Sweet Heat

by Zuri Day

  “Why would I tell them that? The very thing I thought would hurt your chances if they found out? No, I didn’t talk to them about you and Naomi. That doesn’t even make sense. Why? What happened?”

  “I didn’t say anything happened. I just know there are some things going around about me that aren’t true, and in trying to get to the bottom of it I remembered seeing you and Jeremy talking the day he got eliminated and wondered if you had said anything. He can’t stand me and he hates Naomi. You don’t like Naomi and I’d just hurt your feelings. Either of you alone had enough reason to want to see us out of the competition, but when I saw the two of you together, I knew to watch my back.”

  “Well, Marvin, it’s unfortunate that you feel that way. I may be considered many things, but a traitor is not one of them and even though our friendship was minimal, or nonexistent by your definition, I considered myself to be your friend. And I wouldn’t betray a friend like that. Not even one I no longer liked or who had hurt my feelings. That would be wrong, and cruel, and I wouldn’t do it, unless I had an awfully good reason, illegal or immoral, something like that. And while you might find this hard to believe, I don’t dislike Naomi.”

  Marvin harrumphed.

  “No really, I don’t. If you want to know the truth, I envy her. She’s everything I could never be. In a society where thin is in and Black people are marginalized, she’s loud and proud, confident and daring. She’s so out there! I don’t know how to explain it, but it’s like she doesn’t give a hoot what anybody thinks. I’ve always been a bit of a wallflower, introverted, unsure of myself. Growing up on a farm in Podunk, Iowa, most of mine were four-legged friends. I had strict, religious parents who didn’t allow me much latitude, so being socially awkward is an understatement. She’s a social butterfly. I didn’t like everything she did, or agree with everything she said. But I don’t dislike her.”

  Marvin was stunned, and touched by what Abbey had said about Naomi. “Can I tell her you said that?”

  “Oh, gosh, that would be so embarrassing. I don’t want to come off as some dork, or something.”

  “It won’t sound that way. You said some really nice things. I think Naomi would appreciate hearing them.”

  “Well, okay. I guess so.”

  “Thank you for accepting my apology. Wait, did you accept it?”

  “Yes, Marvin. I accept it.”

  “Good. I believe you regarding me and Naomi and what you did or did not tell the producers. You’re good people, Abbey. And even though I’m not attracted to you in a romantic way, I wouldn’t mind being friends.”

  “I’d like that.”

  “And I’d like to call you Abs again. But not if you’re going to turn into a stalker.”

  The laugh they enjoyed was genuine. Marvin exited the car and returned to work after a productive break. He’d offered an apology, gotten answers, and gained a friend. He still didn’t know who was after him, but it was good sometimes to be reminded that life didn’t always suck.

  29

  Naomi sat on a hard, plastic chair in the hospital’s nondescript cafeteria, trying to absorb what the doctors had told her just moments ago. She wore the same clothes Marvin had seen her wearing last night when he opened the hotel room door. Stray strands of hair had escaped the high ponytail that just two days ago had been flawless and sleek. Her eyes, red-rimmed and bleary, stared at the gray vinyl floor. There was a Styrofoam cup of coffee in front of her, along with an untouched cinnamon-raisin bagel. Across from her, Kristy mechanically pinched off and ate bites from a glazed twist. Kristy’s mom, Lisa, grasped the black coffee that had been her constant companion for the past fourteen hours.

  “I know it sounds bad, niecy,” Lisa said, her voice low and soothing as though talking to a scared child. “But, unfortunately, heart disease is becoming more and more common especially as people age. Plus, it runs in our family. But you heard the doctor. Implanting a pacemaker isn’t major surgery like it used to be. They’re going to perform it under local anesthesia. She’ll be going home with us today.”

  “I know what he said,” was Naomi’s wooden reply. “But somehow the thought of putting a wire into somebody’s heart, one attached to a machine, and leaving both the wire and the machine inside her, doesn’t sound simple to me. It sounds major.”

