Small Town Rumors

by Carolyn Brown

  “She was stillborn. Mama and Daddy brought her to Bloom to bury her,” she whispered.

  “How? What?” he sputtered.

  “I guess if you’ve got enough money, secrets can be kept, even in Bloom,” she said.

  “Have you been to the cemetery?” he asked.

  She held up two fingers. “Twice. The first time, I couldn’t even get out of the truck. The second was the day we almost collided. I feel so guilty that there’s not even a stone to mark her grave. It’s like I’m ashamed of her. Once we get a snow cone, maybe you better just take me home.”

  “I’ve got a better idea.” He finally pulled up to the window and ordered.

  “And that is?”

  “Let’s go to the cemetery together. We’ll sit right there beside her, and you can tell me all about what she looked like,” he said.

  For the second time that week, she was stunned speechless. That was the absolute last thing she’d expected him to say.

  “Are you sure?” she asked.

  He handed her the first snow cone that came through the window. “Of course. You need to talk about her, and I’m here to listen.”

  “I’m not sure what I’d say to her,” she said.

  “Not to her.” He took his snow cone and let go of her hand. “About her. I never felt right talking to my mama’s or my dad’s tombstone, but talking about them is a different matter.”

  A wrought iron fence surrounded the Bloom cemetery, and huge oak trees located among the graves shaded much of the place. Rick drove through the gates and down to the first narrow road that divided sections.

  “Where to now?”

  “Left.” She pointed. “To the Baker graves right down there.”

  “What’s her name?” he asked as he parked the truck.

  “Emily Grace.” She carried her snow cone with her to the end of the plot and sat down on the grass.

  Rick sat down beside her and draped an arm around her shoulders. “How much did she weigh?”

  “Eight pounds even.”

  “Is she named after someone?” he asked.

  “No, I just thought the name sounded southern and pretty. I could picture her in a pink lace dress on her first Easter with a little bonnet,” she answered. “She had a lot of jet-black hair and a little round face with cheeks made for kissing. I got to hold her for an hour before they took her away. I sent the dress I’d planned to take her home in with Mama, but I don’t even know if she buried her in it. I got a horrible infection and had to stay in the hospital a whole week. By the time I went home alone, she was already put away.” Jennie Sue swallowed hard, but the lump in her throat wouldn’t go down.

  Rick moved closer to her and drew her to his side. She leaned her head on his shoulder and let the tears flow freely.

  “I just let Daddy and Mama take over the arrangements, and I buried myself in college classes. Mama said that she didn’t want anyone to know because it could ruin my chances of finding another husband.”

  He patted her on the back. “I’m not sure I understand that reasoning, but your mother thinks different than I do.”

  “Seems like years ago,” she said.

  “It’s a wonder you kept any sanity at all. We’ll come every week from now on and bring flowers for her grave. She’ll never be forgotten,” he promised.

  She nodded in agreement. “There’s going to be a stone with her name on it, too.”

  His phone rang, and without letting go of her, he worked it out of his hip pocket. “Sorry about this,” he said to Jennie Sue before answering the call. “Hello? I’m pretty busy right now, Cricket.”

  Several long seconds passed before he said, “Are you absolutely sure?”

  When he finally shoved the phone back into his pocket, he grabbed Jennie Sue and held her so tightly that she thought she’d smother.

  “Is everything all right?” she asked.

  “No, it’s not, and I don’t know how to tell you,” he whispered into her hair. “Oh, Jennie Sue, I’m so sorry.”

  “Is it Cricket? Did she fall on that bum ankle?” she pushed back and asked.

  He shook his head.

  “Spit it out,” she said.

  “Your dad’s plane crashed about a mile from the runway.”

  “Was anyone hurt?” Her heart moved up into her chest, and she remembered that it was Thursday. Her parents had left for Vegas that morning.

  “Your parents were in the plane. I’m so sorry.” His voice cracked.

  “Where are they? Where did they take them? Will you drive me to the hospital?” The words tumbled out of her mouth.

