Organized to Death (3 page)

Uncle Bob frowned and shook his head. Laura fingered her diamond pendant silently.

“I could see into the living room and dining room and we went to the kitchen, then the master bedroom, an addition off the kitchen. I decided we should start there because Nicky kept his side neat; it wouldn’t take as long as any of the other rooms I’d seen. Then Rachel could feel good about having a clear spot. She could go into that room, admire it, bask in it, lay down on her side of the bed and relax.

“Sounds reasonable,” Uncle Bob said.

“I went out to get some boxes and supplies, and Crystal came down the walk and told me she was there to help.”

Uncle Bob groaned. “Only thing worse could be their mother showing up.”

“Right. Which she did.”

Uncle Bob and Tina laughed a little. “Oh, no,” Uncle Bob said.

Laura sat stone-faced. Tina said directly to her, “I told them to help me carry stuff in.” Laura’s lips twitched. Tina smiled. “And they did.”

Tina turned to Uncle Bob. “I tried to persuade them that it would be better if they left. You can imagine—they wouldn’t. Rachel looked upset when she saw them. They said they’d cleared their calendars to help her, but she did not look the least bit grateful. Mrs. Morris said we should start in the kitchen, as she put it, the most important room in the house because of hygiene—I hadn’t heard that word since I was in high school. I told them we had already decided to start in the bedroom. Then when I began to explain the art of organization, how to separate things into different boxes and put unwanted stuff in the trash bag I’d brought in, Mrs. Morris interrupted me and said to just get on with it.”

“You think I’m bad sometimes,” Laura said. “I’m a pussycat compared to Nora.”

Tina laughed.

Uncle Bob chuckled and said, “Yes, kitty.”

“So, I handed them some boxes to assemble, hoping to keep them quiet.”

“Did it?” Laura asked.

“Of course not. When Rachel hesitated, they harassed her, saying she was silly, to just get rid of the junk and so on. Finally, she told them they were not helping and demanded we all leave.”

“What?” Uncle Bob said.

“She asked us all to leave.”

“Yeah. I heard you. I’m just surprised. The Timid Turns. Could be a soap opera.”

“So you all left?” Laura asked, ignoring Uncle Bob.

“Yes, but then I saw Crystal again. What’s that burning?”

The cookies! The smoke alarm sounded and Princess jumped up to press her head against Uncle Bob’s knee to alert him. Tina rushed to punch the button on the alarm, then sat down again. Everyone was used to this, and Tina smiled as Uncle Bob grabbed a pot holder and took the cookie sheet out of the oven.

“Crispy critters, for sure,” he said. Princess looked at him, then sat down by his chair. Did she really shake her head and give Uncle Bob a condescending look, or was it Tina’s imagination?

Uncle Bob scraped the cookies into the trash, to Tina’s relief. Sometimes he tried to save burned food by scraping off the blackened parts. He’d invented blackened foods before they became all the rage.

When he sat back down, Laura asked, “When did you see Crystal again?”

“At Ocean’s. I was drinking my coffee, reading the Daily News, and in she walks with Charles.”

“Not at all embarrassed, I’m sure.” Uncle Bob adjusted his right hearing aid.

“No. She sat down and started in about how Rach’s been such a trial to her mother all these years. I told her I thought Rachel was depressed. Crystal wanted to know if that was my professional opinion, in her usual haughty way.”

Laura drummed her fingers on the table.

“I ignored her and asked if Rachel had received any counseling, and she said she had, since high school. Said she never had any get-up-and-go, any ambition. Crystal said she seemed better when she met Nicky, and for the first few years of their marriage, but then she found out she couldn’t have any children.”

Tina caught the look on her mother’s face. Did she already know about Rachel’s infertility? She and Mrs. Morris met once a month for lunch with several other women, called themselves the Lunch Bunch. Tina bet Mrs. Morris had told the group about Rachel.

“Rachel just find out? Fixed up the nursery before that?” Tina asked Laura.

“Yes. It’s very sad.” But Tina thought her mother looked more frightened than sad. The Lunch Bunch had always been a mystery to her, but she’d long since learned not to ask questions about it. Made her mother testy.

“Anyway,” Tina continued, “Crystal seemed really annoyed with Rachel, but then she said I’d been right, that she and her mother shouldn’t have shown up. I almost fell out of my chair.”

