Hildreth 2-in-1

by Denise Hildreth Jones

  I’m sure their perspectives of it were very different. But Duke would do anything for my father. And my father would do anything for Duke. He had been purchased for Thomas, but he had been treasured by my father. They go everywhere together. And when Duke must make way for Vicky, he ain’t at all happy about it. And when Vicky has to deal with red dog hair, she ain’t too happy about that one either.

  But there Jake is. Loving the dog. Loving the woman. And adored by both while the two drive each other ferociously insane.

  As I rounded the corner to head to the office, I noticed a slight commotion in front of Walgreen’s. A short, fair-haired maiden was letting loose on one Sergeant Millings. Poor thing shouldn’t have stood a chance with that man. But from the looks of it, the poor man didn’t stand a chance with Paige. I drove by with a beep and a smile.

  “I heard they stole her purse. Poor kid probably needed it . That girl has enough of her own. She should have just given it to him,” Jessica said into her cell phone as she made her way in front of me through the front door.

  “Don’t feel bad, Savannah,” Marla said as she saw me come through the door behind Jessica.“She never speaks to me either.”

  I made my way to my cubicle to work on my story. All newspaper systems were go. Feet were scurrying. Fingers were pecking on keyboards. The sounds of a soda can being opened and a tug-of-war with a bag of chips was coming from the cubicle in front of me. I sat down at my computer to lend my talents to this pressured world. After my talk with Granny Daniels, the issues were coming into focus. I would dive in and see what I came up with.

  By the time I came up for air, she was my human-interest story, and her knowledge of history, happenings, and life would surely be as interesting to the readers as they had been to me. I printed it out around eleven and set it on my desk. But I wasn’t going to deliver it until I got back from lunch. I had only been here for two hours, but it felt like a full day. I made a motion for an early lunch . There were no objections.

  “My, my, child. I thought you just left here,” Richard said as I entered the back door of Jake’s.

  “It’s been a long morning already, and I needed a Coke.

  Thought I’d take an early lunch.” I was distracted by a growling noise staring at the doorway into the shop.“Is she back, Duke?” I asked, walking to pat his ornery head.

  Much to my surprise, Jake’s was empty, except for Dad’s persistent admirer. I guess everyone had paused to check out whatever was going on across the street, and few people partook of lunch at eleven. So, that left Jake and his new friend alone. She looked rather striking today, her brown hair coiffed in an updo, her microphone still attached to her flowing blouse, waiting for the noon report, I figured. She was sitting at the bar and was rubbing the side of her cup, in what was a rather flirtatious, dare I say provocative, move. Dad stood behind the counter refilling the coffeepots for the lunchtime crowd. His business had grown along with the group outside.

  “So, how long have you been married, Jake?”

  “Twenty-five years, Susan. Can you believe that?”

  “Oh, they’ve gone to first names,” I told Duke, patting his head. He was stiff as a board.

  “Are you happy?” She rubbed the side of her coffee cup again and tilted her head.

  “She’s downright shameless!” I said. Duke looked up at me with a “Where in the world have you been?” kind of look. By this time an old African American and two ancient twins were peering over our shoulders.

  “As happy as one can be in this life. I have more than I could ask for.”

  “Haven’t you been lonely this past week, with your wife out there strapped to a pillar of concrete?” She batted her false eyelashes, over what I was now certain were eyes of equally false green.

  “Actually, I’ve been out there with Victoria every night. Almost feels like camping.”

  She gave a vain attempt at laughter. “You are a remarkable man, Jake Phillips, a remarkable man.” She stood up and patted his hand softly where he had laid it on the counter. I’m almost certain I was growling at that point.

  “Well, have a great afternoon,” Dad offered as he removed his hand and headed around the counter to wipe off a table by the far wall . The next action happened so quickly that about all five of us fell out of the doorway. As Dad made his way to the table, she cut him off at the edge of the counter, grabbed him by the edge of his apron, and laid one on him as if she were Angelina Jolie . Well, poor Duke had absorbed all a canine could take. That gentle golden retriever took off before any of us could stop him. In the meantime Dad had grabbed a hold of Susan’s arms and pushed her away . Duke finished her off. He pounced between them and had that Mary Kay reject flat on her back in two seconds flat. He hovered over her like a scene from Scooby Doo.

