of paper in her hand. She felt like a stupid teenager. It had been several days since she had had dinner at Carrie’s house. She wanted to call Carrie but didn’t really have a reason. She just felt like talking. Hope had friends throughout the years, but they were all friends with a reason. They were the mothers of her son’s friends, so they talked about the kids. They were the wives of her husband’s business partners, so they talked about their husbands. They were friends from her job, so they talked about work.
Carrie was different. She was a friend just because Hope liked her and enjoyed her company. She hadn’t had that since college. She hadn’t had that since…well, in a really long time.
Hope looked at the seven numbers written on the slip of paper, and punched the numbers into her cell phone. Carrie picked up on the second ring.
“Hi, Hope,” Carrie said cheerfully. “How are you doing?” Hope realized that either Carrie memorized her number or had it programmed into her phone. It took her by surprise.
“Hi Carrie. I am doing just fine. How are you doing?”
“Great. I’m glad to hear from you. I was thinking about you.”
Hope smiled to herself at Carrie’s reaction to her call. “You were, huh? Something good, I hope.”
“Very good. I was thinking about how much I enjoyed your company when you were here the other night. We’ll have to do that again soon.”
“I would like that,” Hope said. “What are you doing on Friday? We could go out to dinner or I could cook something here, although I don’t think I could ever top that meal you made.”
“I didn’t know it was a competition.” Carrie laughed.
“Well, truth be told…I’m not the best cook,” Hope admitted.
Carrie laughed. “In that case, there’s a movie I wanted to see. What would you think about going to the movies and then going out and grabbing a bite to eat? Or we could eat first and then see the movie. I don’t care which way we do it as long as it involves food.” Carrie laughed again. “How does that sound?”
“It sounds good. I haven’t gone out to the movies in years. In fact, I think the last movie I saw in the theater was…hmmm… Finding Nemo, I think.
“Oh yeah, then I think you’re due. The movie is playing at the Plaza Theater. Hang on a sec and I will tell you the times.” Hope could hear the sound of paper rustling. “I’m back. Okay, let’s see here. It’s playing at seven, nine and eleven. What do you think?”
“How about we go out to eat at seven, and then we can catch the movie at nine?”
“That’ll work. Seeing I picked the movie, you get to pick where we eat.”
“All right. I will check out what is around there and let you know. Would you like me to pick you up?” Hope paced as she talked. It was a habit she picked up when Derrick was a baby, and the only way to keep hi
m quite when she was on the phone was to walk with him.
“Sure,” Carrie said. “Just let me know ahead of time where you decide we should go so I know how to dress. If we are going to Burger King I’ll just wear jeans. But if you want to go to La Shareese, well that place is fancy, and I may have to pull out my old bridesmaid dress to wear.”
Hope laughed. “I don’t think we are going to Burger King or La Shareese. But I’ll be sure to let you know.”
“So how are you doing? How is Derrick doing? Has he changed girlfriends yet? I’m assuming you’ve changed your underwear since you met her.” This was the reason Hope wanted to talk to Carrie. She seemed to really care about Hope and her life…and apparently her underwear. Hope chuckled to herself. Carrie was a bright spot in Hope’s day.
“Yes, I’ve changed my underwear a time or two since Derrick was here. And yes, as far as I know, she is still his girlfriend. I talked to him this morning and he mentioned her name several times. I do believe my son is smitten.”
Carrie laughed. “Smitten, huh? Guess that means he likes her.”
“What’s wrong with the word smitten? It’s a perfectly good word.” Hope feigned being offended.
“Nothing at all, it just sounds like something that would have come out of my grandmother’s mouth.” Hope could hear the amusement in Carrie’s voice.
“I’ll take that as a compliment then, because I hear your grandmother is special lady.”
“Yep, that’s how I meant it…as a compliment. That’s exactly how I meant it.”
“I thought so. Speaking of grandmothers, how is she doing? Any change at all?”
“No. No change. I went to see her today. I played her some Lady Gaga music. I figured if anything would bring her out of the coma, that would do it.”
“Why, is she a Lady Gaga fan?”
“No, not at all. I thought maybe she would wake up to tell me to turn it off.” Hope was silent for a moment, not sure what to say. “You can laugh. I’m just joking. I am trying to keep my humor here.”
“Humor is important at a time like this, that’s for sure.”