Small Town Rumors

by Carolyn Brown

  They never hired another housekeeper after that.

  It went downhill from there. He gradually became more and more verbally abusive and demanded more from her. She thought things might change for the better when she told him she was pregnant, but she was wrong.

  “You did this on purpose. A baby will ruin our life. I’ll make an appointment tomorrow for you to get rid of it,” he’d said in a tone so cold it had sent shivers down her spine.

  “It was a pure accident. The pill is only ninety-something-percent effective, you know,” she argued. “And I’m not having an abortion.”

  “Yes, you are,” he screamed, and threw the bowl of potato salad at the wall.

  “I will not, and since you’re already angry, I might as well tell you that I’ve been taking online courses a few at a time to finish up my business degree. I’m hoping to have it completed the semester after the baby is born.” She remembered thinking that she’d just spring it all on him at once since he was already angry.

  He’d glared at her for a full minute before he stormed into the hall and brought out a blanket and pillow. “I’ll sleep in the spare room. I’m finished with you until the abortion is done.”

  “Then you might as well move on out, because that is not going to happen.” She’d gone to the kitchen for cleaning supplies to take care of the mess he’d made.

  The squeal of tires right outside the store jerked her out of the past and into the present. She glanced up to see a van coming right at the glass storefront. She took off to the back of the store in a dead run. She’d passed the romance section and the mysteries before she came to a halt. Total silence filled the store. No broken windows or books flying through the air. She turned around when the cowbell above the door jingled. Adrenaline rushed through her body, and her heart was pumping so hard she could scarcely breathe.

  “Sorry sumbitch brakes,” Nadine fumed as she made her way into the store. “Not a bit more dependable than a Missouri mule. Does Amos have any sweet tea made up? Or has he got some of that elderberry wine that he brews up in the fall hidin’ back there under the counter?”

  “Nadine Clifford! You don’t even have a driver’s license. What are you doin’ behind the wheel?” Jennie Sue had to steady herself on the bookcase in front of her to keep her trembling legs from collapsing.

  Nadine slung her bony body down on the recliner. “Don’t fuss at me. Just because I ain’t got a license don’t mean I can’t drive. Them damned brakes is just tough to mash down when you get to be ninety. And if I get caught, then you’ll come bail me out of jail. Get us some tea or some wine and let’s talk about what happened to Cricket. I swear, that girl is carryin’ too much weight on them little bitty feet and that’s the reason she’s got a bum leg right now. She needs to jerk about forty pounds off her body, and then she could catch a husband.”

  “Are you drunk, Nadine?” Lettie rushed into the store and popped her hands on her round hips right in front of her sister. “What in the hell do you mean drivin’ when you ain’t even had a license in ten years? I told you that I’d drive over and get you. When I got there and you was gone, I thought the aliens had finally gotten through on my phone.”

  Nadine’s chin jacked up three inches. “Hell, if they had, they would have let me go in an hour. I’m ninety years old. There ain’t nothin’ in this old body they’d want to study. And”—she shook her finger under Lettie’s nose—“you’re too damn slow. I was ready an hour ago, and it’s too hot to walk down here. I can drive if I want to. Now stop your bitchin’ at me and sit down here.” She patted the sofa. “Jennie Sue is going to bring us some tea and tell us about how Cricket hurt her foot. Bless Cricket’s heart, she’ll shrivel up and die if she can’t get out and visit with people.”

  “Don’t change the subject.” Lettie plopped down. “Look at my shoes. They don’t even match, and it’s your fault. When Amos called and said that someone told him you were weaving all over the road, I picked up the first two I could find. If I’d had to go to the hospital like this because you had a wreck, everyone in the county would say I was losin’ my mind.”

  “Well, you are,” Nadine said in an icy tone. “Go rushin’ around like a madwoman just because I decided to do something on my own and come see my friend Jennie Sue. Maybe I wanted to talk about you and didn’t want you here.”

  Jennie Sue went to Amos’s office, found a stack of disposable red plastic cups, and filled three with ice cubes and sweet tea. They were still arguing when she made it back to the front of the store and handed off one to each of them.