  “Way to go, boy!” I screamed, dancing a jig to meet them. “Tripping?! What is that?! My boy can lay a woman flat on her back!”Then I stopped, the shock of it all setting in. My father had just kissed another woman . Well, maybe not technically. After all, she did grab him, by the apron no less . We were throwing that thing in the trash before day’s end.

  “Duke, get off of her!” Dad shouted.

  Duke didn’t pay him a lick of attention. He stood atop her, growling from ear to ear. Every time she tried to squirm, he would flinch in that direction. That poor woman whimpered like a trapped puppy.

  “Duke! I said get down, now!” Dad demanded. This time Duke obeyed, but he still hovered right beside my father, snarling and growling all the way. Richard, Louise, and Mervine had indeed fallen through the swinging doors at my departure and were standing exposed by the counter, staring at the raucous affair. I’m sure we all looked like a Girls Behaving Badly episode . We stood, mouths agape, and eyes wider than a hoot owl’s.

  Dad graciously lifted up the wanton woman.“I’m sorry, Susan,” Dad said, trying to stifle a laugh. She wasn’t laughing.

  “You need to get that dog under control.” She wiped off her skirt as best her trembling hands could manage.

  “I think you need to get yourself under control,” Dad said to her.

  “Well, it’s about time!” I offered rather loudly. Dad looked at me as well.

  “Savannah, stay out of this.”

  She gave us both a glare that would have made mouths drop open and eyes bug out, had that not been a preexisting condition. She snatched up her purse and headed for the door. Dad gently took hold of her arm and made her turn around.“Susan, you are a beautiful woman. But when someone has given not just a pledge but a commitment to someone else, you need to respect that.”

  “You need to come into the real world, Jake Phillips. My Lord, man, you don’t even sell iced coffee, Frappuccino, or cappuccino. Do you know it is the twenty-first century?”

  “Yes, I do. I also know that just because years pass and trends come and go, some things aren’t up for modification. There are some absolutes. Coffee being one of them.” My word, don’t insult the man’s coffee! “Whether you like it or not, they still exist. And the covenant I made to that ‘concrete hugger’ across the street is one of them.”

  “Well, then you deserve her.”

  “No, I don’t deserve her, Susan. But I am thankful she’s mine.” She didn’t stick around for any more of his discourse. Duke followed her to the door.

  “Okay, show’s over,” Dad said as he passed the four of us and went into his office . The man had had a rough day. Duke stared at Susan from the window. She looked back only once. Duke snarled. She winced. Dog, one. Naughty newscaster, zero.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  T he park bench gave a little as I sat down. The scene had expanded immensely over these full six days. Each side had grown larger and louder. Each sign had grown bigger and bolder. Each prayer was offered with greater passion and fervor. And each opposition to each prayer was offered with greater passion and fervor.

  I heard the slow shuffle of black sandals and the swooshing sound larger thighs make when the nylons th
ey are wearing brush together as one is walking. And I knew my lunch partner had arrived.

  “You need to go talk to her, Savannah. At the end of the day, she’s your mother.”

  I knew Joy was right. I needed to deal with my mother. She was out there fighting as hard as she could for what she believed in, while her daughter ignored her and other women kissed her husband. She deserved my respect. She had gone to great lengths this week, in large part for me alone . Well, for me and Thomas.

  I didn’t respond to Joy verbally, but actively . Walking toward my mother, I noticed the raven-haired beauty was rather close to her. I might have recommended she rethink this, as Mother had spent a week’s worth of evenings in the humid outdoors, in the same attire. Granted, her makeup was fresh from the Mary Kay adventure, but the rest of her was disintegrating rapidly.

