“Sure.”
She got up, poured, came back, sat. “That’s the first time I ever said that. My husband was a jerk. There, maybe now I can get rid of it. He was a grade-A heel.” She laughed. “Hey, it feels better all the time. Maybe if I call him what he really was, I’ll be good as new. Wouldn’t be very ladylike, though.”
I let her talk.
“Ellie tried to tell me what he was like, that’s why we almost lost it. I didn’t want to hear that. But the whole time I was married to this fella, and carrying his children, he was trying to make it with my best friend. What do you do with a guy like that?”
“You leave him.”
“Yeah. And here I am, bringing up my children in this palace. Working in a bar and giving most of my money to the day-care people. Wonderful, huh? But I’ll get through it.”
I leaned forward, the coffee cup clasped between my hands, warming them. “Amy, I don’t have any doubt of that at all.”
She smiled that sweet smile. I thought of Rosie Drimeld, the lighthearted heroine of
“The great thing about Ellie, though,” she said, “is, she never let it bother her. The hard feelings were all on my side.”
“But you got over it.”
“Yes, thank God. Even an ignoramus sees the light if it’s shined right in her face.”
“And Crystal said you two got together again and patched it up.”
“My mamma died. Ellie came to the funeral and we cried and hugged and it was all over, just like that. Then I found that stuff of hers…”
She looked away, as if she’d touched on something she shouldn’t be talking about.
“What stuff?”
“Just some things my mamma had.”
“Things…of Eleanor’s?”
“Not exactly. Just…stuff. Papers in Mamma’s stuff…it really isn’t anything.”
I felt a tingle along my backbone. “Tell me about it.”
“I can’t. I promised.”
I looked straight into her eyes. “Amy, whatever you tell me, I’ll try not to let it out. That’s all I can promise you, but this may be important.”
Her eyes were green: her face radiated hope, her eyes searched for trust. But she was also a child of this planet who had begun to learn that you can’t trust everyone.
“I don’t even know you.”
“Sure you do.”
She laughed at that and I laughed with her.
“You don’t know, do you,” I said, “about the trouble she got in, down in New Mexico.”
Her eyes opened wide. No, she didn’t know.
I told her.
Tears rolled down her cheeks. “I knew it, I knew it, I just knew something bad was gonna come of this. This is my fault, I should’ve burned it, I never should’ve shown it to her.”
“Shown her what?”
“When Mamma died she left me some stuff. God, you never saw so much stuff. My mother was a pack rat, that house of hers is just full of stuff, it’s packed to the rafters. You won’t believe it when we go out there. I know I’m gonna have to start going through it, it’s got to be done, but I just can’t face it yet. I’ve got to soon, though…that house just has to be cleared out.”
It seemed she had lost her drift in the maze of problems she had to deal with. She got it back, looked at me, and said, “There were some papers in Mamma’s stuff…things I thought Ellie should see.”
I nodded, urging her with body language.
She got up and went to a little end table half-hidden by the couch. I heard a drawer squeak open and saw her
