The Land of Mango Sunsets (23 page)

“What do you think?” I said, and took a spin around.

He slapped his hands on either side of his face and his jaw dropped. “Oh, dear mother of God and all the angels and saints in heaven! You look ravishing! Divine!”

“Not too bad, right?”

“Not too bad? How’s smashing! Oh, Petal, I’m calling John Barrett first thing in the morning. He’s got to do your hair and makeup himself. This is too amazing. Oh! I can’t wait to see the look on your stupid husband’s face!”

In Kevin’s eyes, John Barrett was the king of hair in Manhattan.

Because he hates to miss a thing, Harry had hopped out from the kitchen to see what the commotion was all about. He listened to Kevin refer to Charles, and, well, genius bird that he is, you know what he had to say without even hearing Charles’s name. We repeated Harry’s favorite Charles mantra with him and laughed like justice, revenge, and a pony under the Christmas tree had all arrived.

“Let’s drink martinis!” I said. “You forgot to confiscate the gin and there’s vermouth in the cabinet, too. I’m going to hang this dress back in its bag.”

“Probably a good idea. But let me have one more look.”

I gave the skirt one more spin around, and he said, “It was so worth the pain and suffering, now, wasn’t it?”

“Yes, yes, yes. But ugh!”

I changed clothes and rejoined him in the kitchen, where he was just pouring out our drinks.

“So, tell me. Have you heard from Manny?”

“No. And I don’t know why, but I have a sneaking suspicion he’s going to bail out.”

“Have you called him?”

“Honey, ladies, even ladies named Petal Puss Mellie, do not call gentlemen.”

Wednesday before the wedding, I was in the kitchen writing out place cards when Manny finally called. In a halting voice, he said some things had changed in his world and he would not be able to come to New York after all. Just like that. But I had suspected the call was coming and I was ready. Or as Manny himself would’ve said, I was loaded for bear.

I said, “Well, darlin’? Are you sick in the hospital?”

“No,” he said. “In the head, maybe. But no, I’m not in a hospital.”

“Well, then, whatever could be the matter? Because I have never heard of a gentleman breaking a date with the mother of the groom four days before the ceremony unless they were in ICU on life support.”

Scarlett O’Hara herself, live in the flesh, could not have delivered the line with more aplomb.

“Mellie, I’m afraid I haven’t been completely honest with you.”

“Manny, don’t worry about it. Just tell me what’s happened. We’re friends, aren’t we?”

In the bug world, the female black widow spider weaves her web, catches a male, mates, and then devours him. Now we know why.

“Well, it’s like this. You know Helen and I have been separated for many years.”

“Yes. I know. I’m divorced too, you know.”

“Well, Helen and I never actually got around to finalizing the di
vorce because frankly, well, she didn’t want to. Now she has threatened to do some pretty drastic things if I don’t give our marriage another chance.”

Was he implying that she would commit suicide?

“Then you simply must give it another chance! What choice do you have?” I actually believed him then.

“And that’s the thing. I wouldn’t want her…my conscience can’t take it, Mellie.”

“And neither could mine. Listen, don’t sweat it. We’re still friends.”

“Do you promise? I am just so sorry.”

“Of course! Thanks for being so honest with me, Manny. That means a lot.”

We hung up and I stared up at the ceiling as though there was something written up there that would make me not want to break down and cry from the anger I was feeling. I was nearly hyperventilating in a matter of minutes. It wasn’t from the anger I was feeling toward him. It was much deeper than that.

I had known his divorce wasn’t final. I had found evidence of Helen’s presence in his bedroom. I had told myself that maybe I could lure him away from her if in fact he was still interested in her. I had even gone so far as to envision myself spending the rest of my life with him. I had rationalized continuing and growing and consummating the relationship with him eighty ways to hell and back. And here’s the ugliness and where evil was lurking all the while.

I was no better than Judith.

I was no better than the whore who had succeeded in stealing my husband. Never mind my grand scheme to make Charles jealous and fill him with regret that he had chosen Judith over me—the great show I had so carefully orchestrated to play out at the wedding had gone up in flames. Tango lessons and a great dress? A diet and white teeth? Who really cared about that? That was just some trivial matter of my own badly and irreparably bruised ego.

This news from Manny pointed to something much more severe—a terrible and tragic flaw in my own character. When I saw so vividly that the thing I hated most about Judith was present in myself, I was filled with nausea and violent self-loathing. I did not know if there was a thing in the world I could do to make myself feel better except to forgive Judith and to ask her to forgive me for judging her so harshly. Could I do that? I did not know if I could.

What I did do was keep myself busy, and given the amount of remaining details to be sewn up, keeping my mind occupied with other matters was effortless. And Mother, Harrison, and Liz were arriving that night.

