Iced Tea (27 page)

I caught my phone on the second ring.
 
“Hey Sugar, how are you?”

“I’m great Jovana.”

“I just wanted to tell you that you did a phenomenal job yesterday.”

“I had a great time, plus, you know, it’s the least I could do after all you’ve done for me and my family.”

“Speaking of which, your sister-in-law is a genius.
 
She has come up with some really stunning work for us.
 
I think that she may actually do more for us than we are doing for her.
 
Plus, a couple of my clients have seen her stuff, and they are going to be in touch.”

“I will never be able to repay you.”

“Well, that’s kind of why I called.”

“What’s up?”

“AJ told me a little bit about what is going on with your business, and I was kind of hoping to hire you.”

“I don’t really have a business.
 
I thought I might be able to start one, but it isn’t working out that way, but, I’ll do anything I can for you, you know that.”

“It isn’t for me Sugar, it’s for my neighbor.”

“Okay.”

“It’s kind of sad really.
 
She is a lovely old woman, but she is kind of confused these days.
 
She has a couple of kids, who are pretty much waiting for her to die.
 
She also has one really good daughter that is serving our country over seas.
 
The really good daughter is Genevieve.
 
She called me yesterday.
 
They’re gonna have to put her momma in a home soon, but she needs someone to go over there for a while every day.
 
Get to know the lady.
 
Get to know what is important to her in that big ol’ rambling house, so that when they move her to a home, they move the most important stuff with her.
 
They also need to document her health, not it a technical way, like a nurse would do, but in a more casual way.”

“That sounds like something I can do.
 
When should I start?
 
Does the lady know I’m coming?”

“She knows you’re coming.
 
She might not remember though.
 
You can start any time you want.
 
I have a house key and I’ll introduce you.”

“I can start today.
 
I can be there in about an hour.
 
Where do you want to meet?”

“At my house, if that’s okay.
 
I know it’s a bit of a haul from your place, but I really do appreciate this, she is such a wonderful ol’ woman, I can’t believe her two youngest are treating her with such disrespect.”

“No problem.”

“And Sugar, you keep track of the time from when you leave your door, to when you get back to your door.
 
And your mileage.”

“Jovana, after all you have done for me and mine, don’t be silly.
 
This is on me.”

“Oh Sugar, you’ll have all the time in the world to wait on me like a princess in a movie, but this is business, and you never turn down offered money when you are startin’ a business.”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Now, do you remember how to get to my house?”

“I have a GPS thingy, if you just give me your address, I’ll plug it in there, and my sexy Australian friend will keep me company all the way to your front door.”

“Sexy Australian?
 
I need to get me one of those things.”

She gave me the address, said she’d see me when I got there, not to rush, and we hung up.

I’m not really sure why, but I decided to wear a dress.
 
I’m not into the whole Rock-a-billy scene or anything, but women from a few decades back, were shaped more like me, so I have a lot of retro inspired dresses.

I chose one of my favorites.
 
It’s a halter dress, sweetheart neckline, fitted through the bodice, then an almost circle skirt.
 
It falls right below my knee.
 
The upper part is kind of outlined in thick red piping, which turns into the straps that tie around my neck, and the same piping is used on the pockets.
 
I love pockets.

I grabbed a pair of red ballet flats.
 

Dumped everything from the little clutch I’d been carrying into a bigger purse, shoved a pad of paper, some pens, a camera, and anything else I could think of, and ran out the door.

I almost smacked into my neighbor.
 

“You do anything about your problem yet?”

“I found some stuff on the Internet that will help me, and I’m gonna have my sister come over tonight and walk me though it.”

“As long as you’ve got a plan.
 
You need anything you call me.”

“Thanks.”

I got in my car, programmed my GPS, while it found the satellites it needed to direct me, which can be really slow sometimes, I texted AJ and let him know how I was going to spend my day.

The GPS bonged at me when my Australian friend was ready to go, just as AJ texted me and told me to have fun.

I took off.

I swear to you, it was not my fault.

The GPS guy told me to turn left on Buffallano.
 
I knew I should just get on 275 like a normal person, but, I did what the stupid GPS guy told me to do.
 
Next thing you know, I’m half way down 60 and headed for Old Town, which I’d semi-convinced myself that I was still going to bypass, but then the GPS guy told me to turn right on 9
^th
, and I really couldn’t avoid it.

No harm, no foul, it isn’t like Old Town is off limits to me or anything, but, when I was driving down the main street, there was AJ, with his arm around some skinny little tramp.

I wasn’t sure if I should be devastated, angry, or if I was being stupid.
 
I talked myself out of devastated and stupid pretty darn quick.

I flamed from angry all the way to livid.

I am proud to say, I didn’t run them over.

They didn’t even see me.

I took several deep breaths.

Reminded myself that I was being childish and stupid and that AJ is a great guy, and that if he has his arm around a skinny little trollop - as Auntie Patty, my grandmother’s twin sister would say - then there is probably a good reason and I’m sure he’ll tell me all about it when I get home.
 

