CHAPTER EIGHT
The phone rang five times, quit, and then rang five more before Zed finally grabbed it from the wall and grumpily said, “Hello?”
“Hello, Zed. This is Mrs. Johnson from the Frankston School. Could I speak to Dana, please?”
“She’s busy in the store. What can I help you with? Need reservations for Sunday?” Zed asked.
“No, sir. I need to speak to Dana about Brook,” she answered.
“Is she sick?”
“I just need to talk to her mother, please,” Mrs. Johnson said.
“Is she alive?”
“Yes, she is.”
“We’ll be there in ten minutes.” Zed hung up and called Flora in the laundry room. “Go to the store and tell Dana to meet me out front of it in two minutes. We’ve got to go to the school, so I need you to mind the store while we are gone.”
“Will do,” Flora said.
Dana was standing in front of the store when he arrived. The expression on her face said that she was every bit as worried as he was. He’d promised Annie that he’d take care of the sisters as long as he could. That meant every one of them.
“What’s happening? Is Brook all right? Is she hurt? What kind of trouble is she in? She’s never been in trouble at school before in her life,” Dana said as she crawled into his twenty-year-old truck.
“Mrs. Johnson wouldn’t tell me, but I didn’t want you to go alone,” he said.
“Thanks,” Dana whispered.
He made it in eight minutes and would have arrived there sooner if he hadn’t gotten behind a poky old woman who didn’t have anyplace to go and a year to get there. He was grumbling and praying both as he parked his truck.
Zed beat Dana to the door and practically jogged down the hallway to the office. Didn’t even knock on the principal’s door but barged right in and heaved a sigh of relief when he saw Brook sitting in a chair without a mark on her. He put his hands on the desk and looked Mrs. Johnson right in the eye.
“What is this all about?”
Dana stopped and laid an arm around her daughter’s shoulders. “What’s going on, Brook?”
“I do not use, buy, or sell drugs,” Brook said with a stiff upper lip. “But no one will believe me because I’m the new girl and they don’t know me.”
Zed whipped around and nodded seriously. “I believe you, child.” Then just as quick, he was staring down the principal. “Now you’d best tell me what happened.”
“Brook came to us with exemplary records, but when the drug dogs came in for a random check today, they hit on her purse and we found marijuana in it,” the principal said.
“There must be a mistake,” Dana gasped.
Zed backed up and sat in the chair next to Brook. “Want to tell me where you got it?”
“It’s not mine,” she said, reddening to her hair part. “I don’t do drugs. Mama would ground me until I was fifty if she caught me with any kind of drug, even marijuana.”
“Then how did it get in your purse?” Dana asked. “You’ve got to know that—and probably who put it there.”
Brook shrugged.
Zed turned back to the principal. “How much did she have?”
“A bagful, enough to get her expelled from school and likely put in jail.”
Zed laid a hand on her shoulder. “Who are you protecting?”
“I’m not a rat,” she said.
“Well then, I guess you’d better expel her from school and we’ll take her on home. Her mama and aunts can homeschool her. Smart as she is, I expect that she can get her work done in a couple of hours every evening and work through the daytime in the laundry with Flora. We can use the help.” Zed’s hand dropped into his lap.
“No!” Brook squealed.
“Brook Clancy, you had better start tellin’ me right now what you know.” Dana’s tone didn’t leave a bit of wiggle room. “This can ruin your chances for college. It will be a mark on your record for the rest of your life. Start talking.”
There were several awkward moments during which Brook was no doubt weighing the pros and cons. On one hand she would be cut off from the social aspect of school. On the other she wouldn’t have to be branded a drug dealer. Finally she raised her head.
“I’m barely fittin’ in here, and if anyone finds out that I ratted them out, then . . .”
“Do what’s right, child,” Zed said.
“Okay,” she sighed. “My purse was sitting beside my desk and it was open. Someone in the class saw some dogs comin’ into the school with policemen and pointed out the window.”
“And?” Dana asked.
“And there was a rustling behind me and the next thing I knew the dogs stopped at my purse. That bag had come from the back of the room and was passed up, probably from Ryson, but I can’t prove it. I promise that’s all I know,” Brook said. “I’m the new kid. They’ll hate me if they think I told on someone, but I truly did not see who had it first. I promise. Mama, I’ve never even seen marijuana. I didn’t know what it was when they took it out of my purse.”
