Tending Roses (14 page)

She seemed not to notice as I descended the steps and stood next to her while she pruned the branches from a rosebush. I wondered if she was afraid I’d tell her she should be in the house resting.

“It’s kind of cold out here,” I said finally.

“I just thought I’d give this bush a quick trimming.” She ignored my observation. “Normally, it is best to trim them back in February, but I’m doing this while I can this year. Always trim the small stems away and keep the old wood so the bush will sprout there next year. Like this. That way the new blooms will be larger.”

“All right.” I wondered why she was talking to me as if she didn’t expect to be able to prune the roses herself. “Are you feeling O.K.?”

She stopped midclip and frowned at me. “Do I look bad?”

Her consternation made me laugh. “No, but I thought you were resting this afternoon.”

“Oh . . . no.” She glanced at the driveway as if she were expecting someone. “I want to finish this before Jeannie arrives day after tomorrow. You go on with your paperwork in there. Sort things through before Ben comes home. I was thinking we would go to town tomorrow for groceries and whatnot. What time is Benjamin coming in?”

“About noon tomorrow. Why?” That sweet, agreeable tone bothered me. Grandma only talked that way when she was scheming something.

“No particular reason.” Still far too congenial for Grandma Rose. “If you and Ben wanted to stay in town and have a supper out together, I could have Oliver bring me home after we finish the grocery shopping.”

“No. I can bring you home. Ben heads right for his computer when he comes in from a job. I’ll be lucky if I see him before midnight.”

Grandma stopped clipping and frowned at me over her shoulder. “Then perhaps you should go see him at the church office.”

She was probably right, but I was still smarting over the Knicks game, and I wasn’t about to go making nice with Ben just yet. “No. I’ll just wait,” I said. Then a wicked thought came into my head, and I added, “But if you want to make plans with Oliver, don’t let me get in your way.”

Grandma looked as if she might faint. The blood drained from her face, and she craned her head away from me, eyes widened and nostrils flared. “Certainly not!” she exploded with a volume that probably cleared the nearby woods of wild game. “That old coot! Why, do you know that just the other day he was going around town with a
hole
in the
seat
of his
pants
? It was obscene. His daughter needs to take better care of him. It’s terrible to let someone go around in such a senile condition, and—”

“All right, Grandma,” I said, trying to stop her before she sent her blood pressure skyrocketing. “We’ll go to town and come back together.”

“Well, I guess so!” And she went back to pruning the roses with a righteous vigor, this time grumbling about Oliver and not about Ben and me. Which was just what I’d wanted. For once, I had beaten Grandma Vongortler at her own game.

But by the next day she was again trying to put me in checkmate. I knew she was up to something, because she was in that unusually good mood again. Not a cross word to say, not one bit of her usual ire, even when I fed her bran cereal for breakfast, which she normally said tasted like it belonged in a horse trough.

“You should write that on our list for the store,” she said as I threw away the empty box. “Dr. Schmidt says I should have more fiber.”

I blinked at her, wondering who she was and what she had done with Grandma Vongortler. “All right. Are you about ready to go?” Josh was dressed. I was dressed. The diaper bag was packed, but she kept putting me off.

She chewed the last of her bran cereal thoughtfully. “I have to fix my hair and get my article together for the paper. We should get those sheets changed, also. Just in case Aunt Jeane comes early.”

“She won’t be here until lunchtime tomorrow.” I was getting a little tired of Grandma yanking my chain, and I had a feeling she was putting me off so that we would run into Ben in town. “I’m going to start some laundry. You let me know when you’re ready.” So I gave up and went on with getting the house ready for Aunt Jeane’s arrival. I tried not to think about the fact that a few days after Aunt Jeane came, the rest of the family would follow. It was just too hard to consider the Christmas gathering, and what might be said and not said, and what might be decided about Grandma, and how she might take it. I felt like a traitor about to give my general over to the enemy.

It didn’t help that as we sat down to lunch, Grandma was still in a congenial mood. She complimented my housecleaning and told me how glad she was to have Josh and me there and how very much she had enjoyed the house not being empty over the past weeks. It just wasn’t like her at all, and I wondered what she was conjuring up in that evil mind of hers.

