Chapter 40
FORTY
“My Thomas was quiet and serious and deeply devoted. He loved the me I didn’t let others see.”
—excerpt from the unpublished memoir,
Darling, I Must Say by Gloria Hayes
“Put your shoulders back,” Gloria said. Or rather yelled from across the room. the community room at Shady Cove. Since it was the largest room in the place, it also meant we had an audience. “Your posture is atrocious.”
“I have to agree with Gloria.” Mary frowned from the sidelines.
“I think she’s fine. She got from point A to point B,” Jonathan said. He was standing a few feet away, watching me with a critical eye. Like the man had ever seen a pageant before in his life. “I hope she plans on wearing something besides those holey jeans though. Looks like Swiss cheese to me.”
“Okay, okay.” I glared at the room at large. “Thank you for all of your opinions. So helpful.”
Gloria pointed at Hallie. “Hallie, darling, please go show Iris how to walk properly.”
Hallie skipped over to the other side of the room, turned and walked back with the confidence of a runway model in Paris. Not fair.
“That’s good,” Jonathan said, sounding impressed. He held up a hand and Hallie gave him a high-five.
“Iris, do you see how she puts her shoulders back and glides? You must glide. I have no idea what you’re doing. Interpretive dance, perhaps?”
“Thanks, bestie.”
“You’re very welcome. Honesty is important.”
“You and Abraham Lincoln, right?”
“I cannot tell a lie.” Today, she wore a long caftan, the pattern an explosion of shapes and colors. She’d paired it with simple white sandals and giant gold hoop earrings and yet another of those scarves tied around her head. “Especially when it comes to your posture and walk.”
“Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.” I plopped myself down on the floor. “Can we be done yet?”
Gloria glanced at her watch. “You’ve been here ten minutes.”
“Nine minutes too long,” I muttered and then, because I could, I laid down on the cool linoleum floor and stared up at the faux wood beams on the ceiling. A minute later, Gloria nudged me with her foot.
“Oh, dear. Is she dead?” Mary asked, coming to join Gloria. “Maybe her blood sugar is low. Here, take this, dear.” She dangled a butterscotch candy from her fingers.
“I’m not dead.” I took the candy though.
I might be if I really had to go through with the pageant.
Except I had no one to blame but myself.
The emails and text messages (yes, I was added to the group chat) made my stomach hurt with the endless list of things I needed to know.
For example, there were two (TWO!) group dance numbers.
I had already met my lifetime quota of group dance numbers for Aidan’s wedding, thank you very much.
This was on top of my solo talent which was… currently non-existent. And I had to confirm what it would be by next week. So far, everything that I’d suggested had been shot down. I still didn’t understand why three minutes of sarcastic comebacks wasn’t a winner. I’d kill at that.
“Get up off the floor,” Gloria said with more than a little disgust in her voice. “This is not lady-like at all.”
“I don’t care. And who gets to say what a lady is anyway. Hmm?”
“It probably isn’t very hygienic,” Mary said.
“Sure isn’t,” Jonathan said, having arrived to add his two cents.
“I think you did great,” Hallie said.
“Thanks.” After sitting up, I blew hair out of my face.
“Fine. We’ll work on something else for now.” Gloria pulled a chair up and sat wearily, like the weight of the world rested on her shoulders. In this scenario, I was that world.
“I have to pick a talent by the end of the week. I got nothing. So, pageant coach, help me out.”
“I picked a talent,” Hallie said, bouncing on her toes. “I’m going to do magic tricks.”
“You don’t have to brag about it,” I grumbled. Honestly though, she’d already started practicing and she was pretty good.
“Yes, this is quite the problem. Are you sure you can’t dance?” Gloria folded her hands in her lap.
“No.”
“Throw a baton?” Mary asked.
“Also, no.”
“Play an instrument?”
“Does the recorder I learned to play in the fourth grade count?” I’d been terrible at that, too.
Gloria frowned. “Juggling?”
I shook my head.
“Then there is nothing for it. You’ll have to sing.”
I cringed. Jonathan cringed. Which I thought was kind of rude. “Gloria, I can’t sing.”
“Oh, we know, honey.” Mary patted my arm.
“You’re downright awful,” Jonathan added.
“You all are so very good for my self-esteem,” I said.
“Singing is all in the stage presence.” Gloria frowned. “We’ll have to work on that, too. How many weeks do we have?”
“Three.”
“Three?” Gloria looked horrified.
“Technically, I was supposed to tell them what my talent was last week but again, I got nothing. I do not want to win. I just don’t want to make a fool of myself.”
She threw her hands in the air. “Why don’t you just ask me to harness the moon for you, too.”
I stood. “Okay, well, this has been a real joy. It might be time for me to head home though.”
“Oh, stop being so dramatic,” Gloria said.
I stared at her in disbelief. “I’m the dramatic one? Me? Have you looked in the mirror?”
