Julian and his dad continued
playing pool as the rest of the group hunkered around the tables to either play
or watch the games. Rona walked to the end of the bar to join Anna.
"Everything okay?" she murmured.
"Yes. My big brother is
just being a big brother." She rolled her eyes.
"Does it have anything to
do with me and Tammy?"
"Not really." Anna
began to trace a pattern in the condensation on the bottle.
"I'm sure he's only
worried about your safety," Rona said. "Taking in two homeless women
might not be considered a safe thing to do by most people." She decided to
prod a little. "Do your brothers always tell you how to run your
business?"
"God, no!" Anna
yelped and quickly clasped a hand over her mouth.
"Anna, your
language," her parents called out together.
Rona chuckled.
"What?"
"Maybe we should find
something safer for you to talk about before they really do send you to your
room."
Anna watched her family and
Tammy, who were now fully engrossed with the card game. "This might be a
good time for me to hear your story."
"What story?" Rona
hedged.
"Okay, if you're not
ready, I'll wait."
"Why are you doing
this?"
"I'm curious about how
you got where you were."
"I mean, why are you
letting us stay in your house. That's what your brother was upset about, wasn't
it?"
She tossed the empty water
bottle into the trash receptacle beneath the bar. "You helped me last
night when I needed help. For the most part, I've been blessed. I have a
wonderful family. My childhood was great. I was one of those lucky kids who
didn't have
to work hard to make good
grades. I was able to go to college without having to hold down two or three
jobs like a lot of my friends did."
"Plus you were a great
pool hustler," Rona interjected.
Anna laughed softly.
"Well, yeah. There was that." She glanced at her family. "My
point is. I've always been blessed. I guess maybe I just wanted to pass some of
that on to someone else."
"And now your brother is
upset with you."
"Not upset really. He's
worried."
"He should be."
Anna glanced at her sharply.
"What do you mean?"
"What you did was pretty
stupid."
She started to protest but
stopped when Rona held her hand up.
"You don't know either
one of us. Tammy and I don't even know each other that well. I mean, she has
told me how she came to be here, but I have no way of knowing if she's telling
the truth. We both could be lying to you."
"Are you?"
Rona looked into her eyes.
"That's a futile question. If I were lying to you, do you think I'd
hesitate to lie to you now?"
"Then tell me your story.
I don't even know your last name."
Rona decided to tell her
enough to satisfy her curiosity. "My last name is Kirby. I grew up in a
middle-class family, but I never was quite good enough. I barely made it
through high school. For some reason, I couldn't get a grasp on the whole
school routine. Something about it just never worked for me." She stopped
and shrugged. "Maybe I was too busy rebelling. Most of what I know is
self-taught. I was serious when I told you that after finding myself on the
streets, I spent a lot of time at the library. They wouldn't let you just sit
around doing nothing. So, I pretended to read. After a while, I got tired of
pretending and started to actually read." She gave a small disparaging
chuckle. "I would get books from the young adult section and take them
over to where the books on religion were. There weren't as many people in that
area. I was doing pretty well, and then they started cracking down on us coming
in and sitting around all day. It didn't matter if we were reading. If any of
the other patrons started complaining about the way we looked or smelled, one
of the librarians would call the security guard and we'd have to leave."
She suddenly realized what she
was saying and stopped, embarrassed that she had just admitted to Anna that she
had difficulty reading. There was a look in Anna's eyes, but before she could
determine what it meant, a loud cheer rang out from the card table, and Anna
turned to see what was happening. Rona looked over also to see what the ruckus
was. Mrs. Pagonis was laughing and patting Tammy's shoulder.
"Rona, Anna," Julian
called from the pool table. "I need help. Dad is whipping my butt. Please,
someone come and rescue me."
"Rona," Mr. Pagonis
called. "Come on and play. I can't beat that pool-hustling daughter of
mine. She's too good."
She glanced at Anna and
clucked her tongue. "You should be ashamed, hustling your own
father."
