PANDORA

by Rebecca Hamilton

  Soon as she was gone I bolted for the bathroom and spent ten minutes letting the water rush over my body. I kept thinking about how Gwendoleen said that Calvin worked for Papa Roosevelt. I reckoned it could be true, but then, why wouldn’t Calvin have ever mentioned it?

  Mama had surely told him how she was Franklin’s side-lady and how he had left her the house and all that money, over a million dollars. It would have seen fit to come up right then. In conversation.

  Wouldn’t it?

  Thirteen

  “Your Mama is doing much better today, Tru. I think it was your coming home that helped heal her.” Calvin placed his hand on top of my shoulder. It was nearly five in the evening by the time I made my way back to County Care. Ridley was still out and about, so I had to call a cab to get here since I didn’t see any sign of Jayden being home.

  Mama’s husband and I was in the lobby. He was going as I was coming in.

  “Where are you heading?” I asked.

  “Got some business to tend to for a few hours. I’ll be back to kiss her goodnight, though. You can bet on it.” Calvin’s fingers trailed my arm and it was there—in that touch - that the Magical Knowing started in. I felt the jumpiness beneath Calvin’s words. Like he was trying his best to walk steady on burning hot coals.

  He left before I could feel anything else. Before I could ask him about having worked for Papa Roosevelt. I aimed for Mama’s room with a head full of questions.

  “Look who is here, at last!” Mama beamed at the sight of me. It did my heart good to see her mouth testing out a big ole’ grin.

  “Mama, you’re looking like a bit of something sweet today. I suppose things ain’t so bad as they seemed, after all.” I pressed a kiss on her forehead.

  “Told ya’ I wasn’t ready to give in, Tru. The doctor says I might be able to go home again in a few days if things keep up good.”

  “Can I speak to the doctor myself, Mama?”

  “If ya’ can wrestle him down. He was in here a few minutes ago. Right before Calvin left.”

  I started for the hallway.

  “It’s the darndest thing, Tru. But he said that my blood work showed that there was traces of poison in my system. I reckon I got hold of some bad Chinese or something. Ain’t that crazy?”

  I turned back. The hair on my neck jutted straight up. My spine began to tingle. No. It wasn’t crazy. It was Calvin and all that glitters. Perhaps he had known Papa Roosevelt. Perhaps somehow he had got wind about Mama, and all the wealth that had been bestowed on her on account of Papa’s passing. Could pure greed have set off a sinister plan? Would that be enough to turn a scoundrel into something much more deadly?

  “Tru? Ya’ aright darlin’?”

  I pushed it all down, all the suspicion turned to near-fact. All the hysteria in my head that all at once pointed to Calvin potentially trying to kill Mama. I couldn’t tell her now. Not with her just starting to heal. That alone would kill her for certain.

  When she wasn’t looking I texted Ridley.

  Call me, soon as you can. It’s important. Love you.

  The reply came in a minute later. Is Mama okay? I’m tied up with my uncle at the moment.

  She is. I suppose it’ll keep for a bit.

  This wasn’t the sort of thing I wanted to blurt out over the phone anyway. Ridley’s message popped up again.

  We still on for Skinners tonight? I’ll bring a bottle of wine.

  I told him it sounded perfect. It was what we liked to do back when we first fell in love. It would be nice to feel that fresh and new again.

  #

  It was tough as ever to linger with Mama for hours, fluffing her pillows and fetching her juice and situating the television without mentioning what I thought about Calvin. Without letting on that he could be a possible murderer.

  I expected him back long before I had to leave to meet up with Ridley. But as it was, Mama and I ate supper alone, me mostly nibbling off her food tray, and there was no Calvin Alistair DuPont anywhere in sight. Somehow this didn’t shock me.

  By eight p.m. I called for another taxi. Mama was dog-tired and needed her rest so it was just as well. I directed the driver to bring me directly to Skinners for my date with Ridley.

  I was dying to tell him what I was thinking about Calvin. More than once he had said how he thought something about Mama’s fancy husband didn’t quite add up. Ridley was smarter than I ever realized.