  “Sit down and talk to us. My heart is pumping so hard it’s goin’ to break a rib. I swear, Nadine, I ought to shake the shit out of you for scaring us like this,” Lettie fussed.

  Jennie Sue glanced longingly at the shelves, but these two old girls needed her. She eased down in a chair across from them. “Let’s catch our breath and let the adrenaline settle before we go shaking anyone.”

  Lettie leaned her head back and put a hand over her eyes. “My blood pressure is at stroke level.”

  “It’s all that fat around your heart that’s making it go high today,” Nadine said sarcastically.

  Lettie sat up straight and glared at Nadine. “Bullshit! It’s havin’ a crazy sister.”

  “Let’s talk about something else,” Jennie Sue said quickly. “I’m rearranging the store so the customers can find what they want easier. Amos told me to do whatever I want, and it could create more sales.”

  “That’s nice. We heard you told the doctor Cricket was your sister. Did she try to scratch your eyes right out of your head? You know she hates you, don’t you?” Nadine downed half her tea and said, “It’s tough to hate your sister, right, Lettie?”

  “Don’t ask me that right now. I wouldn’t have a bit of trouble scratching her eyes out,” Lettie yelled, winding back up.

  “Then I’d be blind and I might really hit the storefront.” Nadine slapped Lettie on the arm.

  Lettie slapped her back. “You don’t get to talk right now.” Then she turned her attention back to Jennie Sue. “We also heard you were out there at the farm until late.”

  “I’m going out there every evening to help get in the crops and make supper for them. I get to eat for free, and they get a cook and a field hand. Sounded like a good deal to me.” She stood up and went back to working on the books. “And Cricket and I’ve decided to be civil friends. Emphasis on being civil. I told the lady at the hospital I was her sister just so I could get past the doors into the place where she was.”

  “You’re hoping to change Cricket’s mind, aren’t you?” Lettie asked.

  “We’re your friends, but she probably won’t never be anything more than this civil-friend thing you said. Sounds kind of crazy to me,” Nadine said.

  “Not really. We’re kind of civil friends with Charlotte. We speak when we have to, don’t we?” Lettie said.

  “Well, I’m not so sure that Cricket can even do that much with Jennie Sue. She’s stubborn like Rick. You know that man ain’t set foot in church since he got home?”

  “Well, I haven’t been in church since I married Percy. God hasn’t struck me dead yet.”

  Lettie laughed out loud. “You are so much like your grandma Baker. She had a wonderful sense of humor. I liked her almost as much as I didn’t like your other great-grandma for takin’ Gene away from Flora.”

  “Lettie! You don’t need to be draggin’ them old bones out of the closet again.” Nadine shot a dirty look her way.

  “It’s okay. Daddy told me the story at lunch yesterday. Did y’all realize that my mama will be fifty this year? No wonder she’s havin’ such a meltdown. She’s too beautiful to get old.” She carried a box through the store, searching for more romance books.

  “Charlotte always was gorgeous. You know what she should do? She should start a beauty-treatment business for girls like Cricket,” Nadine said.

  “There’s nothing wrong with Cricket. Some of us are just fluffier tha
n you skinny broads,” Lettie huffed. “What Charlotte needs to do is accept age gracefully.”

  “Like you do with that jet-black hair,” Nadine snorted.

  “Don’t you start on my hair, and I won’t say a word about your flat chest,” Lettie shot back.

  Life was so much fun in Bloom, Texas. Jennie Sue wondered why she’d ever left in the first place. Oh, yes, it had something to do with her mother paying a down-on-his-luck diamond dealer to woo her—did they even use that word anymore? If not, they should, because it was as outdated as a dowry.

  She could hear the sisters arguing in the background, but she let her mind wander. Did Percy ever love her? Would it have even made him sad to know that their child had been stillborn? Or would he have been relieved not to have to pay child support?

  “Poor Cricket.” Nadine clucked like an old hen gathering in her chicks. “She’s always been one of them girls who like to be out in the middle of things, not stuck in the house with her foot propped up.”

