Southern Greed (9 page)

My dad
dy
was so handsome with sandy hair and eyes like mine, the same shade of blue.

“See, you have his eyes.” Grandma said.

I had often wondered, while growing up, why my eyes were blue and both my parents had brown eyes.

She showed me pictures of great aunts and uncles, all dead and pictures of her husband, my grandfather.  He was a handsome man.

“He was as good as he was handsome,” She said while I studied it.  “I wish you could have known him.”

“
I
do too,” I said an
d
felt a great sadness and also anger about being raised in the wrong household.

“Grandma, how do you think my mama and daddy was able to keep me with everyone looking for me? 
Rehobeth
is such a tiny town surely the police would have been able to find me there.”

She stared off into space and said, “I don’t know, Kathy, but I intend to find out.  Now that I’m
feeling better w
e’ll
figure out everything together.
  What would you like to do with your life?  You can’t just be Adam’s wife.  You want to have your own boutique?”

“Can I do anything I want to?”

“Yes, you most certainly can.  Is there something you’ve always wanted to do?”

“Art.  I love to draw and paint but am not very good at it.  I’d like to go to art school.”

“Then you will, my darling.
  But first we need to find a private detective.  Would you look some up and make appointments for them to come see me?”

CHAPTER 18

Adam found me, when he got home from the office, in the pool with Ronnie and the professor.  Ronnie had invited
me while we were having lunch together.

I had been having so much fun swimming that the time had gotten away from me.  I had planned to swim for about an hour and then look in the yellow pages under private detectives.

Eugene had been telling me how he had taken an early retirement from the English Department at Ole Miss when he had seen the ad in the paper for someone to write their m
emoirs.  He came down to Savannah
and met Miss Gracie and both he and Ronnie had loved her right away.

“This has been so good for Ronnie, well for both of us,” He said.  “We lost my wife and Ronnie’s mother last year to cancer and this change has been a good thing.

“I had always wanted to write and this is just what I needed.”

Eugene wasn’t as good looking as Adam but he was so kind I was
attracted to him and wished I had met him years ago.

“Hey, Kathy, watch this,” Ronnie said as he dove off the edge of the pool
.  When he came up I clapped and heard Adam say, “Good job, Timmy.”

“His name’s Ronnie,” I said.

He shrugged, “Whatever. 
I have to talk to you.  Can you come up to the room?”

I didn
’t answer and he said, “Come on
, Kathy.  I want to make up.”

I noticed Eugene watching us and he swiftly looked away.  Adam put his mouth to my ear and whispered, “I want you so much.  I’ll be
more
gentle
, and I’ll pleasure you, this time.

A shiver of disgust ran over me and
he
mistook it for desire, “See, you’re turned on just thinking of me inside you.”

I looked at him shocked, but got up and toweled dry.  I waved bye to the
other two and Ronnie made me promise to swim with him again tomorrow.

The only reason I had gone with him was that I didn’t want to cause a scene in front of the other two but as soon as we were in our room, I closed t
he door and leaned against it.

I felt empowered now.  I had someone on my side.  It wasn’t like when the reverend had
raped me.  I now had my grandma, and she would believe me.

Before he could speak, I said, “You raped me last night, Adam.  You hurt me and you will answer for it.”

He laughed, “Come on, honey, aren’t you being over dramatic?  What we do in the privacy of our bedroom is no concern of anyone else.  You’re my wife, or have you forgotten?  And who’s going to believe you over me?”

He sat on the edge of the bed and sighed,
backtracking.
“Look, honey, you’re right, I wanted you so badly last
night I couldn’t wait.  Please forgive me and don’t call it rape.  I would hate myself if I thought you were hurt.  Come on, honey, come
on
over here.”

Why are women so stupid sometimes? 
Why was I so ready to forgive him and tell myself that I had been mistaken, that he had really wanted me so badly he had gotten carried away and didn’t mean to hurt me?

This time he took his time and made love to me and I had never experienced so much pleasure.  I fell in love with him all over again.  What a fool!

For days I felt like I was floating on air.  He would give me a secret smile across the room during supper or anytime we were around others.

He took off during the middle of the day on some days and came home so that we could make love.  My grandmother understood and didn’t mention me finding a detective again.  I
didn’t even think about starting art classes or of anything else but Adam.

We took several week-end trips together and drove down into
Florida and swam in the ocean
.  My grandmother was getting better all the time and had started joining us for supper and I loved hearing the stories about my ancestors.

When she would talk about the wonderful marriage she had with my grandfather, Adam would look across the table at me and smile.  When Adam was at work, I would spend time with the professor and Ronnie or with my grandmother.

My grandmother loved gardening and was teaching me about flowers.  We puttered around in the garden for hours.

During all this time, I didn’t think
much about the parents I had gro
w
n
up with.  I didn’t think about going to
church even though it had been a major part of my life for most of my life.

Sometimes Susan and I went shopping and she liked me to help her pick out clothes.  The only person who seemed to dislike me was Nurse Rachael.  She acted friendly enough when we were with other people but when no one was watching she looked at me like she hated me.

CHAPTER 19

I had a false sense of security and felt like this extreme happiness would last forever and that my grandmother would continue to improve but it was not to be.