  Kristy reached for the extra-large cup in front of her. “I’m just glad she’s still here.”

  Lisa nodded. “And from what the doctor said, with the help of the pacemaker she can be here for a long time.”

  “I sure hope so,” Naomi said with a sigh. “Because I can’t do life without Nana right now.”

  It was almost ten o’clock before Naomi pulled into Nana’s driveway. The surgery itself was over in minutes, but hadn’t been performed until a series of tests were completed. An hour ago Nana had been alert and talkative, almost her old self. But on the way home Naomi had looked over, seen her nodding, and become concerned.

  “Nana!” she’d yelled, her heart in her chest.

  Nana had slowly lifted her head and responded, “Girl, stop yelling. I’m asleep, not dead.”

  Naomi turned off the engine. “You ready, Nana?”

  “For what?”

  “To go inside.”

  “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

  “Hold on, let me come over on that side and help you out.”

  Naomi jumped out of the car and hurried around to the passenger door. “Here, take my arm.”

  She helped Nana out of the seat belt and out of the car. Aside from wincing when she inadvertently lowered her left arm, Nana seemed okay. Her steps were slow but sure, and soon Naomi had her undressed and in bed, with pillows propped up around her.

  “What can I get for you, Nana? Are you comfortable? Do you need any of that pain medication?”

  She watched her grandmother lean her head against the pillow. “I think I’m okay for now.”

  “Are you hungry?”

  “I could probably eat a little something. You know that hospital food isn’t any good.”

  “Okay. Let me see what’s in there that I can fix quickly.”

  “Not much, baby. I don’t have a big appetite. Could use some water, though.”

  Naomi handed her grandmother the remote control, then went into the kitchen. A few minutes later, she returned with glasses of water and orange juice. She retrieved a bed tray from a corner in the room and set it up over her grandmother’s lap. After a quick scan of the refrigerator contents, she made her grandmother a plate with small helpings of leftover baked beans and coleslaw, and half a chicken sandwich. Only after delivering the plate to Nana did Naomi feel a slight pang of hunger. As her grandmother’s life hung in the balance, Naomi couldn’t eat and barely drank. But now that her dear Nana was back, so was her appetite. She fixed a healthy chicken sandwich with coleslaw and mustard as condiments and returned to Nana’s room.

  Naomi was happily chatting with Nana and halfway through her sandwich when the doorbell rang.

  “I know that’s Miss J,” she told Nana. “Are you up for company?”

  “Not really, but go on and let her in. She’ll worry herself to death until she sees me and will end up needing a pacemaker herself.”

  With Miss J at Nana’s bedside, Naomi finally went to her room. With only the illumination of the closet light, she pulled off her clothes, pulled on a pair of cotton pj’s and crawled into bed. Only then, under the cloak of near darkness, did she release tears held back for almost a day. In the darkness she thanked God for saving her grandmother. She finished the sandwich, and went to sleep.

  The Lil Wayne ringtone woke her with a start two hours later. She sat up, frightened and disoriented, until she remembered that she was home and Nana was right down the hall. She reached for her phone on the nightstand, checked the face and offered a groggy hello.

  “I woke somebody up,” Marvin said, his voice like sunshine in her rainy season.

  “Yeah.”

  “Do you always go to sleep bef
ore midnight?”

  “I do when I haven’t slept the night before.”

  “Don’t try and put the blame on me. I took care of business and sent you on your way before eleven o’clock. Don’t tell me you went somewhere after that.”

  “Yeah, I did.”

  A long pause followed.

  “I went to the hospital.”

  “Why?”

  “I came home and found Nana on the floor.”

  “What happened?”

  “The doctors thought she fainted. They ran a bunch of tests and it turns out she’s got heart disease.”

  “Ah, man, Nay. I’m so sorry.”