  The cab driver said it was a might strange that I wanted to be left off here. But I told him things wasn’t always what they seemed. He twisted his lips, took my money and drove off even though it was pitch dark and I didn’t see that Ridley was here as of yet.

  I walked up to the railing and rested my elbows down, staring off into the water. I wondered where Vee was right now. She had been trying to tell me about Calvin too.

  Hadn’t she?

  A soft wind blew through my hair, seeming like it was telling me to calm down. In an instant I wondered if maybe all the circles of suspicion in my mind was nothing more than circumstantial. Maybe it was all merely coincidence. Maybe Mama hadn’t been poisoned at all. By Calvin or anyone else. The waters of the Pacachi River was lulling me, carrying my mind off somewhere else so I didn’t notice when Ridley’s footsteps started. Hadn’t even heard him drive up.

  “Truly.”

  I spun. “Rid! There you are. I was starting to worry.”

  Ridley kept a slow pace, one hand in his pocket, the other was empty.

  “Thought you was gonna bring us some wine,” I said, moving toward him. “You won’t believe it, but Mama’s getting better.”

  Next step I took brought the knots in my stomach, the twisting in my chest. Ridley’s face was like stone. His eyes darker than that river. When he spoke it was another man’s voice come out. Like somebody I didn’t know.

  “She wasn’t supposed to live.”

  “What?”

  “Your mama. He was supposed to have given her enough to kill her before we even got back.”

  My thoughts was racing. “You mean, you know about Calvin trying to poison Mama?”

  Ridley smiled. “Never should have left it up to Uncle Cal in the first place.”

  My pulse took off. This wasn’t happening. I edged back. “No. You’re lying.”

  Ridley tightened the space between us, cornering me up against that railing. “It wasn’t anything personal, Bug. But a million dollars is a lot of money and it was going to be half mine. No matter. Just a shift in the plan. First you, then I’ll help Uncle Cal finish what he started.”

  “First me?”

  In one swift motion Ridley lifted his hand from his pocket and placed it over my nose and mouth. It was damp with something that smelled like chlorine. Within seconds my entire body fell weak. My knees buckled. Ridley brought his mouth up close to my ear. I felt his breath as he spoke.

  “This will be sure you drown before you have a chance to wake up. People will think you came here alone. Maybe they will wonder if you was despondent enough to end your own life. After all, I’ll be telling them how I was planning to break up with you very soon.”

  The last thing I remember was him hoisting me enough to shove me into the river.

  This time when I hit the water gravity yanked me, and down I sank.

  I had no idea of time. Of facts. Of reason. I hadn’t had a date with Ridley. I had a date with death. Yes, I was dying. My mind was like a match about to blow out. Little flickers of memory. Faces. Love. It was all burning out.

  The last thing I saw was a white light. Not like in heaven. But right there in the water. A spark that seemed to explode on impact. At that same moment I felt her arms ‘round me, lifting me so that my head was no longer submerged.

  Vee.

  Within a minute I was able to open my eyes. Look into her face, and speak.

  “Am I dead now?”

  “No, Truly. You are alive and you was lucky”

  “You saved me?”

  Vee shook her head
. “Not me. That star.”

  She pointed toward the bottom of the river where the white light was just beginning to fade. Then she went on. “You got caught beneath a falling star.”

  I treaded toward the shore and Vee came along with me. I pulled myself up onto the land. My body was still shaky. My head slowly spinning. “Thank you, Vee. For being here.”

  I should’ve been dead by now. Felt it in my bones. But I wasn’t, and it was clear I had a different fate to fulfill. Vee sailed further away till I could barely see her.

  “You’re safe now. He’s gone,” she said. “We all need to follow our hearts, Truly. It’s what we was designed to do.”

  She left me without another word. In that moment the light from that star went out. I laid my head on the dirt and let the tears fall.

  Fourteen

  "I honestly think you look prettier this way."

  Gwendoleen stood back surveying the likes of me. She'd took me to the place where she gets her hair done. One hour later the last remains of purple dye went rushing down the drain, and I was Truly Ann Kaye again - natural born blonde.

