Laelia

by Ruth-Miriam Garnett

  In the small library adjacent to the living room, she plucked a copy of Ran, Akira Kurosawa’s war epic, from a shelf reserved for videocassettes. Rebecca had seen the Japanese saga of war and warriors in the fourteenth century numerous times but had not grown tired of its massive scope and exhilarating battle scenes. She hardly noticed her long climb up the front stairs, excitedly anticipating the next few hours of her favorite film. Humming contentedly, she proceeded.

  Before Rebecca reached the landing of the women’s floor, she heard Claudia calling Gracelyn’s name. Seeing the distressed look on the normally serene face, Rebecca walked over to her swiftly and put her arm around Claudia’s delicate shoulders.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked.

  “I said something cruel to Gracelyn about giving Bernard the bedpan. I didn’t realize she still had a soft spot for him. I’m so sorry, and now I don’t know what to say to her. Will you please help her?”

  “Of course I’ll help her, but you calm down first. Poor thing doesn’t know whether to love him or hate his guts, so she’s doing both. That man took something from her. He cut into her real deep. And now she knows she’ll never have him back in a tender way. It’s like he’s already left her, and she can’t hope anymore. She’s lived on hope for a long time, and now she’s lost that too. She’ll get over everything in time, but right now there’s a fresh wound. You stop worrying, because she loves you and she knows you didn’t mean any harm to her. Let her rest, and I’ll give her a talking to in the morning.”

  Claudia, comforted, lay her head on Rebecca’s for a few moments, while Rebecca patted her hair. After a full embrace, the sisters departed each other’s company, each anticipating a few hours’ activity in her own quarters.

  Rebecca settled comfortably in bed, clicked on her television, and fast-forwarded her video to her favorite battle scene, before, gradually, an uneasy feeling crept over her, distracting her from the movie. Sensing danger, her mind wandered to Gracelyn. She felt it best to go check on her.

  I’ve got a cold, cold feeling, just like ice around my heart.

  I’ve got a cold, cold feeling, just like ice around my heart.

  I know I’m goin’ta quit somebody, every time that feeling starts.

  Rebecca heard Ester Phillips’s raspy singing clearly through the closed door of Gracelyn’s attic quarters just as she mounted the last of the back stairs leading to the top floor of the mansion. When Gracelyn did not respond to her muffled knock, Rebecca opened the door slightly to let her know she had called to her.

  Gracelyn sat with her back to the door in an overstuffed wing chair that had seen far better days. “Gracelyn, honey.” When she didn’t answer, Rebecca walked around the chair and perched on the ottoman in front of her. “Girl, you get that man off your mind for the time being. Go on and get in the bathtub. Give yourself a facial, or the like.”

  Gracelyn sat mute and stone-faced while Rebecca raised both her legs onto her lap and for several minutes massaged her feet.

  “He was my whole life, Rebecca, my whole life. All that time, I tried to make him love me. Now he’s leaving me. I can’t stand this. I hate him so much, and I’m so sorry for him. One minute I can’t stand to look at him like he is. The next minute, I want to make him hurt real bad, like he made me hurt. The bad thing is, most of the time, he doesn’t know I’m there.”

  “Girl, the Lord has moved in your life, can’t you see that? You’re about to be free, free from all that pain. Bernard is about to be free. We’re all about to be free. It doesn’t matter what came before, because what’s coming is so much better. You are lovelier and stronger than you’ve ever been, and when you know that, you’ll find another man who will love you and all those poems and things you write. That man’s gonna feel like the luckiest man alive.”

  “Oh, Rebecca, do you believe that?”

  “You claim it now. All this time you held on and tended to him. Don’t you think the Lord will reward the goodness in your heart? He didn’t strike you, he struck the evil in your life. And so all you have to do is look beyond today.”

  Gracelyn mulled over Rebecca’s words, knowing in her heart that her eldest sister was unfailingly honest and caring toward her. If this was the blueprint Rebecca saw for her life, she would embrace it.

  “Are you really going to take on Reverend Wilson?”

