Charlotte poured herself a glass of brandy and drank almost half of it. She certainly hadn’t planned on driving out to her favorite liquor store, but since Curtis was in Chicago, Curtina was at school, and Agnes was off on Mondays, she didn’t see a reason not to. Plus, for some reason, she had been kind of bored and had thought it might be nice to buy brandy instead of vodka this time around. She hadn’t purchased brandy in years, but it tasted good, and it relaxed her just as well as her vodka did—although vodka was still her drink of choice, and always would be.
After Charlotte finished the rest of her liquor, she rinsed out her glass and then went upstairs to hide her bottle in the guest bedroom closet. It was the one place she knew she didn’t have to worry about anybody snooping around in—namely Curtis or Curtina—but she’d also told Agnes years ago that there was no need to clean the closets of the guest bedrooms. Maybe a dusting or two every now and then was fine, but that was it.
Charlotte went into her bedroom and stretched her body across the bed, face forward. She felt so at peace and wanted to enjoy this feeling for as long as she could. Then she would simply take a nap, making sure to sleep it off before Curtina got home. Curtis wouldn’t be back until evening, and she would definitely be sober by then. Or close to it.
Charlotte lay there for another five minutes, nearly dozing off, but then her phone rang.
“Ugh. Who is it?” she said, sitting up and looking at the caller ID on their home phone, and saw that it was her mother.
“Hey, Mom,” she answered, trying to sound as though she hadn’t been drinking.
“Hey, dear. How are you?”
“I’m good. And Daddy?”
“He’s doing great, and believe it or not, he’s going along with everything I tell him to do. No arguments about anything.”
“Wow, that’s really good to hear.”
“I know, because I’d sort of thought that, by now, he’d be tired of eating fruits, vegetables, and only baked, broiled, or grilled meat.”
“Yeah, me too. But maybe his heart attack really scared him.”
“I think it did. He’ll never admit it, but it definitely got his attention, and that’s a blessing.”
“Yes. For sure.”
“So how’s Curtis?”
“He’s fine, and actually he’s over there.”
“Oh, okay, and how’s his sister this week?”
“I haven’t spoken to him since he left, but it sounds like she was about the same on Saturday. She’s a very strong woman, though. She’s handling her illness a lot better than I probably would.”
“That’s good. Especially for her husband and children, because sometimes the person who’s dying can end up being the inspiration for the loved ones they’ll be leaving. It’s almost as if they find a certain peace about dying and know that they’ll be okay. Yet they worry about the people who will miss them.”
“I can’t even imagine having to leave my children, MJ, or Curtis, or you and Dad. I can’t imagine dying so young.”
“That does seem to make it harder, and I’m very sorry this is happening. It’s so very sad.”
“It really is.”
“So what’s going on with Miss Curtina?” Noreen wanted to know.
“She’s about the same,” Charlotte said, knowing that things were actually worse now that Curtina had caught her drinking and was using it as leverage to get what she wanted.
“I think she’s just going through something. No different than other eleven-, twelve- and thirteen-year-olds.”
“That might be, but it’s getting on our last nerve, and we weren’t prepared for this. We were very naïve in thinking that we would never have to deal with this kind of drama. I was talking to Alicia one day last week, and she reminded me of the time she started communicating with a guy online. Back when she was fourteen.”
“Curtis was married to his second wife then, right?”
“Uh-huh. We didn’t have social media back then, but she still met him online and somehow he talked her into meeting him somewhere after school and he raped her.”
“I remember you and Curtis talking about that.”
“It was awful for Alicia, and I just hope Curtina doesn’t start texting and sexting with boys. I hope she’s not even thinking about it.”
“I hope not, too. But you know what?” Noreen said. “There’s someone else I’m more worried about.”
“Really, who?”
“You.”
“Why?”
“Because I know you’ve started drinking again.”
Charlotte wasn’t sure whether to lie or keep quiet. Finally, she chose the latter.
“Are you there?”
“Yes.”
“Why are you doing this again, and how did it even start?”
“I’m not, Mom,” she said, and knew she didn’t sound very convincing.