“Is she expelled, Mrs. Johnson?” Dana asked.
“School policy says that she is, but I believe she is telling the truth because I’m pretty sure I know who’s responsible for this. So I’m going to send her home for the rest of the day,” she answered.
“And can she make up whatever work she misses?” Dana asked.
“No, but there’s only one more class today and then we’re having an assembly.”
“And what are you going to do about it if the kids start bullying her because they think she’s really a drug dealer?” Zed asked.
“Believe me, they all know who that bag belonged to. If they bully her, I’ll take care of it.”
“If you know who is responsible for this, why isn’t he or she in this room?” Dana asked.
“Because I can’t catch him red-handed with the drugs. When I do, I’m putting him into the in-school suspension program for a long, long time,” she answered.
“Why don’t you fingerprint that bag of marijuana?” Zed asked.
“The police have assured me that they will do that, but think about how many hands it had to pass through on the way to her purse. By tomorrow morning, we’ll have a definite answer, or at least no sign of her fingerprints, and there will be no problem with Brook coming back to school.”
Zed was proud of the girl. She’d stood up for herself like Annie had done so many times when she was that age.
Dana met the principal’s gaze. “And tomorrow when she comes back to school, I want the word in the halls to be that those drugs did not belong to her.”
“It will be,” Mrs. Johnson said. “And Brook, I know you don’t want to be a snitch, but it might help if you’d—”
Zed rose up and gave the principal a quick nod. “She’s told you what she knows and the rest is your job, not hers.” Then he turned to Brook and Dana. “You ladies ready to go home?”
“Yes, I am.” Brook stood and wrapped her arms around Dana. “Mama, they aren’t goin’ to find my prints on that bag. I promised you a long time ago that I’d never do drugs. We don’t keep secrets from each other.”
Dana hugged her tightly. “I know that and I trust you.”
Zed marched out to his truck, laid his head on the steering wheel, and let out a long whoosh of breath. Yes, sir, Brook was going to be all right. He didn’t have to worry about her, but the three sisters—they still needed a lot of work.
“Annie, I was really worried. My heart was pumping so hard I thought I might be comin’ to see you sooner than we ever expected, but she’s okay. She ain’t hurt and I’m right proud of her.”
He started the engine and pulled around to the door where Dana and Brook would be coming out of the school. “Raisin’ kids ain’t for us old dogs, Annie, but I gave you my word that I’d make things right for them if you went first. I didn’t know that a bag of pot was going to be the first big hurdle.”
“Is something wrong with our truck, Mama?” Brook slung open the door and slid across the bench seat to the middle to sit between her mother and Zed.
“No, Uncle Zed took the call in the kitchen and . . .” Dana slammed the door shut and glanced over at him.
He pulled around the rows of vehicles and back out onto the road. “I knew you’d be nervous and worryin’ about what was goin’ on, so I didn’t want you to drive.”
“Thank you for that, Uncle Zed, but I’ve been takin’ care of myself and Brook for years with no help,” Dana said.
“Yep, you have, but you don’t have to anymore. I’m here, and you got two sisters who’ll come through in a pinch,” he told her.
“I might trust you to be there for me and Brook, but my two sisters—not so much,” she chuckled. “Now, Annie Brook Clancy, who put that bag of pot in your purse?”
Brook stiffened her spine and stared out the windshield without blinking. “I know it was Ryson Taylor. I’ve seen him during the noon hour giving kids something and they hand him money. He sits about six seats behind me. But Mama, I didn’t want to say anything because Cassidy is right in front of him and she thinks he’s cute. She’s the only friend I got so far.”
“That means her fingerprints will be on that bag, too. I imagine Flora is going to be really upset,” Dana said. “What if that kid blames it all on her?”
“You think they won’t go back and look at the seating chart and see who all was close enough to drop it in your purse?” Zed asked.
Brook threw her head back dramatically. “I work with Flora, and I really like her and Cassidy. They are going to hate me.”
