“I think,” I said, ignoring his last remark, “that I won’t do either one. As far as Hazel Marie will know, I’ve been in the dark as much as she has. Why, Sam, I didn’t have an idea in the world that you were calling on Mr. Pickens to investigate the break-in. You didn’t say a word to me about it, and first thing I knew, here comes Mr. Pickens, all housed and contracted for. And, as far as having him for dinner every evening he’s on the case, why, that’s just my normal, courteous way of doing things.” I looked wide-eyed and guileless at Sam, then broke into a smile. “How does that sound?”
He laughed. “Sounds fine to me. If you can pull it off, and if she’ll believe you.”
“Oh, she’ll believe me because I promised her I wouldn’t contact him. And I haven’t, as you well know. Besides, if she can’t bring herself to be in the same room with him, why, Lillian can take her a tray like she’s been doing. At least we’ll have them both in the same vicinity, and Lloyd can carry reports from one to the other, because I’m staying out of it.” I stopped and cogitated for a minute. “Of course, that’s not going to solve anything because she hasn’t told Lloyd about the baby yet. So, for all intents and purposes, he’s not going to have that much to report. You think we ought to tell him?”
“Us? Tell Lloyd about the baby?”
“Yes.”
“No,” Sam said, shaking his head. “Absolutely not. We have to leave that to her.”
“Well, you’re right, I guess. It’s just that I can see both of them keeping their distance, with neither of them knowing the real reason he’s been called back. How long can that go on? Mr. Pickens’ll solve your case, I have no doubt, then he’ll leave without even seeing her, much less marrying her. We’ll really be up a creek then.”
“I’ll tell you what, Julia. Let’s take it one step at a time. Have Pickens to dinner as often as you want. Hazel Marie will know he’s here and he’ll know she’s here, so I think we can leave the rest of it up to them. And keep in mind that marriage might not be the best thing for them.”
“Maybe,” I said,
but maybe not
, I thought. One thing I knew for sure, if Mr. Pickens came just for dinner every night and Hazel Marie kept to her bed to avoid him, it would be up to me to think of a way to facilitate some movement from one to the other. Marriage might not be the right thing for those two, which I didn’t believe for a minute, but it certainly was for what they’d engendered.
Chapter 14
LuAnne Conover, bright and cheerful, showed up at my door later in the day. She was laden down with a huge basket of fruit and a plastic bag full of magazines.
“My goodness,” she said as she plopped the basket down on the floor. “That thing’s heavy. How are you, Julia? We missed you in Sunday school yesterday, but I saw that you made it to church. I wanted to speak to you but you were out of there like a flash.”
“Yes, I needed to hurry back to check on Hazel Marie. I felt I couldn’t leave her for more than an hour, which was why I wasn’t in Sunday school.”
“Well, we were all glad you weren’t. We discussed taking up a collection to buy this fruit basket for Hazel Marie, and it would’ve been awkward if you’d been there. Some,” she said as she walked over to the sofa, “thought a fruit basket was too expensive and we ought to stick to a potted plant. Don’t ask me who they were because I’m not going to tell you.”
She sat down, and I joined her.
“I wouldn’t ask for the world,” I told her. “Besides, I can pretty much guess who they were. But I really do appreciate the thought and I know Hazel Marie will, too.”
“Well, I hope she enjoys the fruit, too,” LuAnne said, “because, believe me, it was expensive. But we all love Hazel Marie to death, and everybody is so concerned for her. But, tell me, Julia, what’s wrong with her? I’ve heard all sorts of things from anemia to leukemia. You know how people are when they begin guessing and speculating.”
Don’t I ever, I thought. But I said, “I hope you can put a stop to those rumors because the doctor said it’s some kind of condition with a long Latin name that causes digestive upsets. But it’s curable with proper nutrition and bed rest for a considerable length of time. So that’s the good news.”
“What’s the bad news?”
“Oh, there isn’t any, just that she’s lost a lot of weight and feels really tired. But we’re all seeing to it that she gets plenty of rest and isn’t disturbed in any way.”
“Well, I certainly won’t disturb her. I’ll just tiptoe upstairs and speak to her. Everybody’s expecting a firsthand report from me. That’s why I was selected to bring the fruit basket. I’m so close to her, you know.”
