Marriage Seasons 01 - It Happens Every Spring (17 page)

Falling silent for some time, Steve alternated between studying
his wife and facing the bank of bedroom windows that overlooked
the lake. "Yes, I hear you, but ... Justin, you know what that's
going to mean.... Well, I can't stop you, but I wish you'd think
about how this will affect your mother and me. What about
Jessica?" He paused. "Are you serious? Is there any possibility you
might have mentioned this before now? ... All right.... No, I'm
not going to argue with you-just be careful. We love you, Son.
Bye now."

Steve's jaw tightened as he shook his head. He let out a deep
breath. "Justin has decided to drive down to Padre Island with a
bunch of friends for the entire spring break," he told Brenda. "He's
got the money, and he's twenty-one, and there's not a thing we can
do about it. They came up with the plan last night, and they're
heading out tomorrow morning."

Feeling as though she might suddenly be sick, Brenda sat with
her mouth open.

"Jessica's still coming home on Saturday, though. She asked
Justin to let us know that she'll be with us through the Easter
church service, but that afternoon she's heading south. Her new
boyfriend's family owns a cabin on Table Rock Lake, and they've invited her to join them. Josh's dad teaches religion classes at
Southwest Baptist University, and Jessica told Justin to assure us
that they'll be chaperoned and everything will be all right."

"But that's just two days," Brenda said. "Twenty-four hours
with only one of our children."

Steve pushed his hands into the pockets of his slacks and stared
at his wife. "They're not children anymore, Brenda," he said gently.
"They're all grown up. You have to accept that. You're on your
own.

She stood and stepped toward the bathroom to put on her pajamas. "I know," she said. "I figured that out."

Well, look at you, Miss Jessica Hansen," Patsy exclaimed as the
young woman and her mother walked through the door of Just As
I Am. "Aren't you the belle of the ball, the homecoming queen, the
sweetheart of Lake of the Ozarks! You get more beautiful every
time I see you. I bet those boys at Missouri State are tripping over
their own feet to get dates with you!"

Patsy had been cutting Jessica's hair since she was eight years
old. The two were close friends, and Jessica had always openly
shared with Patsy the details of her many activities and feelings.
Patsy was eager to catch up with her now that she'd been away
from home for several months.

Jessica laughed. "You're my biggest fan, Patsy. All I am in the
beauty department, I owe to you."

"Now, that's quite a compliment! You and your mom make
yourselves at home, and I'll be with you in a minute. From here, it
looks like all you'll need is a little trim." Patsy squirted a mist of
hair spray over her seated customer's perfect coif. "How are you
getting along these days, Brenda? Seen anything of Cody?"

Mother and daughter, so alike in size and appearance, settled
into chairs in the waiting area. Both in blue jeans and simple,
solid-colored tops, they might be sisters except for the age difference. Even that wasn't easy to spot, Patsy realized. Jessica had
matured over the months of her freshman year at MSU. Her face
and figure were transforming from teenage gangliness into fullfledged, curvaceous womanhood. Brenda Hansen, who lately
appeared to be shedding pounds like a molting hen, had always
been lovely. She looked much younger than her forty-five years,
and it was no wonder she had managed to catch such a handsome
husband.

Brenda spoke up. "Pete Roberts told me he saw someone rooting around in the Dumpster behind the Italian restaurant the other
day. He thought it might be Cody, but when Pete got close, the
man ran off into the woods."

Patsy finished with her client and began the endless sweeping
and tidying that the law required to keep her salon in business. As
she bent to brush the hair into a dustpan, she said a little prayer for
Cody. Wherever he was, the poor man no doubt needed help and
protection. The memory of Cody running out of her salon brought
Pete Roberts to mind for the hundredth time that day, and Patsy
struggled to keep her focus on godliness and peace.