  I approached unnoticed. That wasn’t hard anymore. Things around here had grown to such a chaotic level that no one noticed much except what was blasted from a bullhorn. I slipped in under the volume of the other conversations, the protests, and the prayers. But in spite of the noise, I did hear Faith. I heard words that I’m sure were meant for my mother alone. But I heard each one of them. And let’s just say, what followed wasn’t pretty.

  “You’re nothing but a self-righteous, self-promoting little woman who has made herself a laughingstock in front of the entire nation . You should be more like your daughter and try to see at least some of the humor in this situation.”As she backed her charcoal tresses up, her thousand-dollar designer pantsuit didn’t look so attractive anymore. But the expression on my mother’s face locked itself in my memory for what I knew would be forever. After all, who could ever forget the look of a shocked pig as it discovers that it is, well, a pig.

  That raven lady could talk about this city. She could talk about my writing. She could talk about me, for crying out loud (which she had, and rather nicely). But now she had talked about my mama. If Faith were a Savannian, she’d know better than to talk about my mama, or to label my mother’s actions as self-serving. Only I can do that. Plus, “self-serving” may have gotten Vicky here, but if I knew anything, I knew “self-serving” wouldn’t have kept her here.

  I stepped forward and startled the two beauties.“You need to step back, Ms. Austin.”

  “Savannah, this doesn’t concern you. You’ve proven you’re nothing like your mother,” she quipped, no longer trying to hide her blatant disdain for Vicky. And she turned to go.

  “So, is that what you do?” I asked.“Explode all over people and then walk away without giving them the opportunity to respond?”

  She turned back around. The friendly look that she once bestowed upon me had gone bye-bye. “You had an entire newspaper article to respond, Savannah, and you couldn’t even come up with any passion of your own. Granted, it had humor, but there wasn’t any substance in it.”

  “Don’t bring me into this,” I said getting rather uncomfortable with where this was going.

  “Yeah, this is between me and you, sunshine!” my mother yelled, tugging at her chains.

  “Mother, please.” I motioned for her to move back.

  “Well, isn’t that what you and your mother do? Seek attention from the city? Use it to promote yourself?” She crossed her arms. I liked her better from the back.

  “We don’t use this city, Ms. Austin.” I made sure the Ms. came out with a hissing noise. “We love this city. And no one loves it more than my mother. And she’s not self-righteous. She lives what she believes.”

  “Give me a break . You’re both hypocrites . You want to point out everyone else’s sin and not admit to your own.”

  Well, if I had thought about confessing any sin, I wouldn’t begin here on a sidewalk in the middle of a Savannah square. Because if I wasn’t mistaken, every journalist in the place had just moved in about ten feet closer.

  “That’s what you people do, isn’t it, Savannah?” she said, hissing to herself. “You sit your self-righteous bodies in position of power and try to determine the standards by which the world should live, while hiding the ghosts in your own closets.” She began moving in closer. I wasn’t sure whose closets she had been snooping in, but me and sister Vicky don’t do ghosts. Or dead people. I began looking for Duke. He had already about eaten one woman for lunch today; he could go two for two. He wasn’t anywhere to be found . Why would he be? I was standing next to my mother.

  She moved in even closer . We were about to touch noses. And hers was a perfectly proportioned nose, I might add. But her eyes weren’t quite as inviting as they had been in the past.“So why don’t you quit hiding behind your little monument”—she turned to look at my mother—“and quit trying to make me look like the bad guy, and let the world know what you’re really like, Savannah Phillips”— she turned back to me—“because this Miss Perfect performance has gone on long enough.”

  It was more than I could bear. It was as if a dam burst, and before I knew it, I threw both hands in the air, lifted my face to the sky, and screamed,“Okay, I STOLEA CAR DADDY!” Some gasped. Others cheered. Some laughed. My mother grabbed her chest, did a Fred Sanford move backward, and Ms. Austin didn’t try to disguise her smirk. Every camera within the square started rolling, and pictures were snapped like I was Anna Kournikova.