  “We’ll have to go out and visit with her tomorrow afternoon,” Lettie said.

  Nadine sipped at her tea. “Take notes.”

  “Notes?” Jennie Sue asked.

  “Honey, at our age, we might forget an important little bit of news, so we’ll take notes between now and tomorrow about everything we hear,” Lettie explained.

  “You mean gossip?”

  “It’s one and the same,” Lettie and Nadine said in unison.

  “So now, what’s going on with you and Rick?” Nadine leaned forward like she was sharing a secret.

  “As in?” Jennie Sue asked.

  “Do you like him? Does he like you? Are you going out on a date?” Lettie asked.

  “Slow down. Yes, I like Rick as a friend. I don’t know if he likes me, and we are definitely not dating. I’ve only been home a week. That would be moving too fast,” Jennie Sue answered.

  Nadine clapped her hands. “You lost. You owe me two dollars.”

  Lettie pulled two rumpled dollar bills from her purse. “I’ll win it back by the end of the day.”

  “Maybe so, but it’s mine now.”

  “Is that real money?” Jennie Sue asked.

  “We got about ten of them dollars, and that’s our rumor money. We been using the same bills for up near fifty years now,” Lettie answered.

  Jennie Sue dropped the two books in her hands. “You’re kiddin’ me, right?”

  “Truth.” Lettie held up two fingers. “Swear it on my mama’s Bible. We wouldn’t lie to our friend.”

  “So I’m your friend even though you’ve been feuding with the Wilshires for all these years?” Jennie Sue asked.

  “Honey, you are a Baker and we loved your grandma Vera, so yes, you are our friend.”

  “And since you are our friend”—Nadine lowered her voice to a whisper—“when the aliens do figure out a way to get into our business because of that fancy phone you have, we’ll protect you. I got a concrete cellar full of canned vegetables and fruit. Got two old bunk beds down there, too, and a thousand rounds of ammo to go with my guns. I reckon we can hold ’em off for a little while.”

  “Thank you. That eases my fears.” Jennie Sue stopped what she was doing and gave them both a hug.

  Even though Rick usually avoided mirrors like the plague, especially when he wasn’t wearing a shirt, that morning after his shower he stood in front of one and let the memories of that day rush over him. He and the rest of the Rangers had gotten the mission plan and packed their gear. They were all as superstitious as baseball players and had their own special routines. Rick’s was that he had to put all his gear into his go bag and take it out three times to make sure he hadn’t forgotten anything. Then he had to zip it, unzip it, and then zip it one more time. After that, he’d check his guns and count the ammo twice. Finally, he’d kiss his dog tags, and then he was ready to go.

  He’d done it all that morning, but his mind had been on his dad. He and Cricket had talked on FaceTime the night before, and she’d told him that their father was running out of steam early in the afternoon. The man had worked his whole life in the fields—he was as strong as a bull—so it was a big thing when he couldn’t go all day anymore. They found out that he had cancer the same week that Rick lay unconscious in a hospital.

  Rick touched the scars on his chest and sides and then turned to see the big one that had made him have to relearn the art of walking. “No woman would ever want something that looks like this,” he muttered.

  His team had accomplished the mission and had made it to the helicopter, all of them running full-out with gunfire behind them when he’d heard a click. He hadn’t had time to make a decision about whether to take another step or not. The next thing he knew he was flying through the air.

  Two of his friends grabbed him under the arms and pulled him into the chopper, and then it was lights-out. When he woke up, he knew he wasn’t dead because it hurt too much. His best friend had slept in a chair beside him, and when Rick groaned, he awoke with a start and ran for a nurse. The good news was that he was alive. The bad was that he’d spend several months in rehab and he’d never be fit for active duty again.

  Cricket’s loud voice startled him from the past into reality when she yelled from the living room. “You better get a move on. You need to be at the library to get the bookmobile in exactly fifteen minutes.”

  “Yes, sir, Sarge,” he called out.

  “I’m cranky. Don’t get cute with me,” she hollered back.

