“Macey!” Mrs. Rattles sounds out of breath and raspy.
“Are you all right? You sound sick.”
“Just a small case of pneumonia. Nothing that a few pills won’t fix.”
“Pneumonia! Shouldn’t you be in bed?”
Now that most of the wedding pieces are in place, Mrs. Rattles has surged back into the forefront, not wanting to be left out.
“There’s no time for bed when my daughter’s about to get hitched!” Mrs. Rattles enters into a coughing fit that lasts for over a minute. I know because I’m staring at the clock on my dashboard.
“I’m fine, really,” she says finally. “Now, the wedding’s just over a week away. In terms of the flowers…”
“Gin told me about them being short on daffodils. Not a problem. I’ll stop by the store later and pick out…”
“Unbelievable, these people,” she says, cutting me off. “They don’t know anything, do they? I bet Gigi isn’t having our problems!”
I’m sure she’s not.
I go inside and deal with the flowers. And I write.
But I toss and turn all night.
When I wake up the next morning, I’ve got dark circles under my eyes. Just the look I’m going for when I get up on stage tonight. Luckily, Riley’s agreed to do my makeup beforehand.
I sit at my desk in the liquor room with my laptop in front of me all morning and write my novel.
I’m trying not to be nervous. But I am nervous even though I only have a couple of lines. Mama’s terrified I’m going to humiliate her even though she’s never said as much out loud. And I don’t want to let her down.
As I walk into Hair ‘N Nails, I realize I’m the last one here.
Mama waves at me wildly. “Mace! Over here, baby!”
Riley’s sitting at Mama’s feet, giving her a pedicure, and Freedom has her face buried in a magazine while Riley’s colleague, Trudy, paints Free’s fingernails.
I kiss Riley on the head as I pass her. “What’s up?”
“Nothin’ new. Wink’s still an asshole.”
Mama holds up the book she’s reading.
“Sense and Sensibility?” I nod. “Good choice.”
“This one took us forever to get through, Mace. Do you remember?”
Oh, I think so.
I was thirteen, and Daddy was gone. My reading sessions with Mama went off course when I said I preferred Eleanor, and Mama said she just loved Marianne. I kept thinking Marianne reminded me of someone, but I couldn’t quite place who. I knew it was someone irrational and romantic in a nonsensical way.
Mama was so excited to help me solve the mystery that she kept guessing different girls in my class. I said no to all of them. All I knew is it was someone that gets under my skin in the worst way and who has no thought for anyone else. With a gasp, I realized she reminded me of Mama.
Mama was so mad she stormed off and refused to let us finish the book.
We couldn’t touch it for three whole months. Of course, she wouldn’t return the book to the library either, so by the time she forgave me and begrudgingly let me convince her that Marianne’s good traits of spunkiness and passion outweighed her negative ones, we owed the Darcy Public Library over forty dollars in late fees.
But that’s what Mama got for holding a grudge against her own daughter.
I nod at Mama now. “Yes, but we finally finished it, didn’t we?”