  “Yes, child, and I sure need you to work with me on that. I don’t see suffering his foolishness any longer. Too many women in that congregation with the same burdens we have, and he just isn’t going to say things and do things to make life harder for any of us. You follow my way, and you’ll see what I’m talking about.”

  “Rebecca, you know I’ll do anything. I’m a good soldier.”

  “Yes, child, you’re about the bravest I know. But right now, you get some sleep. I can’t have you up here moping around half the night and not ready to work tomorrow. I’ve got big plans and I need you to have a lot of energy.”

  Gracelyn grinned. “Rebecca, sometimes I think I have too much energy.”

  “Well, that’s good and bad. Anyway, tuck in early enough to be ready for action tomorrow morning.” Rebecca stood up and leaned over to plant a kiss on Gracelyn’s forehead before going back to her movie.

  III

  THE CATES KITCHEN window faced east, looking out over the backyard. Rebecca loved to get downstairs early enough to see the sun come up. In warmer weather, she would already be out back checking her plants. This morning, her head full of the elaborately costumed Japanese warriors and their bloody battles, she stood over the sink filling the copper teakettle with water. Rebecca waited a few minutes before turning the lights on.

  After meditating on the orange, fuchsia, and turquoise streaking the sky, she turned on the fluorescent ceiling light. Rummaging in the large pantry, she found Melita filters and a decorative canister of Kenyan coffee, a good strong blend. She turned her head, hearing Claudia in her low heels walk pertly into the kitchen.

  “Kenyan all right with you this morning, dear?” she asked.

  “That sounds good; how’s Gracelyn?”

  “She’ll be fine. We’ll keep an eye on her, but I think she’ll be fine.”

  Claudia’s eagle eyes spotted Lucy’s note. “What’s this?”

  “Hmph,” was Rebecca’s comment.

  Not waiting for a further response, Claudia took eggs and butter out of the refrigerator. She prepared to scramble the eggs with scallions and fix toast for their breakfast, accompanied by Rebecca’s strong coffee. Gracelyn bounded hurriedly into the kitchen and set out glasses for orange juice she had squeezed the night before.

  She grabbed the tattered note.

  “Did you all see this?”

  “Yes, dear, we did,” Rebecca answered her. “Those are Lucy’s suggestions on how we can make the men more comfortable. She means well.”

  The three met each other’s glance. Claudia, understanding they were all in sync, gently took the soggy piece of paper out of Gracelyn’s hand and threw it away.

  “I’m not ashamed to say that we are doing enough, Lord knows,” Rebecca said, “as much as any human beings could under the circumstances.”

  “So, we’ll move on,” Claudia added brightly, putting an end to the matter.

  Monday’s moderate breakfast was always the sisters’ first meeting of the week, during which assigned tasks could be reviewed. This Monday morning, the mood was different. On top of their normal routine, the Cates women would begin to enact their plan for freedom. They were energized, even while realizing their responsibilities would now be double and triple until they achieved their goal.

  “Ladies,” commanded Rebecca, “we have to compartmentalize. Those eggs done?”

  Claudia scurried to the stove and transferred the fluffy eggs onto a large white china platter, arranging them carefully in the center. Before bringing them to the table, she sprinkled them lightly with basil. She made a last trip to the oven, where she had been keeping the toast warm in a
baking dish, shook the pieces of bread out into a wicker basket lined with a cloth napkin, and covered them over.

  The three, seated at last, joined hands for a brief blessing of their food by Rebecca.

  “Heavenly Father, we ask you to bless our meal as we do your will throughout this blessed day.”

  The Cates women ate for a few minutes in silence, spooning butter and apricot preserves on their warm bread, salting and peppering their eggs with abandon, and blending cream into their coffee. Well into their meal, Rebecca began to give instructions.

  “Gracelyn, we need to get Bernard to that hospice. Then we need to see about getting Timothy up to Chicago. Claudia, all right with you if we head up that way around the third week of June?”

  “Fine with me.”

  Rebecca continued. “Gracelyn, did you get a date from that place yet?”

  “Yes,” Gracelyn said slowly. “They’re ready for him Saturday after next.”