The phone rang, and Laura went to answer it. Uncle Bob stood and began to put the cookie ingredients away and wiped down the counter tops.

Tina remembered Brandon walking into Ocean’s. She wasn’t going to tell her mother and Uncle Bob about her conversation with him. She had smiled when she saw him, feeling some of the tension leave her. He spotted her and walked over. Brandon was the perfect match for her. Everyone said so. A criminal defense lawyer, he was super-responsible, respectable, made good money, had a nice office, and lived in a condo on Bellevue Avenue while he renovated an old Victorian house near the hospital. And she did love Brandon. But the idea of marriage made her itch. She wasn’t sure if it was the thought of marriage to Brandon that did that, or if it was the thought of marriage, period. All she knew was that every time Brandon said the word “marriage,” she got a rash on her left arm. She took this as a bad sign. Even though she kept turning him down in the marriage department, he kept taking her out. He was good in bed, attentive, could be charming, and made a wonderful escort.

“Hi, all. Goofing off, Charles?” he’d said at Ocean’s.

Charles grinned. “I’ll ask you the same question, Brandon. The criminals all decide to go straight?”

“Naw. But I needed a break. How’s it going in real estate law?”

“A bit slow. Prices have gotten so high on the island. People either can’t afford to buy, or the sellers are hoping the prices will go higher, so they hang onto what they have.”

Brandon nodded. “I’m going to get some coffee.”

Tina watched him walk over to the counter. He’d been in love with her since high school, and she thought she loved him, too. He was so patient. Sometimes she wondered about that. If he were really passionate about her, wouldn’t he push her more?

She didn’t know. He was good-looking enough, in an average sort of way. No outstanding features. Brown hair, brown eyes, shaved clean every morning, eyes, nose, mouth all attractive enough. He stood just over six feet, so they fit comfortably together, and he worked out enough to have a nice body. She sighed. Would she think this dispassionately about someone she truly loved?

Hank entered her mind, but she pushed him away. She had no clue what she really felt about Hank, either. Better to not go there.

Brandon returned with a coffee and put it down, shucked off his coat, and sat. Turning to Tina, he said, “I thought you had your first job today.”

“It didn’t go as planned. I’m afraid Rachel got upset and sort of threw me out.”

“You upset her?”

“No,” Crystal said. “Mother and I did.”

Crystal saw Brandon’s expression and laughed. “You look so surprised. You’re not surprised Mother and I upset her. You’re surprised I’d admit it. Well, after Tina and I had that dustup the other day at the country club, I got to thinking a bit about how I come across to other people. I should have realized that this morning, but I can’t seem to help myself.”

The three of them stared at her. They sat in awkward silence.

Brandon cleared his throat. “I’m sure Rachel will call Tina back.”

“I hope so,” Crystal said. “It took a lot to persuade her … “

“Things will work out,” Charles said.

“You always say that.” Crystal’s tone was sharp. She patted his hand. “Sorry.” She stood up and put on her coat, head down. She murmured goodbye as Charles took the last sip of his coffee and rushed to catch up with his wife.

“Wow,” Brandon and Tina said at the same time as the door closed.

Then they laughed.

“Looks like you had quite a morning,” Brandon said.

“It was interesting. One of the most unusual I’ve had in a long time.”

“Messing around in other people’s messes.”

“Ah! You don’t approve. I knew it! I was waiting for you to say something that would prove to me you don’t like the idea of professional organizing.” He sounded just like her mother.

“No, it’s not that I disapprove. I have doubts, that’s all.”

“Come on, Brandon. You mess around in other people’s lives all the time. And they’ve often broken the law, or they’re in some kind of mess. Much worse than an unorganized home or office.”

He shook his head. “I hate to admit it, but you have a point.” He gave a rueful laugh.

“But you’re a guy, and I’m a woman. You’re so old-fashioned, you know that?”

“Yeah. I know. Can’t help it. Maybe I’d like to create the home life I’ve never had.”

Tina stared at him. That was more insight than she expected from Brandon. “You still don’t know where your mother disappears to every so often?”

“Haven’t a clue. I’ve even thought of hiring a private investigator to follow her. But I can’t do it. What if she found out?”

“You think your father knows? And Leslie?”

