Gospel According to Prissy

by Barbara Casey

  Once again, Randall took on the role of Colonel. He organized the men, assigning different responsibilities to each one. They would help look after each other just as they had in the Corps. That was the only way they could survive. Many were now physically handicapped, having lost an arm or a leg, or worse; but they would eventually learn how to cope with it. Others had wounds that weren’t so obvious or visible to the eye, wounds that continuously ripped into their minds like exploding grenades. Maybe some could be rehabilitated, but most probably not. The very best Randall could hope for would be to give them a reason to live, as distorted as that reason might be.

  Playing Colonel to a group of anti-social VietNam War veterans wasn’t what Randall had envisioned for himself when he was discharged from the Corps at sixty-one years of age; but there was a feeling of poetic justice in it. After all, if he didn’t take care of his men, who would? They were all victims, some more so than others, trying to survive the best they could. And, in a way, he felt that Lara was a victim as well, also trying to survive the best she could.

  * * *

  The Council meeting at Piedmont College had proved extremely useful and informative. Miriam not only learned that the college was in financial trouble, she was also able to get the good Senator’s ear. He liked her idea of a work program at Braden. He was already well aware of the success such a program had played at The Rock. He would make some initial inquiries and then get back in touch with her. She knew she could count on him.

  It was a shame to see the college close its doors, but that would mean Lara would most likely be looking for other employment in the very near future. Lara had greeted her warmly after the meeting, but there really hadn’t been an opportunity for them to talk privately. Miriam simply told Lara she would like to have lunch with her one day soon and Lara had agreed.

  Miriam had also met the one other woman present at the meeting – Carole Parker – who was in real estate and her husband was an attorney. A friendly woman. She had invited Miriam to a “simple get together” as she called it at her home on Saturday evening. Miriam had gratefully accepted. She didn’t go out socially much; she just didn’t seem to have enough time or energy. This “get together,” however, would be worth the effort. It would give Miriam a chance to talk up the good points of Braden to some of the wealthiest members of the community. Even though she hadn’t done much of it lately, she hadn’t forgotten her skills at social maneuvering. She was good at it.

  Miriam raked several clothes hangers across the rod, considering each dress. She remembered enough about Eastern North Carolina society to know that a “simple get together” usually meant long dresses for the women and coats and ties for the men. She pulled out several long dresses and laid them across the bed. “What do you think, Claudia? Will one of these do?”

  The cat, curled up comfortably on a bed pillow, slowly raised herself up and strolled over to the one of the dresses – a soft black silk. After sniffing the dress, she flopped on top of it, poked her hind leg in the air, and began grooming herself.

  “So, you like that one, do you?” Miriam gently lifted her cat off the dress and put her back on the pillow. The dress wasn’t too old; at least it didn’t look dated. And it did fit her nicely. After all, with her big bones, she could only do so much.

  She hung the other dresses back in the cedar-lined closet leaving the silk dress out to air. For the next hour she picked through boxes of jewelry, much of it heirloom, having been passed down to her from family members, and anything else she felt she might need to complete her outfit. The evening would turn cool, so the last thing she laid out was an ermine jacket. She had all of the next day to get her hair fixed and her nails done. Normally, she didn’t pay that much attention to her hair or her nails. She kept her nails clean and clipped short, and her hair, even though she washed it every day, did pretty much whatever it wanted. She would go to that beauty shop she had heard so much about in town. Someone there would know what to do with it. She sat down next to Claudia and rubbed her soft fur. “This might be fun, Claudia. It’s too bad you can’t come, too.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  THE RINGING OF the telephone next to Lara’s bed startled her awake the next morning. The digital clock next to the shrilling instrument read 6:01 a.m.

  “Lara, you aren’t going to believe how my day is starting off.”

  Lara tried to listen to the words coming through the receiver as she pushed herself up into a sitting position.

  “Carole?”

