'Oh, I like that one.'
Kenny stood back, listening to his daughter and Tess as they seemed to forget everyone else was in the room. He was admittedly surprised by Tess's attention to Casey, given what he remembered of her in high school. Yesterday he had accused her of having an attitude, but it was nowhere in evidence today, with Casey. She talked with the girl just as she would with one of her own set in Nashville, as if the two of them were peers, and he had to admit, what they talked about was mighty darned interesting. He was aware, too, of Judy standing by taking it all in. She remained aloof, superior, eavesdropping on her sister but adding nothing, giving the impression she was above all the hero worship and hoopla surrounding Tess's fame. Tess talked about things the common radio listener was rarely privy to, and when the conversation had gone on for several minutes and inadvertently captured other ears in the room, Judy interrupted loudly, changing the subject and forcing everyone's attention to swerve away from Tess.
'Kenny, I hear you mowed Momma's lawn yesterday.'
'Well…' He didn't want undue attention, particularly in front of Tess. 'It was getting pretty shaggy.'
Mary put in, 'Oh, Kenny, that was so thoughtful of you. I told Tess to try to get Nicky over there to do it, but he must've been busy.'
'It was no trouble,' Kenny replied. 'I had to do my own anyway.'
To the room at large Mary said, 'This boy always says it's no trouble, but I don't know what I'd do without him. I said as much to Tess the other day.'
Reverend Giddings was the only one who hadn't spoken one-on-one with Tess. He chose that moment to approach her and extend his hand. 'I don't believe I've ever had the pleasure of meeting you.' He looked undernourished, fortyish, with thinning sandy hair and overlapped incisors that pushed out his top lip slightly. 'I'm Sam Giddings. I've been minister at Wintergreen Methodist since Reverend Sperling retired.'
'How do you do.' Tess smiled at him. 'Mother has talked about you.'
'And
'Why, thank you.'
'My wife is going to have her nose out of joint when she hears that I got to meet you. Of course, rumors get around, and Mary let it be known that you were coming home to take care of her. So this morning at breakfast my wife said to me, 'If you run into Mary's daughter at the hospital, why don't you see if you can get her to come and sing with the choir while she's here.' ' He paused for effect, rocked back on his heels and glanced at Kenny. 'I'm sure you know that Kenny here directs our adult choir, and Casey sings in it. I'll bet he'll find an extra hymnal for you if you'd be so kind as to join us one Sunday.'
Damn that Casey, Kenny thought, cutting his eyes at her.
Casey threw both hands in the air like a cowboy with a gun in his back. 'Don't look at me, Dad! I didn't say a word!'
'Reverend Giddings,' Kenny began to explain, 'Miss McPhail doesn't-'
'She likes to be called Mac,' Casey interrupted.
'Mac…' he repeated with strained patience. 'Yes… well, Mac has already been approached by my daughter, and it kind of put her on the spot. I'm sure that everywhere she goes she gets requests like this, and I don't think we should bother her while she's home.'
'I can't imagine why using her voice to praise the Lord would be such an imposition. After all, He's responsible for her having it. The offer still stands, Ms. MacPhail. Kenny here will give you a hymnal and I'll give you an introduction, and I'm sure the congregation would be most grateful. Matter of fact, a week from Sunday we just happen to be having our annual pledge drive, and a little incentive on our part might just swell the rolls and bring in a few more coins. If you'd agree to sing that day, we'd have enough time for the church secretary to type it up in this Sunday's bulletin, that you'll be on hand. Could help a lot with attendance. Now, what do you say?'
While Tess and Kenny were standing with their fillings showing, each embarrassed before the other, Mary spoke up.
'Well, of course she'll do it, won't you, Tess?'
Tess could have cheerfully gagged her mother with her own catheter tube. She gaped haplessly at Reverend Giddings, then at Kenny, then back at the minister. 'Well… uh…' Her eyes connected with Kenny's and she offered him a feeble smile. He looked as uncomfortable as she. 'I guess so, huh?' She gave an exaggerated shrug-'Why not?'-and let out a strained laugh that fooled no one.
Why not, indeed. There were at least five good reasons, which neither Tess nor Kenny could voice with the minister grinning and looking pleased with himself.
For the remainder of the visit they kept a goodly distance between them, as disenchanted with the situation as any two people could be.
Finally Reverend Giddings took his leave. The moment his back disappeared around the doorway, Casey decided to set the record straight about her involvement. 'Hey, Mac! I never had anything to do with him asking you!' she declared. 'You believe me, don't you?'
Every eye in the room was on Tess. She would have looked like a jerk to refuse to help, especially given how little time and effort it would take, and the nature of the cause. 'Listen, I guess it won't kill me.'
'But I wouldn't do that to you!' Casey insisted. 'Not after you let me know you weren't too thrilled with the idea!'
From the bed, Mary spoke up. 'But, Tess, why wouldn't you sing with the choir if you're going to church anyway?'
'Could we just drop it?' She raised both hands in surrender. 'I'll do it. There. It's finished. No more discussion.'
Though it was the end of the discussion, and Kenny and Casey left shortly thereafter, the whole scene continued to rankle Tess even after she left the hospital.
Driving home, she wondered whom to believe. Certainly Casey seemed sincere in her disclaimer, and Kenny had appeared as discomfited as she herself by the minister's suggestion. She resisted giving him the benefit of the doubt, however, just because he was Kenny. What difference did it make now? It wouldn't be the first time she'd said yes to singing at some benefit appearance she'd rather have skipped. So she faced the awful prospect of singing in Saint Kenny's choir, standing face-to-face with him while he directed her.
Damn Giddings anyway!
She was still disgruntled over it when she got home and went into the house to put her groceries away, check inside the front door for express packets and begin making phone calls. She washed some grapes and took a handful upstairs, confronted with the view of Kenny's house every damned time she turned around in this place. From the window at the head of the stairs to the one above her mother's kitchen sink, his house was constantly in her face.
It was hot upstairs. The afternoon temperature had reached eighty. She changed into a pair of cotton shorts and went back downstairs for more grapes. She was standing at the sink, plucking a few more from the clump when she noticed the wilted tomato plants.
Hell, she'd forgotten to water the garden yesterday.
Out she went, and into the service door of the garage to search out a yellow plastic fan-shaped nozzle. At the house she screwed it onto the coiled hose, and dragged the whole works across the narrow sidewalk to the garden. She had just started sprinkling when Kenny's porch door slammed and he came striding across his backyard toward her. Faith Oxbury's car was parked in front of his garage door, and Tess's Z was parked in front of Mary's. He swerved around both of them, heading toward Tess, who continued fanning the water across her mother's tomato plants.
'Just for the record,' he said when he was ten feet from her, 'I didn't have anything to do with Reverend Giddings's invitation! I didn't want to say so in front of your mother, though.'
She let her eyes shift over him once. He was frowning, standing a body length away from her. He had changed out of his business suit and was wearing a white polo shirt and khaki pants, ultratidy, as if he'd just finished showering and combing for the second time that day. His shirt collar was turned up intentionally and he had trendy Top-Siders on his feet.