As my grandmother had improved, I had forgotten about finding her a new doctor and she told me she didn’t want any more doctors for awhile.  Time went by so fast with me in a state of
such happiness and then the holidays were upon us.

Mrs. Hildebrandt found my grandmother and me in the garden just before Thanksgiving and asked about what size turkey she should get, were we planning on having any guests for Thanksgiving, and which china and crystal we wanted to use.

My grandmother threw up her hands, “No guests, fix what you want, use any china you want, paper plates will do.  Kathy an
d
I don’t have time for all that.  It’s not important.”

Mrs. Hildebrandt went away in a huff and
we giggled like two school girls when she left.

“You know, Kathy, I used to think things like that were important.  But now that I have you back and have my health back I realize what is important.”

“Me too, grandma, I have everything I want and I don’t have
anyone trying to make me ashamed of having what I have.”

“Is that what they did to you, Kathy, tried to make you ashamed?”

When I nodded she went on, “After the holidays we need to go see your mama and find out what happened.  How they ended up with you and why no one could find you.”

“Can’t we just leave things alone and be happy with the here and now?”

“We could, we could bury our heads in the sand but let’s see that they have to answer for what they’ve done.  There should be consequences.”

I nodded, “All right, grandma, after the holidays.”

Adam was working long hours just before Thanksgiving and I didn’t get to see him much.  He would come home after I was asleep and leave before I got up in the morning.

Then one day he came home early and started packing saying he had to go
out of town on business.  He said he would be going to Memphis and was taking his sister, Susan with him.

I felt hurt that he didn’t ask me to go with him but he said I should stay with my grandmother and that they would be gone through Thanksgiving.

“But, Adam you won’t be doing any business on Thanksgiving
day
.”

“I know but I have meetings all day the day before and the day after.

Nurse Rachael had left a few days earlier after telling my grandmother that she wanted to go down to Macon to spend time with her family.  Of course my grandmother gave permission.

The professor and Ronnie were still there with us.  Eugene had resumed writing my grandmothers memoirs.

My life was so full, gardening with my grandmother and swimming with the professor and Ronnie.  I had also started sketching clothes and decided
that I would look into some fashion designing schools after the holidays.

For three days before thanksgiving, the kitchen was filled with wonderful smells and Ronnie kept going in there and coming out with cookies.  He always brought one for me, grandma and his daddy.

I walked into the kitchen one of those days to thank Mrs. Hildebrandt for all the hard work.

“Bless you child, but you don’t have to thank me.  It’s my job.  And I love my job.”

I saw a coconut cake, a chocolate cake, pecan pie, pumpkin pie and mince
meat pie, and various cookies.

I must have made a face when I looked at the mince meat pie because she laughed, “Miss Gracie is the only one that likes it.  I make it just for her.”

On Thanksgiving D
ay we all dressed up to go to the table.  Ronnie was so cute dressed in a suit and tie but,
when I saw him pulling at the tie
,
I took it off him and unbuttoned the top button of his shirt.

Everything was delicious and I noticed grandma eating several slices of the pie.

“I want som
e of granny
Grace’s pie,” Ronnie
said.

Grandma laughed and put a tiny piece on his plate, “I don’t think you’ll like it, sweetie,” She said and laughed at the face he made when he gulped down one small mouthful followed by a half glass of iced tea.

“That’s gross, granny
Grace.  How can you eat that?”

We all laughed at him.
  I felt so happy.  L
ittle did I know that my world was about to come crashing down around me.

CHAPTER 20

Ronnie woke me up in the middle of the night saying he didn’t feel good.

I turned on the bedside lamp, “What’s wrong, Ronnie?”

“I feel sick, like I’m going to throw up and I
keep having
to go to the bathroom.”

“You probably just ate too much.  You want to sleep with me the rest of the night?” I asked as I pulled the covers back.

He nodded but just as he was getting into bed, he jumped out and ran to the bathroom and bent over the commode and was sick.

“My belly hurts so
bad
, Kathy,” he said as he bent over from the waist.

“I’m going to go wake up your daddy,” I said, putting on my robe.  “You get into the bed.”

When I knocked on the door to their suite, Eugene came out looking confused, “Kathy?  What’s wrong?”

“It’s Ronnie.  He’s in my bed and he’s very sick.”

Eugene was wearing pajama bottoms and didn’t bother with a robe or anything on his feet.  He ran to our suite and went in.

Ronnie was sleeping and we didn’t wake him up.  “I think he might have eaten too much,” I said.  ‘But do you want to take him to the emergency room to get him checked out?”

“Yeah, I think I should,” he said and left to get dressed.

I threw on a skirt and blouse and a pair of flip flops and was ready to go when he came back.

“I’m going with you,” I said and he nodded and picked Ronnie up and carried him down the stairs.

Of all the bad luck, Dr. Sims was working the emergency room when we got there but she was gentle with Ronnie.

“How much has he thrown up?” she asked and Ronnie said, “A lot.”

“He’s probably dehydrated.  I’m going to start an IV line and give him some fluids.  I want to keep
him overnight and keep an
eye on him.”