The Sisters Montclair (27 page)

Alice watched them go until they were nothing more than small disappearing dots, and it was then that she felt, quite unexpectedly, a memory of that old chilling dream of death, a
shiver of uneasy premonition.

A
rriving at Alice’s on a warm Wednesday morning in early May, Stella was surprised to find Elaine in a cheerful, talkative mood. Stella waited until she had left and then she went and checked the notebook.
Alice was restless last night,
Elaine had written.
She got up confused and didn’t seem to know where she was or what day it was. Said she dreamed about people from “way back.”

Despite Elaine’s notes, Alice seemed in fine spirits. She was supposed to go to the doctor this morning for an eye exam and Stella was to drive her, the first time she’d ever driven Alice anywhere. Janice had left detailed notes of where Stella was to park, and how she was to go in through the sliding doors on the lower level to get to the doctor’s office.

Miss Alice likes going down Broad Street,
she had written.
It’s a route she recognizes. If you drive the expressway she might get confused and think you don’t know where you’re going and this will upset her. And don’t forget to get your parking ticket validated when you go in. Please make sure you have plenty of gas in your car because Miss Alice doesn’t like to stop for gas.

Stella had to throw a stack of magazines, books, and empty Styrofoam coffee cups into the backseat to make room for Alice. She helped Alice climb in and fasten her seatbelt, and then she folded up the walker and stowed it in the back.

“What kind of car is this?” Alice said, looking around.

“Honda Civic.”

“I like it. The seats are comfortable.”

It was a beautiful morning, warm and sunny. As they left the mountain, Alice looked around like a bright-eyed little bird, commenting on several houses where people she knew used to live. She seemed clear-headed and sharp this morning, and it occurred to Stella that Alice didn’t get out much and driving anywhere in a car was probably a real treat. Except for the occasional trip down to the Sonic Drive In for a chili-dog meal with one of her sons, or her Friday evening excursions with Adeline to The Mount Vernon Restaurant for Coconut Cream Pie Night, Alice was pretty much housebound.

“When did you stop driving, Alice?”

“Oh, I don’t know. How old am I? I really can’t remember when I stopped driving.”

“So you’re getting your eyes checked today?”

“I’ve been going to Dr. Monroe for years. Bill went to him and liked him so I just started coming, too, when my eyes got bad. Back before they took the car away from me I used to drive myself. They put these drops in your eyes that make everything all blurry.”

“I don’t think you’re supposed to drive after they dilate your pupils.”

Alice waved her hand dismissively. “I could find my way home blindfolded in those days,” she said. “Back before my mind went.”

“Your mind is fine.”

“Some days,” Alice said. She was quiet for a moment. “Roddy goes to Dr. Wallis up on the mountain. You know they don’t make house calls anymore? Doctors. So it’d be real convenient to go to Dr. Wallis. I tried to get in with him a few years ago but he wasn’t taking any new patients. And Potter, the doctor I see for my heart, moved his office way out to the new mall which I don’t understand because it’s a smaller place and much too busy. People coming and going all times of the day. So I started looking around for another doctor and then I realized it’d be far less trouble to just die.”

Chattanooga was spread out below them, glistening in the sunlight, the distant mountains wreathed in clouds. As they snaked their way down Lookout, Alice pointed out a road on the left.

“That’s where Bill and I used to live when we were first married,” she said. “Down that road.”

Stella turned her head but could see nothing but a high-pitched roof rising out of a stand of trees.

“In those days it was cut up into four apartments but someone has bought it and is turning it back into a family home.” Alice shook her head, chuckling. “I’ll have to tell Weesie I found it. I couldn’t remember where it was the last time I saw her. She came to get me and took me for a ride around the mountain.”

“Weesie can still drive?”

“We used to live next door to each other on Hammond Road and I had this dogwood tree that had come from my grandmother’s yard that I wanted to see in bloom. So Weesie said she’d come up and get me and we’d drive over and see it. Well, we must have driven around for about an hour but neither one of us could remember how to get to Hammond Road. Can you believe that? We lived next door to each other for twenty years but neither one of us could find the street.’

“Well, I bet you had a good time anyway.’

“After awhile it got to be kind of funny. Weesie said,
Well, I guess it’s official, Al. We’ve both lost our ever-loving minds.
”

They drove past The Mount Vernon Restaurant, the new grocery store, and the CVS drug store. Stella stayed on Broad Street just like Janice had instructed. They drove past store fronts, some dilapidated and empty, some renovated into charming shops. As they drove, Alice turned her head from side to side, remarking on the changes she saw.

“That used to be Tanner’s Butcher Shop,” she said. “And that’s where the old grocery store was. The A&P, I think it was.”

The downtown area was crowded with office workers and tourists hurrying along sidewalks framed by tall gray buildings. The city’s electric buses whirred along quietly, headed for the riverfront and the new aquarium.

“This is where the street car used to run,” Alice said.

They turned right on Fourth Street, heading up the ridge past the university toward the Arts District.

“Oh, there’s the Junior League Office,” Alice said, pointing. It was a small, squat building with a large sign out front. “Adeline and I were both Junior League presidents. We had our pictures taken and later they hung them up in the hallway. We heard about the display and Adeline and I decided to go down there a few years ago and look at the photographs. Anyway, we walked in and there was this young woman and we told her who we were and that we had come to see our photographs.

She looks at us and says, ‘
Black or white?
’

Adeline and I just stared at each other.
‘Why, we’re white,’
I said.

‘Yes, I know that,’
the woman said.
‘What I meant is, is your photograph black and white or color? The black and white ones are hanging at the end of the hallway there.’
”

Fourth Street became Third. They passed the hospital on the left and turned right at the next street, past a nondescript building with tinted windows, one of those square cement monstrosities put up during urban renewal to replace some charming Victorian.

