Chapter 2 #2
Clara took a tiny bite of the banana. “You sound like Grandma.”
“Rule number one…” Bernie shook her forefinger at Clara. “You are never to compare me to my sister. That will get you thrown out, and I won’t even send a cardboard box with you to use as a home under the bridge.”
Clara nodded and took a bigger bite. “How many rules are there?”
“Too many for you to remember with a hangover, but you will learn them as time goes by,” Bernie told her. “For today, just remember the first one.”
Clara finished the banana. “Why are you and Grandma so different? And that isn’t doing jack squat for my headache.”
“Vernie Sue was always the little angel with her blond hair and pretty blue eyes. I was the spitfire, ornery twin, with my red hair. We should be in that book of world records as the most different twins ever to be born.”
“Do you believe in God?” Clara asked.
“Of course I do, and I have the T-shirt with I love Jesus, but I drink a little on the front to prove it.” Bernie chuckled.
Clara would be a terrible poker player. What she was thinking was written all over her face. “Are you serious? Do you wear that in front of Grandma?”
“I did at the last reunion,” Bernie answered. “I was only there for about five minutes. She told me that I wasn’t welcome in a blasphemous shirt like that, so I left. That was a long time ago, and I haven’t been back.”
Clara put her hands over her eyes. “When she found out I had been working as a bartender, she told me I was acting like you and that I was going straight to hell.”
“I’ve heard that sermon before,” Bernie said.
“Mama didn’t take up for me,” Clara moaned.
“Pity party was over when you went to bed last night,” Bernie reminded her. “Grow an attitude and don’t worry about what other people—not even your kinfolks—think of you.”
“That’s easier said than done.” Clara’s tone said she was about to start crying, but she sucked it up and went on. “When Mama retired from her job with the FBI and got all involved with Grandma’s church work, she got the same outlook as Nana Vernie Sue.”
“When was that?” Bernie asked.
“When I was about five years old. I could never do a blessed thing right, but things got even worse after that.”
“What about your dad? Is he all up in the church, too?” Bernie asked.
“No, but he does go sometimes, just not every Sunday. Basically, he talked to Luke and Myra and ignored me,” she said.
“But then, according to what Nana Vernie Sue said when I did something wrong, I was the oops kid. When I asked her what that was, she said it was one that they didn’t really plan on having. ”
Bernie opened the container of applesauce, slid it over to Clara, and put on a pot of coffee. “Life happens.”
“Is that another rule?”
“Nope, it’s a fact,” Bernie answered with a yawn. “So, Vernie Sue and your mama came down on you for working at a bar?”
“Yes, and for not going to church regularly, and for living with my boyfriend without a marriage license, and then for breaking up with him because they thought he was a wonderful man,” she answered.
“They liked Kent. No, that’s not right. They loved him even more than they did me.
He proved that he could charm the underpants off a holy woman when he met my family, but that was just an act. ”
“When did you kick him out?” Bernie asked.
“A year ago, but he kicked me out, and I will never move in with a man again.”
“How in the hell did they not know for a whole year?”
“It’s a long story, but the short version is that I didn’t go home or call very often. There was always tension in the air while I was there, like maybe I had cooties that would jump off on them,” Clara said with a shrug. “Can I have the coffee and aspirin now?”
Bernie filled a mug with coffee, shook a couple of pills out into her hand, and set both in front of Clara. Then she picked up her half-empty cup and sat down across from Clara. “I’m awake now and in the mood for a story, so talk to me.”
Clara opened her eyes and took the aspirin with a sip of coffee. “I moved in with Kent and knew by the next week I had made a mistake. He was the jealous type and hovered over me until I could hardly breathe. But…” She added two spoonsful of sugar to her coffee. “This is really strong.”
“It’s coffee. Anything less is just murdered water,” Bernie said. “Go on with this thing about Kent.”
“We worked together at an oil company in Amarillo. We had already moved in together when he went home with me to the family reunion a year ago. Mama and Grandma loved him. He lied and said that we went to church regularly and belonged to a young adult group. I didn’t correct him because I wanted them to like him—and me, too, for that matter. ”
“Was he religious?” Bernie asked.