  “All right.” Rebecca smiled gently at Gracelyn. She continued soberly, “We could feed him just soup up till then, in case the oatmeal is running him off. That might ease him with that colostomy problem. But since the date is coming up that quick, you may just want to let the hospice people handle whatever it was Lucy was talking about.”

  “All right,” said Gracelyn, thinking of the arduous collection and sorting of urine-smelling bedclothes that she carted off several times a week to Raphaela, a neighbor who took in laundry and foster children. “Rebecca, I can hardly believe this is real.”

  “Uhm hum,” Rebecca responded. “It’s real, all right.” Rebecca was already onto her next thought.

  “What you need to do next time you go by Raphaela’s is tell her she can keep those sheets and things after she washes them, so she’ll have some extra for all those children. Tell her Mr. Bernard took a turn and is going to a place where he’ll be more comfortable.”

  Gracelyn, regaining her enthusiasm, shot in, “You want me to talk to Lucy about the Harriet Tubman play I found?”

  “We’ll get to Lucy a little later on; got other things for you to do right through here and—”

  “Rebecca, please. I’ve got to do something!”

  “Now, hold off, girl, I’m getting to this play of yours.”

  Gracelyn waited eagerly for Rebecca to continue, knowing whatever her sister had in store for her was completely well thought out. Her brown face shining, she poured more of the strong coffee into her mug, spilling droplets onto her hand.

  “Ow!”

  Efficient Claudia dipped a clean corner of her napkin into her ice water, took Gracelyn’s hand, and began daubing the reddened skin. Crisis resolved, the two waited for their leader’s next pronouncement.

  “We’ve got to be careful about Timothy going around talking our business. Once he sees Bernard taken away, he’ll be nervous. I have decided the thing to do is keep him sedated. That way, he’ll stop shaking and won’t remember he needs some alcohol. But we’ll need a pair of male hands to help with him when we take the drive to Chicago to put him away. When you talk to Raphaela, see if she has any big boys with common sense over there. I’ll go on and tell Lucy that Timothy’s taken a bad cold and is sleeping extra, and she can just keep an eye on Jake. He’ll be the last to go anywhere.”

  “Lord, I sure wish this could all be over,” Gracelyn replied wistfully.

  “Patience, girl. We’re close now,” was Rebecca’s affectionate command.

  A little nervously, Claudia asked her sisters, “Won’t the people at Briney Memorial find out about the sedative?”

  “Now, darling, don’t you worry about that. I’ve already told Dr. Meyers about Timothy wandering around the streets at night, and he agrees he might hurt himself. He’s ordered something so we can keep him subdued. I don’t know why we didn’t do this before. Now, Claudia, you’re going to need to start testifying every Sunday about the men’s sickness being a terrible burden, but that the Lord is giving us strength and showing us the way.”

  Rebecca paused while the other two absorbed her instructions, then continued.

  “Wait two Sundays after Bernard goes in before you start talking about Timothy going up to Briney. Look specially pretty that Sunday, but don’t smile too much. In the meantime, just keep it general. Let everybody know how we are suffering and ask for prayer. Make sure you thank the pastor for all his visits to our menfolk over the past months during our time of trial.”

  “Whew!” was Gracelyn’s voiced approval at Rebecca’s thorough strategizing. Rebecca had covered all the bases, creating infallible smoke screens for their actions. Further, Claudia’s comment to Reverend Wilson would succeed in damning him with faint praise.

  “What about Jake?” Gracelyn then wanted to know.

  Rebecca met Gracelyn’s eyes.

  “He won’t be a problem.”

  Gracelyn understood that Rebecca had already worked out what to do with Jake, but to reveal it now would be an information overload. She knew they needed full concentration on the tasks at hand. Gracelyn understood her sister’s reasoning without having heard it directly stated. Noting Rebecca’s momentary iciness when asked about Jake, Claudia coughed a little nervously, but she trusted her to make all the right moves throughout their undertaking.

  Characteristically chatty in the morning, Claudia went on to review her schedule of pharmacy visits and shopping for the week. Like the other two, she would have little leisure time until the weekend, but since she had agreed to stand up in church, she might need to buy a new dress to make sure she looked her best and wasn’t nervous.

