“Brace yourself,” she warns me as she knocks on the door instead of going right in. That tells me a lot. She doesn’t feel at home here, but she keeps coming back all the same.
Yeah, this whole situation says a hell of a lot about Magnolia’s character, even if she doesn’t realize it.
An old black woman with a worried expression on her face answers the door. “Thank you for coming so quickly. I think she needs to go to the hospital. I just told her so and she fired me.” The lady’s eyes widen as they study me.
Magnolia rolls her eyes. “Bernie can’t fire you because she doesn’t pay you. I do. You’re not fired.”
The woman, who I presume is Norma, nods. “That’s what I told her, but she didn’t listen.” Her gaze cuts to me again. “Who is . . . all this?”
Magnolia huffs out a short laugh. “All this,” she waves a hand along the length of my torso, “is Moses. He’s my . . . friend. A very good friend.”
“Nice to meet you, Moses. I hope you know what the hell you’re doing bringing him here, Mags. Because she’s on a tear today.”
A voice calls from inside, “I don’t care what you two say! I’m not going to the hospital. You can’t make me.”
“I’d best get in there and talk some sense into her,” Magnolia says.
Norma steps out of the way, and Magnolia drops my hand before we head inside.
I pause in front of Norma. “It’s nice to meet you too, ma’am. I’ll stay out of the way, unless I can help.”
She takes me in with a sweeping glance, starting from my head and going to my toes. “Well, worse comes to worst, you can just pick Bernie up and put her in the car. My old bones can’t do that anymore. We have to take the van, and with the fit she’s been pitching today, she’d roll her wheelchair right off the platform and kill herself just to be spiteful.”
“Like I said, whatever I can do to help. I’m at your disposal, ma’am.”
“What the hell did you call her for?” Magnolia’s great-aunt Bernadette yells from the next room. “I told you not to tell her anything!”
I smile at Norma. “I’d best go in after her and give Bernie someone else to yell at.”
“God bless you, boy. If only it were that easy.”
Fifty-Six
Magnolia
Bernadette is spitting mad when I walk into the room, but I don’t care.
I don’t pull any punches and start right in. “What the hell is your problem, old woman? If there’s something wrong with you, you’ve gotta go to the hospital.”
“All I did was knock over a couple of glasses. Sue me for being human and a little clumsy once in a while. I’m not having a damn stroke, no matter what Norma thinks. See—I can still talk just fine.”
She’s right about that. Her speech doesn’t sound impaired at all, and her face isn’t droopy or anything. Still, Norma wouldn’t panic if there was no reason for concern.
Then Bernadette’s entire face changes and her eyes go wide. “Who are you?”
I don’t have to turn around to know Moses just stepped into the living room.
“Moses Gaspard, ma’am.”
Bernadette’s jaw drops, and I expect her to light into Moses just like she does me, but a transformation comes over her demeanor. She sits back in her chair, folds her hands over her lap, and stares at him like she’s never seen a man before.
I can’t blame her. He’s quite something to look at.
“You’re a big one, aren’t you?”
I turn around now to see what she’s seeing. Sure enough, Moses fills the entire doorway to the living room, blocking Norma completely behind him with his body.
He clears his throat, I suspect to choke back a laugh. “Big enough, I reckon. I hear you’re having an interesting morning.”
“Hmph. Nothing exciting here.” She waves a scrawny hand through the air like she’s swatting a horsefly. “They’re making too much of it, just like always. I’m fine. I’ve always been fine. I will be fine until the night I kick the bucket in my sleep. The good Lord and I have got a deal, and that’s how I’m going out.”
Moses isn’t afraid of her, and I’m eating it up.
“Far be it from me to interfere with your bargain with the man upstairs,” he says, “but don’t you think it might be worth it to get checked out? You know, to make sure you can keep your end of the deal?”
She pats her hair, her vanity still as strong as ever. “Who’d you say you were again?”
“Moses. I’m Magnolia’s man.”
Bernadette’s gaze lands on me as she speaks. “You pay her?”
I pray for patience, because I really don’t want to go to prison for murdering my great-aunt in the next three minutes.
“No, ma’am. Your great-niece is priceless, if you didn’t know.”
My heart melts at his words, even though he’s just digging his grave with Bernadette.
“You’ve got a quicksilver tongue, boy. She bring you along to try to talk me into going to the doctor? Thinking a handsome man would change my mind?”
He steps forward, and I feel his hand on the small of my back. Partners.
“No, ma’am. She brought me along because I wanted to meet you. You’re important to Magnolia, and she’s important to me.”
Bernadette turns to scowl at me again. “Where’d you find this one? The street corner?”
“No, he saved me fifteen years ago. He’s the reason you didn’t have to decide whether or not to attend my funeral.” It’s raw, but it’s true.
Bernadette’s lips press together in a thin line, and a heavy silence blankets the room while she decides how to reply. “Then I guess I ought to thank the boy.” She holds out a hand. “Come over here. I want to see you up close. My vision isn’t what it used to be, and there’s no way you can be as handsome as you look from over there.”
I don’t know whether to gasp at her response, laugh, or roll my eyes, but Moses does as she asks, coming toward her chair and crouching in front of her. He takes her hand and lifts it to kiss the back.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Maison. How are you feeling today? We got any cause for concern? Because both of these ladies have a right powerful need to make sure you keep on thriving.” Moses’s Creole accent thickens as he talks to Bernadette, and she eats it up.
“I’m as well as can be expected, given I’m stuck in this chair and can’t stretch my legs anymore.”
“You seeing double?” Moses asks.
She clamps her mouth shut for a beat before replying. “I was. But it passed. Nothing to write the president about.”
“Now, I’ve never been to medical school, so I don’t know much about this kind of thing, ma’am, but it might be worth making an appointment to follow up with your doctor, just to make sure.”
I think Norma and I both hold our breath as we wait for her reply.
Bernadette narrows her eyes on Moses. “Where are you from, boy? Who are your people? With that name and your accent, I’d say you’re Creole, aren’t you?”