  He shook his head, and a moan came from deep inside her chest—a sound that she didn’t even recognize. He wiped the fresh tears from her face with a handkerchief that appeared from nowhere, and she remembered her father doing the same thing.

  “No!” she muttered. “Please tell me they’re not—” She couldn’t make herself utter the word.

  “I’m so sorry, but they were both killed when the plane crashed,” he said.

  “Take me to Mabel,” she whispered. “And stay with me, please.”

  He stood up, bent forward, and picked her up, cradling her in his arms. She felt like a rag doll as he put her into the passenger seat. The trip from the cemetery to the house only took five minutes, but it seemed like they’d driven for hours, and she was totally numb when they reached the house.

  Rick didn’t even ask if she could walk but carried her across the cobblestone walkway to the porch. When they reached the door, it swung open and Mabel ushered them inside, wiping her tears on the tail of her apron the whole way into the living room.

  “Lay her on the sofa. I’ll get her a shot of whiskey,” Mabel said.

  Jennie Sue was in denial when he laid her down. This had to be a nightmare. It couldn’t be real. Her mama said she loved her. She couldn’t be dead. They had to build on that love and start a new relationship.

  Rick bent and kissed her on the forehead. “I should go. You’ve got things to do.”

  She sat up, took his hand, and pulled him down beside her. “Tell me that you’ll come back tomorrow and help me.”

  “Anything. Just tell me what to do,” he said.

  The doorbell rang and Mabel disappeared, coming back with Lettie, Nadine, and Cricket behind her. Nadine rushed across the room and knelt in front of Jennie Sue. “We had to come. We just couldn’t stay away, but it doesn’t feel right for us to be here, so we’ll just give you a hug and leave.”

  “I’m so glad you are here. Sit, please.” Jennie Sue motioned toward another sofa and love seat across from where she and Rick were sitting. She felt like she was floating above her actual body. The only other time she’d experienced that strange feeling was when she came home to an empty apartment and walked into the nursery. She’d picked up a children’s book and sat on the floor beside the crib, reading it and pretending that Emily Grace was in her lap.

  “Thank you.” She laced her fingers in Rick’s hand.

  “What can we do? What do you need?” Lettie moved across the floor to take a place on the sofa beside Nadine.

  “Would you ladies stay with me tonight? I don’t want to be alone in this house,” Jennie Sue said. “And, Mabel, I don’t want to see anyone else.”

  “The Belles,” Mabel started.

  “Tell them to come tomorrow. I can’t handle them today,” Jennie Sue said. “Call Belinda. She’ll get the word out to all of them.”

  Cricket crutched across the room and sat down in one of the wingback chairs. “I don’t know what to say,” she muttered.

  “Me neither, Cricket. You just being here with me is a comfort.”

  “How can you say that after the way I’ve acted?” Cricket asked.

  “Because it’s the truth. You’ve lost parents,” Jennie Sue said.

  Lettie pulled a tissue from her purse and wiped her eyes. “I’m so sorry that I let things be the way they were between us and your mother. I should have taken care of
that instead of bein’ so stubborn.”

  Frank came in from the kitchen with his hat in his hands. “Darlin’ girl, what do you need me to do?” His bent shoulders and the expression on his face said that he’d aged ten years in the past hour.

  “Nothing right now. I want things to go on here in the house like normal until I can figure things out. Rick, you’ve got things to do.”

  “It can all wait,” Rick said.

  “There’ll be talk if we stay here,” Nadine said.

  “I don’t really give a damn.” Her parents were gone forever. She could never talk to them or see them again. What people said didn’t make a bit of difference to her. “Please stay with me.”

  “Of course we will,” Lettie said.

  “There’s goin’ to be so much to do these next few days. Lawyers and insurance and coroners and accident reports. Are you sure you don’t want me to call the Belles to help you get through it all?” Mabel asked.

  “Not tonight. I’ll face it tomorrow. Tonight, I just need Nadine and Lettie and you, Mabel.”