If not, I’ll go on my own little trollop hunt tomorrow.

I was only semi-fuming when I got to Jovana’s.

“How you doing Sugar?”

“I’m good.”

“You might be, but you aren’t a good liar, there’s something wrong, I can feel it.
 
If you don’t want to do this Sugar, all you have to do is say so, I can get someone else to do it.
 
AJ and I just thought you would be perfect for this kind of assignment.”

I guess my eyes shot wee little daggers when Jovana mentioned the name of the trollop-hugger.

“Oh, oh.
 
What did he do?”

“Nothing.
 
Really.
 
I’ve just had several bad days in a row, and my patience is about as thin as, well, as thin as my hair.
 
I’m follicle-ly challenged.”

“Oh Sugar, you always look just beautiful, and as far as that boy goes, he loves you like nobody’s business.
 
Whatever he did, or didn’t do, you just let it slip right out of your mind.
 
I’m one hundred percent positive if he knew what he did would upset you, he’d fall all over himself trying to make it better.
 
He wants your little world to be perfect.”

“He really does, doesn’t he?”

“Sugar, he has you up so high on a pedestal, it’s a wonder your nose doesn’t bleed.”

“I really don’t like that.
 
I don’t want to be up on a pedestal.
 
I don’t like heights, and once someone is up there, it’s a long, hard, painful fall, and there is always a fall.”

“I have to agree with you, but you know how men are.
 
You tell them something like that and their little head just goes to the side like a puppy trying to decide what a dragonfly is.”

I laughed.
 
“Are we ready to go over to this lady’s house?
 
Is there anything I should know?
 
Does she have any medical problems or anything?”

“She’s just a little confused is all.
 
I’m guessing it’s Alzheimer’s, bless her heart.
 
She is pretty good right now.
 
I was up there just about an hour ago, and she was fine.
 
Some days she is a little more confused than others, but she is always cheer-filled and smiling, and that is all any of us can really hope for.”

“Any allergies we know about?”

“I didn’t even think to ask.
 
I’ll find out.
 
I’m emailing back and forth to her daughter like a mad woman.
 
It’s been very hard for her being so far away she can’t even get her momma a proper diagnosis.
 
I’d take pleasure in doing this myself, but I just can’t scrape together the time, no matter how fine a trowel I pick up.
 
I’m sure you’ll be better at it anyway, or at least that is what I’m telling myself for comfort.”

“I come from a large Irish family.
 
I’m good at this.
 
I am comfortable around my elders, I have good manners, and I think one of the biggest blessings you can have in life is to learn a little from those that have traveled the path before you.”

“Oh Sugar, that was beautiful.”

“Thanks.
 
I stole it from a rerun of a soap opera.”

We had a good laugh, and walked up the street.
 

The house was amazing, and I don’t use that term lightly.

“Now, Sugar, you should know that Adeline, that is the lady you will be visiting with, has let the staff go.
 
They were all almost as old as Adeline, and she thought they should have a few good years of retirement before they pass.
 
Her generosity has left her at loose ends.
 
She might ask you for a bit of help now and then, I hope you don’t mind.”

“No problem.”

“I’m not sure just how this is going to work out Sugar.
 
We are just playing it by ear.
 
When I talked to the family, they said you could spend as little or as much time as you wanted here each day.
 
I’m going to leave that up to you, but you should know, that this is the small house, the big house is in Jupiter, so don’t give your billing a thought.
 
They can more than afford it.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

Jovana pushed a little button that I didn’t even see.
 
There was no noise.
 
We waited.

We waited a little longer.

We waited a little bit more.

Then a little tiny lady came to the door.
 
She was lovely.
 

“Miss Adeline, this is my good friend Cara.
 
She has come to visit with you today.
 
Is that alright?”

“A visit?
 
That would be splendid.
 
I haven’t entertained in such a long time.
 
Please, please come in.”

She backed away from the huge door.
 

To say I was surprised would be an understatement.

The house was ultra modern.
 
I guess the outside threw me off.
 
From the outside it looked more like old-fashioned Hollywood, with lots of hedges and vines growing up the whole wall we saw from our approach.
 
The only thing you could really see were windows, they were huge, and up high.
 
Kind of like transom windows on steroids.

I guess I figured her house would be more like Bernie’s.
 
Little old ladies like the comforts of having all their stuff around, after all, wasn’t I here just to find out what stuff she wanted?
 
I think I’d drawn a fair conclusion.

Adeline showed us into the picture room.
 
That’s what she called it.
 
The room was big.
 
I think my whole apartment would have fit in it.
 

The whole room was done in white low-slung furniture with really clean lines.
 
There were multiples of everything.
 
White sofas.
 
White tables.
 
White chairs.
 
On the walls and on every horizontal solid surface there were pictures.
 
Pictures of family.
 
Of friends.
 
Of travels.
 
Every one of them beautiful.
 
Because the room was so stark, the pictures drew your attention.
 
It was more than that, the pictures pulled you in, you had no choice but to walk to them and enjoy.