  “Who else would be rude enough to call you this early on a Saturday morning?”

  “What’s the matter?” Lara turned on the lamp on her bedside table.

  “You know my big dinner party I’m giving tonight?”

  “Do you mean the one where everybody who is anybody is going to attend?” Lara laughed. This was Carole’s big annual social event of the year, and it was legendary. She began preparations for it months in advance, insisting that all the food be fixed from scratch by her own two hands. The flowers to be used for decorating the house were flown in from Maui. And there was always an abundance of beverage selections, traditional old favorites as well as some new finds that she enjoyed surprising her guests with. The year before she had introduced the “green-eyed monster,” a concoction of lime Jell-O and vodka chilled in a shot glass with a pimento-stuffed green olive. Carole’s reputation as a super hostess was untouched and unrivaled as far as Lara knew.

  “Emily just called and said she can’t come today. She’s sick. Can you believe that?”

  Lara tried to think who Emily was, and then she remembered she had met her one time when she had gone over to Carole’s for lunch. Emily was the maid.

  “I’m sure your house looks just fine. When was Emily there last?”

  “Two weeks ago. And my house looks like a hurricane swept through it. And on top of that, Richard, my boss, just called from the office and said some people flew in from New York last night and he wants me to meet them at the office at eight this morning. They want to see some homes in the northern part of town around Benvenue Country Club and apparently no one else is available to take them around. Do you know what that means? I’ll be tied up at least four hours, probably longer.

  “O.K. Let me think for a minute. This shouldn’t be too difficult to figure out.”

  Carole snorted.

  “What is Bob doing today?”

  “He’s running around picking up the liquor supplies, and then he’ll be working with the people who are coming to set up the sound system for the band.”

  “O.K. And what about Beth?”

  “Beth I’m dropping off at school on my way into the office. She’s working on the scenery for her school play.”

  “How will she get home?”

  “She said she can get a ride.”

  “So, the main thing you’re worried about is whether your guest toilet is sparkling clean or not, is that right?”

  “Oh, Lara. If you could only see how bad everything looks. Dust bunnies the size of antelope galloping across the floor, grime covering everything. I haven’t used the dishwasher in three days. I’ve been so busy these last couple of weeks, I haven’t even picked up my own underwear, let alone anyone else’s. It never occurred to me that Emily would get sick. And to think, I just gave her a raise.”

  “Do you have a vacuum cleaner and some cleaning supplies, or does Emily bring her own?”

  “No, I have everything here, but there’s no way I can hire someone for the day on such short notice. Certainly not from this planet.” Carole moaned into the telephone.

  “Not to worry,” Lara told her friend cheerfully. “I can clean your house. I’ll be over there in about an hour – as soon as I get dressed and eat some breakfast. I’ll even bring some help, if he’s available.”

  “You’re joking, right?”

  “Of course not. I’ll see you in about an hour and you can show me where everything is before you go to the office.”

  “Lara!”r />
  “See you in an hour.” Lara hung up the phone before Carole could argue with her. Then she quickly dressed in her favorite old jeans, baggy sweater and tennis shoes. Before going out to the garage she checked the refrigerator to make sure she had plenty of eggs to make a couple of omelets. She did.

  It was a chilly morning and somewhat gray. Lara didn’t know how early Randall took his post at the entrance. He just seemed to always be there whenever she drove by. He was already there this morning. Lara lowered the window on the passenger side of the car.

  “Randall, you want to help me today?”

  He ambled over to the car and got in. “What’s up?” He rubbed his hands together to take off the chill. Lara was surprised at how well kept and clean they looked.

  “I want to help a friend out and clean her house, but first I’ll fix us some breakfast.”

  She made a U-turn in the street and drove back to her house. “I hope you like omelets. I haven’t had a chance to go to the grocery store this week.”

  “I like omelets fine.” He glanced over at Lara and then out his window. “You work too much.”

