She couldn’t wait to talk to Elwood to see if she’d done the right thing. The thing he would have done had he been in her shoes.
Melanie reached for the handset of the phone and dialed the Blankenship house. After eight unanswered rings, and thinking she’d rung the wrong number, because she knew June was back inside the house, she hung up and dialed the number again.
No answer.
That made no sense. Elwood didn’t answer the phone much these days, but June did unless she was out. But she wasn’t out. It was only a little after eight in the morning.
She put the phone down and headed for the front door, calling out to Eva, who was washing up her breakfast dishes. “I’m goingover to Elwood’s. They’re not answering. I want to make sure they’re okay.”
She stepped across the grass, aerating both her lawn and the Blankenship’s with the heels of her pumps. She was dressed in a champagne-hued linen skirt and emerald green silk blouse that someone had once told her matched her eyes perfectly. The blouse, which had cost her more than she’d ever paid for a simple shirt that buttoned down the front like any other shirt, had been bought during the all-too-short window when she had money.
She reached the Blankenship porch and rang the doorbell. “June?” she called out. “June, it’s Melanie. Are you all right?”
She waited a moment and then pressed the doorbell again, twice this time. “June! Are you two okay?”
Still no answer.
Melanie pounded on the door with an open palm. “June! Elwood? Are you all right? Should I call for help?” She jiggled the locked doorknob. “Are you hurt? Do you need a doctor?”
Finally there was the sound of a turned lock and the door opened. June stood at an awkward angle, as if miming a Quasimodo pose.
“What do you want?!” she spat angrily.
Melanie was taken aback by this uncharacteristic greeting. In the five months Melanie had lived next door, June had only ever been poised and polite. Her wonder, however, was quickly replaced by concern.
“I phoned here. Twice! I wanted to talk to Elwood about my call. You didn’t answer. I thought something terrible happened to one or both of you. I was worried.”
A second or two slipped by before June seemed to revert to her usual neighborly civility.
“I…I couldn’t get to the phone. I’ve hurt my back and so Icouldn’t…I just decided to let it ring, that’s all. I’m fine. We’re fine.”
Melanie peered at her. “What do you mean you hurt your back?”
“I was doing some gardening this morning,” June said dismissively, “and I guess I pulled something. I’m sure I’ll be fine.” The woman winced as a spasm of pain shot across her spine.
“You don’t look like you’re going to be fine.”
“It’s nothing.”
“I can tell it’s not nothing. How are you going to take care of Elwood like this?”
June’s tone turned gentle. “It’s kind of you to worry, but I’ll manage. Thanks for coming over to check.”
She started to close the door but Melanie put out a hand to stop her. “You hurt your back digging up Elwood’s roses, didn’t you? Does he know you were out there doing that?”
“Excuse me?”
“Why were you out there digging in his rose garden, June? He told me he doesn’t like anyone to touch his rosebushes but him. Not even you. Why were you doing that?”
June studied Melanie for a moment before answering. “Elwood has his challenges. You already know this. He’s not been able to go outside lately to tend to his roses. So I do it. And I do it when he’s asleep so it doesn’t alarm him.”
“But you were digging them up. Moving them around. My mother never did that with her rosebushes.”
“Well, this is California, not Kansas, so—”
“Nebraska.”
“What?”
