Bring on the Blessings (7 page)

They passed a road sign noting the remaining distance to Hayes, and Lily cracked, “Do you think Bernadine can build us a mall so we don’t have to drive to east west hell every time we need something?”

“I don’t see why she can’t. The woman’s going to build everything else. She is something, isn’t she?”

“Yes, she is.”

“And the beautiful thing is that she’s doing this out of the goodness of her heart. She’s going to be blessed for the rest of her life for wanting to take care of a bunch of old people and children.”

“I know.”

Marie turned her cat’s-eye framed gaze toward Lily, “You’ve been awfully pensive this morning. Something going on you want to talk about?”

“I’m thinking about staying an extra week or two.”

“You know I’d love that.”

“I would too, but—”

“But, what?”

“I feel like I’m going nowhere. Not professionally but personally and spiritually. Like I should be doing something different with my life.” She thought back on all the angst she’d been dealing with for the past few months, how she felt about her Davis moving on with his life now that he’d graduated and had a real job, and about living the rest of her life with comfortable old Winston. In her heart of hearts she knew she didn’t want to marry him, but finding the inner strength to chuck everything and go in a new
direction was hard for a woman who liked the universe drama free and well ordered.

Still, she felt constricted, as if her life and the future were conspiring to choke her to death when all she wanted to do was breathe. “Can you stand having me around for another two weeks or so?”

“Sure, and if you want to stay for good, I can do that too.”

“Quit reading my mind.”

“Was I doing that? Sorry. It’s an old fairy godmother habit.”

They shared a grin, and afterward Marie said in a more serious tone, “If you are thinking about moving back, you and Trent are going to have to settle up.”

“I know.” Squaring things with him was one of the larger items on her to-do list, but at least she’d admitted out loud that she wanted to change her life. It was a first step and it would have to do for now. Like the old gospel hymn, she’d figure out the rest by and by.

B
ernadine was swamped with faxes, contracts, e-mails, and tons of all kinds of paperwork associated with the Henry Adams project. Now that her laptop and BlackBerry were back online again, info was coming so fast and furious she felt like Noah in the flood. It was scattered all over her small bedroom at Tamar’s, and because of the volume she was having trouble putting her hands on what she needed when she needed it.

In truth, she would be the first one to admit that she didn’t know a thing about managing something as big as this undertaking was going to be. Sure, she’d worked in offices during her social worker days, but she’d only been in charge of her small cubicle and her file cabinet. The daily logistical operations had been handled by somebody else, and it was that faceless somebody else that she needed.

Tamar appeared in the doorway and looked around. “Every day I come in here, you got more and more paper.”

Guilt stung Bernadine. “I’m so sorry. You offer me a place to stay and I turn it into a landfill.”

“That is a good description,” Tamar offered while taking in the papers covering the old wing-back chair, the dresser top, the window seat, and the floor. “Not a good organizer, huh?”

“No, ma’am. To tell you the truth, I’ve never done anything like this before in my life. Pulling this all together is more than a notion.”

“Simple solution. Since you have plenty of money, just hire somebody, save yourself the aggravation. We can’t have you dropping dead from stress before we get the kids here and the first building up. Speaking of which, Trent just called and said the construction crews are downtown. He needs you there to sign something.”

Bernadine sighed. She needed to clone herself into four or five individuals in order to keep up with all the plates she was juggling. “Okay. Let me grab my keys.” Her new vehicle had arrived yesterday, a Ford F-150 pickup. A big truck for a big girl. Cobalt blue. Silver trim. Sweet.

When she got to the site, the first thing the construction crew chief did after introducing himself as Warren Kelly was to ask her, “Where’s your architect?”

“Miami.”

Kelly was middle-aged, with blue eyes, his tanned face leathery from years in the sun. “When’s he or she coming?”

Bernadine shrugged. She knew she was going to sound clueless, but she told him the truth, “I didn’t know he
needed to be here. I hired him to do the blueprints. He did them. I paid him.”

Kelly looked annoyed.

She got on the phone and talked with the secretary at the architectural firm and was told that the architect, Martin Baird was in Peru. “Peru?” He was working on the reconstruction of an ancient temple found recently by archaeologists. He’d be gone most of the summer. She closed the phone. “He’s in Peru.”

“Then who’s going to oversee the project on your end? You?” he asked as if he knew that couldn’t be the answer.

Trent surprised her by saying. “I have an engineering degree. I’ll do it until you can hire somebody.”

Bernadine was speechless. Why didn’t she know this? It made her wonder how many other residents had hidden talents she knew nothing about.

Kelly asked skeptically, “You done construction before?”

“All over the world.”

Smiling now, Kelly stuck out his hand. Trent did the same.