Priscilla’s aunt had indeed shipped the cake, and I had safely tucked it away in Liz’s refrigerator because, as you might imagine, hers was nearly empty. I had asked Liz’s permission and she had no problem with me entering her apartment while she was away. And knowing that Mother would be sleeping there, I gave it a good dusting and wiped down the bathroom and kitchen on Wednesday afternoon.

Kevin knocked on the door at seven that night.

“The troops here yet?”

“No, they land at seven-thirty. I’ve got a roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, string beans, and a tomato pie waiting. And a fruit pie. Apple. You’ll join us won’t you?”

“Sure. What’s the matter? I can see you’re upset.”

“Want a glass of vino?”

“Oh, no. What’s happened?”

He came in, closed the door, followed me to the kitchen, where I poured him a glass and refilled mine.

“Manny called. He’s not coming.”

“So
that’s
the cause of the crease between your eyebrows. Well, okay. Who cares? That means more tangos for me!”

“Who cares? How’s this? He’s not sick. He’s getting back together with his wife, who he actually, well, he
sort of
implied-said she’d kill herself if he didn’t take her back.”

“Holy crap, Petal. That’s heavy. Did she hear about you or something?”

“Not unless she talked to the Sullivans Island Police Department.”

“What?”

“Oh, it’s just a ridiculous story that I’ll tell you sometime. Listen, Kevin, here’s why I’m so upset about this…”

After I told Kevin what I was thinking and feeling and how I was no better than Judith, he strongly disagreed.

“You know what? You’re wrong and that’s all there is to it. This guy led you to believe he was available, so you believed him. Even his friend and your mother approved, didn’t they?”

“Yes.”

“You find a bottle of her pills. Okay, that might arouse some suspicion, but it was proof of nothing. I mean, you might wonder why she was taking them to begin with and could you catch something, but we can talk about that later.”

“Very funny.”

“Whatever. So you indulged in some daydreams about a future with him? Big hairy deal! I would’ve slept with him just for kitchen rights, the way you described it! And they were
daydreams
. You didn’t set up housekeeping with him, take his money, have children outside of marriage like a movie star, like that pig whore slut Judith.”

“But I would have, Kevin, and that’s the point. I was ready to push Helen out of his life and move right in.”

“I disagree. This is a very different situation.”

“How is that?”

“Because you got fooled by a liar, Petal. Plain and simple.”

“No. I feel terrible about myself.”

“Oh, suck it up, Mellie. I’ll bet you a thousand dollars that when you find out the truth, and you will, the truth isn’t exactly what he told you. You’re the victim here, honey. And I have a feeling in my gut that this guy is a practiced liar.”

“I don’t know. You want to know the worst part? I didn’t even really love the guy.”

“Oh, so what? Two adults were playing with each other. Look. It happens every day.”

“You’re right.”

“Quit pouting, go wash your face, and put on something nice. The South Carolina contingent is going to be here any minute. We’ve busted our fannies for weeks to make this a wonderful time and I wouldn’t let some horse’s ass named Manny ruin a minute of it.”

“Manny is a horse’s ass,” said Harry, who was listening intently.

“Don’t forget Charles,” I said to Harry, and laughed for the first time all day. “He’s still one, too!”

Even Kevin laughed. “God, I love that bird.”

I fixed my face, changed into a red cashmere V-neck sweater and gray Capri pants. I thought I didn’t look like I had been languishing in the throes of deep misery all day long. I spritzed myself all over with my favorite cologne.

The doorbell rang and I glanced around my living room before I answered the door. Everything looked perfectly beautiful. I had put together a lush arrangement of flowers on the mantel over the fireplace and a long and low arrangement of flowers combined with fruit on the dining-room table.

“Hello! Hello!” I said, and gave my mother, Liz, and then Harrison a hug.

“How are y’all? I’ll take your suitcases upstairs,” Kevin said, and shook hands with Harrison.

“Let me help you,” Harrison said. “You must be Kevin. You look really good, Mellie. What’d ya do?”

“Nuuuthin’…”

Nothing? How about cut my hair, waxed my eyebrows, got highlights, lowlights, whiter teeth, exercised like a maniac, lost a billion pounds…weren’t men incredible?

They disappeared up the steps.

“Lord! You got so skinny!” Liz said, in all innocence. “You been sick?”

“Yeah, sick of being a plump matron,” I said. “Besides, you forget I have a date with the enemy this Saturday.” Honestly, sometimes Liz had a brain like a sieve.

“Well, she’s gonna turn puce and paisley when she sees you, honey,” Mother said. “I haven’t seen you look this good in years.”

“Thanks, but too bad I don’t care anymore. So how was your flight?”

“Fine, fine,” Mother said. “Your house looks beautiful! What have you done?”

“Just got rid of a bunch of stuff. And, Liz? No sling?”

