Miss Janie’s Girls

by Brown, Carolyn

  Noah knew the make and model of Cheating Husband’s truck, so he waited a couple of minutes before he followed them out. He got a few more shots of them all hugged up and making out next to a small compact car as he walked to his vehicle. Then they separated and each drove, as luck would have it, to the very hotel where he was staying. By the time they got into their room, he’d shot a dozen more pictures.

  Figuring that his job was done, he went into his room, loaded all the pictures and the audiotape into his laptop, and sent them straight to the man’s wife. She responded by saying she would send a check for the rest of the money she owed him.

  “Well, that was easy enough,” Noah said aloud.

  His phone rang and the ringtone let him know it was Daniel. “You still in Texarkana?” Daniel asked as he picked up.

  “Yep, got finished with a case, and I’ll be headed home tomorrow morning,” he answered.

  “Got time to do a favor for an old friend?”

  “Sure,” Noah said. “What do you need?”

  “I’ve got a job that involves insurance fraud,” Daniel replied. “The feller lives in Fulton, Arkansas. That’s not far from Texarkana. Name is Quinn McKay, fifty-nine years old. I need pictures of him lifting or doing anything strenuous. I can be there Thursday to spell you if you haven’t gotten something by then. It pays the going rate.”

  “Text me the address, and I’ll take care of it for you,” Noah told him.

  “Will do.” Daniel ended the call, and the text came through in seconds—name, address, and a picture of the guy.

  Noah fell backward onto the bed and stared at the ceiling. He was anxious to be home, but he couldn’t very well refuse to give Daniel a hand, not after all the help he and his dad had given him.

  This will give you a while to think about what you want to do with your life going forward. The voice in his head sounded an awful lot like his granddad Luther Jackson.

  Knowing what Noah did now about Miss Janie’s past, he suspected that his grandfather did know about his sister’s pregnancy. Were there more skeletons in the closet?

  “We all have skeletons,” he whispered. “I know a little about Teresa’s past, and the investigator in me would like to dig deep into her life, but that’s her privacy and her story to tell me if and when she trusts me enough with it.”

  Yeah, right. You want to know everything about her, he thought. You want her to trust you, and you’re just dying to trust her enough to tell her your story.

  “Maybe so, but it probably won’t ever happen,” he muttered.

  “Why are you doing this today?” Teresa asked Kayla when she got the cleaning supplies out. “Haven’t you ever seen all those embroidered tea towels in fancy stores? Monday is cleaning day.”

  “I don’t go by what fancy towels say. I don’t care if it says Monday is cleaning day. This week it’s going to be on Tuesday,” Kayla answered. “In the house where I grew up, every day after school was cleaning day. That way I could get rid of all Billy Joe’s empty liquor bottles from the night before, and I could wash the sheets from my bed,” Kayla said. “You got a problem with me cleaning the place today?”

  “Not a single one,” Teresa said, “but stay out of my room. I’ll keep it clean.”

  “Afraid I’ll steal something?” Kayla asked.

  “Do I have reason to be?” Teresa asked.

  “Not anymore, and when I did shoplift, it was only food because I was hungry. I haven’t had to do that in years.” Kayla took her bucket and marched up the stairs without a backward glance.

  “Nurse! Nurse!” Miss Janie’s weak voice called out. “I’m ready for the babies now. Can you bring them to me?”

  “Of course, I can.” Teresa hurried up the stairs to get the dolls. She’d worried about what living with Kayla as an adult would be like, but so far it was pretty much like living with her as a teenager. She still had a chip the size of a cruise ship on her shoulder and blew up at anything Teresa mentioned.

  Kayla’s door was open, so she dashed inside and grabbed the doll from the cradle. She was coming back out when Kayla blocked her way.

  She popped her hands on her hips and cocked her head to one side. “You’re like the pot calling the kettle black, aren’t you? Why are you stealing my doll?”

  “Miss Janie wants the babies. Here—carry one of them.” Teresa handed Kayla’s doll to her.

  “What in the hell are you talkin’ about?” Kayla asked, but she followed her down the stairs.