“Turn here,” Alice said, and they pulled into a parking lot behind the building. The parking lot was nearly empty. A long ramp with metal guide rails led down a slight incline to a pair of sliding doors. Stella retrieved the walker from the trunk and helped Alice climb out. They walked slowly across the parking lot toward the sliding doors. As Alice approached the ramp, her speed picked up and Stella had to grab the frame to keep her from hurtling forward like a luge.

There were only three patients in the waiting room, a bearded man and a well-dressed older couple watching Fox News. The office looked like a set from a nineteen sixties television show; shag carpeting, low squat Naugahyde furniture, big orange lamps with oversized shades. Alice sat down in one of the chairs while Stella went up to sign her in. When she got back, Alice had picked up a
Ladies Home Journal
with a headline that read,
How to Love Your Job!

“Here’s an article you might want to read,” Alice said.

“I don’t need to read that,” Stella said. “I love my job.”

“Ha, ha,” Alice said.

Stella sat down and began to leaf through a
People
magazine.

After a few minutes, Alice said in a loud voice, as if they were the only two in the room, “Here’s an article about a middle-aged woman who decided to get a raven tattoo. I think I’ll get a raven tattoo. Right here on my wrist.” She held up one heavily-veined arm for Stella’s appraisal.

“Actually, I could see you with a raven tattoo,” Stella said.

Alice continued to leaf through the magazine. “And here’s one about a woman who only had sex three times and still got HIV. She says,
I only had unprotected sex one time and it turned out to be a disaster.
”

The well-dressed couple watching Fox News turned their heads and stared.

“Keep it up,” Stella said. “And I’ll take that magazine away from you.”

A bored-looking nurse stepped into the waiting room carrying a clipboard. “Matlock,” she said loudly. “Shirley Matlock.”

The couple rose. As they walked past the woman slanted her eyes at Stella in a look of stern disapproval. It was obvious she felt Stella should do a better job of keeping Alice under control. Her husband, a portly, florid-faced gentleman, followed her, vainly attempting to button the top button of his sports coat. Alice looked up from her magazine.

“Lord,” she said loudly. “I’d hate to have to feed him.”

Stella stayed in the waiting room reading magazines while Alice was hurried off to the examining room. She was back there for quite awhile, until a harried-looking nurse came out and said brightly and with some relief, “Miss Alice is ready to go.”

Stella followed her down a long hallway to a small examining room where Alice sat chatting with the doctor.

“Dr. this is Stella,” Alice said.

“I’ve been telling this young lady about my last vacation,” Dr. Monroe said. He was a pleasant-looking man in his mid-fifties.

Alice chuckled and said in a sly, flirtatious manner, “He goes to Disney World with his wife and leaves the children at home. Have you ever heard of such a thing?” She obviously liked the doctor very much. Her behavior around him was sweet and simpering, unlike the belligerence she displayed toward his patients and staff.

Stella helped Alice rise and go back out front to the payment desk.

“Okay, Miss Alice,” the nurse shouted nervously. Her hair rose up over her forehead in an explosion of blonde curls.

“You don’t have to shout,” Alice said.

“Do you have your credit card?”

“I wish I had a nickel for everytime someone’s asked me that.”

“Ha, ha,” the nurse said, taking the card. She read over the doctor’s notes. “Okay, now it says here, your glasses prescription has changed and you need to step across the waiting room to the fitting room and we’ll get you fitted for a new pair.”

“I don’t want a new pair,” Alice said. “I want the ones I’m wearing.”

The nurse looked confused. She was obviously terrified of Alice. “Oh,” she said. “Do you want me to send those frames off and have new lenses put in?”

“No, I do not want you to send them off,” Alice said. “How will I watch
Wheel of Fortune
without my glasses?”

Stella stepped up beside her, smiling pleasantly at the nurse. “Look,” she said reasonably. “Just go across to the fitting room and pick out frames exactly like the ones she’s wearing and send them off.”

“Oh, she’ll have to be fitted,” the nurse said. “We can’t just pick new frames and not fit her.”

Alice stared at her with an expression of growing displeasure. “I am ninety-five years old,” she said.

“Ninety-four,” Stella said.

“I am ninety-four years old and I do not intend to stand here while you dither around.”

Stella smiled sweetly at the nurse. “You sure you don’t want to pick those out yourself?”

The nurse hurried off. Alice said loudly, “I hope she lives to be one hundred and two and goes blind.”

“Behave,” Stella said.

“Well, it’s ridiculous,” Alice said. She looked around for a clock. “How long have we been here?”

The nurse came back a few minutes later carrying a set of frames that was a close match to Alice’s glasses. “How about these, hon?” she said. Her smile had a fixed, shiny look, as if it had been molded in plastic. Stella had to admire her stamina.

“Oh, I don’t care,” Alice said. She sighed dramatically, and then sighed again. She looked at the nurse suspiciously. “What did you do with my credit card?”

“It’s here,” the nurse said brightly. “I have it right here.”

“I don’t want you to get it mixed up with somebody else’s.”

“Oh, I’ve been doing this job for fifteen years and I’ve never gotten credit cards mixed up!”

“Well, there’s a first time for everything,” Alice said.

The nurse ran the card through the reader and brought it back to Alice for her signature.

“Okay, hon, you done real good!” she said, avoiding eye contact and handing the receipt to Stella.

“Can we get out of here now?” Alice said.

“Oh Miss Alice, you’re a pistol!” the nurse said.

“I wish I had a pistol,” Alice said.

“Now Miss Alice, do you want to go ahead and make an appointment for next time?”