For the past three days, the man had been repairing another
chain saw next door. Every time her salon got quiet enough for the
music to drift through the room and the tinkle of teacups to be
heard, that blasted machine started up-ripping away the silence
and ending the peaceful mood she worked so hard to create. She
had only a few more hours to go before shutting down for the
Easter weekend, but Patsy felt sure that if she heard that whining
buzz one more time, she might launch herself right through the
dividing wall and whack her neighbor over the head with one of his
fishing rods.

"Come on over here, Miss Jessica," she called. "I'm ready for
you now.

When the young woman and her mother looked up from their
magazines, Patsy felt like she was staring at identical twins. But as
Jessica approached, Patsy noted a major difference. Brenda
Hansen's face was solemn, her shoulders slightly slumped, and her
green eyes empty-almost dead looking.

Jessica-with her long blonde hair, white teeth, dimples, and
sparkling emerald eyes-reminded Patsy of a fresh spring daffodil.
Where the mother might be a dormant limb fallen from a winterblasted tree, the daughter shone in full bloom.

What on earth had happened to Brenda? Patsy patted the seat of
her chair and fastened a cape around Jessica's neck. In truth, this
was the Hansen family's business, and no one else had a right to
pry. Yet the changes in Brenda startled and concerned Patsy.

Could the rumors she'd been hearing be true? Were Steve and
Brenda having marital problems? Had Brenda been spending too
much time with the handyman who had worked on her basement?
Might Steve be carrying on with a client or another real-estate
agent? People had whispered damaging, almost cruel things about
the Hansens, and Patsy did her best to divert the conversation to
other topics. But if everyone had noticed that something was
wrong at the house in Deepwater Cove, should Patsy turn a blind
eye to it? Was there any way she could help or make a positive difference? Or would that be interfering?

"Follow me over to the sink and let me wash you up, sweetie,"
she told Jessica. "My goodness, this hair is thicker than ever. You
must be eating right. And I'd guess you're happy, too."

"You can tell that from my hair?" Jessica asked as they walked to
the row of black sinks along a wall. "That's weird, Patsy."

"Looking at a person's hair is almost like gazing into a crystal
ball. If they're not eating right or sick or stressed out or unhappy,
you can tell by what their hair is doing. People lose hair or it gets
thin and brittle when things aren't going well. Sometimes it's aging
or a bad dye job. But I can usually tell a lot just by putting my fingers into a client's hair."

Jessica's face reflected serenity as she leaned back in the sink
while Patsy ran a stream of warm water over her long blonde
tresses. "Oh, that feels good," the younger woman sighed. "There
are all kinds of salons near campus, but I told Mom I didn't want to
let anyone touch my hair but Patsy Pringle."

"Well, you just made this gal's day." Patsy worked the shampoo
through Jessica's hair. "You're so grown-up now. One of these
days I'll have been here so long, I'll start seeing grandkids of clients
I've worked on since they were children themselves."

"Maybe not. Dad told me you've got a secret admirer," Jessica
said. "You might be having kids and grandkids of your own one of
these days."

"Lord, have mercy-if your dad is referring to Pete Roberts, you
can tell him there's not a chance in the world that'll happen. The
man takes delight in ruffling my feathers. You just wait. Any minute now he'll start up a chain saw or a weed whacker and scare us all
out of our wits."

"Why don't you go next door and ask him to be quiet?"

"I've been over there about fifty times, yelling at him till I'm
blue in the face. It doesn't do a bit of good. He's making money by
repairing those machines, and he isn't about to take my customers
into account."

"Yelling? You?" Jessica's green eyes opened wide as Patsy rinsed
the shampoo from her hair. "You're always so nice."

"Not with him. He's a mean old billy goat, and I don't care if we
do butt heads."

"Maybe you ought to sweet-talk him instead."

"Pete Roberts?"

