The Someday List (13 page)

A bell chimed when the salon door swung open. Troy ushered
in Chaundra, who grinned when she saw Indigo sitting at the
shampoo bowl.

Troy waved at Melba. "Hello, ladies;" he said to Rachelle and
Cynthia. His eyes swept past the empty chairs on either side of
them, near the dryers, and the vacant sofas in the waiting area.

Rachelle knew he was weighing his options. She picked up
a magazine from the seat next to her and zoned in on actress
Gabrielle Union's face.

Cynthia motioned to the seat next to her. Troy shrugged and
slid into it.

"I'm not getting my hair washed and dried, but I guess I can
sit here;' he joked and ran his hand over his smooth, fair-skinned
head.

The three sat in silence, watching Melba work. Indigo had asked
Aunt Melba to turn on the radio, and India.Arie's smooth alto
was now piping through the speakers.

"It's about forgiveness ... even if, even if you don't love me
anymore ...

Perfect, Rachelle thought. She and Aunt Melba locked eyes.

"You guys can turn to another station or put in a CD, if you'd
like;' Aunt Melba said.

No one moved.

She combed through Indigo's wet hair and positioned her under
the dryer next to Rachelle. She motioned for Cynthia to have a
seat in her chair, so she could begin styling her hair.

That left Troy and Rachelle sitting two seats apart, staring anywhere but at each other.

"Want to move to the waiting area?" Troy finally said. "I won't
bite, you know"

Rachelle looked at him and tried to control her emotions. She
couldn't believe after all this time that some of the pain, and a lot
of the desire, lingered.

When she didn't respond, he picked up a magazine and strolled
over to one of the red sofas.

Rachelle stayed put and kept her magazine on page sixty-five
for the next hour, staring at the featured words and images, but
really not seeing them. She wasn't sure why she was so uncomfortable, but wished it weren't so obvious.

No wonder Aunt Melba felt the need to lecture her. She had to
get herself together. Troy had moved on and so had she-at least
on the surface. No one needed to know differently.

When Indigo was ready, with her freshly washed hair hanging
just below her ears in a stylish, asymmetrical cut, Rachelle stood
up and grabbed her purse.

"That is beautiful, Aunt Melba. I'm going to have to get Taryn
down here;' she said.

Indigo and Chaundra exchanged phone numbers and made plans to talk later that day. Indigo trotted over to Troy, in the
waiting area.

"Can Chaundra come over and hang out sometime, Mr.
Hardy?"

He looked at Rachelle, then returned his attention to Indigo.
"You girls let me know when:"

Rachelle surmised what he was thinking. He knew the Burns
family well enough to know that if Chaundra and Indigo became
friends, she would be keeping good company.

He opened his magazine again and seemed engrossed in whatever he was reading. Rachelle took a deep breath and paused as
she passed him on her way out of the salon.

"Take care, Troy," she said. "I'll be leaving for Houston in the
next day or so. It was good to see you, and to meet your daughter"

He responded without raising his head. "It was nice to see you
too, Rachelle;' he said. "Have a safe trip home. And by the way, I
don't have children. Chaundra is my niece:"

The questions ricocheted through Rachelle's mind while she
drove to a local hamburger joint to grab lunch with Indigo. The
girl was chattering about something, but Rachelle was lost in her
thoughts.

She had met Troy's mother and two siblings soon after they
began dating during her sophomore year at Everson. Troy invited
her to join the family whenever they visited him on campus.

After they eloped, he had taken her to his mother's modest
home in Dallas for the first time, so they could share their news.
Ms. Hardy was disappointed that they hadn't waited, but she had
given her blessing when they promised to graduate as scheduled
in six months and go on to grad school.

Troy's brother, Terrance, was teaching middle school in a Dallas
suburb and had recently married his college sweetheart. His sister,
Tania, had just begun high school and was an academic scholar
and cheerleader, headed for the same success as her brothers. How
had he wound up with custody of one of their kids?

That question led to another burning one: if he could take care
of someone else's child, why didn't he have a wife and family of his own, as fine and accomplished as he was? Something didn't
add up.

Maybe I did the right thing by leaving ...

The rush of relief Rachelle felt behind that knee-jerk sentiment
was short-lived. She knew the next time she saw Troy, she'd still
be squirming and struggling to ignore the heart palpitations she
experienced whenever she was in his presence. And at least he
seemed to have an agenda for his life.

A shrill siren pulled her back to reality. She steered the Lexus
to the right, even though an ambulance was speeding in the opposite direction.

Seconds later, she pulled back into traffic and turned onto the
busy street that led to Fat Joe's Burgers. They wouldn't be eating
there today, she realized. Thompson Avenue was blocked.

Several wrecked cars were splayed across the road, and at least
four police vehicles, with blue lights flashing, surrounded them.
Another ambulance was leaving the scene at a slower pace, without
the blasting siren, and a tow truck driver was trying to properly
position his vehicle in front of one of the cars.

Indigo had taken her iPod from her purse when she realized
Rachelle wasn't listening to her and had become engrossed in a
music video unfolding on the media player's screen. She raised
her head when the stalled traffic forced Rachelle to reduce her
speed. They sat in a line of cars making U-turns under a police
officer's direction.

"This is a big accident for the middle of the day;" Rachelle
said.