There was that look in Anna's
eyes again. "I'll wager I'm not the only hustler here," she said
before slipping off the stool and going to stand by her mother.
Chapter Eleven
Later that night, Anna and
Rona were sitting in Anna's den watching the fire blazing in the gas fireplace.
Tammy was upstairs putting the girls to bed. Rona was still leery of Anna's
comment about hustlers. No further references had been made and there were no
visible signs that she might be upset. In fact, she, Tammy and the kids had
laughed and joked all the way home. Now, she seemed mesmerized by the fire.
Rona was beginning to wonder if she had imagined the entire episode.
"Are you two awake?"
Rona turned quickly; she
hadn't heard Tammy come down the stairs.
"We were just enjoying
the fire," Anna said.
Tammy sat on the end of the
couch and tucked her bare feet beneath her. They sat in silence.
"Anna," Tammy said finally. "Thanks for inviting us to join your
family today. The girls were still whispering and giggling when I left the
room. It's been a long time since—" Her voice broke. She covered it with a
cough.
"We enjoyed having you
there," Anna said. "You're such a great canasta player, Mom may adopt
you. Dad has already challenged Rona to a rematch on Sunday. It's not often
anyone besides me beats him at pool."
"It was a lucky
shot." Rona tried to look as sincere as she sounded. She had played the
game carefully, watching Anna's dad to see if losing would bother him or if he
was the kind of man who always needed to win. When it became obvious that he relished
a challenge, she gave it to him. She could have just as easily missed the shot
if the situation had called for it.
"I don't understand why
you're doing this," Tammy blurted. "I'm sorry," she said as her
hands flew to her cheeks. "I don't mean to sound ungrateful, but you must
admit that opening your home to complete strangers is unusual by anyone's
standards."
Anna ran a finger over her
eyebrow several times before responding. "Initially, I felt compelled to
repay you for helping me. Then there was the weather. It was so horrible I
couldn't stand the thought of anyone being out in it, especially the twins. I
kept thinking about Julian's twins, Jason and Susan, and how I would feel if it
were them out there." Anna took a moment before continuing. "And, I
felt guilty for all the times I've walked by someone homeless without bothering
to see them."
"It's nice to know we
aren't just the stray-of-the-week," Rona replied, not bothering to conceal
her scorn.
"Oh, hush." Tammy
swatted her leg. "That's not what she's saying, so don't go all butch on
us." She gasped and looked at Anna. "I didn't mean to
insinuate—"
"Oh, please," Rona
interjected. "I'm gay and I'm not crawling back into a closet for
anyone."
Anna didn't hesitate before
replying. "I'm a lesbian, so don't worry about it."
"Well, I'm not, and
hopefully no one will hold that against me," Tammy said with a slight
grin.
Anna chuckled, and what could
have been an awkward situation was avoided. A set of wind chimes clanked
frantically as the wind began to increase.
Rona walked to the window and
peeked through the blinds. With the aid of the security light from the house
behind Anna's, she could see the swirling snow. "It's snowing again,"
she told them. She stood watching the swirling flakes, wondering where Malcolm
was.
A moment later, Anna excused
herself and left the room.
As soon as she was gone, Tammy
turned to Rona. "I'm sorry. I spoke without thinking."
Rona waved off her concerns
and walked back to the couch. "Don't worry about it. She didn't seem
bothered by the conversation, and I certainly wasn't." In fact, Rona was
already wondering how she could twist this new information to her advantage.
Anna reappeared with a tray
holding a bottle of brandy and three glasses. "My grandfather lived to be
ninety-seven. He attributed his longevity to his nightly shot of brandy."
Rona watched as Anna poured.
She liked the way the light danced through the amber liquid. The sound of the
brandy pouring into the glass brought to mind the lively melody of a xylophone.
They relaxed and enjoyed the brandy as they sat in comfortable silence watching
the flickering firelight.