  “I am, too. The good news is that the doctors say we caught it early, so there’s a better chance of her heart not continuing to deteriorate. But she fainted because of a condition with a name that’s longer than this bed I’m lying on, but basically means that her heart rate is erratic and sometimes drops real fast and causes her to lose consciousness. But there’d been other signs, too, only we didn’t recognize them. Nana’s pretty active, but she’d complained of just not feeling good overall, being tired. She’d talked about getting dizzy a few times. But we always attributed it to something else. Or chalked it up to what happens as you get older. I didn’t even know the disease ran in our family. But it does.”

  “How long is she going to be in the hospital?”

  “She’s already back home. They put in a pacemaker and I brought her back last night.”

  “Dang, they released her that fast?”

  “At first, I thought the same thing! I’m thinking if it has something to do with the heart then that is major surgery. But she wasn’t even put under for them to perform it. They gave her a local anesthetic and it took about, I say about . . . an hour. Then they kept her another couple hours for observation and that was it. They prescribed medication for the pain. She’s got to take it easy for the next four to six weeks, at least, maybe longer because the doctor said everybody heals differently. But the main thing is that she is alive.”

  “You don’t know how happy I am to hear that.”

  “Oh, yes I do.”

  “I know how much you love your grandmother, and losing her right before the finals would have been devastating. Do you even think you could have done them?”

  “Not at all. In fact, I don’t think I’m going to do them even though she survived.”

  “Are you serious? Why not, babe?”

  “For the next few weeks, Nana is going to need someone with her twenty-four seven. She’s not supposed to raise her arm too high or lift anything, and Nana’s stubborn. Somebody’s going to have to keep an eye on that chick at all times. The only person I trust to watch her like that, is me.”

  “But you’re not going to do the final?”

  “Um, I think that’s what I just said.”

  “But, Nay, you worked so hard and have come so far. You beat out all of those people, even award-winning chefs like Jeremy Evans. I know you love your grandmother dearly, but isn’t there a way you can make sure she’s taken care of and do the contest, too?”

  “Maybe. But since my mother died when I was eight years old, it’s been me and Nana against the world. The only mother that I ever really knew, since mine left so young. My memories of her are almost like a movie, or an old photo album where the pictures come in snatches. I zoned out when Mama died. They said I didn’t talk for almost a month.”

  “Whew,” Marvin loudly exclaimed. “I can’t even imagine what that would be like!”

  Only someone like Marvin could take a poignantly tender moment and make it hilarious. Naomi laughed for the first time since coming home last night.

  “You know you’re stupid, don’t you? Oh my God! I can’t stand you.”

  “I’m sorry, baby. I shouldn’t have interrupted you like that, but the thought of that mouth not moving. At all. For a month.”

  “I’m getting ready to hang up this phone.”

  “Okay, I’ll be quiet.”

  “Thanks for making me laugh. I was getting ready to go there with that sad memory. I already did last night when I saw Nana on the floor. So I don’t need to go back. But my life kind of shifted when I saw her lying there and thought she might have died. When I ran over to her, and felt a pulse, nothing else mattered except saving her life. And now there’s nothing more important than keeping her here. Winning it all would be real nice. But when you pull someone you love back from the brink of death, stuff like money, material things, job, status, they really don’t seem important at all. Yesterday morning, all of it did. But right now? I don’t give a damn.”

  30

  Naomi had told Marvin that she didn’t care about the contest’s outcome, or if she’d be in it. But when her phone rang that Friday morning, showing the number she now knew belonged to a Food Truck Bucks producer, her heart jumped.

  “Hello?”

  “Naomi, it’s Tracy. How are you doing?”

  “I’m okay.”

  “How’s your grandmother?” Naomi’s brow creased. “Marvin called and told us that she’d been hospitalized. I hope you don’t mind that he told us. He knew you were focused solely on her getting better, as you should be, and didn’t think calling us would cross your mind. But with the taping having been initially scheduled for tomorrow, he wanted us to know.”

  “He’s right. I didn’t think about it.”