Rachelle inched forward and was preparing to turn around
when Indigo did a double-take. The girl lowered the window
on the passenger door and leaned out to get a better view of the
accident.

"Cousin Rachelle! Stop!"

Rachelle smashed on the brakes. The car jerked to a halt.
"What?"

Indigo pointed and began to cry. "That's Mama's car! In the
middle of the street! All bent up! I don't see her anywhere!"

Rachelle looked through the window, past the officer who was
striding toward her with a frown. Indigo was right. The vehicle
being lifted onto the tow truck resembled Aunt Irene's navy Cadillac DeVille.

Rachelle was about to pull ahead, into a doughnut shop parking lot, when the officer reached the car and leaned inside the
passenger window.

"Is there a problem? We need to keep it moving, ma'am;" he
said.

"Sir, I believe that's my aunt's car;' Rachelle said and pointed
toward the Cadillac, which was now resting on the bed of the
tow truck. "Is she okay? Was she taken to the hospital in one of
those ambulances?"

The officer gave her a once-over. He glanced at Indigo, who was
sobbing. "Pull over to that lot;" he said, indicating the area Rachelle
had been headed toward anyway. He yelled to another officer to
take over directing the traffic and approached Rachelle's car.

Before the policeman could reach them, she and Indigo unbuckled themselves and jumped out of their seats. He picked up
his pace when he realized they were about to walk toward the
accident scene.

"You two ladies, hold it;" he said.

Rachelle paused, but Indigo kept going. Mr. Keystone Cop
needed to chill.

She saw fear in Indigo's eyes and her heart went out to the girl.
She must be about to flip out.

"My cousin needs to make sure her mother is alright, okay?"
Rachelle said. "Can you tell me if Irene Burns was driving that
car?"

The officer didn't bend. "We're only authorized to release information to next of kin, to the person an accident victim instructs
us to call:"

Rachelle wanted to yell at him and tell him to look at the terror in Indigo's eyes and forget the rules. She wanted to shake him
into humanity.

She took a deep breath instead and tried to calm herself before she made things worse. Plus, it sounded as if Aunt Irene, or
whoever the accident victims were, had felt up to talking. That
was good.

Indigo trotted back to Rachelle's side.

"What happened?" she asked the policeman, still whimpering.

He hesitated, then looked into her eyes. "Someone was drinking
and driving, little lady. That person caused an accident and two
people were injured and sent to the hospital"

Indigo's face fell. "One of the drivers was drinking? Was it my
mother?"

Rachelle frowned at the officer. She wasn't sure she wanted him
to answer. "Have you notified the people the victims asked you to
call? Was one of them Charles Burns? If so, he's my uncle:"

The officer looked at the two of them and sighed. "Give me a
minute."

He walked toward the accident scene and approached an officer
who was holding a clipboard and taking notes. Rachelle watched
them as they chatted. The traffic officer headed back toward them,
but gave no hint of what he had discovered.

"Charles Burns is one of the people we contacted;' the officer told Rachelle. "Apparently he is on his way to meet the victim at
the hospital."

I knew it was my mama!" Indigo started to weep again.

The officer approached her and touched her shoulder. "I think
she's gonna be fine, little lady. Her hip was bothering her more
than anything. The emergency crew transported her to jubilant
Memorial in the ambulance because she wasn't able to stand up
without a lot of pain. The car is being towed to a lot on Main Street
and will be there until she's ready to reclaim it"

Rachelle thanked him and grabbed Indigo's hand. She led the
girl back to the car and once settled, headed in the direction of
Jubilant's only hospital.

"What's your dad's cell phone number?"

Indigo rattled off the digits in two seconds. When Rachelle
reached a red light, she dialed it quickly. Please let him answer,
she prayed. Indigo couldn't keep it together much longer.

Uncle Charles picked up on the third ring.

"We just left the scene of the accident," Rachelle said before he
could greet her. "Are you at the hospital? Any word yet?"

"I'm a few minutes away, Rachelle; Uncle Charles said. "Sounds
like she may have broken her hip, but we won't know until they
take X-rays. She's in a lot of pain."

Rachelle looked over at Indigo, who was waiting for answers. "It's
okay, Indie.Your mom is hurt, but she doesn't have life-threatening
injuries. Your dad's almost at the hospital:"

Rachelle knew that limited information was little consolation
for her cousin.

"Did they tell you what happened?" she asked Uncle Charles.

His silence was worrisome. "I was told that drinking might have
been involved, but I don't have any details yet;' he finally said.

"We'll see you in a few minutes;' Rachelle said softly. She ended
the call and kept her eyes on the road.

Whatever the cause of the accident, and regardless of who was
at fault, the Burns family had revisited painful territory. All of
their lives had been altered by a previous car accident years ago.
The only positive today was that instead of a tragedy, this time it
was just a close call.

With the kids gone and Rachelle nowhere to be found, the
house felt more like a museum than a home. He strolled over
to the sitting area and stretched out on the chaise, knowing it
wasn't a wise move. When he was idle, his mind traveled in too
many directions.

Right now, he wanted to know what Rachelle was doing. Was she
spending all of her time with her aunt and uncle? Had they taken
her to church? Was she visiting her former professors on campus
and fielding questions about her first and second marriages?