“Of course I have. As often as possible. I’m telling you you’ll need to sing. There’s nothing for it.”
“I can’t.”
“You will.”
“My dad could help,” Hallie said. “He plays the guitar and sings to his plants. Maybe he could help you learn a song.”
I groaned. This was getting worse by the second. Yes, please, let’s just ask the man I have a raging crush on to play the guitar and sing for me. Maybe he could do it shirtless, too.
“Excellent.” Gloria clapped her hands once like a discussion was closed. She stood. “I can see we’re done for the day. Come help me back to my room. I need a nap.”
I frowned. She did look pale today, the skin around her eyes sallow. “Are you feeling okay?”
“I’m fine. Just tired. Stayed up too late at movie night last night.”
“Hmm.” It has been the annual showing of The Wizard of Oz at Shady Cove.
I’d brought Hallie with me although she’d fallen asleep halfway through, drooling adorably on my shoulder.
But I wasn’t sure about the movie being the cause of Gloria’s exhaustion.
I’d been noticing it for months, but the woman shrugged it off every time I asked.
Hallie ran off to be entertained by a few of the residents.
They’d taken to her quickly. Many of them missed their own children and grandchildren.
Some visited regularly but even more only came once or twice a year, if that.
One, Miss Judy, was a sweet woman who didn’t talk much.
But last week, Hallie was helping put a puzzle together and she turned to me and said, “I would give up everything I owned to see my son again at that age.” Then she’d gone quiet again, her eyes shiny with memories and unshed tears.
I’d decided to bring Hallie with me to Shady Cove whenever I could.
She was good for them, and they were good for her.
“How is that young man of yours?” Gloria asked after she’d gotten settled in her bed and then demanded I “fetch” her a glass of water. I sat on her throne and propped my feet on the edge of her bed.
“Who?” I asked, playing dumb.
“You know exactly who I’m talking about.” She nestled into her pillow and pulled her blanket up.
“He’s not my anything.”
She yawned. “He’s very handsome, isn’t he? I wasn’t sure about all those tattoos, but I like them. Gives him character. And his smile. My goodness. Imagine waking up to that smile every day. Don’t let him slip away.”
“I haven’t caught him. We’re just friends.”
“Please. I’m old, not dumb. Sometimes you need to take a chance. Life might surprise you. I never thought I’d fall in love after… well, I just never thought I’d get married. Then I met Thomas. He was twenty-two years older than me, you know.”
I did know. She’d told me the story of how they met often. I sat on the edge of her bed. Her voice took on a dreamy, soft tone as it always did when she talked about Thomas.
“When I met him, I was working as a waitress. He came in every morning and had the same thing—two eggs over easy, three pieces of bacon, and coffee. I worked the morning shift so I could have my days free to audition and whatnot.” She gave a wobbly smile.
“Although at that point, I’d been in the city for fifteen years.
I’d been a Rockette, even some bit parts in plays, but I was still waiting for my big break. ”
“What did you think of him?”
Her eyes drifted to the wedding portrait of the two of them that hung front and center.
I often caught her staring at it. She missed him, that was easy to see.
“He was not our normal clientele. Very handsome, always in a tailored suit. A silver fox. He was quiet, took a bit to get him to talk to me about something other than eggs, but he had such kind eyes. He always made sure to sit in my section, and I always made his coffee just the way he liked it. One cream, no sugar.”
“I bet he was a great tipper.”
She grinned. “Oh, yes. This went on for two years. Then I got a job with better pay and put my notice in. I kept dropping hints, hoping… I don’t know what I was hoping.
Finally on my last day, he came in as usual.
I brought over his coffee and then I sat down across from him, looked him right in the eye and said, ‘Are you ever going to ask me out on a date?’”
“And that was that.”
“I had no idea he was rich as sin until our first date. We were married six months later. Thomas was a good man.” She patted my hand.
“Deserved better than me, I’m certain. He saw my faults.
I could be selfish and foolish, but he loved me.
” Tears glistened in her eyes. “I loved him very much. He wasn’t my first love, but he was my forever. ”
“That’s beautiful,” I said.
She sniffled. “Can you get me that box of tissues?” I handed it to her, and she used one to pat at her cheeks. “I’m sorry. I’m feeling very sentimental today.”
“We could have canceled that pageant stuff if you weren’t feeling well.”
“You need all the help you can get.” She set the tissue box on the nightstand and placed her folded hands on her chest. “Alright, no more of this. I need my beauty sleep. Go away.”
“Yes, ma’am.” I pressed a kiss to her cheek.
I left her room, closing the door softly behind me. When I turned around, Bruce the Death Cat was sitting two feet away, His yellow-green eyes seemed to look directly into my soul.
I took a few steps down the hallway and peeked over my shoulder. Bruce sat statue still and stared at Gloria’s door for a long moment. Then with his tail high in the air, he turned my way and walked right past me.