  “Okay, then, I’m going to the kitchen and make food for y’all. When my mama died, I cooked and cooked and then cooked some more. Folks thought I’d lost my mind, but it was the only thing that brought me any kind of peace. And right now I need to find that peace,” Mabel said.

  “When Flora died, I made jam,” Nadine said. “I was so angry with her for letting the cancer get so far gone before she went to the doctor that I made jars and jars of plum jam.”

  “She hated plum jam,” Lettie said.

  “That’s why I made it, to punish her for dying.”

  “I made bread-and-butter pickles.” Lettie nodded. “For the same reason. She loved them and could eat a pint a week, so I made them because she could never eat them again.”

  Jennie Sue squeezed Rick’s hand. “You and Cricket can go, but please come back tomorrow morning.”

  “We’ll be here,” Cricket said. “And if you change your mind and want us to spend the night, just call and we’ll be here in fifteen minutes.”

  “Thank you,” she said.

  The phone rang as they were leaving. Mabel answered it in the kitchen, took it to Jennie Sue, and whispered, “It’s the lawyer, Justin Rhodes. He just heard and would like to come by for a few minutes.”

  “Tell him to come right now.” She was totally overwhelmed. There would have to be funeral arrangements tomorrow morning, and God only knew what else would require her attention as the only surviving child.

  “We need to make a trip back into town for our overnight things,” Nadine said. “But we’ll be back within the hour.”

  Jennie Sue nodded. She had to stiffen her spine. “Mabel will be here, and I’ll deal with the lawyer while you are gone.”

  The two ladies were only gone a few minutes before the doorbell rang and Mabel ushered the lawyer into the room. He greeted her as he opened his briefcase and brought out a thick file.

  “Jennifer, this is such a terrible shock to all of us. I can’t imagine how you must feel,” he said gently.

  “Numb,” she said.

  “You poor thing.” Justin patted her arm. “I could come back tomorrow, but these are important things that you should know before you see the coroner. However, if you aren’t able right now . . .” He paused.

  “Let’s just get it over with,” she whispered.

  “If you are sure,” he said.

  She nodded.

  “Okay, then. Your parents have an ironclad will. You inherit everything as the last surviving member of both the Baker and Wilshire families. It’s written in the will that they both want to be cremated and their ashes scattered wherever you think best. Your mother had something against her friends staring down at her in a casket.”

  Jennie Sue didn’t doubt that for a single second. Charlotte wouldn’t have trusted anyone to do her makeup or pick out the appropriate outfit—not even Jennie Sue.

  “Did they have funeral wishes?” she asked.

  “Your dad said whether or not you had a memorial was up to you. As soon as the coroner finishes with their bodies . . .” He paused again.

  She grabbed a tissue and wiped her eyes.

  He took a deep breath and went on. “They are to be sent to Sweetwater to the crematorium. You should be able to pick up their ashes next week. And those will be in urns that they picked out when they updated their will,” he said.

  “My beautiful mother.” She wept into Rick’s handkerchief.

  Justin nodded slowly. “Will always be beautiful in your eyes. Remember her the way she was when you saw her last. The rest of this can wait a few days. Just call me when you’re ready to talk about the business, and I’ll deal with the insurance people and all the accident reports. That’s part of my job as the company lawyer.”

  His suggestion made sense, but she wished that she’d insisted they spend the whole day together, not just an hour for lunch. And her dad, trying to help her with money and a car—she would have taken both just to make him feel better.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Rick and Cricket showed up right after breakfast the next morning. Jennie Sue answered the door and pulled him down beside her on the sofa.

  “What day are you thinking about for the funeral?” Cricket asked as she sat down across from them.

  “No funeral and no memorial. They left instructions to be cremated and for me to choose the spot where I want to scatter the ashes,” she said in a hollow-sounding voice.

  Lettie and Nadine came in from the kitchen, where they’d been helping Mabel clean up after breakfast. They sat in the two chairs that completed the seating arrangement.

  “I heard that you got the news when you and Rick were at the cemetery,” Lettie said. “That seems kind of strange.”

