Web of Evil

Jack, did the same thing, you see. Got married while the divorce decree was still warm to the touchthe same day, in fact. It's lucky for Pauland for Ted Grantham, toothat we've already hammered out a property settlement.'

Ali was astounded. 'Why on earth did Paul agree to use her as a judge?'

'Because he was in a hurry,' Helga answered. 'Like I told you, I got to choose.'

Just then, the glass entry doors swung open and a very tall black woman, clad in sweats and tennis shoes, entered the building. She paused briefly while going through the security checkpoint then came trotting down the hall toward Ali and Helga.

'Am I too late?' the newcomer asked breathlessly, smothering Ali in a bone-crushing hug. 'Sorry. I went to the courthouse and looked everywhere for the right courtroom before someone finally pointed me in this direction. Is it over already?'

'Not over over,' Ali replied. 'But it's over for today.'

'Who's this?' Helga wanted to know.

'My cheering section,' Ali replied with a smile. 'My friend Sister Anne. And Sister Anne, this is my attorney, Helga Myerhoff.'

At six foot seven, Sister Anne towered over both Ali and the diminutive Helga. She was dressed in blue-and- white UCLA insignia sweats and high-end Nikes and looked far more like the NCAA championship basketball player she had once been than the Sister of Charity she was now. Jamalla Kareem Williams had left college with a degree in business administration, plenty of basketball trophies, and a permanently damaged knee. Rather than going into business, she had become a nun. For years now, she had managed My Sister's Closet, a Pasadena-based clothing recycling program that helped provide appropriate, low-cost attire for impoverished women hoping to get into the job market. That was where Ali had dropped off her newscaster duds when she had left town months earlier.

Sister Anne held out her hand in Helga's direction. 'Glad to meet you,' she said with a gap-toothed smile while her beaded cornrows clicked and clattered around her head.

'Sister Anne and I met years ago at a charity fund-raiser and just hit it off,' Ali explained. 'In fact, if it weren't for her, I probably wouldn't know about you. Marcella Johnson was one of Sister Anne's basketball teammates at UCLA. When I was looking at filing a wrongful dismissal suit against the station, Sister Anne pointed me at Marcella, and when I needed a divorce attorney, Marcella sent me to you.'

Sister Anne turned back to Ali. 'What do you mean it's not over over?'

'My not-quite-ex didn't bother showing up for the hearing,' Ali told her. 'The new court date is set for Thursday of next week.'

'Well, then,' Sister Anne said briskly. 'Let's go have some lunch.'

Helga begged off, so Ali and Sister Anne drove to Beverly Center and had lunch in a Mexican restaurant where one of Sister Anne's recent clients from My Sister's Closet had hired on as the hostess. Over a shared plate of fajitas, Ali reached into her purse and pulled out an envelope, which she handed to Sister Anne.

'What's this?'

'Money,' Ali said. 'It's one thing to donate clothing, but this time I decided to give you something that would help pay the rent and keep the lights on.'

Sister Anne counted through the bills then looked up. 'You can afford this?'

'Helga's a very good attorney. I'm going to be fine.'

Smiling, Sister Anne slipped the envelope into a zippered pocket on her pants. 'This couldn't come at a better time,' she said. 'We've been right on the edge of having to close the place down. You have no idea how much we needed this.'

The hostess, a young Hispanic woman dressed in a stylish black dress and sling-back high heelsclothing that had been someone else's castoffssmiled shyly at Sister Anne and Ali as she led a group of diners to a table.

'Glad I could help,' Ali said. And she was.

After lunch, feeling a strange sense of letdown, Ali returned to her hotel. First she called her mother, who was still at the Sugar Loaf.

'Well?' Edie Larson said. 'Are you free as a bird now?'

'Not exactly,' Ali said, and then went on to explain the situation.

'My word,' Edie said. 'If that doesn't take the cake! After you had to drive all that way! It's inexcusable for him to not show up like that. Did you try calling him?'

'No,' Ali admitted. 'Under the circumstances, that didn't seem like a good idea. His attorney called, though. From what he was saying, it sounded like Paul stayed out all night.'

'And he hasn't even married the poor girl yet?' Edie demanded. 'Seems like it's a little early for him to be up to his old tricks.'

Ali didn't exactly agree with the 'poor girl' part. But the 'old tricks' reference worked. 'Yes,' Ali said. 'It does seem early.'

'You stay there as long as necessary in order to get this all straightened out,' Edie said. 'Everything here is under control. Chris stopped by last night before he headed for his seminar in Phoenix tomorrow. We invited him to come to dinner Sunday night when he gets home, so he won't starve to death. As for Sam? She's fine. She took to your father the way most strays do. In other wordslove at first sight. What are you going to do with this extra time, hook up with some old friends?'

What old friends? Ali wondered. Other than Sister Anne, she didn't seem to have any real friends waiting for her. The ones she did have were people who were primarily friends of Paul's. In the aftermath of her blowup with Paul and the abrupt ending to her television career, Ali had been surprised and hurt by the number of people who had simply vanished from her life the moment her face had disappeared from the evening news. It had been hard to accept that people she had considered close friends had been drawn by her celebrity rather than anything else. Coming to terms with the reality of those lost relationships still hurt, but Edie Larson didn't need to know that.

'Already handled, Mom,' Ali said as airily as she could manage. 'Not to worry.'

But it wasn't. When Ali got off the phone with her mother, she slipped out of her new Nordy's 'court dress' and changed into a T-shirt and jeans. There were, of course, people she could have called, some of whom were bound to be in town. But she didn't call any of them. There was something so trite and Holly-woodyso whiny and patheticabout gathering a group of pals around to hold your hand during stalled divorce proceedings that she couldn't bring herself to do it. Instead, Ali pulled out her computer and turned to Babe of Yavapai's new friendsthe ones who were only a mouse click away.

CUTLOOSEBLOG.COM

Friday, September 16, 2005

Surprisingly enough it's more difficult to be cut loose legally than one would think. The divorce that was supposed to be finalized today isn't because my soon-to-be-former husband was a no-show in court, and our rent- a-judge refused to issue a decree without his being present and accounted for. So here I am stuck in limbo for a little longer. This should all be brought to a conclusion next week, but for now I'm here with time on my hands and not much to do.

In the past I've always had work to fall back on. And family responsibilities. But my son is raised now. I no longer have to look after him, and although I'm not entirely finished with him yet, I no longer have a husband to look after, either.

So I've decided to treat this like an extended vacationa vacation in a place where I used to live, but where I was always too busy working to do the things tourists from around the world come here to do. Starting with the Getty. And the La Brea Tar Pits. Who knows? I may even throw over the traces completely and go for a walk on the beach or spend a day at Disneyland.

In other words, blogging will be light for a while for the very good reason that I'm out having fun.

Posted 2:16 P.M., September 16, 2005 by Babe

After that, Ali read through and posted some of the comments that had come in from her readers while she'd been otherwise engaged.

Dear Babe,

I know you're lawyer said your divorce would be final, but don't you believe him. Divorces ain't never final. They can give you a hundred pieces of paper that say your single, but being married don't just go away because of a piece of paper, especially if you have kids. And I should know. My husband can still drive me crazy