  When they reached the bottom, Teresa looked back and shook her head. “Don’t hold it like that. Pretend it’s a real newborn baby. She thinks these dolls are her babies. Today she’s sixteen.”

  “How long will she be that age?” Kayla asked.

  “Two minutes, two days.” Teresa cradled her doll in her arms like a real baby. “Or maybe two seconds. We play along with whatever age she is.”

  “We don’t call her Mama at this age, then?” Kayla asked.

  “Nope, that’s only when she’s about forty or fifty,” Teresa answered.

  “Is she ever in her seventies?” Kayla whispered as they entered the room.

  “Seldom. We cherish those times.” Teresa smiled at Miss Janie. “Here you go. They’ve had their baths and been fed. They were such good babies all night long—you should be so proud.”

  Miss Janie smiled shyly. “Aunt Ruthie was right. We can raise them ourselves. Who is that?” She pointed at Kayla.

  “She’s a new nurse that Noah hired. Her name is Kayla. She’s very good with babies, and she’s had lots of experience.” Teresa wasn’t lying about that. Kayla had practically raised several younger siblings before she got put into foster care.

  “You’ll tell me if she’s mean to them, won’t you?” Miss Janie asked.

  “I’ll fire her if she’s ugly to the babies,” Teresa promised as she laid one of the dolls on the pillow in Miss Janie’s lap, then motioned for Kayla to do the same. She was more than a little surprised that Kayla didn’t have something to say, or maybe even kick her in the shins for the comment.

  “I trust you.” Miss Janie began to hum as she gently touched the dolls’ faces.

  “You call me when you’re ready for us to take them back to the nursery.” Teresa tiptoed out of the room with Kayla right behind her.

  “You don’t have the authority to fire me,” Kayla said.

  “No, I don’t, but if it makes Miss Janie feel better, then we will pretend that I do.” Teresa went to the kitchen, sat down in a chair, and put her head in her hands to catch her tears. “My heart breaks for her every time she wants the babies.”

  Kayla pulled out a chair and sat down beside her. “I had no idea that she’d be like this, but why did you ever let her think those dolls were real babies to start with?”

  “She mourned for the little girls she gave away. I had a patient like that in the nursing home, and when the nurses gave her a doll, it soothed her.” Teresa took a paper napkin from the holder in the middle of the table and dried her face. “I keep thinking about the turmoil she lived with all these years.”

  “Nurse! Nurse!” Miss Janie yelled.

  Teresa hopped up and hurried across the hall.

  “I’ve got a hangnail”—she held up her index finger—“and I’m afraid I’ll scratch one of the babies with it.”

  “Why don’t we take the babies back to the nursery, and I’ll give you a manicure this morning,” Teresa said. “You can even pick your nail polish. There’s pink and red both on your dresser.” She motioned for Kayla to come get the dolls. “Can you carry both of them?”

  “Sure, I can,” Kayla said. “Then I’ll get back to cleaning.”

  “You still got a driver’s license?” Teresa whispered.

  “Yes, I do, even though I haven’t owned a car in months,” she replied.

  “I needed to go grocery shopping today, but I’m afraid to leave her with you until she gets to know you better at the age she is right now. Would you mind doing that an
d cleaning later?” Teresa gently laid a doll in each crook of Kayla’s arms.

  “You’re going to trust me with your vehicle?” Kayla asked.

  “No.” Teresa laid the pillow from Miss Janie’s lap to the side and helped her sit up. “You can take Miss Janie’s car. Keys are hanging by the back door, and the credit card that Noah left is on the credenza in the hallway. The list is on the front of the refrigerator.”

  “Why can’t I drive your car?” Kayla asked.

  “Because it’s that old truck out there in the driveway. The tires are about to blow, and you’d be runnin’ on fumes to get to a gas station,” Teresa replied, and then focused on Miss Janie. “There, now, darlin’, you lean on me, and we’ll do your nails in the kitchen. And I forgot to put tampons on the list, and we’re out of shampoo.”

  “Any particular brand?” Kayla asked.

  “I usually get whatever is on sale.” She led Miss Janie across the hallway and into the kitchen. “Have you decided on a color?”