  I was all about setting things straight now. Getting back to basics. No more hiding behind colors and styles and people and places that wasn’t really me. Ever since I got mama back home from the hospital and myself back from the brink of a tragic ending, I was committed to keeping it all real as can be.

  That meant building up the bones of a friendship. It meant drawing out a new plan for my future. But first it meant having a good long visit with the Richter Police. They was real interested in the confession that Ridley gave me when he was certain I was gonna die.

  Also turns out they was keen to see them little blue pills, too. They wasn't the least bit amazed to find that those pills wasn't really all herbal. In fact, they had some of that very same poison in ‘em that was found in mamas system. Not enough to kill me outright. But enough to get the yarn spinning. Gave me the chills thinking about how close I came to not living out my given days.

  Anyways, seeing as how the police department didn’t dabble much in coincidences, they saw fit to arrest Ridley and his Uncle Calvin. Gwendoleen was right about him too. Before Calvin earned his wages selling and stealing prescription drugs, he had been an employee of Roosevelt Investments. Seems he snooped around in Papa Roosevelt's personal affairs (‘scuse the pun) and when he found out that Mama had inherited all that money he saw fit to try and charm her right out of it. Only, I reckon that wasn't enough. He told the detectives that it had been Ridley’s idea to get rid of Mama all together. And then eventually to be rid of me. Naturally, Ridley in turn, pointed a finger of blame at Calvin. And that wasn’t all the fibbing that went on.

  There had never been any big, beautiful apartment in Johannesburg. At least none that belonged to Ridley. And no fire to misplace him. Ridley Fisher was a bad seed who hadn’t seen or spoken to his folks in years. The only one who wanted anything to do with him was his mother’s brother, Calvin, and only on account of they was cut from the same rotten cloth.

  I reckon neither one of them fools was counting on good fortune to intervene. If I had to bet on it, I wouldn’t have done so either.

  Gwendoleen and I was heading off for the shopping mall. It was Mama’s birthday next week, and I had something real special in mind for her.

  She was a newly divorced woman now. Another title she probably never imagined she would own.

  I slid into the passenger seat of Gwendoleen’s car and flipped down the visor mirror.

  This girl had done herself some real hard learning about trust and love and greed and honesty. In a flash I thought I saw something else there, floating ‘round my pupils. A shock of red cornrows and a wisp of a smile. Vee was with me. She almost always was now. And she had herself a set of lips she was right proud of showing off. They formed an easy smile. Whatever curse or bad luck had been broken. In some strange and unexplainable way, Vee and I was becoming friends, too.

  #

  Jayden was blasting Motorhead in his room. Even with his window closed I could hear it plain as day. The autumn months and cooler temps meant that he and I would be less inclined to randomly gab beside open screens. So I picked up my phone, pressed his name and began to type.

  You trying to serenade the entire neighborhood with that stuff?

  His reply began with a frown face. Yo, T. Sorry.

  No worries. Meet me?

  At the window? He asked.

  No. Out back.

  K. With that I saw his bedroom light go out. I ran down the steps and out the door. Jayden had every right to say ‘I told you so’. Lord knows I had it coming to me. Yet he’d only told me how happy he was that I was okay, and how much more he wished he had choked that “weasly son-of-a-bitch” back when he had the chance.

  He was already at the fence when I got there. Jayden had a fresh crop of facial grub that made him look more like a man than the eighteen and three-quarters he was. His sweatshirt was on crooked and his hair wasn’t hardly combed. And yet.

  I’d never seen him look better.

  “How’s Mama?”

  I smiled. “Back to wearing her makeup to bed. She’s turning another year older on Wednesday and we’re fixing to have cake and stuff. Just me and Gwen and Mama and this new guy she’s seeing . . . unless, maybe you aren’t doing nothing.”

  Jayden nodded. “That’s why you wanted me to come outside? To invite me to a birthday thing?”

  It would have been easier to lie. To tell him yes when the answer was clearly no. But I was standing here because of what Vee told me. Because she was exactly right. Following our hearts was what we was designed to do in our lifetimes. I sighed and fiddled with the words in my head.

