Rita Lakin_Gladdy Gold_01 (9 page)

"Now what, what?" Evvie asks in return.

"Are we going to the get-together? Everybody said they
were going after the services," says Bella.

"Do we have to? I'm afraid to look anybody in the eye
after missing it. We'll be the laughing-stocking of Lanai Gardens,"
says Sophie, Queen of Malapropisms.

"Well, I don't care. We'll get to talk to Jerry and Ilene
and the kids. It's the least we can do," says Ida.

"I agree," Evvie adds.

"All right," I say. "Where are they having it?" The
incredible silence that follows says it all.

"Nobody took down the name of the restaurant? Or the
address?" I say, gritting my teeth.

"I think it starts with an
M,"
Sophie
contributes.

"You mean like meshugeneh, like all of you?" I say to
them. "I can't believe this is happening. Why do I have to be
responsible for everything? I left one thing up to you to take care of
. . ." I sigh. "Is it at any of the places we usually go? Everybody
think
!"

"No," Ida says. "I remember saying to someone I never
heard of that restaurant before."

"It's someplace in Margate, or maybe Tamarac," says
Sophie.

"It could even be Boca Raton," says Bella.

"Well, that's that," says Evvie.

Another long silence.

"I can't do it!" Bella cries.

"Do what?" I ask.

"Just go home and do nothing. I won't be able to stand
it."

"Me, too. I don't want to be alone," says Sophie. "I'll
just keep crying."

"We can go somewhere for lunch by ourselves. I could
eat." Ida says this with no conviction whatsoever. It gets the silence
it deserves.

I walk over to Francie's coffin, sitting out here in the
hot sun waiting for the groundskeepers to come and slowly lower it into
that horrifying gaping hole.

I bend toward it, cupping my ear as if listening. "What?
What's that you say?" The others turn and gawk. Finally I straighten
up. "Well, it's peculiar, but if that's what you want, Francie."

I start walking away. The girls look at one another,
befuddled. I call over my shoulder. "Francie told me what she wants us
to do. Come on."

They just stand there. "Come
on,
girls."

They run after me, puzzled but obedient, as Bella says,
"Oh, not again over those dead bodies!" And Ida calls back to the
casket, "Rest in peace, Francie, you hear!"

Five minutes later I pull into the parking lot of the
Seminole Indian Bingo Hall and Casino. They are staring at me
incredulously, and I tell them as I park the car, "Francie said that we
should win the pick-a-pet for her!"

I open the trunk where all our bingo gear is always at
the ready. Before they start grabbing for them, I raise my hand in
warning. I tell them that they are never, never, under penalty of
torture, to tell anybody where we went after Francie's funeral.

I had to think of something to save this god-awful day.
And knowing Francie, if she could have whispered anything at all to me,
she would have said, "
Carpe Diem,
babe--seize the day. What the
hell--PLAY BINGO!"