“It’s been a nice visit,” I said, guilt sloshing around in my stomach like seawater, because this wasn’t a visit at all. This was a covert mission to supervise Grandma Vongortler, and I was the family’s spy. Her being so nice to me only made me feel worse about it.

There was a knock at the front door, and I jumped up like a trapped cat looking for an escape, then hurried into the breezeway. When I answered the door, little Dell Jordan was standing on the porch in a faded pair of blue jeans that were too short and a windbreaker that wasn’t heavy enough for the cold day. She was looking down at her tennis shoes.

For a moment, I couldn’t think of anything to say. Finally, I choked out, “Hi. Well . . . what can I do for you today?”

She shrugged, as if she wasn’t sure, muttering, “My granny said I could come carry in Mrs. Vongortler’s groceries for a dollar.” She kicked a toe into the tangle of leaves that had wandered onto the porch, then pushed her hands into her pockets, watching the leaves crinkle under her shoe. “Granny said Mrs. Vongortler sent a note with the postman.”

“Well . . . I . . . umm . . .” I stammered. “I don’t . . . Grandma didn’t . . . Can you wait here a minute?” And I went to the kitchen to see what was going on. If Grandma had something mean to say, I didn’t want Dell to hear it.

Grandma was depositing her plate in the sink when I stepped in. “Now I’ll just be a minute.” She headed for the little house, as if she hadn’t heard the knock at the door. “I’ll meet you at the car.”

“Grandma,” I protested, confused. “Dell Jordan’s at the door. She says she’s going to carry in your groceries for a dollar. Do you know anything about this?”

Grandma stopped halfway out the door, crossed her arms, and gave me that wooden-Indian look. “Yes. But I thought we would be back from the grocery store by now. I told her grandmother we could use help bringing things in and also hauling the leaves out of the yard, and that I would pay her.” She smacked her lips and huffed. “Well, we need to get to town now. I guess she will just have to ride along with us. Tell her I’ll give her five dollars for helping me this afternoon.”

With a smack of the screen door, she was gone. It took me a minute to reel my chin off the floor and go to the front door to talk to Dell.

“We were just on our way to town to get the groceries,” I said. “If it’s all right with your grandma, you can ride along with us. Grandma . . . er . . . Mrs. Vongortler said she would pay you five dollars, if that’s all right.”

I caught a glimpse of wide brown eyes as she nodded vigorously, then tucked her chin again. Stepping tentatively in the doorway, she followed me like a shadow as I put Josh in his carrier and headed for the car.

Grandma Rose’s sunny mood was apparent when we got to the Buick. She had opened all four doors and was waiting for us in the passenger seat, wearing something other than her usual scowl.

“Don’t forget your seat belt back there,” she said as Dell slid uncertainly into the back next to Joshua’s car seat. “Katie drives too fast.”

Dell glanced at me with one brow raised and one lowered.

“She’s in a good mood,” I whispered as I leaned over to buckle in Josh.

Grandma strained to turn her good ear to us. “What?”

“Nothing, Gram.” I winked at Dell and she giggled behind her hand.

Grandma started working her scheme before we were out of the driveway. “I have quite a bit to do at the church. You could go over to the church office and see Ben for a while. It’s twelve-thirty. He’ll surely be there.”

Her plan was becoming clearer, like an image materializing on a computer screen. “I think I’ll just go to Shorty’s and get started on the groceries,” I said. “We’ve got a really long list.” It was about like trying to outsmart a computer. Amazing how acute Grandma Rose could be when she was plotting something. She wanted me to make up with Ben, and she was determined to have her way.

“Well, you can’t do that until I am finished at the church,” she retorted, clearly irritated that I wasn’t cooperating. “There are things we need that aren’t on the list. And if I’m not there, that butcher at Shorty’s won’t give us the best cuts of meat. Dell can help me with my things at the church, and then she and I can start at the grocery store while you visit with Ben. No
sense
putting
that
off.”