“I’m pretty sure Dad does. And he hates it. He hardly talks to me or Leslie when Mom’s gone, or to her when she gets back. I’m not sure if my dear sister knows or not.”

Sometimes Tina found her mother difficult, but she couldn’t imagine what it would be like to have her disappear periodically for weeks on end with no explanation. Brandon’s mother had been doing that since he attended grammar school.

“She’s doing it less lately, it seems,” Brandon said.

“Well, that’s good.” Tina took his hand. He clasped hers so tightly, she had to hide a wince.

“Yeah, but since it’s always been a secret,” he said, “I have to believe it’s not a good one.”

Tina’s thoughts were interrupted when she saw Laura hang up the phone. Uncle Bob put away his sponge, and they both sat down again.

“That was Mitzi,” Laura said. “Asking if I’d heard.”

Hank’s mother. One of the Lunch Bunch. Tina nodded and continued her story. “Rachel did call me, and I went back to her house. We worked for a couple of hours, then needed a place to put the boxes we’d sorted, and she took me to the nursery.”

Laura shuddered, and Uncle Bob stood up to get the now-cooled cookie tray and sat back down again. “What are you going to do now?” he asked as he wiped down the cookie sheet with shortening and began to put mounds of dough on it.

“Go sulk in my room, I guess,” Tina said.

“That’s my girl. I’ll call you when dinner’s ready.”

“Um, thanks, I think.” She went up the back stairs, laughing.

“You better show more respect, missy,” Uncle Bob said, but she knew he was smiling. The thump of Princess’s tail grew fainter as she walked down the hall to her bedroom.

The phone rang when Tina entered her room, and she plopped herself on her high, canopy bed, kicked off her shoes, and answered it.

“Hey, Red,” Hank greeted her.

“Hello, Hank,” she said carefully, but sank back onto the pillows, melting now from different feelings. Feelings she didn’t want to have.

“I heard about Crystal. You found her?”

“How’d you hear?”

“That’s not important. You’re what’s important. Are you okay?”

If she melted any more, she’d be a puddle.
Most unsuitable
, she heard her mother’s voice in her head. Hank had no visible means of support, and Tina’s mother recoiled at the very thought of him and her daughter together. But Hank did something for a living—Tina knew that—because sometimes he was totally unavailable, and he had enough money to live nicely. Not lavishly, but nicely. Sometimes Tina wished she knew what he did, but she’d long since stopped asking him. He was both noncommittal and evasive and always seemed annoyed.

“I’m all right. Rachel isn’t doing so well.”

“They were close,” Hank said. “It will be hard for her.”

“Yes. And she had to move out, did you know that? The police won’t let them stay in the house while they investigate.”

“Normal procedure,” Hank said.

“Oh?”

“See it all the time on TV.”

“I haven’t.”

“You hardly ever watch TV.”

“Well, I didn’t know you were such a fan of television, either. My opinion of you has just gone down a notch.”

“How high was it to begin with? And I didn’t know you were a TV snob.”

Tina grinned. Was there just a hint of concern about her opinion of him there?

“I’m not. I have my favorite programs.”

“Yeah, on the Discovery Channel. And the History Channel. You
are
a television snob.”

“Oh, well.” Tina laughed. “Anyway, Mr. Expert, when do you think Rachel and Nicky will be able to move back into their house? My first job has sort of been put on hold, here.”

“How cluttered and dirty was her place?”

“Not very dirty, actually. When I saw, going in, all the boxes piled to the ceiling in the hallway, I was afraid the whole place would be filthy. And it didn’t smell too good, but I think that was mostly mustiness from the boxes and stuff.”

“When the police get finished tearing everything apart to search, your job will be even more interesting. You’ll have to charge double.”

“John said they wouldn’t put everything back, but that’s not right,” Tina sputtered, trying to imagine what it was going to look like and failing.

“They don’t have time to put everything back the way it was, doll.”

“Doesn’t matter. Still not right.”

“You are so rigid sometimes.”

Yes, she knew that. Which was one reason why she was so careful about Hank. They’d met in first grade, gone all the way through school together. Even back then, he’d been secretive. They’d hung out with a group of other kids, and it seemed they were always drawn to each other, but Tina resisted. He had never made a move on her. Sometimes she wished he would. The rest of the time she was glad he didn’t.