“No, they are not!” Dana said emphatically. “If this happened to Cassidy, we wouldn’t hate Flora for it or Cassidy, either. But if she’s doin’ drugs, you better tell me.”
“She’s not, but she likes him a lot. I bet she’ll protect him,” Brook said.
Zed crossed the bridge and made the turn back to the resort. “Crazy what love will make a person do, whether it’s the old folks or the young’uns,” he muttered.
“What was that?” Dana asked.
“Just mumblin’ to myself.” Zed parked at the back of the café. “Y’all might as well come on in and get a glass of tea or a soda pop.”
“Sounds good to me. Got any of that gingerbread you were makin’ for lunch?” Brook asked.
“Little bit,” Zed said. “And kiddo, I’m real glad that you ain’t hurt or sick.”
“Me too, Uncle Zed.” She gave him a quick hug as the three of them entered the café by the kitchen door.
“Are you okay? Did someone hurt you? Do I need to go to the school and whip someone’s ass?” Harper started the minute they were inside. “I’ve been worried out of my mind. Talk to me.”
“I’m fine. Someone put a bag of marijuana in my purse, and I’m expelled until tomorrow morning,” Brook said as if that happened every day.
“What little bastard did it?” Tawny peeked through the serving window. “I’ll go up there and take care of him or her.”
“I’m not really sure, but he’ll get caught eventually. Thanks, Aunt Harper and Aunt Tawny, for worrying about me.” She grinned. “Now let’s have some of Uncle Zed’s gingerbread with lemon sauce.”
Tawny giggled.
“It’s not funny,” Dana said.
“No, it’s not, but I smarted off to my mother the other day about going to the school to score some marijuana. Looks like I was right,” Tawny said.
Harper’s hand flew up to her heart. “I can’t believe you said that to her.”
Tawny’s shoulders popped up in a dramatic shrug. “Did you think it was all rainbows and unicorn farts after you left? The only thing that changed was that I got all the bitchin’ instead of sharin’ it with you.”
Zed stuck a bowl of lemon sauce in the microwave and set half a pan of gingerbread on the table. “Life is what you make it, girls. The past is all over and done with. What you got is the present, because tomorrow might never get here. Annie told me that a lot when I got to frettin’ about things, so we worked hard at makin’ today a good one.”
“That’s a good sermon,” Dana said. “Brook and I’d better take our gingerbread to go since Flora will need to get back to her regular job.”
“Fifteen minutes more ain’t goin’ to make a difference,” Zed said when the microwave bell dinged. “Y’all sit down and have a snack and then we’ll all go back to work.”
“Will you sit with us?” Brook asked.
A grin spread across his face. “Naw, honey, I’m going to use my fifteen minutes to go outside and smoke a cigarette. You bring that pan of gingerbread to a table, Harper, and I’ll get this sauce. Y’all will be more comfortable out there in the dinin’ room.”
Dana didn’t realize that her heart was still pounding or that there was a knot the size of a grapefruit in her stomach until she sat down at the table. But she’d learned to handle fear by putting on a hard shell. Then, when the situation was over, she fell apart in private.
“So do you know who did this thing?” Harper asked Brook.
“Got a pretty good idea,” she answered.
“What are you goin’ to do about it?” Tawny asked.
“Keep my purse zipped up from now on.”
Harper chuckled. “And your backpack, right?”
“Yep, and if I’m right about who that weed belonged to, he’d better stay away from me. I don’t like bein’ a scapegoat.” She finished off her snack and carried her plate to the kitchen. “I’m going to the house and get into my work jeans. Flora will probably need some help since she’ll be behind and I’m the cause of it.”
When the back door slammed, Harper glanced over at Dana. “You got a really good kid there.”
“Yes, I do.” Dana’s voice cracked. “God, I was worried, especially when Uncle Zed went with me. I thought she’d died and they just weren’t tellin’ me.”
Tawny laid a hand on her shoulder and squeezed gently. “We all worry, too. I came out here to get a glass of tea and Harper was pacing.”
“I was not. I was sweeping,” Harper said. “I’d spilled coffee on my shirt, so I went to change it. When I got back, Uncle Zed was gone. When I called the store to see if he was there, Flora told me there was a problem at school. But anyway, Brook can take care of herself, and if she’s not quite big enough, she’s got two aunts, a mama, and an uncle Zed who’ll help her out.”