  “Not really, Jay. I mean, not at all. I guess I wanted to tell you that I know you was clearly right about Ridley being a closet creep. I shoulda paid you mind.”

  Jayden didn’t seem like he was listening that well. He was staring at me with this half-smile on his face.

  “What?” I said.

  “Your blonde hair. It’s back.”

  I shrugged. Kicked a pebble with the toe of my sneaker. Jayden reached his hand over the top of the fence and touched my cheek.

  “I’ll be glad to come to your Mama’s birthday,” he said.

  The Magical Knowing set in, and right there in Jayden’s touch I felt an affection that had surely been brewing for the better part of six years. I laid my hand on top of his and stared into his eyes. He may have been a challenge, maybe not the easiest guy in town. But Jayden was no scoundrel.

  I moved in close as I could and brought my mouth to his. “If I kiss you Jayden Collins, that means I’ll always be able to say that I made the first move.”

  And just like that, before I had a chance to do so, Jayden wrapped his hands ‘round my head and pressed his lips on mine.

  #

  It was all Jay’s idea. And this time I’d gone and called ahead. On Wednesday morning, Mama awoke wearing her very pinkest birthday face.

  “Not looking half-bad for a lady approaching the anniversary of her twenty-ninth year alive,” she said.

  “Again,” I added.

  Mama was traipsing ‘round the house in nothing but a towel she seen fit to remove and snap at me for my freshness.

  “Mama! Jayden will be along any minute. We have a few things to do before the party tonight. Be gone a few hours. Can we borrow the Caddy?”

  “Sure thing. Ya’ll kids have fun.” Even though Mari Kaye had promised to steer clear of scoundrels, she was back to dating them again. Her latest was as married as she could find. When it came to men and lessons, reckon Mama needed some extra-help.

  Jayden and I cruised at a steady pace and made it to the nursing home faster this time ‘round. We had to get permission to take Aunt Joan out for the whole day. Specially since we was planning to keep her overnight and bring her back the next morning. But ole’ Katharine Hepburn was quick to agree.

  I had no intention of reminding
Aunt Joan that her dear Lilly was dead and gone. Thought it best that her memories filled in the gaps with a sweeter story of her choosing. If one day, she remembered on her own, I would be there to deliver Vee’s message.

  Aunt Joan was tickled to be having herself a road trip. We got her loaded into Mama’s car and I held up outside long enough to give Jay a tight hug.

  “Ya’ll are much softer ‘round the edges than you let on, Jayden Collins.”

  “And you are much smarter, Truly Kaye.”

  Mama was giddy at the sight of her Daddy’s sister. So much so that she nearly wet herself. I left them all so as to change into my new white dress. I’d bought it to signal everything new and right and near perfect in my life. Jayden was the first to notice it. He paid me a wink and a broad grin.

  “You’re the best looking girl in the room, Tru. Damn, you’re the best looking girl in any room.”

  We had strawberry shortcake and coffee with cream, and we sang and celebrated ourselves silly.

  Deep down Mama and me both knew.

  There was more to this party than the eye could see. Lust and envy and gluttony had almost claimed our lives. We was living proof that sometimes goodness prevails.

  Mama grabbed me ‘round the waist. “Thank you, my child. I did alright by you, didn’t I?” That was her way of asking if she had succeeded at the whole mothering thing. I nodded and gave her a small kiss on the cheek.

  “Oh, dang! I nearly forgot. I have a present for you.”

  I raced up to my room, snatched the little box off my dresser. I’d wrapped it in pink paper and topped it with a silver bow.

  For as long as I’d known her, Mari Kaye had been a hopeless romantic with a bad case of superstition, frightened that fate would someday find her, and punish her with an unkind hand. I never wanted her to forget that she was wrong.

  Mama tore off the paper and opened the small velvet box.

  “Truly girl, this is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen!”

  Gwendoleen helped to hang the thin gold chain ‘round Mama’s neck. Dangling from the middle was a tiny star. Figured we each needed a new “all that glitters.”