“Nope! That nice doctor said my lung is fine, my ribs are still a little bit tender, collarbone is fine, and look…” She pushed her hair away from the side of her face and the scar that had given all of us nightmares had all but disappeared. “Y’all can hardly see it, right?”

“It’s a miracle,” I said.

“It’s my aloe cream,” Mother said. “Works like a charm.”

I kept thinking that my mother looked terrible. She was thinner and more drawn than I had ever seen her. But her spirits were so good that I didn’t want to mention it. We made small talk about all the wedding plans until the men returned and dinner was on the table. Finally, we got around to the subject of Manny.

“Are you cool with him not coming?” Liz said.

“Oh, definitely,” I said. “His wife must be some kind of a really wacky gal to threaten to kill herself if he didn’t take her back. At least that’s what Manny led me to think. Can I serve y’all some tomato pie?”

Harrison, Mother, and Liz exchanged looks and I knew right then, without a shred of doubt, that Kevin had been right. I didn’t quite have all the facts. I just calmly continued the story as I knew it and hoped somebody would gather up the strength to come clean.

“I mean, who knows? Maybe she ran around on him or something
and couldn’t live with her guilt. Anyway, the whole thing is too much drama for me. The Willis family cured me of theatrics forever!”

“Me too,” Liz said. “Gosh, Mellie, this is so, so good. I haven’t had tomato pie in ages.”

“Thanks. I always like to eat comfort food when I get off a plane.”

“I taught her how to cook,” Mother said. “She learned everything she knows from me.”

Everyone had a laugh at that. Kevin asked if there were any family photos of me milking a goat and another round of snickers ensued.

“Well, Miss Josie?” Liz said quietly. “You might have taught her a lot of things, but you didn’t teach her how to smell a rat.”

The table fell silent. I glanced over at Kevin, whose eyebrows were somewhere in the range of the chandelier and still rising toward the ceiling.

“Meaning what, Miss Alabama?” Kevin said in a flat voice, the kind that demanded a response.

Liz blushed deeply and looked to Harrison and Mother for support.

“Mellie gave me the goods on Truman Willis. Shouldn’t we tell her what we know about Mr. Sink So Low?”

Harrison, ever the Honest Abe, cleared his throat and put down his fork.

“Okay. Mellie? I’m gonna tell you what I found out about my so-called friend Manny.”

“I’m ready,” I said.

“Remember I told you that we had worked together in Charlotte?”

“Yes.”

“Well, he was in the commercial side of the business and I was in the corporate side.”

“In English?” Liz said.

“We didn’t have a whole lot of contact with each other. And he came on board just around the time I decided to chuck it all. I’d see him around and he was pleasant, but we didn’t really have any business dealings. I
thought I knew him well enough to support you to, you know, go out with him if you felt like it. I mean, there was no reason I knew of to discourage you from seeing him.”

“We all liked him,” Mother said. “He surely seemed fine to me.”

“So let’s cut to the chase here, y’all. The suspense is killing me,” I said.

“He sucks,” Liz said. “Pardon me.”

“That would be the finale,” Kevin said, in the droll voice he used when he was getting annoyed. “We’re still looking for Acts Two and Three.”

“Well, Liz is actually right about that, but here’s how we found out. A few nights ago, I finally convinced my good friends here, Liz and Miss Josie, to go over the causeway after dark for dinner on Shem Creek. I had to do some heavy pitching, but they finally relented.”

“We went to Shem Creek Bar and Grill,” Mother said. “I had those little crab cakes they make that are so good.”

“And I had stuffed flounder,” Liz said.

“Puhleeze!” Kevin said.

“Patience, my man, we’re almost there,” Harrison said. “So, I got up to use the men’s room and who do I see in the corner booth?”

“Manny and who? Helen?” Kevin asked.

“Bingo. Anyway, he’s loving up on her in a way that I don’t think is appropriate to be doing in public and she’s all over him, too. So I go over to them and say, ‘Oh! Hello.’ Then I say, ‘Manny? Could I ask you to step outside with me for a moment?’ He says sure and excuses himself. We go out on the porch and I said something like, ‘Just what’s going on here? I thought you and Helen were all done.’”

“What did he say?” I asked.

“He hemmed and hawed around and finally it comes out that they’re getting back together because he can’t afford to divorce her.”

“What?” I said, with slightly more volume and excitement in my voice than I would have liked. “He’s as rich as cream! That’s just some bull, y’all!”

“Here’s kicker number one, Mellie. It’s all Helen’s money. I called an old buddy of mine the next morning who still works at the bank and asked him for the story on Manny Sinkler. Well, he laughed and laughed until I thought he was going to burst something and he finally calmed down and said it was about the biggest brouhaha he’d ever heard of in twenty years. Turns out Manny got fired for some
huge
impropriety that could have sent him to jail. He came to Charleston to sulk over his ruined reputation and career—because once you do the kind of thing he did, you don’t work in banking anymore.”