stilted and impersonal, but Liz sounded stronger than she had at any time since Ray's funeral.
There was a renewed feistiness in her attitude and a welcome wryness in the older woman's voice as she said, 'Sorry I haven't called lately, but I was temporarily overcome with grief, despair, and unbearable self- pity.'
'How are you?' Maureen asked, sitting down on the bed.
'As well as can be expected, I suppose. Nothing's ever going to be the way it was, but I think I'm learning to accept that. I'm sorry I've been so out of it lately.'
'That's okay. I understand.'
'Part of it is lack of sleep. They've been keeping me up every night, trying to break me down, calling me at all hours with weird threatening phone calls, turning my power on and off, throwing things at my house.
It's psychological warfare, and it obviously worked. It cut me off from my friends and made me so nervous and jumpy I was afraid to answer the phone or step out of the house.'
Anyplace else, at any other time, Maureen would have thought that, far from the crisis being over, it had kicked into high gear, Liz exhibiting alarming signs of acute paranoia. But she had no doubt that her friend's feelings were justified. 'You lost your husband. We didn't expect you to be the life of the party.'
'Yes, but we both know my behavior went a little beyond that. And I
want to thank you, all of you, for not giving up on me, for being there when I needed you even if I didn't take advantage of it.'
'We're your friends,' Maureen said.
'Well, I'm grateful, and I'm sorry for the way I acted. I thought I
could try and make it up to you. I thought maybe you and Tina and Audrey could come up this afternoon for drinks and ... well, just to talk.'
'I'd love to,' Maureen said. 'We have some friends up from California, though.' She hesitated, not wanting to de-j cline the invitation for fear of throwing a wet towel on I friend's tentative efforts to pull her life back together, but not sure she'd feel right about abandoning Lupe and Danna] for half the day. 'If it wouldn't be too much of an imposition and if you felt you were up to it--'
'Sure,' Liz said, and she sounded like her old self. 'Bring them along.'
'And, uh, Audrey ...' Maureen let the words trail off. She didn't want to burden Liz with additional problems, not; now.
'You had a falling out,' the older woman said intuitively .
'Yeah, kind of.'
'Consider her uninvited.'
'But that's not fair. You've known Audrey a lot longer than you've known me.'
'I trust you,' Liz said.
It was a vote of confidence that made her feel happy and privileged.
'What time do you want us there?' she asked.
A wry chuckle. 'Whenever's convenient for you. I'm certainly not going anywhere. I'll be here all day.'
'One o'clock?'
'One o'clock would be fine.'
Maureen walked back upstairs and saw that Barry had given Danna and Lupe the two pancakes that had been cooking and now had two others on the frying pan. He greeted her with a quizzical raising of eyebrows.
'Liz,' she explained.
'Everything's okay, isn't it?'
'Yeah. She invited me over this afternoon.' Maureen's glance took in Lupe and Danna. 'All three of us. Seems she's feeling better.'
'A friend of yours?' Danna asked, sipping orange juice.
'One of our only friends up here. Her husband was the one who was killed.'
'Oh.'
Barry nodded. 'She's one of us.'
'Their house has a really spectacular view,' Maureen couldn't help adding. 'It's worth a trip up there just to see that.'
Barry handed her the spatula, relinquishing his role as cook. 'So you think she's okay?'
'I think so. I hope so.' There was a pause. 'She disinvited Audrey, but I think Tina's going to be there.'
'Are you okay with that?'
'I don't know. We'll see.' The seven of them spent the morning walking the neighborhood, Barry and Maureen pointing out the pool and community center as well as the home of the association president.
Chuck brought along his palm corder videotaping everything they saw, zooming in on the president's house in particular and recording it in detail. 'We need to find out where the other board members live,' he said. 'Then we tape their houses and go over everything with a fine-tooth comb, make sure they're not breaking even minor rules. Any infraction and we'll nail their asses to the wall, sue them for singling out some people and not others.'
Maureen laughed. 'I'm glad you guys are here.'
'Seven heads are better than two.'
After a lunch of sandwiches and salad, Maureen charged Barry with cleaning the dishes and went downstairs to comb her hair and put on some lipstick.
'You sure you want us to go?' Danna asked. 'We could just stay here ...'
'It'll be fun. And we won't stay too long. Don't worry.'
'But we're going to walk again?'
'This is like a spa vacation,' Lupe told her. 'Sun and exercise.
We'll return home to California tanned and fit.'
'That's one way to look at it.'
They kissed their husbands good-bye, Barry told Maureen to say hello for him, and they started off. All three were breathing heavily by the time they reached the crest of the hill, where Tina was waiting, standing in the intermittent shadows of Liz's willow tree in a vain effort to stay out of the hot sun. 'I saw you walking up,' she said.
Maureen wasn't sure how she felt about seeing Tina again. At the annual meeting, she'd been right there with the crowd, part of it, putting the lie to everything she'd ever said regarding the association. And Tina hadn't said a thing when she and Barry had been ejected from the building.
Still, she was here, being friendly, making overtures, and it was clear that she was ready to stand by Liz in her hour of need. That should count for something.
Maybe she'd just been caught up in the moment.
Maureen nodded hello. 'Have you seen Liz yet?'
'I thought we could all go in together.'
'Kind of scary, isn't it?'
'It was a surprise when she called,' Tina admitted. 'And she sounded perfectly normal, like she's back to her old self again.'
'I thought so, too.'
'She seemed okay at the meeting, too, but I didn't get a chance to talk to her and she disappeared right afterward ...' Tina trailed off, obviously feeling awkward. She cleared her throat and smiled a greeting at Lupe and Danna. 'Hello.'
'I'm sorry. Where are my manners?' Maureen introduced her friends.
'Tina, this is Lupe Mullens and Danna Carlin, our friends from California. And this is Tina Stew art.'
There were greetings all around, and Maureen was about to suggest that they go in and see Liz when their hostess came out herself to meet them. It was a surprise to see Liz out of doors after hiding so long in the house, but it was a welcome surprise, and Maureen impulsively rushed over and threw her arms around the other woman, hugging her tightly. 'I'm glad you're back,' she whispered.
Liz laughed. 'I didn't go that far.'
