The Pirate Queen (24 page)

Gwennie was taking Bender’s stroke harder than either of the boys, even Turner, who was as emotional as a woman. She had talked at great length to Jim and then gotten all kinds of ideas off the Internet.
That worried her even more. She read that a brain cancer patient’s chances of survival were lessened if he started having strokes. “Bender, you’ve got to try,” Saphora said. “There are things we’ve left unsaid to each other.” She put her head down against the side of his bed. “We can’t leave us like this.”

He made a noise like a cat bringing up its just-licked fur. But the lashes that had started growing back did not flicker.

“I never said I was sorry. I know I have a part in our disintegration.” It seemed odd to say it out loud, but then she felt better. “That is where we’re left if you don’t come back,” she said. “I don’t want us to part like two leaves on the water.” That had been a poem he had read, had it not? Or maybe she had heard it in one of those awful dramatic movies played over and over in the afternoons. “We’re like so many of those couples we know. I don’t want us to have lived and then be left with things we should have said.” She was starting to feel more alone talking to a lifeless version of Bender.

“I found an entire cabinet of tissues,” said Emerald, bolting through the door, arms loaded.

“Six boxes is a lot.”

“Oh, Saphora, you’ve been crying too. Look, tears on the sheets.”

“Give me a box then,” she said. “Come and sit by me, Em. Tell me about Tom.”

13

“But your flight doesn’t leave until tomorrow,” said Saphora. “And it’s late.”

Gwennie’s suitcase sat by the door. They had decided against staying in a hotel and had driven back late to Oriental.

“I’m needed in New York. My client’s fighting to hang on to the only business he’s ever known. A competitor has swooped in like a bandit and applied for a patent on the software my client developed.” She was putting in a second earring when she said, “I’ll be back, Mama. Daddy won’t even know I’ve gone.” When she said it, the resentment at her daddy’s situation bled through.

“Emerald thinks your daddy can hear us,” she said.

“Maybe he can. If that’s right, then he’s more blessed than we are.”

“I’ll call you if there’s any change.”

“I’m coming back Friday night.”

Saphora threw her arms around Gwennie. “That’s what I need to hear, when you’re coming back.”

“It’s that Luke, isn’t it?” asked Emerald, who was coming down the stairs.

“I don’t know what you mean.” Gwennie would not look at her aunt.

“What is this smile, Gwennie? Is Emerald right?” asked Saphora.

“He’s a summer thing, that’s all,” said Gwennie.

“He’s a grieving man, Gwennie. Please don’t make him one of your things you tuck into a temporary part of your life,” said Saphora.

“I should know not to date a man my mother knows better than I do.”

“I’m not saying that I know Luke all that well,” said Saphora. “But he’s not a summer fling kind of guy. You know that, Gwennie.”

“Luke and I are friends, is all. Don’t make it more than that,” she said, her impatience evident in the way she aimed her suitcase at the front door.

“But look how you’re smiling every time you say his name.” Saphora thought Luke’s effect on her was sweet. But still, she worried for his heart. Gwennie thought commitment was calling her stockbroker twice a week.

“I’ve got to go. I got the last seat on this flight, and knowing Northwest, they’ve overbooked.”

There was a knock at the back patio door.

“There’s your summer fling as we speak,” said Emerald. She was still perched on the staircase, giving her a bird’s-eye view through the patio glass.

Gwennie ran to the back door as Luke was opening it up to her. “Luke, I was coming over to say good-bye,” she told him.

“I couldn’t wait,” he said.

Gwennie stepped outside and closed the door behind her.

“Oh, she’s completely smitten,” said Emerald.

“Poor Luke.”

“Eddie told me Luke’s digging for treasure in his backyard,” said Emerald. “Don’t you find that strange, given his circumstances?”

“Luke doesn’t divulge all that much to me, Em.”

Luke took Gwennie’s hand and led her off the deck, as if they could hide from Emerald’s nosy curiosity. Emerald slowly climbed the staircase until she said she could see the tops of their heads. “He’s got her in his arms,” she said, as if reporting. “I wish I could read lips. He’s saying something, what is it?”

“Emerald, come down. Gwennie wouldn’t like you spying on her.” Saphora came up on the bottom stair step. “What are they doing?”

“Oh, now that’s a kiss.”

Saphora ran up three more steps. Gwennie’s back was to them as she stood down on the lawn beyond the deck. Luke was holding her so close that she finally collapsed on him, crying.

“Summer fling, my foot!” said Emerald.

“Poor Gwennie,” said Saphora.

“Poor Luke,” said Em.