  Lara laughed. “Not really. It’s just that I like my job better than I like to cook.” She parked in the garage and Randall got out. As Lara turned to close the garage door, she saw the same jeep she had seen the night before. She knew it was the same one from its shape and dark green color, but the windows were dark and she couldn’t see who was in it. She thought it was going to stop in front of her house, but it only slowed down.

  “Something wrong?” Randall was watching her.

  “No. I was just wondering who that jeep belongs to. I seem to be seeing it a lot lately.”

  “It’s a Chevy SUV,” said Randall without looking at it. He obviously had been noticing it too.

  Within minutes Lara had breakfast prepared. “It must be a good friend if you’re going to clean her house.” Randall cleaned off his plate and Lara poured his second cup of coffee.

  “She is. She loaned me the money I needed so I could buy this house. We haven’t known each other all that long, but I consider her my best friend.” Lara hesitated. It was still difficult to talk about. “I was getting my divorce at the time. What little money I had I was using just to get by on. The people I thought were my friends couldn’t or wouldn’t help – not that I asked. They didn’t want Jake, my ex-husband, to think they were choosing sides.”

  “Jake’s the guy who showed up the day you moved in?”

  “That’s right.”

  Randall nodded thoughtfully. “I would imagine he found it hard to let you go.”

  “It wasn’t because he loved me so much as it was the appearance of my leaving him. He couldn’t stand the thought of people thinking he couldn’t control his own wife. He remarried two weeks after the divorce was final, but even so, I still get the feeling that . . .” Lara glanced away. She hadn’t discussed her divorce with anyone. She continued to have nightmares, and now she found that her hands were trembling as she tried to sip her coffee. Randall was watching her.

  “Are you afraid?”

  “Only of him.” She put her cup down more forcefully than she intended and some coffee splashed out onto the table. “I know it’s silly. It’s just that I still get the feeling he is watching me – just waiting to get his revenge.”

  “The green SUV.” Randall said it so softly, Lara almost didn’t hear. “Why did you marry him in the first place?”

  The question was unexpected, and Lara wasn’t prepared to answer. She didn’t know how to answer. There had been a time when she had loved Jake more than she had thought possible to love anyone. She had loved him from the first moment she saw him waiting in the Registrar’s Office to get his class schedule at the university where she was working. Older than most of the other students, he had a certain confidence – or maybe it was cockiness.

  “He was missing a button on his shirt,” she said. Then looking at Randall, “He was starting his senior year. He was ten years older, had spent some time in the Navy, and just seemed to try so hard to take care of himself – but not quite manage it. He had an elaborate and formal way of speaking – always picking his words with care, but occasionally misusing them. I found it endearing – a man, somewhat roughneck, trying so hard to be sophisticated and eloquent.” She sipped her coffee, letting the memories of another time rise to the surface of her consciousness. A time before she was unable to grasp what was happening to her let alone do anything about it; before the violent attacks that left her crippled with self-doubt, feeling less than human, and in a state of constant debilitating fear – always the fear.

  “He also had definite ideas of what he wanted out of life. I had never met anyone who was so driven to better himself. He was constantly making lists of goals – short range, long range, things to do – and writing them down on scraps of paper which he carried around in his pockets. My own goals were blurry, at best, and undefined. I guess they still are.”

  Feeling embarrassed, Lara got up and quickly stacked the breakfast dishes into the sink. “Oh, look at the time. Just give me a minute and I’ll be ready to go.” Lara went to her bedroom and put on some lipstick and tied her hair back with a scarf. She looked at her reflection in the mirror. She had always been so conservative and hesitant about taking risks. Somehow her relationship with Jake had changed that. She no longer feared life as she once did. Inviting a homeless Army veteran into her kitchen and talking about her problems – it hadn’t even occurred to her that she should be careful. She already knew the worst possible thing that could happen to her – the abuse, the control, the manipulation and mind games, and her baby being ripped out of her body. It was as though all of the fear in her was concentrated toward Jake. She had none left for anyone or anything else. She went to her closet and pulled out a lined jacket. The wind was picking up which meant the temperature was probably dropping. March was always such an unpredictable month. It could be hot one day and have six inches of snow the next. When she went back to the kitchen, Randall had already washed the dishes. “Randall, you didn’t have to do that.”