Dana pushed back the uneaten square of gingerbread and laid her head on the table. “Thank you. I just need a minute to unwind.”
“Need a shot of whiskey?” Harper asked.
“Or a beer?” Tawny patted her on the back.
Dana raised her head. “Thank you both. I’ll be fine. I can keep my cool in the middle of a crisis, but when it’s over, well, that’s a different story.”
“Me too,” Harper whispered.
“Not me.” Tawny went back to eating. “I fall apart right then. My nose runs and I cry like a baby. I’m not tough like y’all are.”
“Bullshit,” Harper said. “I’ve seen your tough side.”
Tawny carried her plate to the kitchen and returned with three glasses and a pitcher of tea. “I used to be tough when I had you around to back me up, but after you left, everything went to hell. Mother and Daddy started fighting more and more and everything was my fault. Then Daddy died and she never wanted kids anyway and how dare he leave her with a teenage daughter. Her words, not mine. Believe me, she could break steel down into a puddle of liquid. I was so glad to go to college that I didn’t even go home that first year, not even for Christmas.”
Dana whistled through her teeth. “Wow. My mother is a piece of work, but she didn’t go that far. I never one time felt unloved or unwanted. She told me that she’d made a mistake, but that I was a blessing from that and not a burden. She didn’t even fuss at me when I got married without telling her. ’Course, we know how that ended.”
“We’ve all got parent baggage,” Harper said.
“Yes, you do, but you don’t have to carry it,” Zed said as he entered the café. “It’s your choice whether you have a funeral for that baggage or strap it to your shoulders.”
“Good advice, but a hard thing to get done,” Tawny said. “I’m going back to my cabin. If anyone needs me, just holler. And Uncle Zed, I would have taken care of the store if you’d called me.”
“I know that now, but me and Flora, we been doin’ it alone so long, I clean forgot. Next time I’ll remember that we’ve got more help now,” he said.
“Good,” Harper said. “I see a couple of cars pulling into the lot—we’ve got some customers, Uncle Zed.”
“Time to get to work. I like it when we’re busy. Makes the day go by faster,” Zed said.
“We’ll get on to the store. Flora can go back to her jobs.” Dana picked up the plate with the gingerbread and carried it with her. “I can’t bear to see this wasted, so I’m takin’ it with me.”
A blast of lemony cleaner met Dana when she entered the store. Flora, who could put the fear of God into a speck of dust, looked up from the back of the store, where she was wiping down the baseboards.
“Perfect timin’. I ain’t had the time to give this store a good goin’-over in a few weeks,” she said as she carried a bucket of soapy water and her rag to the bathroom. “Brook came through a few minutes ago and gave me the story. That damn boy has been trouble since the day he was born. His mama grows weed out in the woods behind their house and he sells it. I hope they put her in jail with him. Any of that gingerbread left?” She eyed the plate as she crossed the floor. “I could sure use a pick-me-up now.”
“There’s still a third of a pan in the kitchen. It smells and looks great in here, Flora, thank you.” It was on the tip of Dana’s tongue to spit out that Cassidy had a crush on the drug boy, but she clamped her mouth shut.
“See you later, then.” The bell above the door rang as she left.
Dana got her phone from her purse and hit “Speed Dial” for her mother before she remembered there was no service in the area. She tossed it back into her purse and hiked a hip on the bar stool behind the cash register. It took her a few minutes to remember her mother’s number after she’d picked up the landline phone. She waited for five long rings before Lacy picked up.
“Hey, kid, what’s goin’ on in the boondocks?” Lacy giggled.
“Your granddaughter got in trouble at school today,” Dana said and went on to tell her the whole story.
“And how are you?” Lacy’s tone had gone from happy to serious.
“Why do you ask that?” Dana could not mask her anger at anyone thinking Brook would have drugs in her purse.
“Brook is a tough kid. She’ll get things straightened out. But, as a mother, you will worry about how this will affect her. You’ll be second-guessing yourself about whether you did the right thing by moving there. Don’t! Simply don’t. You are an amazing mother. Much more so than I ever was. You got that from Annie. Brook is going to hit rough spots growing up. We all do, so just trust her like I trusted you and everything will work out in the end,” Lacy said.