  Miss Janie giggled. “Mama says red is for hussies and that good girls don’t wear red. Greta did when we were in the unwed mothers’ home. She did my nails one time and I felt really rebellious.”

  “Then shall we do them red again?” Teresa asked. “I won’t tell on you if we do.”

  “Yes.” Miss Janie clapped her hands. “Mama shouldn’t have made me go there. If Aunt Ruthie hadn’t talked to them, I wouldn’t have my babies today. How long until I stop hurting from giving birth?”

  “It’ll go away soon,” Teresa told her as she started out of the kitchen to get the little zippered manicure set that had always been on Miss Janie’s dresser, and the bottle of polish.

  “Why did she ask that?” Kayla whispered as she followed her.

  “Because the cancer is in her bones and the pain must remind her of the way she felt after she gave birth,” Teresa explained. “Oh, and we need more detergent while you’re at the store.”

  “I understand. See you in a couple of hours. Think it would be all right if I got a pizza for dinner on the credit card?” Kayla asked.

  “I don’t see why not,” Teresa replied. “That sure sounds good.”

  “Oh. My. Goodness.” Miss Janie had gotten up and was standing in the kitchen door. “Do I hear my girls being nice to each other?”

  Teresa headed on into the living room. “Don’t worry. It won’t last long, Miss Janie.”

  Miss Janie raised her chin a notch and looked down her nose at Teresa. “I told you to call me Mama. We don’t have to pretend anymore. I’m claiming you and Kayla as my daughters. I’ve been sitting here thinking about whether you would have been Mary Jane or Maddy. I think maybe Mary Jane fits you better.”

  Teresa took her bony, spider-veined hand in her own and led her back to the kitchen table. “Tell me about my daddy. Was he a good man, or did he run off and leave you without even looking back?”

  “Jesus was a good boy, but he was only a kid like me. He was sixteen that summer and I was fifteen.” Miss Janie smiled. “I thought it was funny that his name was spelled like the Jesus in the Bible but pronounced different. I shouldn’t have laughed about it, but when I wrote it in my diary, it looked like Jesus had gotten me pregnant.”

  “Did you tell your parents who your babies’ father was?” Teresa asked.

  “Yes I did, and Daddy was mad at me.” Miss Janie’s smile faded at the memory. “But Mama was even worse. You’d have thought that Jesus was the devil. If it had been a nice white boy, things might have been different.”

  “What did they do?” Teresa asked.

  “He’d already gone back to Mexico when I found out I was pregnant. Daddy would never have let me marry Jesus, and besides, I didn’t want to marry him.” She lowered her voice. “Daddy was a little bit prejudiced, and Mama was a whole lot. They were mad enough at me when they thought it was a boy from my school, but they wouldn’t even look at me when they found out who he was.”

  “Did you want to have sex with Jesus, or did he force you?” Teresa thought about the times she’d hidden under the porch or in the backyard to keep from having to fight off her mother’s boyfriends.

  “Jesus would have never forced me to do anything. He was too sweet for that. I think you got that from him. Kayla got my strong will,” Miss Janie said, and then in the blink of an eye, her expression changed. “I’d like to go take a nap now. I’ll get my nails done later.”

  “You can hold on to my arm so you don’t fall.” Teresa led her back to the bedroom. Lately, she’d been sleeping more and more. Noah said the doctor told him to expect that, but Teresa loved the precious moments when Miss Janie was lucid enough to recognize her as Teresa, the child she’d saved from a group home.

  Miss Janie looped her arm into Teresa’s and sighed. “How long does it take for the stitches in my bottom to heal up?”

  “Quite a while, but I’ll check and see if you can have some more pain medicine for that,” Teresa answered.

  “You better let me make a bathroom stop on the way,” Miss Janie said.

  Teresa helped her with that, and when she’d taken off her slippers and covered her feet with a throw, Miss Janie latched on to her arm.

  “I’m glad you girls came back to help me,” she whispered. “I didn’t want to go to a nursing home. I hate that I’m a burden, but when I’m gone, I fixed things for all of you.”

