I glanced at Mandy. She was cuddled into Donnie’s side. This time, the few tears that had escaped seemed to be happy ones.
Twenty-Three
Thechurch decorating was a success. There were, of course, the select few who would never be happy with anything, but the majority praised Mandy’s vision and bragged to Pastor Bron about his daughter. The church even helped me get into the Christmas spirit, which I was not expecting to even be able to fake this year. Between Jed’s constant enthusiasm, the beauty of the church, and helping both Maudra and the Durkes decorate their homes for Christmas, I found myself humming carols and looking forward to the day.
Shortly after Zephyra got back for winter break, she and Jed convinced me to go on a Christmas shopping spree in Springfield to get presents for everyone. As expected, the two of them were instantly joined at the hip. Had Jed been straight, and fifteen years younger, they would have made a cute couple. It was fun to watch them twitter around the mall like teenage schoolgirls, picking out presents for everyone. Before long, they had me acting nearly as foolish and flighty as they were.
Zephyra told us all about her new boyfriend on the hour-and-a-half drive to Springfield. His name was Dylan, as if she would date someone with an average name like John or Jeff. Surprisingly, he was an education major like she was, not a doctor or lawyer. She showed us a picture that had been made into a key chain. They had gone to sit on Santa’s lap at the Plaza. I had a hard time not asking her if she was joking. The boy might have a name that implied hot college jock, but he looked more the part of a computer nerd, the kind other computer nerds made fun of. Hewas ridiculously tall, and even more ridiculously skinny. Even from the small picture, it was easy to make out a serious acne problem. I managed to catch Jed’s eye while Zephyra zoomed past a slow-moving semitruck. Jed seemed to be thinking the same as me as he mouthed, “What the hell?”
According to Zephyra, no one had ever made her laugh so hard or treated her so nicely. They had been in the same cohort of classes for the majority of the last two semesters. He had asked her out several times, but she’d always found a reason to turn him down. Toward the end of November, she heard two of the other girls in their class laughing at him behind his back, and in an act of defiance, she walked up to him and asked him to take her on a date. She laughed so hard that she had to wipe the tears from her eyes. She didn’t know which was funnier, the look of shock on Dylan’s face or on the two girls.
She shot down my rationalization that love must really be blind when she was quite frank about Dylan’s appearance. She said at first it had really bothered her, but she didn’t even notice anymore. She said she was considering getting him a dermatologist appointment for a Christmas gift. She wasn’t sure if that would be offensive or not. I figured Dylan was so in shock at landing such a gorgeous girlfriend, he would gladly take a Brillo pad to his face if she asked him to.
By the time we drove back to El Dorado late that evening, we had a gift for all the Durkes, and Mandy, of course, Maudra, and even a present for Rose. I wanted to get her an alarm clock so she could start getting up at a decent hour. She had started sleeping in more and more every morning. She hadn’t displayed any other signs of worsening health, so I chalked it up to laziness. Jed, alwaysnicer than me, suggested we get her a DVD player and some movies since she watched TV all the time. At first he thought the box set ofSex and the Citywould be a good gift. All I had to do was give him an “Are you serious?” look, and he realized the flaw in his logic.
TheWednesday before Christmas, Jed and I went over to Rose’s with a small Christmas tree we had picked up in Springfield. We didn’t get to her house until after a lunch of tomato soup and grilled cheese with Maudra. She was still asleep. It took several minutes to wake her up. She was somewhat disoriented when she finally awoke, which probably lessened her irritation that it was me waking her. By the time she got out of bed and out of the shower, we had the tree out of the box and put together beside the TV.
Showers had been a struggle for her since her stroke. I don’t think she was bathing before I came back to help her. I’d installed handrails in the shower, along with a horribly tacky nonslip mat, and a shower chair. (I’d felt very straight and manly at the time. I, of course, showed this off to Jed when he had moved down. I didn’t think he was aptly impressed.) The result was that Rose could now take showers unassisted, which was a job I didn’t think I would be able to ever oversee. However, thanks to her slow movements and limited range of motion, her showers easily lasted over an hour.
She had gotten all the way to her recliner and sat down before she realized what Jed and I were doing. She looked more aware, but her eyes were bloodshot.
“Where did you get that? I threw out my old Christmas tree years ago.” She had a frown on her face, but she didn’t seem that put off by the tree.
“Jed and Zephyra and I went shopping in Springfield the other day. Thought a tree might be nice in here.”
“Zephyra. Huh. Haven’t seen that little girl in ages. Always hated that name. Guess she’s a teenager now.”
I knew she knew better than that. “She’s in college. Has been for a while. Seems to be doing really good.”
“Probably sleeping with the professors. Little slut.”
“Mom!”
“So, did ya get lights and decorations, or is that all I get, just an empty tree?” She’d let the charming act fade away after the first of Jed’s visits, although she still flirted with him.
I sighed, trying to be patient. “Of course we got lights and decorations. We’re not gonna just get you a plain tree.”
She tucked away her bad hand. “Well, wouldn’t surprise me.”
“I swear, Rose, if—”
Jed interrupted me. “We thought we’d decorate the tree in red and green. Pretty traditional.” He opened one of the boxes to show her some of the glass bulbs.
She narrowed her eyes at them. “They’re kinda lumpy, and they got some kinda spots on them.”
Jed held a red one up to the light. “They’re handblown glass. The specks are little pieces of gold. The green ones have silver instead.”
“Well, aren’t we fancy?” Her voice attempted to sound unimpressed, but I could tell that she liked them. When I was younger, she loved decorating for Christmas. Some years, she would even make decorations with me. By the time I was ten or so, however, I celebrated every holidaywith the Durkes. Mom would either go to the bar or be with whatever man she was seeing at the time.
“I think you’ll like the present we got you.” I’d almost brought it with us today, but I didn’t think it would be safe to leave under the tree. She might go into one of her rages and smash it.
Rose reached out and ran her finger over Jed’s arm. “You got me a present? Haven’t received a present from a handsome man in years.”
Jed’s face fell, and he stepped away. “It was Brooke’s idea,” he lied.
She kept her attention on him. “I don’t believe that for a second. Unless it’s poisoned gingerbread or something.”
“Damn it, Mom. Can’t you just be civil for even a moment?”
