She put her other hand on top of his and squeezed it. “She talked a blue streak. She seriously hasn’t been talking to you?”
The old man shook his head. “Not a word since you left. Doesn’t leave her room except to go to the bathroom.” She felt his hand tremble between both of hers. “I need to talk to Kali ’bout her mama’s funeral. Maybe there’s hymns she wants played or bible verses she wants the minister to read, but how can I start talking about things like that when we ain’t even said good morning to each other?”
“I don’t know anything about hymns or bible verses, but Kali says she wants her mother to be buried in a yellow dress.”
“She was wearing her yellow dress when—” Laneer’s voice broke. “I saw it when the police took me to identify her. Oh, Lord.”
Faye’s hope that Frida had owned more than one yellow dress crumbled. “I’ll go buy one tonight after I bring Kali home. It’ll be my present to all of you.”
She squeezed Laneer’s hand again. “Do you hear me? Take this off your list of worries. I saw the dress she was wearing, and I’ll go find one as much like it as I can. I’ll bring it to you tonight. Go over to her house and look at the dresses in her closet, then text me Frida’s size.”
Laneer didn’t answer, and Faye wasn’t sure he was able. She looked at Sylvia. “Can you text me those sizes?”
Sylvia nodded. “I can do that. Thank you.”
Laneer’s hands trembled as always, and sorrow had caused his tremor to spread to his arms and trunk, but he was still standing tall. Faye respected that.
“I thank you, Faye,” he said. “We all do.”
Faye took a trembling old hand and squeezed it. “We won’t tell Kali about the dress. If we’re lucky, she won’t notice that it’s a different dress. I can’t fix anything else that has happened here, but maybe I can fix this.”
Kali waited until Faye merged onto the interstate highway before she spoke.
“Where are we going?”
“Sylvia and Laneer didn’t tell you? Then I think I’ll leave it for a surprise.”
“The signs say we’re going to the Mississippi River bridge.”
They passed a big green sign that said just that. “Well, we’re going downtown, and that’s where the bridge is, but we’re not going over it.”
“I want to see the river. I always wanted to do that.”
Faye almost said, “You’ve lived all your life in Memphis and you’ve never seen the Mississippi River?” but she managed to stop herself.
“Mama was always too busy to take me on the bus. Laneer don’t have a car, neither, and he never wanted to go. Sylvia says the river’s pretty much like my creek, just bigger, so why do I need to go look at it? But that’s why I want to see it. It’s big.”
“Yes, it is. It’s really, really big.”
“I tried to walk there once.”
Faye remembered their hike down the creek. “I bet you did.”
“I followed my creek downstream all the way, and it dumped into something pretty big. I thought I’d got there. It looked like a river to me. I came back and went straight to Sylvia. First, she said she’d tell my mama if I ever did anything that dumb again. Then she said I’d only gone to Nonconnah Creek. Just a creek!”
“I’ve seen Nonconnah. It’s a big creek, but the Mississippi will make it look like nothing.”
“Get out.”
“Yep.”
“Can I see your phone? So I can look at a map of where we’re going?”
Faye handed it over.
“I told Sylvia I was going to try again. I said, ‘All the water I saw in Nonconnah Creek has gotta go somewhere. Probably it’s the Mississippi River. Next time, I’ll just keep walking.’ Then she got out a map. She showed me where I started and where my creek runs into Nonconnah Creek and where it runs into some lake. I forget the name. To get to the river, I’d have to get across that lake and then across a big island.”
Faye pictured the map of Memphis that she’d studied to get ready for this job. “It’s a long way from here to the Mississippi on foot, sweetie.”
“No joke. I’m not gonna lie. I cried. But I was only eight then. I ain’t eight no more.”
“No, you’re not.”
Faye topped an overpass and got a good look at downtown Memphis and its tall buildings. She knew that the Mississippi River and its bridge were just on the other side of them. “I’d take you to the river right now, but we have reservations in a few minutes.”
“We have what?”
“Reservations.” Faye got a blank look, so she tried again. “We have an appointment for your surprise and we can’t be late. But when we’re finished with the surprise? We’ll walk down to the riverfront, so you can see just how big it really is.”
Another sign caught Kali’s eye. This time it was a billboard announcing that Armand’s Rib Palace was the place to be. Specifically, it said “Get Down with Armand’s! Mouthwatering Ribs with A Funky Downtown Vibe!”
“Mama used to say that Armand would sell anything for a buck. That’s why she kept telling him no, she wouldn’t go out with him. Until she did.”
“Wait. She went out with Armand. On a date?”
“I started to tell you that in the woods, but we got to talking about something else.”
“Your Uncle Laneer doesn’t know that. Neither does Sylvia.”
“I know. She didn’t have much of a chance to tell ’em. She didn’t even get a chance to tell me how her date went. He came and picked her up, but she never came home. I know because I checked her bed that morning.”
Faye’s hands spasmed around the steering wheel, clenching tight. “You’re saying that she was out with Armand on that last…on Thursday night?”
Kali nodded once.
“Do you mind if I call Detective McDaniel and tell him that? Can I call him
