“Just lead the way and tell me what to do.” Sissy sighed. “The only people I really know here are y’all, and I don’t want to step on any toes.”
“You’ve met a lot of them, but it will take time to put faces with names,” Ina Mae said.
“No worries,” Gussie said. “We’ll take care of you like you was our own, which you are, since Blanche is . . . was . . . the only one of us privileged to have had a niece. We told her when you were born that she had to share, so we’re collecting on that debt from now on.”
Sissy wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or something she should run from, but she trailed along to the buffet tables.
Chapter Two
Gussie argued with Ina Mae as she drove from the church to her house. “I think Blanche would be okay if we invited Sissy. After all, she’s the only living relative any of us have. It won’t seem right to just have two members in the Sunshine Club.”
Ina Mae set her thin mouth in a firm line and shook her head. “She didn’t leave it in her end-of-life letter.” She grabbed the dashboard and squealed when Gussie slid around a stop sign. “Slow down, woman. The roads are slippery. We don’t want to have another funeral in this kind of nasty weather.”
“Or in any weather.” Gussie got control of the vehicle. “The good Lord isn’t finished with me yet, and my heart couldn’t stand to lose you this soon after Blanche. And you’ll be a hundred years old before God gets done with you.” She gripped the steering wheel a little tighter.
“And what does that mean?” Ina Mae asked.
“That God don’t want you, and the devil won’t have you,” Gussie told her as she tapped the brakes. The car slid right past the driveway, spun around in a complete circle, and was headed right back toward the house when it came to a stop.
“Holy hell!” Ina Mae panted as her hand went to her chest. “I thought we was goners for sure. My heart hasn’t beat this fast since we waited on the ambulance to come help Blanche, and Augusta Frances Sadler, I just saw my whole life flash before my eyes, and every bad thing I ever did, you and Blanche were right there with me. I guess you had better live to be a hundred, too.”
Gussie’s fingers were still glued to the steering wheel, but her heart was pounding like she’d just had hot sex, and that hadn’t happened in years. “My head is still goin’ around in circles, but at least we’re headed in the right direction, and you’re probably right about us being in on the bad stuff. We were there for the good stuff, too, I’ll have you know.”
Ina Mae started to open the car door, but Gussie managed to get a hand away from the steering wheel and grab her arm before she could get out. “What do you think you’re doin’?”
“I’m walking from here to your house. We can’t leave Sissy with no family at all, and you’re about to kill both of us,” Ina Mae answered.
“You’re not leaving me in this car alone. The damned thing has a mind of its own, and I need some support if I’m to get it home. If I ever get it parked in the driveway, I’m not moving it until the roads are dry as a desert,” Gussie declared.
“One more slip and slide, and I’m out of here.” Ina Mae settled into the seat, but she put her hands over her eyes. “Next time I’m driving. I don’t know why you insist on these little lightweight cars. You need a big old truck like I drive. You can trust it to have a little traction.”
“How many times do we need to fill up a gas hog like your truck when we take it on a trip?” Gussie eased down the road at less than five miles an hour.
“As many times as it takes if it saves our lives,” Ina Mae argued, but she didn’t take her hands from her eyes. “Are we there yet?”
“I’m turning into the driveway now,” Gussie answered. “Keep your eyes covered until we get parked.”
“I intend to,” Ina Mae said. “You about scared the pee out of me. Next time my pucker power might give out, and I just got this suit out of the cleaner’s. I don’t want to have to take it back smelling like urine. If that news got out to Elvira, she would spread it all over town.”
Gussie was almost afraid to tap the brakes again, but if she didn’t, the car was going to slide right past the house and run smack into the clubhouse. Lord have mercy! If she destroyed the clubhouse, she would never hear the end of it from Ina Mae, and Blanche might rain fire and brimstone down from heaven upon her. She eased down on the brake and heaved a sigh of relief when the vehicle came to a stop.
“You can uncover your eyes now. We’re safe,” she said.
Ina Mae eased her hands away from her face and checked the rearview mirror on her side. “You didn’t leave enough room for Sissy to park behind you.”
“Hell’s bells!” Gussie huffed.
Ina Mae got out of the car and held on to the door until she got her footing. “I see her. She’s parking across the street in the courthouse spaces.”
“Praise the Lord!” Gussie rolled her eyes upward. “We have to protect her, or Blanche will haunt us for sure.”
Ina Mae slammed the door and waved at Sissy. “Stay on the grass,” she yelled across the street. “It’s not as slippery as the sidewalk. That thing looks like a death trap.”
“Don’t you talk about death right after a funeral,” Gussie scolded her.
“You shush. Next time, I’m driving my truck,” Ina Mae said.
“Your truck couldn’t do a bit better than my car on these kinds of roads,” Gussie said.
“I didn’t hear you bitchin’ about my truck when you wanted to go get that antique bed for your guest room that no one ever uses,” Ina Mae smarted off.
“Whoa!” Gussie held up a palm. “We can only use bad words in the clubhouse, remember? And I think we should let Sissy be our new member.”
“You’re suggesting that we replace Blanche before she’s even cold in the ground?” Ina Mae narrowed her eyes and shook her head.
Gussie pursed her lips and slowly shook her head. “I’d say on a day like this she’s plenty cold in the ground already. And for your information, Blanche is not replaceable. We’ll never be able to put anyone in her place, but she wanted us to have the next part of her funeral day in the clubhouse. I don’t know how to do that without inviting Sissy to join us.”
“Nobody has ever been inside but us three,” Ina Mae sighed.
“Well, we’d better make up our minds, because she’s coming this way, and we’re standing here freezing what’s left of our asses off while we argue.” Gussie shivered.
They’d made a pact when they were ten years old that no one, boys or other girls, or even parents, could ever come into the Sunshine Club. But down deep in her heart, Gussie knew that Blanche would approve of Sissy being allowed inside the old summer kitchen—at least this one time—for the remainder of her funeral service.
Ina Mae finally nodded. “If she didn’t want us to do this, then she shouldn’t have died and left us to make these hard decisions. I’m okay with inviting her inside just this one time.”