After several minutes, Tammy
pulled her knees to her. "Anna, if I'm going to be staying here, there's
something I think you should know," she began.
Rona wished she could reach
over and clamp her hand over Tammy's mouth. She didn't want her true
confessions messing up anything. Of course, she had already hinted at Tammy's
situation and Anna didn't shy away; maybe it wouldn't make any difference.
"My husband, Wayne
Daniels," Tammy went on, "is what my dad used to call a big fish in a
little pond." She stopped and seemed uncertain how to proceed. "I'm
an only child. My parents both taught at the University of Georgia. They had
long since given up on ever having a baby when Mom became pregnant with me. She
was forty-two. I grew up in a loving household, but there was no extended
family. Dad never talked about his family much, and Mom's parents died long
before I was born. She had a brother living somewhere out in California, but
she never really talked about him much. They were overly protective of me and
tried to shelter me from what they called the uglier side of life. I understand
that their intentions were good, but I was very naive." She took a taste
of her brandy before continuing.
"My parents were killed
in a car accident when I was nineteen. I was attending UGA at the time. After
the accident, I felt like I had to leave. Go somewhere new, where no one knew
my parents or me, and start my life over. There were too many memories. My
folks weren't rich, but with their savings and life insurance, I had enough to
put myself through college and to live comfortably for a while. I transferred
to the University of Tennessee. Three months later, I met Wayne. He was ten
years older than I was, handsome, and he paid a lot of attention to me. His
father had made a small fortune in the salvage business. When he died, he left
it all to Wayne and his sister." She hugged her knees tighter. "We
had only been dating for a couple of months when I discovered I was pregnant.
As soon as Wayne found out, he insisted I get an abortion. He had plans for his
future, and kids weren't part of the package. He kept pressuring me. I couldn't
go through with it. Then one night he got angry and I saw a different side of
him, one that I didn't like. As soon as he left, I packed my bags and hopped on
the first available bus. I ended up in Fresno." She ran her thumbnail over
the knee of her sweats.
"I wasn't very smart
about it. I used a credit card to buy the ticket, and to rent a motel room. I
had been in Fresno less than two weeks when Wayne knocked on the door. He'd
conned my roommate at school into giving him my credit card bill and then
bribed the kid in the motel office to give him my room number. Within
twenty-four hours, he was knocking on my door. He told me he was sorry, that he
had nearly gone crazy worrying about me and the baby. He said he had given it a
lot of thought and he was ready for a family." She shook her head and
leaned her head against the back of the couch. "Like a fool, I believed
him. We went back to Knoxville and were married the following week."
"Weren't you concerned
about his anger?" Anna asked.
Tammy smiled sadly. "I
wanted a father for my baby. I believed him when he said it would never happen
again. That it was just the stress of running the business and my news that
took him by surprise."
Rona knew that after living on
the streets, Tammy would never be so gullible about anything again.
Tammy went on with her story.
"A few days after we were married he convinced me to add his name to all
my assets and gave me a stack of papers that were supposed to be adding my name
to everything that was his." She looked up at them and grimaced. "Like
the fool I was, I didn't read the papers. When we discovered I was having
twins, he started drinking more." She took a deep breath. "One night,
he came home drunk. He started talking about how easily he could kill me. He
finally passed out on the sofa. The following day I received a statement from
the bank telling me my account was overdrawn. When I called to clear up the
mistake, I discovered he had withdrawn everything. All we had was a couple of
hundred dollars in the household account. When he came home that night I
confronted him with the statement and demanded he give me my money back."
She touched her nose. "He broke my nose. I had a restraining order issued
against him, but it didn't stop him from breaking in a few weeks later."
She stopped and drew her arms tightly around her stomach. "I knew the
police wouldn't be able to protect me, so after he left, I packed a suitcase
and took off again. I was five months pregnant. On the way out of town, I
withdrew all the money in the household account and headed to St. Louis where I
managed to get a job working as a waitress." She stopped suddenly.
"I'm sorry. I've been rambling on."