“Oh, LuAnne, I’m so sorry, but she really can’t have visitors. Why, they even put a NO VISITORS sign on her door at the hospital, and Dr. McKay was very firm about it when he let her come home. And, you know, if I let one person go up, everybody else will expect to, too. Please understand, because Hazel Marie would love to see you even though she can’t.”
“I won’t tell anyone,” LuAnne said, preparing to get to her feet. “Why don’t you go up with me, and I’ll just stick my head in the door and speak to her. Surely that wouldn’t disturb her.”
Lord, what else could I say to head her off?
I took a deep breath. “Well, LuAnne, if you want to know the truth, one quick visit from you probably wouldn’t do any harm. But she has felt so bad for so long that she hasn’t been able to keep up her appointments with Velma.” I leaned toward her and whispered, “See, she hasn’t had color for so long that all her dark roots are showing.”
LuAnne laughed and settled back onto the sofa. “Well, bless her heart, I can certainly understand that, and I wouldn’t embarrass her for the world. Besides, if she’s well enough to worry about hair color, then I can give a good report on her condition. Now, listen, Julia,” she went on, picking up the plastic bag she’d brought, “I did this on my own, so I want you to tell her that it’s from me and not from the class. I wasn’t sure what to get, so I brought her two of my favorites and two that I know she likes.”
LuAnne pulled out two magazines:
People
and
Vanity Fair
, and placed them on the coffee table. “These shouldn’t tax her strength too much,” she said, “unless she starts reading some of the long articles in
Vanity Fair
about murders and drug use and so forth. You might caution her against those, but generally it’s an interesting magazine, although the print’s so small you can hardly read it.”
“I’m sure she’ll love them. You’re very thoughtful, LuAnne, and I’ll see that they’re right beside her bed.”
“Well, I’m not through. See,” she said, pulling out two more magazines, “here’s
Modern Bride
and
Martha Stewart Weddings
, because I know she loves to plan her wedding, even though it’s doubtful she’ll ever have one. But everybody needs a dream, don’t they? I do hope hers will come true someday.”
“Oh,” I said fervently, “so do I.”
More than you know,
I thought.
“You know what I was tempted to buy?
The Examiner
,
The Globe,
and
The Star
, because I’ve seen her at Velma’s and that’s all she reads. But,” LuAnne said with a long-suffering sigh, “I knew you wouldn’t approve, so I didn’t.”
“Why, I wouldn’t care, LuAnne, even though they’ve been sued up one side and down the other for false reporting. But anything that would lift her spirits is fine with me.” Although gossip-spreading tabloids were not my cup of tea, I knew that Hazel Marie loved them. In fact, along with wedding and decor magazines, they were about the extent of her regular reading material, but you can’t expect everybody’s taste to run along the same lines as your own.
“Well then,” LuAnne said, “if that’s the case, tell her I’ll bring the new ones as soon as they come out. In a couple of days, I think it is. And you, Julia,” she continued with a smile, “can keep your opinions to yourself. Now, I better get on home. Leonard’ll be waiting for his lunch.”
I thanked her again, then saw her out. Picking up the magazines and the fruit basket, which was indeed heavy, I struggled up the stairs to tell Hazel Marie how I’d averted an unwelcome visit to her room.
“You told her what?” Hazel Marie’s face lit up with a smile, the likes of which I hadn’t seen in some while.
So I repeated the tale of the dark roots, and we had a good laugh about it. But then she sobered and ran her hand through her hair.
“I do need color,” she said. “I just hate it when I let it go so long. But I can’t face going to Velma’s, even if I felt like it.”
“No, you’re not up to it and you shouldn’t go. I mean, Hazel Marie, nobody would ever guess that you’re expecting. It’s much too early for anything to show. But physically you’re too weak to be gallivanting around town. And if you did, everybody would think you’re well and expect you to resume your usual activities.” I watched her carefully as she lay in bed, propped up by a couple of pillows. It pulled at my heart to see how gaunt her face was and how thin her arms. “Were you able to eat much breakfast?”
“I did. Lillian brought me some oatmeal with raisins and I ate most of it. I think it’ll stay down if I don’t move around too much. But you know,” she went on, “I hate that my hair’s such a mess. And it’s only going to get worse the longer I stay in this bed.”