Dell’s eyes looked like baseballs in the rearview mirror, but she didn’t say a word. She was clearly just as confused as I was, probably more so because she was young and not accustomed to Grandma’s puppet work.

“That’s silly,” I protested. “You do your work and we’ll just go to Shorty’s and get started on the things that are on the list. If Ben wants to talk to me, he can come home.” I knew I was cutting off my nose to spite my face. Ben and I needed to talk, but I didn’t want to get into another fight, and I wasn’t ready to be contrite, and I wasn’t doing a very good job of taking to heart the advice from Grandma’s book.

An irritated sigh puffed from Grandma’s lips, and she looked out the window. I knew I hadn’t heard the last of the argument. She was just falling back to muster a new plan of attack.

The car fell into an eerie silence. I felt like a prisoner standing before a firing squad, waiting for the crack of a rifle.

“Katie, where does this road go?”

“What?” For once, her thoughts had lapsed at the right time. We had tacked in another direction.

“Where does this road go?” She sounded as if she really couldn’t remember, and I felt a note of panic. Maybe the fight had pushed her blood pressure up and caused a stroke. The doctor had warned us that a small stroke could cause a sudden memory lapse.

“It goes to Hindsville, Grandma.” I tried to sound calm, but I wasn’t. She had lived on this road for sixty-some years. If she really didn’t recognize it, something was terribly wrong.

She chewed her lip as if thinking about that, then asked, “Did we drive this road yesterday?”

I wanted to stop the car and shake her back to reality, but instead, I calmly answered, “Yes.”

“Where did it go?”

“To Hindsville.” My heart hammered so hard in my ears, I could barely hear her.
Three more miles to town, then straight to Dr. Schmidt’s. Please, God, let us make it there without having an emergency.

“Will we drive it tomorrow?”

“Probably.”
Two more curves, then across the bridge to Dr. Schmidt’s. Please let him be in the office.

“Where will it go?”

“To Hindsville.”

She didn’t look at me, but stared straight ahead at the road instead. “If we got on this road trying to go somewhere else, how would that be?”

Dell laughed in the backseat and piped up with an answer. “That would be pretty stupid.”

Slowing the car, I took a long look at Grandma. In one startling, maddening, murderous moment, I realized she wasn’t out of her mind at all. She was reeling me in like a guppy.

Looking over her shoulder, she pretended to be talking to Dell. “Yes, it would. The same road always leads to the same place. If we get on it expecting to go somewhere different, we’ll be disappointed, won’t we? As you said, it isn’t very
smart.
”

Not a word was said the rest of the way to town. I didn’t have a reply. I didn’t want to reply. I didn’t want to ever speak to Grandma Vongortler again.

But her point was made. If Ben and I kept doing the same things, we were always going to end up in the same place. Do the same things, get the same results. Simple, stupid.

B
EN’S car was in the church parking lot when we got to town. Grandma looked at it and tipped her chin up triumphantly. As soon as I brought the Buick to a halt in front of the church, she was shooing me out.

“Now, Dell and I will be just fine. I have to finish my newspaper article and organize some things in the choir room. It’s a mess in there with all of the things coming in for our Christmas drive. She can help me clean it up, and then we’ll get started on the grocery shopping.”

Standing on the curb, I gave them a questioning look. A couple of weeks ago, Grandma didn’t care if we ran Dell over on the highway. Now she was trying to help Dell earn extra money. If I hadn’t read Grandma’s book, I would never have understood.

Grandma huffed an irritated breath and fanned a hand at me. “Go on and talk to Ben. We will be just fine together, won’t we, young lady?”

Dell gave Grandma a look of respect, then ducked her head and nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”

I left them there and carried Josh around the back of the church to the fellowship building. Walking down the hall, I saw Ben in the office at the end, at work on his computer just as I had predicted. That old sense of resentment stirred inside me again, and I started to turn around and leave.

Ben saw me coming and pushed away from the desk, rubbing his eyes. “I don’t have time for a fight, Kate,” he said flatly. “I have to get this report finished.”

“I don’t want to fight.”
Get on a different road, end up in a different place.
“I thought maybe I could help you get your work done, and—”