  “Y’all remember Susan Hayward in I’ll Cry Tomorrow? Most drunks don’t look that good, but that woman couldn’t look bad if she tried. That dress she had on at the end was so pretty. I saw a dress like that the other week downtown. I think I’ll try to go back by that shop and see if they have it in my size.”

  Rebecca listened without comment to Claudia’s prattle. She knew that underneath her sister’s seemingly frivolous interests was a mind capable of attending to the most minute detail. Claudia would leave nothing out in her church announcements and would be as meticulous in providing information as she was in her personal appearance.

  Rebecca knew also that Gracelyn’s energies would need to be distracted for a little while. She would keep her busy doing kind deeds for the town’s leading gossips, starting with Raphaela, who gossiped continually as her twenty regular customers went back and forth.

  “Ask Raphaela if any of her children want to be in a church play,” Rebecca told Gracelyn. “Saturday morning when Lucy comes, sit her down for a few minutes and talk it over. I’ll be going by to see the pastor come Wednesday. The Lord is shining the light in front of my eyes like I was Harriet Tubman following the North Star. We’ll come through this just fine. We’ll do what we have to do and keep our good name,” was Rebecca’s summation, ending their planning session.

  The three women stood up from the table and began bustling around the kitchen. They gossiped hurriedly about what their neighbors had worn to church, who had sat with visitors, and the unpredictable May weather. Gracelyn put on water to boil for oatmeal and instant soup, and began a light cleanup of the kitchen. After checking the bed linens for soilage and gathering up the remainder of the laundry, she would do the men’s first feeding. Then, after emptying the dishwasher, she would begin the lunch preparations.

  Claudia, still munching on the remains of a toast point, began to inventory their food and pharmaceutical supplies in order to compile a list. She was the first to exit, an all-weather coat slung over her arm as she went to run the household errands.

  Rebecca’s first mission of the day was to tend to her orchids. She had come downstairs to breakfast in her gardening clothes, a light blue denim work shirt and off-white painter’s pants, which hid her massive curves. Monday was watering day, and she fell silent, thinking of one of her laelias that wasn’t draining properly and might need some rocks added to its potting media.

  Hal
f-listening now to Gracelyn, who was going on about someone’s outrageous hat and the Bartlesons’ bad children, Rebecca opened the kitchen door that led to the enclosed porch where her gardening tools were stored.

  “Uhm hum,” she commented on Gracelyn’s animated remarks as she grabbed a watering can. “Be back in an hour.”

  Rebecca was true to her word. Traipsing efficiently through the greenhouse, she first looked at the thermostat, which registered right at seventy-nine degrees, then went about checking the soil of each row of hundreds of plants as though she were inspecting troops, giving a dose of water to some and skipping others. When she arrived at the problem laelia, she took up a pinch of fir bark, charcoal, and perlite mixture the flower was planted in and rubbed it between her thumb and index finger. The last thing she did was to cut off about twenty blooms with her gardening scissors to bring them indoors.

  After the allotted time, Rebecca reentered the kitchen door, her arms full of fresh flowers. Gracelyn had already gone upstairs with the men’s oatmeal, leaving behind a spotless kitchen. Rebecca ran some water in the sink and plunged the tips of the flowers in while she went into the dining room to pick out three of the large vases lining the top of the large mahogany breakfront. Bringing them carefully into the kitchen, Rebecca laid them out on the tabletop and brought the fresh-cut blooms from the sink. She took her time arranging the flowers according to their color and length, reconsidering several times, until she discovered the most strikingly sculptural shapes.

  By eleven-thirty, Rebecca had positioned the floral arrangements in the main entry hall on the first floor, in the library window that faced the street in the front of the house, and on the third-floor hallway adjacent to Claudia’s bedroom, across from her own. Coming down to the men’s floor, which she habitually skipped in her decorating, Rebecca went down the hallway to the bathroom. She gathered up a bar of Ivory soap, a washcloth, an old-fashioned ceramic basin, and a pitcher, which she filled with lukewarm water. It was time for her to give Bernard a sponge bath and perform sentry duties while Gracelyn took her lunch break.