“Charlotte, you are. I know you are. I knew it when I saw you at the hospital, and I could tell some of the other times I’ve talked to you on the phone.”
“Does Daddy know?”
“I don’t think so, but that’s neither here nor there. What’s important is that you stop.”
“I’m not overdoing it this time. I have total control over how much I drink, and it’s not like I drink all day.”
“But you know you had a problem with alcohol before, right? More than once.”
“Yes, but I’ll never go back to being drunk all the time. I’m only doing it as a way to relax.”
“Honey, I know you believe that, but if you keep drinking, pretty soon you’ll be drinking every day again, and then every day will become multiple times a day.”
Charlotte didn’t want to have this conversation with her mother or anyone else, and she wished Noreen would somehow realize that having a few drinks wasn’t that serious. As a matter of fact, the only reason Curtis made such a fuss about it was because of how violent and cruel his father had been to him when he drank. But Charlotte wasn’t Curtis’s dad, and she wished he would understand that. She wished she could make him see that not every drinker was a chronic alcoholic. Not everyone had an addiction problem, and she didn’t, either.
“Well,” Noreen said when Charlotte didn’t respond to her last comment, “I really wish you would quit.”
Charlotte pursed her lips. “Okay, fine, Mom. I will.”
“You mean that?”
“Yes.”
“I hope you do.”
“Mom, I’m really going to stop. You’ll see.”
“Good, because I’ve been worried to death about you driving around and about what it could mean for your marriage.”
“Everything will be fine. I’ll stop drinking, and that will be that.”
“Okay, then, well, I’ll let you go.”
“I love you, Mom, and kiss Daddy for me.”
“I will, and I love you, too.”
Charlotte set the phone on its base, went into the guest bedroom, and pulled out her brandy. She didn’t even head downstairs to get a glass. Instead, she removed the top, turned it up, and drank straight from the bottle.
Charlotte realized she’d fallen asleep because Curtina was in her bedroom waking her up.
“Mom?”
“What is it?”
“Did you talk to Dad about the sleepover?”
Charlotte sighed loudly. “Curtina, please tell me you didn’t wake me up for that.”
“Well, did you?”
“No, I decided it was best to wait until Friday. That way I’ll have time to come up with a good reason why he should let you go and miss church.”
“Maybe you should talk to him about it tonight.”
“No, just trust me. Friday is better.”
“Well, I also want to start going to the mall with my friends on Saturday afternoons. Not just some Saturdays but every Saturday.”
Charlotte sat up, frowning. “I don’t know who you’ve been talking to, but that’ll never happen. And you also need to accept the fact that you can’t do every single thing you want to do.”
Curtina squinted her eyes. “Then why do you get to do whatever you want?”
Charlotte was growing tired of Curtina’s mouth. “First of all, I don’t do everything I want, and secondly, if I did, I’d be doing it because I’m a grown woman.”
“You mean like how you drink because you’re grown? Because I can tell you’ve already been drinking today. Your eyes even look funny.”
“I haven’t been drinking anything.” Charlotte spat. She couldn’t stand the way Curtina was using her secret to try to control her.
“I think you have,” Curtina said, taunting her.
“I told you I haven’t.”
“But you were yesterday. I saw you with my own eyes. And anyway, I’m hungry.”
“Then order a pizza, because I’m not cooking.”
“I don’t want pizza. I want Mexican.”
“That would be fine except El Molcajete doesn’t deliver, and I don’t feel like going out.”
“Why? Because you’ve been drinking?”
Charlotte was only two seconds from snatching Curtina back to her senses. But instead, she breathed in and out a couple of times to calm her frustration. “Why can’t you just eat pizza, and we can get Mexican tomorrow?”
“I want Mexican today, and I want it from El Molcajete,” she basically demanded and left the room.
Charlotte could barely believe what had just happened, and she definitely didn’t want to drive under the influence. But then again, she had taken a nap, and she felt completely sober. Plus, the Mexican restaurant wasn’t more than three or four miles away at the most. So to keep Curtina quiet, she would go get her the food she wanted. It was either that or once again risk having her blab things to Curtis that Charlotte didn’t want him knowing about.