Glad the problem was solved, at least temporarily, Bernadine thanked Trent, signed a slew of papers, told him to call her so they could talk later, then climbed back into the truck she’d named Baby and drove back the way she’d come.

She’d been gone a little under an hour, and when she returned to Tamar’s, Lily Fontaine was in Bernadine’s bedroom sitting in the middle of the floor sorting paper. Caught
off guard, Bernadine entered the room slowly. “Can I ask what you’re doing?”

Lily looked up. “Tamar called and asked if I’d wade through some of this for you. I was an executive secretary back in Atlanta and she thought I could help. Hope that was okay?”

Bernadine wasn’t sure.

Lily continued, “I didn’t know how you wanted everything broken down, but in the pile on the dresser are all the financial papers I found. On the chair, things related to the subdivision, and here—”

Bernadine held up a hand. She looked around the room. In the relatively short time she’d been away, Lily had brought order where there’d been none. Papers were neatly stacked and labeled with sticky notes on the top of each pile. Talk about hidden talents. “How much do you make a year where you’re working now?”

Lily was the one caught off guard now. She started to explain about the buyout and all but decided to just ask, “Why?”

“Because I want to hire you and I’ll pay you thirty grand more than whatever you’re making now.” Bernadine firmly believed that God put certain people in your life for a reason and the Lord knew Bernadine needed help.

Lily smiled and shook her head.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. This morning, I was telling Marie that maybe I wanted to move back here.”

“And?” Bernadine answered with a smile of her own.

“I guess I am.”

“Wonderful.” Bernadine wanted to shout
hallelujah!
Bernadine guessed she should probably be asking for references and other documentation, but she didn’t feel the need. It was as if an occult hand had dropped Lily in her lap, and she wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. “Welcome aboard, Ms. Chief Operating Officer.”

Lily stared.

“You think I’m playing? You get a title and all the benefits that will go with the job description just as soon as I have the lawyers draw it up.”

“Okay,” Lily laughed.

“First thing I want you to do. I ordered a trailer to live in. Find out when it’s coming.” Bernice read Lily the phone number of the dealer stored in her BlackBerry. Lily found a pen and wrote it down.

“Next. Get yourself a round-trip plane ticket to Atlanta so you can get packed up and make arrangements to ship your things back here.”

“Shipping is expensive. How about I rent a U-Haul, and—”

Bernadine interrupted, “How about you listen to your Got Rocks boss?”

Lily chuckled, “Yes, ma’am.”

“Thank you.”

They spent the next few minutes firming up Lily’s move.

Bernadine confessed. “Lily, I have no idea how to set this up. I’m going to be relying on you big-time for just about everything office wise.”

“That’s okay. I’ve done it all from mail room to execu
tive secretary. My bosses know that I’m detail oriented and meticulous.”

“Good. Do you have a laptop?”

She nodded. “It’s at Marie’s. Wireless. Thanks to the new router, it’s actually working.”

“Then start ordering whatever you think we’ll need to do an office from the ground up. Everything. If you can find some good deals that’s okay, but nothing cheap. Here’s a credit card.”

Lily took the offered square of black plastic.

“Get furniture, printers, paper, desks. The works.”

“No problem.”

Bernadine thought for a few more minutes. “We’re also going to need either trailers or modular homes for the foster parents and kids to live in until the new houses are done. The parents are supposed to be visiting the day after tomorrow and I’ll be bringing in the kids by Friday, hopefully.”

Lily stared. “So soon?”

“Yep. The sooner we get them here, the sooner they can start adjusting, but I’ve only got two couples and they’re both shaky.”

“How shaky?”

“To the point that I’m real worried, but we’ll talk about that later. Go ahead and order the trailers, add one more because we’re going to need an office until we can get one built.”

“You want to lease them for now?”

She nodded. “See if we can have them for sixty days. Mr. Kelly says, weather willing, we should be in the houses and the new rec center by then.”

“I hear they’re working faster than beavers.”

“Hope they build them as well as beavers.”

“Anything else?” Lily asked, grinning on the heels of that last remark.

“Yes.” And in a soft voice laden with sincerity, Bernadine said, “Thank you so very much for taking the job.”

Lily acknowledged her with a quiet, “You’re welcome.”

They were about to further separate the piles of paperwork Lily had begun when they heard Tamar call out, “Bernadine and Lily we have visitors.”

They shared a confused look and went to see who’d come to call.

There was a big black SUV parking out front. The logo on the side indicated it was from one of the cable news giants. Trent’s black truck was parked beside it.

As they watched from the porch, two men, one carrying a TV camera, got out of the SUV.

“Wonder what they want?” Lily asked in a low voice.

“My guess is Bernadine.”

Bernadine hoped she was wrong.