  “You’ll be tired when you get home today. The last thing you’ll want to see is a sink full of dirty dishes.”

  Lara reached out and touched his arm. She could feel his strength and the firm definition of his muscles. “Thank you.”

  Randall moved away and grabbed his military jacket off the back of the chair where he had put it earlier. “Let’s go to work,” he said.

  * * *

  Carole lived not quite five miles from Lara in Aberdeen, a posh community of big expensive, two-story homes, three-car garages, and winding, tree-lined drives. It was where the new elite of Rocky Mount society lived – the “new money.” Unlike the families with pedigrees who had passed down fortunes from generation to generation, they were the ones who had worked hard to make it in the business world and could afford all of the comforts that financial success brought with it. They weren’t exactly embraced by the old families of Rocky Mount, but they couldn’t be ignored either.

  Bob, Carole’s husband, had been practicing law in Rocky Mount ever since he graduated from the University of North Carolina Law School. Being a North Carolinian, born and bred, he easily fit into the higher echelon of the Tarheel network that looked after its own. He was now a senior partner in the firm he started out with as a young law clerk.

  Carole had been equally successful in her own career. First as a real estate agent and then broker for the largest company in eastern North Carolina, she had managed to keep her name on the top of the membership list of the Millionaire Club as year after year she outsold all of her competition.

  Bob’s car was already gone when Lara drove up. Randall let out a long, low whistle as they got out of the car. Lara smiled. “I know. It’s impressive, isn’t it?”

  Carole must have been watching for them because she opened the front door before Lara knocked. “I can’t believe you are actually going to do this,” Carole said hugging L
ara and then glancing at Randall.

  “Carole, I believe you already know Randall?”

  In fact, Carole had met Randall the day Lara moved into her house. He was a homeless vagrant Lara had picked up somewhere. Carole thought at the time Lara was being awfully careless. After all, these days, one just never knew. But apparently he was all right since he had helped Lara out several times since then.

  “How are you, Randall?” Carole gave the tall, slender man her full appraisal. For a homeless guy, he sure was clean. He was even freshly shaven, which was more than her own husband had been that morning, he had been in such a mad rush to get started on his errands. Randall’s hair was long and pulled back in a rubber band. But a lot of men wore their hair like that these days – even some of the lawyers who worked with Bob. Randall’s was dark with a scattering of gray, thick, and healthy looking, without a trace of oil or dirt. And the military fatigues he had on smelled clean. There was something else as well. Carole prided herself on being able to read people. It was a tremendous advantage in the real estate business. She could determine when people were serious about buying, or if they were telling the truth about their finances. She knew immediately that Lara was someone she wanted for a friend, that something very painful had occurred in her life, and that she was a wonderful person. Looking at Randall now she could tell that he was a complex man and had an intelligence that she found surprising. Equally surprising was the fact that he was trying to hide it.

  Lara had told Carole one time she didn’t know where Randall slept at night or anything about his background, other than the fact he was a VietNam War veteran. But judging from his personal appearance, wherever he was spending his nights, it couldn’t be too bad. Whatever his game was, she just hoped he wouldn’t get Lara involved.

  Everything was fairly easy to find in Carole’s house. All the cleaning supplies, mops, brooms, and rags were stored in a gigantic closet in the laundry room. Carole explained to Lara how the central vacuum system worked since she had never used one before, but Randall seemed to already know how it operated so there was really very little else to explain. All of the clean linens were located in closets near whatever room they were to go in: the master bath and bedroom, Beth’s room, the guest rooms upstairs, and so on.