Chapter 5
Back inside she decided to take Mugs for a walk. She changed her heels for Nan’s bright pink garden shoes on the back veranda, put Mugs on a leash, grabbed her purse and walked out the front door. If the police wanted to talk to her, they could call her. Because she’d had enough of them. She sauntered down the street, waving at a couple neighbors who called out to her. She pretended not to hear them when they asked questions, and she just kept on strolling by.
What was she supposed to say? Oh, the police? No problem. I just have a body in the garden. Or how about, Oh, it’s nothing. I’m sure that finger I found wasn’t connected to anything to be concerned about.
She refused to contemplate what happened to the poor man normally attached to that finger. Best scenario was a neighbor lost the finger in an accident using power tools. Her husband always said they were dangerous things.
As a vehicle slowed while passing her, the driver’s gaze curious, she stared resolutely ahead. Not the preferred first day to her new beginning that she’d hoped for. These people barely knew her, and Nan was already eccentric enough. Apparently everyone was checking out Doreen sideways to see if she would be a chip off the old block. According to Chester and Arnold, she probably was.
Just as she got to the end of the block, she heard a single flap sound behind her. She turned to see Thaddeus flying—no, make that coasting—toward her. He landed on top of Mugs, who immediately twisted in a circle, trying to get at the bird riding him like a horse.
Goliath streaked past too, the huge cat brushing up against Doreen’s calf in the process.
“Oh, for God’s sake.” She brushed the bird off Mugs’s back. The bird immediately hopped to her arm and did a weird slide step up to Doreen’s shoulder.
“Thaddeus is here. Thaddeus is here,” he squawked in her ear.
“Really? Like I didn’t know that already?” she cried out, trying to stare at him. He cocked his head at her. “You can’t just sit there.” She’d come to a complete stop on the sidewalk. How was she supposed to walk with him on her shoulder? But Thaddeus had no problem with it. His claws dug into her shoulder but never hard enough to really hurt. Nan had obviously trained him well. Besides, he was beautiful.
He looked down at her… as if waiting for her to sort herself out.
“Okay, fine. But you behave yourself.”
“Thaddeus is here. Thaddeus is here.” Instead of shouting it, he crooned it softly, rubbing his head along hers.
She nuzzled back, grinning in spite of herself, and then proceeded to walk toward town.
Instead of being upset by the crap going on in her backyard, she had a spring in her step. Maybe this would work out after all. She didn’t have any chosen direction to walk or any definitive purpose for going to town. She just needed to take Mugs for a walk and, well, to get away from the madness at her house.
She turned right, taking a path along the creek.
She crossed one of the small footbridges and stopped, looking at the water below. It really was beautiful here. She could see how Nan would’ve enjoyed her years spent in this town. Doreen brightened. Maybe that’s what she should do—visit Nan. The retirement home wasn’t very far away. Nan had one of the outer studio apartments on a corner with lots of light where she had French doors leading to a patio and a small garden. She could have her meals at the main center, or she could do her own cooking. But Doreen knew Nan. She didn’t do much in the way of cooking. And only cooked what came from a can, apparently.
Doreen grabbed her phone and called Nan. “Are you up for a little bit of company?”
“Oh, my goodness. I would be delighted,” Nan said. “When?”
Doreen laughed. “I’m walking toward you right now. Thaddeus is on my shoulder, and I’ve got Mugs beside me. And the cat is sauntering close by too.”
“Oh, my dear, that would be absolutely wonderful. I’ll put on the kettle.”
When her grandmother hung up the phone, Doreen had to laugh. Nan wasn’t one to hold the phone to her ear while preparing tea. But then Nan had been late getting into the Technology Era. She still felt the phone—a plugged-in landline no less—belonged in the hallway near the front door and nowhere else.
Doreen changed direction and kept walking until she could see Rosemoor, the retirement home, up ahead. It had both full-care and partial-care facilities. She really didn’t know anything else about it. She had never known anybody who lived in one, until Nan. And this one appeared to be unique in a town that didn’t have a large population, so they had gathered together a lot of people with various needs into a single building. One end was a full nursing home for people mostly bedridden. On the opposite side were small independent living apartments. That was where Nan currently lived. Doreen assumed, when people’s conditions worsened, they were moved to the north end of the complex.
That kind of sucked. But, on the other hand, Nan was still in her right mind, so maybe it was all good.
As Doreen walked up to Nan’s apartment, Nan stepped onto her patio and waved. Thaddeus immediately left Doreen’s shoulder and flew across the beautiful lawn toward Nan and landed on her shoulder. Even from this distance, Doreen could see the affection between the two. Her heart warmed. Maybe having Thaddeus around wouldn’t be so bad after all.
Doreen was supposed to go inside the main lobby entrance and around to the front door of Nan’s apartment, but, with Mugs and the bird and the cat, she knew she wouldn’t be allowed inside. So, ignoring the Do Not Walk on the Grass sign, she cut across the lawn and quickly stepped onto the stonework patio.