“Not in the least, but he really sucked up to them both. Then I lost my job and went to work bartending from six in the evening to two in the morning. One of Kent’s friends knew about a dancing job in a strip joint, and Kent was determined I would take it because it paid better than what I was doing, and I was letting him control our joint bank account that he insisted we set up when we moved in together. I refused and he kicked me out.”
Anger boiled up from Bernie’s toes to her the tips of her dyed red hair. “Did you tell your mother and grandma about that?”
“I did,” she nodded. “They jumped on a soapbox and declared that I was probably the one that asked him to live with me because I was so much like you. They said I was lying about a good Christian man like him asking me to work as a stripper. Then Grandma said that she bet he had proposed several times, and I was too stubborn to marry him. He really had done a snow job on them, and they wouldn’t even listen to me when I tried to explain that he had lied. ”
The boiling hissy fit inside Bernie got so hot that it came out in her tone. “That’s when you drove all the way out here?”
Clara nodded. “Yes, it is. I need a job and a place to stay until I can get on my feet. I’ll follow the rules and promise to never get drunk again.”
“You’ve got a roof over your head and you can work for me.” Bernie pushed back her chair, stood up, and opened the door when she heard a yip at the door. Pepper pranced in like he owned the place and stood up on his hind feet.
“He’s begging for food,” Clara said. “No telling when he ate last or had anything to drink. I got the feeling that the old guy who stole him for you hadn’t done much with him.”
Bernie filled a bowl with water and set it on the floor. “What do I feed him?”
“Kent browned a little hamburger and scrambled an egg into it for his dog. I miss Brutus far more than I ever missed him,” Clara said with a long sigh. “Brutus was always glad to see me, but Kent usually started in on me about something I’d done wrong the minute we got home.”
“Where did you live for a whole year after Kent kicked you out?” Bernie took a package of hamburger out of the fridge and tossed a handful into a skillet.
“With one of my friends, but then she moved to Alabama, and I was barely making rent before the bar where I was working closed up and I didn’t have a job,” she answered.
“I had a little savings, and I qualified for an unemployment check, but it wasn’t enough to pay rent. I looked for another job, but…”
“But what?” Bernie asked. “Everywhere I go I see Help Wanted signs. Never mind, you are here now, at least for six weeks. If everything works out with Nash, I will most likely sell the bar to him at the end of that time.”
“Where are you going?” Clara asked.
“Your aunt Mary Jane has offered to let me bring a travel trailer and park it at her place in Spanish Fort. How long has it been since you’ve seen her or your cousins?”
Clara finally smiled. “A long time. Probably right before she moved from the city to that brothel. Mama doesn’t agree with Aunt Mary Jane writing trashy romance books, and Grandma really preaches against it.”
Bernie cracked an egg and added it to the browned meat. “Have you read her books?”
“Every single one of them,” Clara replied with half a giggle. “I especially love the ones she wrote about the hookers that worked out of the Paradise.”
Pepper barked twice and ran around Bernie’s feet like a little whirlwind.
“Settle down, boy. It would burn your tongue out of your mouth if you tried to eat it before it cooled down a little bit. When we get this animal’s breakfast done, we are going to have bacon and eggs, then we’re going to get dressed and go to town for groceries for us and food, collar, and leash for this critter. ”
“Then what?” Clara asked.
“After that, we are going to come home, clean up last night’s mess in the bar, and decorate it for Independence Day,” she answered.
Clara’s blue eyes popped wide open. “You are open on Sunday?”
“Nope, that’s my one day off each week, but we’re going to put up the decorations and open up tomorrow at six like usual,” she answered, “but that’s after we get back from the store.”
Tears streamed down Clara’s face. “I can’t believe you are doing this for me, without even giving me a long lecture.”
“I need an inside person to give me the lowdown on Nash. Is he really serious about buying my bar, or is he out to get it and then resell to a developer who wants to put in another convenience store and gas station on the spot?”
“I can be a spy,” Clara declared with a nod. “Or a bartender, or a dog walker, or I can even clean up the place after hours.”
“Rule number two for you.” Bernie held up two fingers and set the plate of food down for Pepper. “Always turn out the lights and go home when the bar closes down. Then take care of mopping and polishing glasses and beer mugs the next day when you aren’t worn to a frazzle.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Clara finally grinned so big that it reached her bloodshot eyes.
***