  “It was surreal and still is even this morning. I was visiting my daughter’s grave,” Jennie Sue answered.

  “Jennie Sue, are you okay?” Cricket asked.

  “Why?”

  “You don’t have a daughter, honey,” Lettie said gently.

  “Yes, I do,” Jennie Sue said. “Emily Grace was stillborn a few months after Percy left me in New York. Mama wanted to keep it all a secret so if I got married again, it wouldn’t be an issue. My daughter is in the Bloom cemetery in the Baker plot. I guess there was one secret that no one in town knew about.”

  “Sweet Lord!” Lettie laid a hand over her heart.

  “He left you when you were pregnant? What a bastard!” Cricket snapped. “Did he come back and support you when the baby was born?”

  “I didn’t even know where he was at that time. He left when he found out I was pregnant, and I haven’t heard from him since,” Jennie Sue answered.

  “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know,” Cricket whispered. “I won’t tell anyone about the baby.”

  “You can tell whoever you want. I will be putting up a tombstone as soon as I can arrange for one. I’m just glad that Percy let me take my maiden name back so I can have her stone engraved with Emily Grace Baker and she won’t have to have anything of him on her grave,” Jennie Sue said.

  Jennie Sue went through the clothes that she’d left behind in her closet and found the simple blue dress her mother had reminded her she’d worn to her senior tea. She chose that one to wear to the coroner’s office that morning. He’d called and said that the bodies were ready to deliver to the crematorium, but she wanted to see them. Maybe it would bring some kind of closure. She slipped her feet into a pair of white sandals. Her mother would’ve preferred that she’d chosen a pair of white leather pumps with maybe a three-inch heel with the dress, but after Percy left, she’d sworn that she’d never wear heels again.

  Nadine, Lettie, Rick, and Cricket were waiting in the living room by the time she made it downstairs. Rick wore a pair of jeans and his customary long-sleeve shirt with pearl snaps. Cricket was in the same outfit she’d been wearing when she twisted her ankle.

  “You look lovely,” Rick said.

  �
��You always look so put-together and classy,” Cricket said.

  “Thank you both, but jeans and flip-flops are more my style. I guess I didn’t wallow around in the Wilshire gene pool nearly long enough,” she said. “Are we ready to do this?”

  “If you are,” Rick said. “Mabel says that your mama’s friends insisted on coming tonight, so we’ll clear out before they get here.”

  “No, Belinda called to change it. They’re coming tomorrow evening at eight and bringing refreshments with them, since Baker Oil employees will be dropping by, too. It’s only for an hour, so please don’t leave me alone with them.” Jennie Sue handed him the keys to her mama’s car. “If you’ll drive, please, I’d appreciate it. And this car will be easier for Cricket to get in and out of.”

  “Rick and Cricket can be here tomorrow night, honey, but not us. Those women would barricade the doors and shoot us on sight,” Lettie said as she got into the back seat of the Caddy, with Nadine and Cricket right behind her.

  “I’m not sure . . . ,” Cricket started.

  “Please,” Jennie Sue begged.

  “Okay, if you are sure about it,” Cricket agreed.

  Rick touched her on the arm. “Yes, we will stay.”

  “Thank you both. I just need to get through this thing with the Belles tomorrow night, and then I can go back to my apartment,” she answered.

  “You’re kiddin’,” Cricket said. “Why would you do that?”

  “Because I like my apartment better than I like that big house,” Jennie Sue answered. “And I’m rattling on about plans because I’m dreading this part so much. Until this minute, I could kind of pretend that it was just a bad dream. I’m glad y’all are goin’ with me.”

  It was only a short drive to the coroner in Sweetwater. He met them in the outer office. “I’m Dr. Wesley Johnston. Which of you young ladies is Jennifer?”

  She stepped forward and stuck out her hand. “I am Jennie Sue Baker.”

  He pumped her hand once and dropped it. “Are you absolutely sure you want to see your parents? It’s not a pretty sight. You might want to remember them the way they were the last time you talked with them.”

  “Yes, sir,” she said. “I need to see them.”