Wonder Woman and tried to edge me out at the checkout counter,” Renie explained as they headed down the
stairs to the door that led to the parking lot. “I’d already stood in line for ten minutes and I was afraid I’d
be late for Mass. Bill had gone to ten o’clock at Our
Lady, Star of the Sea. I was so pooped from everything
that happened yesterday that I slept in. Anyway, this
brazen broad ran her cart over my foot and said something like, ‘Move it, shorty.’ So I rammed her with my
cart. Then we got into it, and the next thing I knew we
were slugging it out over the counter and finally I put
a plastic produce bag over her head. She surrendered.”
Renie wore a grim expression of victory. “So what’s
new with you this morning?”
Judith started to speak, and discovered that she had
no voice. “I . . .” The single word was a squawk.
“Joe . . .” Her husband’s name was a guttural sound, as
if she were gagging.
Renie looked alarmed. “What’s wrong, coz? Is
something caught in your throat?”
Judith shook her head. The other churchgoers were
now swarming the parking lot, revving engines, and
readying for departure. The cousins were blocking
traffic. With a desperate effort, Judith mouthed the
words, “Buster’s Cafe.”
“Buster’s?” Renie looked bewildered.
Judith made chewing motions. Renie got it.
“You want me to meet you at Buster’s? Okay, see
you in a couple of minutes.”
Buster’s Cafe was old, a lower Heraldsgate Hill
landmark. Buster himself still ran the place after inheriting it from his parents forty years earlier. Nothing
much had changed in that time, or even before, but the
food was decent and the rubber-soled waitresses could
have won a restaurant Olympics for speed and efficiency.
It took each of the cousins less than three minutes to
drive to the cafe, but almost ten to find parking spaces,
even on a Sunday morning. Judith was out of breath
when she arrived; Renie seemed to have regained her
usual bounce.
“I can’t have more than coffee,” Judith said, “because I have to get home. If you think you’ve had a bad
weekend, listen to this . . .”
Renie did, her brown eyes growing wider and wider.
When Judith had finished about the same time that
Renie’s coffee had gone cold, an incredulous expression remained on her cousin’s face.
“You can’t lose the B&B!” Renie cried. “It’d be like
removing your liver!”
“I know.” Judith sighed. “It’s not just a job or making money, it’s who I am. The horrible part is that we
may be at fault. We were negligent in not getting that
