“I did,” she nodded. “They jumped on a soapbox and declared that I was probably the one that asked him to live with me because I was so much like you. Theysaid I was lying about a good Christian man like him asking me to work as a stripper. Then Grandma said that she bet he had proposed several times, and I was too stubborn to marry him. He really had done a snow job on them, and they wouldn’t even listen to me when I tried to explain that he had lied.”
The boiling hissy fit inside Bernie got so hot that it came out in her tone. “That’s when you drove all the way out here?”
Clara nodded. “Yes, it is. I need a job and a place to stay until I can get on my feet. I’ll follow the rules and promise to never get drunk again.”
“You’ve got a roof over your head and you can work for me.” Bernie pushed back her chair, stood up, and opened the door when she heard a yip at the door. Pepper pranced in like he owned the place and stood up on his hind feet.
“He’s begging for food,” Clara said. “No telling when he ate last or had anything to drink. I got the feeling that the old guy who stole him for you hadn’t done much with him.”
Bernie filled a bowl with water and set it on the floor. “What do I feed him?”
“Kent browned a little hamburger and scrambled an egg into it for his dog. I miss Brutus far more than I ever missed him,” Clara said with a long sigh. “Brutus was always glad to see me, but Kent usually started in on me about something I’d done wrong the minute we got home.”
“Where did you live for a whole year after Kent kicked you out?” Bernie took a package of hamburger out of the fridge and tossed a handful into a skillet.
“With one of my friends, but then she moved to Alabama, and I was barely making rent before the bar where I was working closed up and I didn’t have a job,” she answered. “I had a little savings, and I qualified for an unemployment check, but it wasn’t enough to pay rent. I looked for another job, but…”
“But what?” Bernie asked. “Everywhere I go I see Help Wanted signs. Never mind, you are here now, at least for six weeks. If everything works out with Nash, I will most likely sell the bar to him at the end of that time.”
“Where are you going?” Clara asked.
“Your aunt Mary Jane has offered to let me bring a travel trailer and park it at her place in Spanish Fort. How long has it been since you’ve seen her or your cousins?”
Clara finally smiled. “A long time. Probably right before she moved from the city to that brothel. Mama doesn’t agree with Aunt Mary Jane writing trashy romance books, and Grandma really preaches against it.”
Bernie cracked an egg and added it to the browned meat. “Have you read her books?”
“Every single one of them,” Clara replied with half a giggle. “I especially love the ones she wrote about the hookers that worked out of the Paradise.”
Pepper barked twice and ran around Bernie’s feet likea little whirlwind. “Settle down, boy. It would burn your tongue out of your mouth if you tried to eat it before it cooled down a little bit. When we get this animal’s breakfast done, we are going to have bacon and eggs, then we’re going to get dressed and go to town for groceries for us and food, collar, and leash for this critter.”
“Then what?” Clara asked.
“After that, we are going to come home, clean up last night’s mess in the bar, and decorate it for Independence Day,” she answered.
Clara’s blue eyes popped wide open. “You are open on Sunday?”
“Nope, that’s my one day off each week, but we’re going to put up the decorations and open up tomorrow at six like usual,” she answered, “but that’s after we get back from the store.”
Tears streamed down Clara’s face. “I can’t believe you are doing this for me, without even giving me a long lecture.”
“I need an inside person to give me the lowdown on Nash. Is he really serious about buying my bar, or is he out to get it and then resell to a developer who wants to put in another convenience store and gas station on the spot?”
“I can be a spy,” Clara declared with a nod. “Or a bartender, or a dog walker, or I can even clean up the place after hours.”
“Rule number two for you.” Bernie held up twofingers and set the plate of food down for Pepper. “Always turn out the lights and go home when the bar closes down. Then take care of mopping and polishing glasses and beer mugs the next day when you aren’t worn to a frazzle.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Clara finally grinned so big that it reached her bloodshot eyes.
***
Bernie had just washed her hands in the Walmart bathroom in Duncan when her phone rang. She saw that the call was coming from her sister, Vernie Sue, so she hit the accept icon and took the call out into the store where her cart waited.
“Hey, how was church this morning? Did you get dehorned, saved, and sanctified for the whole week, or do you need a revival to get your soul in order for the judgment day?” she asked as she sat down on a nearby bench.
“Bernadette, you are going to hell for talking that way,” Vernie Sue scolded in her best self-righteous voice. “It’s past time for you to be thinking about where your soul will spend eternity.”
“I figure you’ve prayed enough for me through the years that I’ve got a good fightin’ chance of gettin’ my foot in the door. Once that happens, I can talk my way inside.” Bernie chuckled. “I haven’t heard from you since you told me to leave the last family reunion I came to.Why are you calling today?” She heard a long, loud sigh and then nothing for several seconds, and pulled the phone away from her ear to see if her sister had ended the call.