  “Yes, I stole a Sugar Daddy!” I confirmed to the listening world. “I saw a little girl licking it. It looked good. I begged for a lick, and when she finally held it out in her little hand, I snatched it and took off like a streak. Are you happy now?”

  “Grow up, Savannah.” She started walking off again. The crowd roared. But I wouldn’t let her off so easy. Cheers or no cheers. I would follow.

  “I have grown up, Ms. Austin. And I grew up in a whole new way this week alone.”

  She turned around one more time, not happy that we were having this song and dance. “Savannah, let’s drop it. This will be over by the weekend anyway . The courts will get this monstrosity out of here, and you children can all go home to your million-dollar mansions and million-mile denials.”

  “You’re the one in denial. And I’m not dropping it, because you started it.” Another group cheered on that one. “I may have stolen a Sugar Daddy when I was seven, but you try to steal a person’s good name and reputation, something it takes a lifetime to create . You destroy it with a sentence. I may have my own demons to deal with, but I would say you do too.”

  “I do not. And I don’t steal Sugar Daddys or reputations.”

  “You just tried to no more than five minutes ago! You just stood in front of a thousand television cameras and declared to the viewing public that my mother was here for no other reason than to get exposure . Well, that right there was breaking Number Nine, sister. And I’ve seen every other commandment broken this week too, in this very town.”

  “You need a life, Savannah.”

  “No, I’ve just learned to observe, Ms. Austin. In less than a week this city has lied about one another and stolen dreams, purses, and employers’ time. I’ve listened to people who think they’re God and then heard God’s name used in more horrible ways than should be legal. I’ve watched women worship “lucky” dolls and Coca-Cola. I’ve even watched children shamelessly disobey their parents.” Mother glared. I traveled to more comfortable ground.“I’ve even seen a woman try to commit adultery with—” I stopped . Well, maybe that ground wasn’t too comfortable either.

  “What?! What did you see?!” Vicky asked with eyes still in animated horror over the Sugar Daddy revelation.

  “Well, that one doesn’t need to be delved into right now. But my Lord, have mercy, someone was even killed this week. All of that, right here in the heart of this city. In the heart of my city,” I declared, with a finger that tapped my own chest . Then I opened my arms to encompass the entire span of nuts.“This entire city has fallen apart in less than a week.”

  “Then you’ve said it yourself, Savannah . You can’t, and these people can’t.” She motioned to those who had clo
sed in around us. “None of you can even live by the very principles you’re fighting over. Stealing a Sugar Daddy.” Her laugh was only half-mocking.

  “I still say you’re nothing but a bunch of hypocrites.”

  At those words, my mother tugged at her chains just far enough to grab the back of my shirt. She snatched me away and looked me square in the face and said, “Sit down, and sit down now. I will handle this from here. And when I’m through, I’ll handle you and whoever this Sugar Daddy fella is that you’ve stolen.”

  I was about certain at that moment that the entire square gasped . The woman in chains had taken a deep breath and morphed into a woman that few had caught a glimpse of this week. Everyone stepped back and the path between her and Ms. Austin cleared.

  “Ms. Austin, come here,” Vicky summoned.

  For a brief moment, Ms. Austin looked downright terrified. “I’m really through here.”

  “No, you’re not through .Now, please, please come here, Faith.” With those words mother’s voice softened to that of just a mom. Not a monument percher, not a chamber of commerce president, not a city of Savannah commander and chief, just Victoria Phillips, a mother.

  Ms. Austin inched closer, still uncertain whether the woman would leap. “You know what, Faith, you’d be right.” That one made her stop. It made about everyone else stop too.

  Ms. Austin coughed out her question.“About what?”

  “You’re right about the hypocrite part.” Most everyone on the square gasped again, then leaned in closer. This was going to be good. “We do have things to learn. I learn ways I’ve screwed up every day . Well, almost every day.” She was at least trying to be diplomatic.“ But we all have things to learn. And right now you need to learn that I’m not self-righteous or self-serving. I’m out here for this little girl behind me.” She pointed in my direction.