“Oh,” she said, cringing back in her chair, “I can’t do that. You know I don’t pray out loud, but, Julia, don’t be mad at us. We all love you and admire you, and we thought that if we staged an intervention—”
“An intervention!” A white rage flashed through my brain. I don’t know why putting a name to this public humiliation was so devastating, but it was. “Was that your idea, LuAnne?”
“No,” Madge said, and I give her credit for bravery because I was dangerously furious by this time. “No, it was mine, but LuAnne was all for it. Julia, we want you with us, not against us. We need everybody who is anybody to be with us. Part of our mission statement is our desire to be inclusive of all attitudes and viewpoints.”
“Well, let me tell you something, Madge, your mission statement can be as inclusive as you want, but . . .” I took a deep breath, clutched my pocketbook under my arm, and strode to the door. Then I turned back and glared at each one of them. “You can include me out. And, LuAnne, you can try to be all things to all people if you want to, but the next one in line for an intervention may be you. And I hope you noticed that the one person who has every right to call me to task is not here. At least Helen had the grace not to attend, didn’t she?”
And with that, I went out the door and shut it firmly behind me. And would’ve locked it if I’d had the key.
Chapter 39
Fuming from the humiliating criticism to which I’d just been subjected by people barely on the edge of my circle of friends, I stomped my way home. Suffering from embarrassment, shame, and more than a little anger—especially at LuAnne—I headed straight upstairs, unable to tell even Lillian what had happened.
Gradually, though, as I sat on the side of the bed reliving the past hour, I realized that there was one thing that would keep my head held high. Not one of my close friends—excepting LuAnne—had been there. Had they approached Mildred, Hazel Marie, Binkie, Sue, Helen, and a few others and been turned down by each of them?
With LuAnne involved, I was sure that they’d been asked to participate, which tells you right there who my true friends were. As for LuAnne, what could I say? I had no doubt that the whole idea of doing an intervention started with Madge, and LuAnne would not have been able to resist being a part of it. She always wanted to be included. No matter what it was, she didn’t want to be left out. Well, too bad, because she’d just been struck off my dance card.
But, Helen, I thought with deep regret—she’d done the striking off of me, and I couldn’t blame her. Now that I’d borne the brunt of a public critique, I was even more ashamed for my part in criticizing her.
Helen and I had never been close, drop-by-anytime friends, but, then, she’d never been that close to anyone. Serene and self-contained was the way I mentally described her, and I admired her for it. She had accepted the ups of her well-ordered life with grace and cool entitlement. Then, when her husband had been imprisoned for embezzlement, she’d accepted the downs with the same equanimity. She’d divorced him, sold her perfectly appointed home on which she’d lavished care and money, and moved into an inexpensive condominium—and done it all without bemoaning her fate or crying on anyone’s shoulder.
As I thought of Helen and what she’d been through, my heart melted with the memory of the injustice we’d done her. I now knew how she’d felt at being wrongly accused, judged, and convicted. I could only marvel that she’d refused to turn the tables on me.
Snatching up the phone by the bed, I punched in the number, and as soon as Mildred answered, I demanded, “Did you know about it?”
“Oh, my goodness, did they actually do it?”
“So you knew.”
“I knew they were having a hard time getting anybody to join them. It was LuAnne, of course, doing the dirty work, and I was going to warn you, but she told me they were aiming for sometime next week because so many had other plans. I’m sorry, Julia, I thought they’d give up when nobody would participate, and you’d never have had to know.”
“Well, they didn’t. And I went over to the church thinking it was for a prayer meeting.”
“I am so, so sorry. I should’ve warned you, but I really didn’t think it would amount to anything. You know how flighty LuAnne is—as long as she’s not left out, she’ll jump onto anything. But I told her in no uncertain terms that she ought to watch who she associates with. Who all was there?”
When I told her, Mildred said, “Well, see? They had to get people you hardly know. I wouldn’t even call it an intervention with that group. It sounds more like a kangaroo court than anything.”
“Well,” I said, my shoulders slumping, “at least they didn’t accuse me of anything I haven’t done. It was all about that group home, Mildred. Apparently, my attitude toward it is lacking in compassion and, what’s more, I’m influencing others to withhold their support.” I managed a small laugh. “I didn’t know I was able to do that, but I’m trying to take it as encouraging news.”
“You should,” Mildred assured me. “It means you’re having an effect on all that high-handedness that’s going on. So now I’m just waiting for somebody to try to intervene with me. I’m beginning to feel left out.”
“Oh, Mildred, don’t make me laugh. Nobody in their right mind would try an intervention with you. You’d lay them low, and I wish that I had your way with words so I could’ve
