Vivien had no choice but to sit with Maxine and Juanita, even if she would prefer not to have to talk about everything that had been going on over the last week. But she wanted tea and food, and she’d walked here so Helga could come by when she had a spare moment and drop Vivien off at the theater. So she headed to the table that hosted the Tuesday Ladies.
Maxine and Juanita, along with Iva, were sitting at their regular table at the front window of the tea shop. A Scrabble board took over a portion of the round top, but there was plenty of space for teapots (each a different style and shape), cups and saucers, and the plate-sized three-tier servers of scones, muffins, and paper-thin sandwiches. Vivien’s stomach growled in anticipation. Dinner at Federico’s had been a long time ago.
“Well, look at that,” exclaimed Maxine in a voice that probably carried all the way to Lake Michigan. She was definitely not going to need a mic for the show. “Our esteemed director isdeigningto mingle with us lowlifes, Nita! Now you come on over here and sit right down, missy,” she demanded. “I’m about to beat Juanita here in Scrabble for the three thousandth time, but there’s room for you at the table.”
Maxine thwacked her cane onto an empty seat right next to her, and Vivien understood that she was to sit there. As she did, she noticed a large leather tote on the deep windowsill next to Juanita’s chair. A pair of soft, furry ears, each as large as a plum and with wispy, long hair, peeked out from the bag. They were attached to the sweetest dog face she’d ever seen, with a small button nose and two very large black eyes. They blinked, watching Vivien as she took a seat.
“That’s Bruce Banner,” said Juanita, noticing Vivien’s interest. “He can be a little testy, so go slow if you want to pet him. But he’s really just a sweet little angel, aren’t you,bebecito-Brucie?”
Deciding it wasn’t worth commenting about the dog being in a café—after all, he was in a bag and not causing any problems at all—Vivien sat down. She gave Orbra her order.
“So…Scrabble, huh?” she said in an effort tonothave to talk about what had happened over the last couple of days at the theater. “And you’re winning, Maxine?”
“She isnotwinning,” said Juanita as she set down seven tiles in a row:click, click, click, click, click, click,click.“Because I’ve just played a bingo on a triple word score square with a Vanda Z.”
Maxine’s eyes bugged out of their sockets as she spun away from Vivien and whipped her attention to the lazy-Susan-style game board. “There’s no bingo word with VandZ,” she snarled. “You made it up like you always do—”
“Not true,” said Juanita, looking pleased as punch—and fresh as a lemon drop—in a frosty-yellow maxi dress. For once, her fingernails didn’t match her clothing but picked up the same rosy pink as her lipstick. She appeared extremely satisfied with herself. “‘Vizards’ is a perfectly acceptable Scrabble word and you know it, Maxine. Unlike ‘slidiest,’ which you tried to use on me last week.”
Juanita’s eyes danced as she went on to calculate her score. “That’ll be…let me see…ah yes…twenty points for the word, tripled is sixty points, plus fifty for it being a bingo, plus the extra word I created by adding Z to ‘ax’…that’s another ten plus one plus eight…that’s a total of one hundred twenty-nine points. On asingle word,” she said, sneering at Maxine. “I think your highest-scoring word ever was only one hundred fifteen, wasn’t it Maxie?”
“I don’t remember,” replied Maxine, still glowering at the game board as if hoping her evil eye would somehow move the tiles around to her advantage. “Now that Vivien Leigh is here, it would be rude to continue to play the game, Juanita. Let’s just put it aw—”
“Oh no you don’t, you conniving woman,” snapped Juanita. “We are going to finish this game, and you are going to accept your loss like the badass witch you are, Maxine, orDios mio, I’ll never play with you again.”
Maxine huffed and grumbled, but she put aside the game box she’d picked up and turned her attention to Vivien. “She’s a sore winner,” she said, pursing her lips. “Because she don’t win very often.”
Juanita rolled her eyes and reached for a finger-sized muffin. “It’s your turn,sore loser. See if you can play that Q you’ve been hoarding for three turns.”
“So tell us about all those horrible things going on at the theater,” Iva said. Her eyes were bright and birdlike, and she held a delicate teacup with pink roses hand-painted on it. “Break-ins and your car getting smashed… Why, I would never have thought such a thing would happen here in Wicks Hollow.”
“You wouldn’t?” Maxine chortled. “After three murders last year, you wouldn’t think that? This place is practically Detroit now, you know, murders happening every time you turn around—and I know Detroit because I was around during those damned riots in the sixties. And proud of it! I was out there with my baton—not that I smashed any windows or anything,” she added quickly.
“Maxine, I’d be shocked if youdidn’tsmash any windows,” Iva said in her well-modulated, ladylike tone.
That shocked Maxine into silence as she seemed to contemplate whether Iva’s comment had been an insult or a compliment.
“Oh crap,” Vivien said involuntarily when she saw the text from Helga.
“What is it, dear?” asked Iva.
Vivien sighed. “Helga was going to drop me off at the theater this morning, as my rental car won’t be available tillMonday—don’t get me started—but now she’s been called in to help with a big accident on the highway north of town.”
“Yep. Tractor-trailer did a jackknife, tipped over, and spilled a whole slew of dried corn all over the highway,” Maxine said. “They gotta detour everyone down the state route and over to the county road. Everyone’s backed up for miles and there’s construction over on the state route too. It’s a disaster. Corn everywhere. Gonna be deer feasting for months on that, then they’ll be coming after my damned hostas.
“I listen to the police scanner, you know. Can’t be too careful. Gotta keep apprised o’ what’s going on. I’ll drive you, Vivien Leigh.” Without further ado, she launched to her feet with the help of her cane. “Come on, Neety. We can finish the game later. Our director’s gotta get to work.”
“But—”
“No, no, no,” said Maxine, gripping Vivien’s arm with very strong fingers as she cut off her protest. “We’ll take you, won’t we, Neety?”
“I’ll come too,” said Iva, bolting to her feet and gathering up her handbag. “I’ve been dying to get back in there to see whether I can sense any more of the spirits haunting the place. I have a sensitivity to these things, you know.”
Vivien hardly knew what to say to this. She could only imagine what would happen if the ghost at her theater acted up while the Tuesday Ladies were there. That wouldnotbe good. “Oh, no, really, I can—”
“Ay-yi-yi!” said Juanita. “Don’t argue! Maxine’ll drive you. Besides, I want to see those ruby slippers again.”
Iva was still talking about her sensitivity to spirits as the ladies bustled Vivien out the door. As she passed by Orbra, the proprietress pushed a bag into her hand. “Good luck!” she said with a grin, and that was when Vivien realized Orbra wasdelightedthat her front table was going to be free for customers on this Saturday morning.