Trent walked up to the porch. The man beside him looked vaguely familiar to Bernadine, and after Trent made the introductions, she knew why. His name was Greer Parker, and he’d done the news story that had inspired her to buy Henry Adams.

“I contacted Trent a few days ago,” Parker said, “and told him I was in the area working on a story down in Hays and wanted to talk to him about doing a follow-up on what happened after he posted the eBay notice, and he told me about you, Ms. Brown.”

Bernadine wished somebody would have let a sister know. Not that she didn’t look good, she always did, but she could’ve freshened her lips gloss and checked her hair.

Trent seemed to read her mind. “Been so busy I forgot to tell you, sorry.”

“It’s okay.”

“Do you have a minute or two to talk to me?” Parker asked.

“Sure.”

Tamar and the others went inside while Bernadine and Parker took a seat on the porch’s old sofa. Once the camera man was set the interview began.

It didn’t take long, but Parker was very interested in her foster care plan. “If I may, I’d like to come back after you get the kids here.”

“Let me get them settled in first. I don’t think a whole lot of hoopla will be good right off the bat.”

“How about you call me when you think it’s appropriate. Trent has my card.”

“That I can do.”

He seemed okay with the compromise. “Once this runs I think you’re going to draw a lot of interest, maybe more foster parents or just new residents who want to live in a place with so much history.”

“We’ll take both. The more foster parents we get the more kids we can help.”

“I’ll do my part. This will probably begin running in the morning. Want me to send you a copy?”

“Please.”

He stood. “Been nice talking to you, Ms. Brown.”

“Same here.”

“Can you let Trent know I’d like to see him a minute before I go?”

She stood to comply but stopped at the sight of a battered white pickup truck rumbling onto the property. She sighed. Riley.

Bernadine called through the screen door. “The Currys are here, Tamar.”

Before she could get a response, Parker yelled with surprise, “What the heck is that?”

Bernadine turned and stared with wide eyes. Riley was walking toward the porch holding a leash on—a hog?

Tamar stepped out on the porch and answered drolly, “That, ladies and gentlemen is Cletus.”

The cameraman turned, focused, and jumped in reaction.

Lily looked equally floored.

The animal was as big as a VW and it was wearing clothes. A blue and white sailor suit to be exact, complete with tie and a little tiny hat perched between his pale gray ears. His coloring made him resemble a gigantic rat.

As Riley got within hailing distance he called out, “Hello, Mr. Parker. I heard you were doing a story. My name is Riley Curry, former mayor of Henry Adams. That’s my beautiful wife Genevieve sitting in the truck, and this,” he gestured proudly, “is Cletus Curry.”

“It has a last name?” Bernadine whispered amazed.

“You don’t know the half of it.”

Bernadine didn’t know whether to laugh or be appalled. She had never seen anything so bizarre before in her life.

Lily cracked, “I’m scared that somebody made it clothes to wear.”

Tamar groused, “Parker’s going to think we’re a bunch of country lunatics.”

“Well, yeah.” Bernadine replied in agreement.

Riley continued by declaring, “Cletus is the most intelligent hog in Kansas. As his agent I have an idea for a reality show that I know the networks will all be wanting.”

Stunned, Bernadine looked at Tamar who replied, “I warned you.” And added, “He’s been trying to get that hog on TV for years.”

Only then did Bernadine notice Trent’s granite set face. She hoped Parker wasn’t about to film a murder.

Apparently, Parker knew crazy when he saw it. “Nice meeting you, Mr. Curry.” He turned to Trent. “I’ll be in touch.”

And before anyone could say another word, he and his cameraman were hurrying to their SUV. Seconds later they drove out to the road and disappeared in a cloud of dust.

If Riley was disappointed he didn’t show it. Instead he shot everyone a snarling look before escorting Cletus back to the truck. Once the smartest hog in Kansas was secured in the bed, Riley and Genevieve drove away.

“Good lord,” Bernadine whispered.

“You got that right,” Tamar replied.

That night as Bernadine sat on the porch watching the moon rise and the stars come out, she finally relaxed from
what had been a whirlwind day. She could still see that hog and wondered wildly,
Who puts clothes on a hog?
Apparently, the Currys.
Too bizarre.

She turned her mind from that craziness to the ongoing construction. Everything was proceeding well. According to Tamar, Trent was more than qualified to handle the job of foreman. With his schooling and hands-on experience she felt he was wasting his talents in Henry Adams and was glad Bernadine had put him in charge, if only temporarily.

But Bernadine planned on appointing him permanently, whether he wanted the job or not. One, because she trusted him to do the right thing and two, she didn’t know the first thing about hiring someone to replace him or what qualifications the person needed to have. She didn’t know certifications, housing codes, or anything even remotely related, but with Trent driving, she could sit back and stay out of the way.