  “All of us?” Teresa asked.

  “You and Kayla and Noah, the loves of my life.” Miss Janie’s eyes fluttered shut and she began to snore.

  The last five words that she’d said played through Teresa’s mind as if they were on a loop. The loves of my life. Teresa wondered who or what were the loves of her life.

  She’d thought that Luis was and had endured his cheating because she had loved him. She’d learned that indifference was the opposite of love, not hate. When the time came for her to sign the divorce papers, she flat-out didn’t care anymore. She even felt sorry for the woman he was already living with. That poor soul had children with him, so they would be connected forever.

  Getting back her self-esteem had been a long and rugged road, and from where she stood, that light at the end of the tunnel or road, or whatever it was called, was still just a dot out there on the horizon.

  Kayla felt like a kid with a five-dollar bill in a candy shop when she pushed a cart into the grocery store that morning. She didn’t have to keep a running total of what she spent in her head so that she wouldn’t spend too much. Too many times, she’d had to decide what to put back, but not today.

  She was reaching up for a bag of flour when a strong male voice behind her said, “Let me get that for you, miss.”

  “Thank you.” She turned around only to end up face-to-face with Will Barton, the shyest kid and the biggest geek in high school.

  “Is that you, Kayla?” he asked.

  “Yep, it’s me,” she answered. “What happened to your thick glasses?”

  “Traded ’em in for contacts right after high school.” He smiled. “You and Denver moved back to this area?”

  “No, only me. I’m at Birthright with Miss Janie,” she told him.

  “I heard she had Alzheimer’s and cancer. Sorry to get that news. She was a lively old girl, even after she retired. She used to come in for groceries every week and tell me how proud she was of me,” he said.

  “You work here?” she asked.

  “Yep. I manage this store and do the buying for the other three in the chain,” he answered. “Is Denver joining you later?”

  “I hope not,” she spit out so fast that it shocked her.

  Will chuckled. “Never did see what a pretty girl like you saw in that loser anyway. Well, I got to get back to the office. Good to see you again—tell Miss Janie I said hello. Hey, are you going to the ten-year class reunion?”

  “I didn’t even realize we’d been out of school that long.”

  Will flashed another grin. “I’m sure they’ll miss us both terribly if we don’t show
up.”

  “Yeah, right.” Kayla smiled back at him. “They’ll all mourn our absence.”

  He was still chuckling when he headed back down the aisle and turned the corner. Kayla wished she’d taken a picture of him. No way was Teresa going to believe that the biggest nerd in high school had turned out like that.

  She had a cart full of groceries and almost fainted when the cashier rang up the total. Never in her entire life had she spent nearly two hundred dollars on food that only had to last a week. The back seat was completely full and two small bags rested in the trunk of Miss Janie’s old 1976 Ford Maverick when she pulled out of the parking lot. The old baby-blue vehicle might be close to antique status, but it still drove like a charm.

  Will’s clear blue eyes still teased her mind as she drove home, and she liked the fact that he had a sense of humor. Why hadn’t she noticed either of those things when she was in classes with him? Most likely, it was because back in high school he always sat on the front row. Even with his glasses, he had trouble seeing the board.

  And you had your mind so set on Denver that you couldn’t see anyone else, the voice in her head reminded her in a blunt tone.

  “Guilty as charged,” she said out loud as she drove through Birthright.

  Miss Janie had told her that at one time the town had been known as Lone Star and that it had a school. Her aunt Ruthie had been one of the students in the last graduating class in 1948. Kayla didn’t know why she remembered that bit of trivia. Now the town had a population of forty—well, maybe forty-three since Kayla, Teresa, and Noah were living there again.

  “Population explosion,” Kayla whispered as she parked as close to the back door of the house as she could get.

  Teresa met her in the kitchen with a worried look on her face. “Thank God you’re home. I need help.”

  “What happened?” Kayla asked.

  “Miss Janie is sitting on the floor beside her bed. She says her legs don’t work anymore, and I can’t lift a deadweight,” Teresa answered.

  Kayla followed her across the kitchen and the hallway and right into Miss Janie’s room.