  “How is she?”

  “She’s okay, getting better. Trying to tell me how to cook, so that’s a good sign.”

  “I’m really close to my grandma, too, so I have a feeling how relieved you are that she’s getting on your nerves.”

  The women laughed.

  “What’s happening with those lies somebody told on me and Marvin?” Naomi asked.

  “That’s another reason I called.” Naomi didn’t catch the smile in Tracy’s voice. Instead, without being aware of it, she held her breath. “The taping has been pushed back one week and will take place next Saturday, not tomorrow.”

  “You guys are still investigating?”

  “The investigation into the allegations waged against you and Marvin has been completed. We found no credible evidence to corroborate their stories, or any proof of anything you and Marvin were doing wrong. You’re both in the clear and still very much in the competition for Food Truck Bucks.”

  “I don’t know about finishing the competition, but I’m glad my name was cleared.”

  “Naomi, what do you mean? Having come all this way and beat out literally thousands to get to the final ten? You’ve got to be in the finals.”

  “Up until three days ago, that’s what I thought. But almost losing Nana has given me a different perspective. We’re all each other has got, and while she’s getting better, she still needs somebody to take care of her, and I know those finals are going to take all day. To be honest, I don’t even know if I could focus, and concentrate on recipes.”

  Naomi heard Tracy release an audible sigh. “This is definitely not the conversation I’d planned. Your dropping out would affect production, naturally, and while we’d absolutely hate to lose you, knowing that now instead of this time next week at least gives us a chance to find your replacement. Are you sure that’s what you want to do?”

  “Given what’s happened, it’s probably best.”

  “Again, I’m really sorry to hear that.” Almost as an afterthought, Tracy added, “Maybe Jeremy will get a shot at the truck after all.”

  The call ended shortly after that, Naomi suddenly numbed by the fact that she’d uttered a single sentence and killed a dream. The phone slipped from her hand and landed on the bed. She sat back, looked out the window, and tried to feel okay. Nana needed her more than Naomi needed a food truck. The truck could come later. Nana couldn’t be replaced. Naomi told herself this and felt a little better. She’d done what she had to do.

  Naomi reached for her phone and tapped the screen. “Nana, what are you doing?”

  “About to make some coffee.
Why are you calling me from the other room?”

  Naomi laughed, got out of bed and headed out to the kitchen. “Because I was staying in bed until I knew you were up.” She leaned over and kissed her grandmother. “You know you shouldn’t be doing this. Your surgery was just two days ago.”

  “I know, but I’m already sick of that bed.”

  “How are you feeling?”

  “Like I could walk to church and back. I took one of those pain pills.”

  “Ha! You say that now. You’ll be asleep in an hour. Here, let me get that, Nana.” Naomi poured water in the coffeemaker and turned it on. “What do you want for breakfast?”

  “What time do you have to be at work?”

  “I’m not going to work today. Next week, either.”

  “Nay, did you quit your job?”

  Naomi shook her head. “I took emergency family leave.”

  “And they’re going to hold your job for you?”

  “I was looking for a job when I got that one. If they don’t, I’ll find another.”

  “I know what you’re doing. Betting on winning that food truck, huh?”

  Nadine leaned against the counter. “Why don’t you go sit down, Nana? I’ll bring your coffee.”

  After fixing two cups with cream and sugar, Naomi took them in the living room and gave one to Nadine before sitting down.

  Nadine took a tentative sip, then a more robust one. “You got this just right.”

  “Good.”

  “Where are y’all at in that contest? It should be just about over?”

  “Yeah, just about. They’re doing the final taping next week.”

  “Are you nervous?”

  “No.”

  “That’s good.”

  “I’m not doing it.”

  “You’re not? But I thought you told me you made it to the finals.”

  “I did, but I’m not going to leave you here alone.”

  “I appreciate that, baby. But I don’t want you to sacrifice your dream on my account. There are other folk who can check in on me and make sure I’m alright.”