Hearing the horrified gasp at the edge of Nan’s patio, Doreen turned her head and stared at an older man. She hadn’t seen him working in the gardens from the sidewalk. He glared at her and pointed at the sign.
She winced, gave him an apologetic smile and quickly turned away. Shoot. She didn’t want to make a bad impression in her new life, but, so far, she’d done nothing but.
“Don’t worry. That’s Grumpy George,” Nan said with a chuckle. “He’s a stickler for rules and keeps track of the blades of grass here, like a farmer does his sheep.”
Chuckling at the nickname, Doreen bent to give Nan a hug, amazed at how strong her grandmother’s hug was. Nan, while aging gracefully even with her somewhat gnarled fingers, was petite with her tiny wrists. And the smile on her face was, as always, full of pure love. It brought tears to Doreen’s eyes. She’d missed this woman a lot.
“Take a seat, dear.”
Doreen pulled out the other little wrought-iron chair and sat down at the small bistro table. The patio wasn’t much bigger than a ten-by-ten-foot square, so there wasn’t a whole lot of room for furniture. It was cozy and suited this downsized version of Nan. As Doreen looked at the teapot, she frowned. It appeared to be a flower upside down with its stalk as the spout. “That’s quite a teapot, Nan.”
She laughed, her voice rippling around the garden, seemingly making even the sunshine brighter. “Isn’t it? I picked it up at a secondhand store. You have to go over there, my dear. They have treasures unlikely to be found anywhere else in this world.” She shook her head and smiled, patting the little teapot. “I know it’s an oddity, but, at my age, I should be allowed a few of those.”
“We should be allowed those at whatever our age,” Doreen said with a big smile.
“And yet, you don’t.” Some of Nan’s bright laughter fell away, and Nan’s voice sharpened. “You were barely even living before, my dear. But look at you now. You’re not coated in makeup, and your nails look like you have lived a normal person’s life instead of a model’s. That smile of yours—it’s the best part—because that’s the first real emotion I’ve seen on your face in a long time.”
“That’s not true,” Doreen protested. Inside, she hoped it wasn’t true.
“No, maybe not,” Nan admitted. “Your only other emotions lately have been the pain and loss of your husband to your divorce attorney and the loss of your marriage—or more the loss of a way of life and your complete lack of comprehension of what that meant for you.” Nan shook her head. “I never said anything all those years you were married. But you never looked happy. It’s like you were shaped into a Barbie doll, and that was the role you played. And you played it well. Until your husband was no longer happy with Barbie and changed it for a china doll.” She waved her hand up and down at Doreen. “Look at you. Your super expensive suit, and yet, those must be my gardening shoes.” Nan bent forward under the table to stare at them. “Oh, my goodness, where did you find them?”
Doreen kicked out her legs. “They were on the back veranda.”
Nan laughed. “See? That’s what I mean. A year ago you never would’ve been caught dead in them.”
“But they’re comfortable,” Doreen said. “Besides, I had to run out of the house and get away from the cops.”
Silence fell at those words. Nan stared at Doreen, and her jaw slowly dropped open. She leaned forward. “What have you done that the cops are in the house?”
Nan didn’t know anything about it. “Oh, my goodness, I didn’t do anything. I blame your cat for this.” She quickly explained what the cat had brought home and how Mugs had stolen the finger from the feline.
When Doreen got to the part about the dratted thing dropping the bone onto the front porch and then disappearing in the cracks of the floorboards, Nan shook her head and giggled. “You are a disaster.” Then her giggles turned into full-blown laughter. “I love it.”
“You love that a body’s on your property?” Doreen stared at Nan for a long moment, wondering where her grandmother’s humorous reaction came from. As far as Doreen knew, her grandmother was one of the sweetest old ladies ever. On the other hand, sweet old everyday ladies could have a dark side. Doreen leaned forward and asked, “Nan, did you kill somebody and bury him in the backyard?”
That sent Nan into absolute hilarity. By the time she finally calmed down, Doreen wondered if she should call somebody. Tears poured down the old woman’s face, and she held her sides to the point that she looked to be having a heart attack.
Just as Doreen rose to race inside to get medical attention, Nan said, “Oh, my goodness, I needed that. You have no idea how boring my life has gotten lately. I’m so glad you decided to move to town, my dear.”
Doreen settled back in her chair and stared at her grandmother. “So does that mean you did or did not murder somebody and bury him in the backyard?” She narrowed her eyes suspiciously at her grandmother.
Several more chuckles slipped out as Nan regained control. She wiped her eyes with a napkin from the table. “No worries. I never murdered anybody.” She pointed a finger at Doreen. “Now I might have wanted plenty to be murdered. But it’s just so messy.”
Doreen stiffened at those last words. She knew her grandmother would never have been involved in a murder. But, when she said how it was too messy, Doreen fixed her gaze on her last living relative and asked, “How would you know it’s messy?”
That sent Nan off again.
Grumbling about being the center of so much laughter, Doreen reached for the teapot and poured the two of them some tea. Maybe that would help Nan calm down. Or maybe not. She appeared to be enjoying herself way too much.