“Thanks, Mama. You always make me feel better,” Dana said.
“You can always still come and live with me,” Lacy told her.
“We’d kill each other after the first six weeks,” Dana chuckled.
“Probably so, but the first few days would be great. Got to go now, kiddo. I’ve got an appointment to get my nails done. Did those two princess sisters take up for Brook?”
“Yes, believe me, they are very protective of their niece,” Dana answered.
“Well, imagine that,” Lacy said before the line went dead.
Dana returned the receiver to the base. “It is a bit of a miracle.”
“Hey.” Marcus Green pushed into the store. “I thought I’d stop by and see how you are after the fiasco at school today. I also want to assure you that all of us teachers know exactly who is to blame for what happened today. It’s not your daughter.”
“Thanks, Marcus.” Dana nodded. “Cup of coffee? It’s on the house. Isn’t school still in session?”
“We had an assembly, and I wasn’t required to be there,” he explained as he added cream and two packages of sugar to the cup of steaming-hot coffee. “I wanted to talk to you. I hated to hear what happened.”
“That’s sweet,” Dana said. “Want a chunk of gingerbread to go with that?”
“Love it, especially if it’s Zed’s. I can’t get up here on Wednesdays for lunch during the school year, and that’s the only day he makes it.”
Dana dragged an old chair from behind the deli counter so that he could sit across the counter from her, and then she propped a hip on the bar stool. “Place hasn’t changed and neither has Uncle Zed. The menu pretty much stays the same.”
“Which is a good thing. We all know the burgers are the best in the whole state. How about you, Dana?” Marcus asked.
“I have a fourteen-year-old daughter, so I guess the answer is yes, I’ve changed.”
“But you both still go by Clancy,” Marcus said.
“Yes, we do—it’ a long story, but I’m not married,” Dana said. “And you? Have you changed, Marcus? Still living right around here?”
“Hell, yes! I’m not half as smart as I was in junior high school or even high school.” He flashed a brilliant smile. “I hope you noticed that I’m a responsible adult now and not a pot-smokin’ wannabe rock star. I still live with my mother. She doesn’t like being alone and we get along really well, so it’s not a problem.” He took a sip of the coffee and changed the subject. “I’d sure like to ask you to dinner sometime. Think you might say yes?”
“Never know until you ask.” He seemed like a good person and she didn’t want to hurt his feelings, but there wasn’t a single bit of a spark between them. She hoped that he didn’t ask.
“Hey, Dana, I’m here for two dozen minnows. I hear the bass are bitin’ today,” an old guy with gray hair and a big straw hat said as he entered the store. “Good God, has Flora been in here with that cleanin’ crap? I like this place better when it smells like minnows. Howdy, Marcus. Didn’t know you was a fisherman.”
“Just dropped in for a cup of coffee,” Marcus answered. “How are you, Billy Tom?”
“Arthritis is actin’ up, but it won’t hurt no worse if I’m fishin’. And besides, the wife ain’t fussin’ at me if I’m out on the lake,” Billy Tom laughed.
“You got that right.” Marcus nodded on his way out.
“That’s a good boy there,” Billy Tom said. “Now, about them minnows. Maybe you better give me three dozen.”
Zed sat in Annie’s chair that evening. “I want to catch a whiff of your perfume long as it lingers here. I hope it never leaves. I got a story to tell you this evenin’.” He went on to tell her all about the school incident.
“I’ll tell you one thing, Annie. They might fuss and fight among themselves. Oh, they think I don’t see it or know about it, but I do. They try to cover it up when I’m close by so as not to make me sad, but I can tell by their body language if they’ve been at it again. Makes me want to put them on time-out chairs like you did when they was little. But today, they all stood together when it came to Brook, and the other night . . .” He went on to tell the story that one of the regulars at the café shared with him two days after Harper’s bar incident. “We both know that I’ve lived a lot of years longer than any of them, and I have my ways of findin’ out things.”
He moved over to his chair. “So I see some progress in them getting along, Annie. And that’s my good news. Good night, darlin’ Annie.”