The next morning, Emerald must have decided that Bender’s cancer could be crushed with all-purpose cleaner. She sprayed it on every kitchen surface and then went to work on the library baseboards. She was leaping to reach the library’s arched doorway when the doorbell rang. She stopped long enough to let Tobias in the house. He ran to the back patio door, out onto the deck, and then back inside. Every Monday for the past few weeks he had counted on finding Eddie waiting for him up in the tree or out in the garage airing up his bicycle tires.

“Eddie’s gone,” said Saphora. “I told him to call you.” Eddie had
looked sad at the mention of telling Tobias good-bye. “He’s coming back, probably next weekend. He’s got school coming up, and his mother wanted to buy him some school clothes.”

“He didn’t call. What about Liam?” asked Tobias.

“All gone,” said Emerald. She raked the top of the doorpost.

“Where’s Dr. Warren?” asked Tobias.

“Tobias, come on over here,” said Saphora. She seated him at the breakfast bar in the kitchen. “Dr. Warren’s gotten very sick. He’ll have to stay a long time in the hospital.”

“Mom told me she heard he got sick at church,” said Tobias. “But I thought he was, you know, throw-up sick.”

It was probably all over town that Bender collapsed in church.

“He left church Sunday in an ambulance,” said Saphora.

“I’ve ridden in ambulances,” he said. “He wasn’t afraid, was he?”

“He slept the whole way.”

“When did you ride in an ambulance?” asked Emerald. She got down off the stepstool and put it back in the pantry.

Saphora did not want Tobias to tell Emerald about his illness. “Who hasn’t ridden in an ambulance?” she asked.

“I’ve ridden six times, maybe more,” said Tobias.

“You haven’t!” said Emerald. “I once rode in an ambulance with my ex. Heart attack, he thought, but no. Just anxiety. Blamed it all on me, then served me with divorce papers.” Her voice was getting tinny, like it did before she started to cry.

“Tobias, you know you can come here all you want, whether Eddie’s here or not. If you’re going up in the tree house, though, just let one of us know,” said Saphora.

“I was born sick,” said Tobias to Emerald. “Liam probably told you. He tells everyone.”

“That you’re doing so much better,” added Saphora. “Emerald,
why don’t you take your cleaning project into the bathroom next to the library? I’m sure it needs attention. Sherry won’t be back for a few days.”

Saphora had finally reached her with the news, poor thing. She was sobbing and promised she would stop in at Duke on the drive back.

“I knew there was something peaked about your eyes. I’ll bet you’ve got leukemia. Poor little boy,” said Emerald.

She was tuning up for a squall when Tobias said, “I don’t have leukemia, Miss Lacey.”

“What then? Scoliosis? No, that’s not what I mean. What do they call that thing I’m trying to remember?” Em was mixing up her diseases and conditions. But that was Em.

“HIV, ma’am.”

“What is that? You don’t mean AIDS,” said Emerald. She came out of the library still toting the maid’s caddy. “Saphora, does Bender know?”

“He’s a doctor,” said Tobias. “He knows everything.”

“You can’t mean it. But what with Bender’s cancer, isn’t that taking a risk?” asked Emerald.

“He’s fine, Emerald. Talk about something else,” said Saphora.

“I’m going back to my house,” said Tobias. He hugged Saphora and was even polite to Emerald. “I’ll come back when Eddie’s here,” he said. He left through the front door. A moment later, he rode past the front window on his bike.

“Really, Saphora, I understand your need for tolerance and all, but Bender’s very susceptible.”

“Emerald, this is how it is. Tobias is a guest here whenever he decides to come over. Please don’t talk over his head as if he’s not here or ask him about his illness,” said Saphora. She was up to the ears
with Emerald’s commentary. “Bender likes Tobias. He makes him happy when he’s around. If you understood anything at all about health, you’d know how important Tobias is to us.”

“Again, you’re choosing someone else over me,” said Emerald. “But it’s always like that. I’m the last person on your list. Any excuse, and you shuffle me out of your life like refuse.”

“I’m not shuffling you out of my life. It isn’t that, and you know it, Emerald. If you’d just stop and listen, I wouldn’t mind explaining these sensitive matters to you.”

“Like I’m a five-year-old. Is that what you mean?” asked Emerald.

“More like when you bury your head in the sand, you can’t see the world around you.” Saphora had not meant for her resentment against her sister to erupt into a full-blown squabble. “I do it too, Em.” She had done well to hold her tongue up until this point. “But Tobias is a little boy born sick. Does it not come to you, without any prompting, that he needs a little sensitivity?”

“I only say what I say to show I care.” Now she was blubbering so much she was hard to understand. She dropped the caddy onto the kitchen countertop. “I’m not lifting a finger to help in a house where I’m so disrespected. That’s what I do, allow myself to be used. It’s my plight.”

Emerald would not fly back to Chicago until Thursday. Saphora would count the days.