"Yes, Pete Roberts!" Jessica grinned as Patsy wrapped a towel
around her hair and led her back to the station. "Ask him nicely,
Patsy. Remember what you always used to tell me when I would
complain about how mean my big brother was to me? You'd
remind me of the Bible verse where a man asked Jesus how many
times a person ought to forgive someone who had done him wrong. The man asked if seven times was enough. But Jesus said to
forgive him seventy times seven. And you said that was how many
times I ought to forgive Justin. Now it's your turn. Go next door,
forgive Pete Roberts, and be as sweet as molasses to him."

Patsy rolled her eyes as she worked a comb through Jessica's wet
hair. "Wouldn't you know it? My wise advice has come back to
haunt me."

"I'm full of good ideas," Jessica declared. "I'm actually very
mature for my age."

"You are? Says who?"

"Josh. He's my boyfriend."

"I thought you were dating Darrell Dugan from over in Osage
Beach."

"Oh, that was ages ago. Darrell and I broke up after we both
went off to college. He's at St. Louis University, you know, and it's
such a long drive down to Springfield. He came to see me a few
times, or we met at the lake, but I could tell his heart wasn't in it.
After a while, we just said thanks for the memories. By then I had
met josh."

Patsy was used to hearing such confessions from her customers,
and usually she just kept her mouth shut. But with Jessica, she
knew it would be okay to ask for more details. "So this new fellow
... is it true love?"

Jessica flushed a pretty pink. "I think it might be. He's wonderful. Josh is a premed major, and when he gets his MD, he wants to
do inner-city medical work. What a great Christian he is, Patsy.
I'm telling you, he's really an inspiration to me. Sometimes I just
listen to him, and I think. . . wow. I've never met anyone like that.
He's so deep, you know? He's very smart, and he loves to read, and
he ponders everything just like a philosopher. His dad is a pastor.
Tomorrow after church I'm driving down to Table Rock Lake to
meet his parents and spend the week with them. I'm really nervous, but I can't wait."

Patsy had begun trimming off about an inch of blonde hair, but
she paused midsnip. "You're leaving Deepwater Cove tomorrow?"

"Yeah." Jessica lowered her voice. "Mom is upset that I won't be
staying for the whole break, but I can't help wanting to be with josh
instead of my parents. Mom thinks all us kids still consider the lake
house our home-even Jennifer. You should hear what Mom had
planned for Justin and me to do this week. A picnic on the boat.
Grilling hot dogs. Shopping at the outlet mall-well, that wouldn't
have been so bad. But the rest of it is boring. I mean, I feel like I
need to be with josh, you know? We're still at the place where we're
getting to know each other. And I don't want to sit around at home
with no friends and nothing to do but grill hot dogs or work on
some dumb craft project or jigsaw puzzle Mom comes up with.
Several of my friends are even going back to the dorm so they
won't have to spend all that time around their parents."

"What about your brother?"

"Justin warned me not to plan to stay home the entire time,
because he's been through it before. He said Mom gets all sentimental and wants to do family things together. A bunch of his
friends figured out that they had better come up with a plan or
they'd be stuck with their families for a week. So the minute the last
class got out yesterday, they headed for Padre Island."

"Justin went all the way to Texas?" Patsy had to pause her scissors again. "I've heard the spring-break parties there can get wild.
Are you sure going someplace like that was a good idea?"

"It's a terrible idea, but that's Justin. Mom and Dad have no
inkling how their dearly beloved son behaves at college. He caused
them a little trouble in high school with his drinking, but nowadays he parties all the time. I honestly don't know how he keeps his
grades up. I thought about telling on him, but I've decided to keep
quiet. It's Justin's business how he spends his time, and if he blows
it, Mom and Dad will find out anyway."

Patsy glanced across the room at Brenda, who was immersed in a decorating magazine. "Your mother must be very disappointed
not to have either of you home all this week."

"She's been a total grouch ever since I got home. She keeps holding her head like she's got a migraine or something. I don't know
what's going on with her. I'm just glad I'm getting out of the house
tomorrow."