  He hurriedly threw on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. After he’d put on his athletic shoes, he grabbed the book he’d been reading. He shoved it down into a backpack with half a dozen bottles of water and the last half dozen peanut butter cookies Cricket had made a few days before.

  “You good for the afternoon?” he asked.

  “Might as well be. I can’t do anything but sit here. I’m just glad it’s summer and Elaine can get high school girls to pick up my shifts. She’s called twice this morning already to check on me and ask if we needed anything.”

  “That’s great. Keep the ice regimen going, and remember to take the pain meds like the doctor said. Jennie Sue will be here this evening, so you’ll have some company then.”

  He heard her grumbling on his way out.

  He drove straight to the library and got the keys, then headed north up to Roby. Fifteen minutes later he arrived at the school parking lot to find several folks already waiting for him. When Rick was sixteen, the big news in the area had been about the forty-two people who each put a ten-dollar bill in a pot to buy lottery tickets. They’d won a forty-six-million-dollar pot and split it, making several citizens of Roby instant millionaires.

  “Hey.” Claud Brewer stepped inside the second that Rick opened the door. “I heard that your sister done broke her leg, and you hired an old girlfriend to come help out on the farm. Any truth in that?”

  “She sprained her ankle, and Jennie Sue Baker agreed to help out since Cricket is her friend.” He’d have probably fainted like a girl if Cricket had made that drastic of a change in her actual opinion of Jennie Sue. “Been hot enough for you?” He tried to change the subject.

  “That’s Dill Baker’s daughter, right? The one that married that fancy feller from New York a few years ago?”

  “Yep, but she’s been divorced for a while now.” Rick made another stab at changing the conversation. “I brought the last two John Grisham books with you in mind today.”

  Claud put his two return books in the bin right inside the door. “I heard he took off with another woman, and the gover’ment is hot on his tail. And I’ll take both of the books you brought. Too hot to be outside these days, and my wife yammers about it if I try to cook. Says I mess up too many dishes.”

  “You like to cook?” Rick found the books for him and had him sign the cards in the back.

  “Naw, I just like to piss my wife off.” Claud winked. “Retirement isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. I work on keepin’ her blood pressure u
p. I figure pissin’ her off is savin’ her life. You might remember that when you get old and that young filly you are seein’ down there in Bloom needs a little help with her blood pressure.”

  Yeah, like that would ever happen. Rick sighed. She’s way too beautiful to ever look at me in any way but as a friend.

  “Evenin’, Cricket. Are you bored to death?” Jennie Sue passed through the living room without stopping.

  “You don’t know the half of it. What is that in your hands?” Cricket groaned.

  “Italian bread. I’ll make it out into a loaf and let it rise again while I get things prepped for supper.”

  “What’s your angle, Jennie Sue? My brother is off-limits, if that’s it.” Cricket’s tone was edgy.

  “I’m sure your brother can do better than a divorced woman who’s the talk of the town right now. Why don’t you get Rick to drive you into town tomorrow morning and spend the day with me at the bookstore? Folks are comin’ in and out all day. There’s a recliner back in the office that I can push into the seating area. We can keep up with your ice packs, and it wouldn’t be any different than sitting here.”

  Jennie Sue immediately wished that she could take the words and shove them back into her mouth. Putting up with Cricket all day would be as bad or worse than spending hours with Charlotte. The only difference would be that Cricket wouldn’t tell Jennie Sue that she was ten pounds overweight.

  Cricket hesitated long enough to leave no doubt in Jennie Sue’s mind that she was weighing the pros and cons. She’d have to spend the day with someone she didn’t like, but she’d get to be in the middle of things, and folks would drop in to visit when they learned she was there.

  Rick poked his head door. “You fit to live with, Cricket?”

  “No, I’m even crankier than I was this morning, and now I’m hungry on top of it,” she answered.

  “Supper will take care of that.” Jennie Sue set a cast-iron skillet and a steamer pot onto the stove.

  Rick followed Jennie Sue into the kitchen. “Looks like we’ve got maybe two hours’ worth of harvesting to do after supper. That’ll give me plenty to do my Tuesday deliveries around town. What’s for supper? Can I help with anything?”