Knowing that the state of one’s hair affects one’s whole outlook on life, I said, “Would you be up to coloring it yourself? I’ll go to the drugstore if you’ll tell me what to get, and Lillian and I can help you.”
“Oh, would you? I’d feel so much better to have it done.”
“Well, wait, Hazel Marie,” I said, caution signs going up in my brain. “Is it safe to use dye when you’re expecting? I mean, it could seep into your scalp and do some kind of internal damage, couldn’t it?”
She laughed. “No, but I worried about it when Lloyd was on the way, and I called every hairdresser in town and talked to my doctor, too, and they all said it was all right. The only problem is that the dye might not take or it could turn out a different color.” She pulled a strand of hair down across her forehead and looked at it with slightly crossed eyes. “Hormones, I guess. But it couldn’t look any worse than this, regardless of how it turns out. I’d feel so much better if I didn’t look so awful.”
“You don’t look awful, Hazel Marie. You just look tired, which is what you are. So tell me what you need, and we’ll have you back to your old self in no time.”
After writing down what she wanted, I left to go to the drugstore but first to ensure Lillian’s help with a do-it-yourself dye job.
“I hope we don’t ruin her,” I said, expressing my doubts to Lillian. “I don’t know how to color hair.”
“Nothin’ to it, Miss Julia. You just get what she want, an’ I do the rest.”
“Oh, good. If you’ve done it before, then we’ll be in good shape.”
“Well, I never done it before, but I seen it done.”
I rolled my eyes and decided to change the subject. “There’s something else, Lillian, that I need to tell you. But not a word to Hazel Marie about it, but Mr. Pickens is on his way. Wait now,” I said, holding up my hand as her face lit up, “He won’t get here until late tonight, and he’ll be staying at Sam’s house while he investigates the break-in. But he’ll be here for dinner tomorrow night.”
Lillian could be light on her feet when her spirits were up, and she looked as if she were almost floating. “He comin’ up here to marry her! I knowed he would.”
“Don’t get too happy because he’s not. At least not yet. He doesn’t know a thing about anything, and Hazel Marie doesn’t know he’s coming. And it has to stay that way, so we can’t say anything to either one of them.”
“Well, why can’t we? I thought gettin’ them two together was what you wanted.”
“It is, but, Lillian, if we push too hard, it could backfire on us. So, I’m going to let nature take its course, with a little help maybe from Lloyd. All unbeknownst to him, of course. See, I can’t break my promise to Hazel Marie, and Sam doesn’t believe in interfering in other people’s personal problems. So just getting them in the same town and in the same house at the same time is all we can do. I’m leaving the rest of it up to them. It wouldn’t be right for me to try any kind of manipulation, and you know I never interfere in personal matters, myself.” I stopped and eyed her suspiciously. “Don’t look at me like that, Lillian. My conscience is clear and it’s going to stay that way.”
Chapter 15
Pretending that I didn’t see all the eye rolling she was doing, I left for the drugstore to get a box of Clairol’s Nice ’N Easy Root Touch-Up in the Light Blonde shade. On my way, I began to think over again our options to protect Hazel Marie from the town’s wagging tongues in case the plans for Mr. Pickens didn’t work out. Something had occurred to me while talking to her, and this was a good time to give it some serious thought. What if we could send her to a sanitarium or a sanitorium, or whatever it was, of some kind? Celebrities were forever going off to get rehabilitated, so why not Hazel Marie as well? There used to be Florence Crittendon homes for unwed mothers, but I didn’t know if they still existed since nowadays unwed mothers paraded themselves around instead of hiding away somewhere. But if they did exist, Hazel Marie would have constant care and not be in an apartment alone in a strange city.
If I could find such a place, all we’d have to do is keep her out of sight—and out of Velma’s shop—for a little while longer, then send her off. We could tell it around that she needed a long recuperation in a dry climate.
Of course, that wouldn’t explain the appearance of a sudden addition to the family, unless we said that Hazel Marie took pity on an unwanted baby and decided to adopt it herself.
Yes, and how many people would believe that?
Well, first things first, I thought, as I pulled into the parking lot next to the Rite Aid drugstore. Hazel Marie had suggested I go to Walmart, but I’d rather pay a few cents more than walk a mile once I got inside that huge store.