The Queen of Cool (49 page)

“
We’re supposed to be here.
In this room,” Bo said. “The trick is to convince them that we have
left. We must be silent.”

“
Can you do that?” Manny
leaned over Lo. She nodded.

“
Lo is a fitness champion.
You have no idea how painful her workouts and presentation…” Lisa
said.

“
The diet,” Yazmin
said.

“
That horrible diet,” Lisa
said. “If she can do all of that, she can have a baby.”

There was a loud boom in the hallway. The
light from the hallway blinked then went off. The air conditioning
shut off and the room became clammy and warm.

“
Aren’t those tunnels
connected down here?” Mutt asked Sy.

“
Pretty close,” Sy
nodded.

“
We’re not going anywhere,”
Bo said. “No way. We’re safest here. My people are on their
way.”

“
That’s fine by me,” Mrs.
Williams said. “We need to make a pile of clothing. You men take
off everything you’re willing to spare. Miss Lisa, I need as much
as you feel comfortable taking off. You too Yazmin.”

“
Why?” Sy asked.

“
I need cushions and
towels,” Mrs. Williams said. “Now you, Simon, come sit right here
with Lorraine.”

Sy crawled over to Lo’s side. He leaned over
her and their eyes held for a moment. He nodded as if he’d heard
what she’d said and sat back. Lisa and Yazmin stripped to their
blouses. Yazmin helped Manny with his clothing while Lisa helped
Sy.

“
Take her hand, Sy,” Mrs.
Williams said. “Your job is to keep her focused. Manrod, you’re the
coach. I need contractions first – how many, how often, increasing,
or decreasing. Lisa, you help me. We’re going to let little Yazmin
do most of the work. She’s young and more agile.”

Yazmin nodded.

“
And us?” Larry
asked.

“
Whatever we need,” Mrs.
Williams said. “We need someone to keep an eye on things so we can
get this business done. Yazmin, we need some space between her
knees.”

Lo bent her knees and Yazmin moved them
apart.

“
Now take a look,” Mrs.
Williams said. “What do you see?”

“
Under garments.” Yazmin
helped Lo take her underwear off.

“
Now look,” Mrs. Williams
said. “You want to see how much space there is.”

Yazmin was quiet for a moment.

“
The length of my finger,”
Yazmin said.

They heard footsteps coming in their
direction

“
Shh,” Bo said.
“Quiet.”

Mrs. Williams nodded to Manny. He held up
his thumb to indicate Lo’s contractions were increasing. Mrs.
Williams pointed to Yazmin and she looked between Lo’s legs. Yazmin
nodded. Mrs. Williams pointed to Lisa and then their clothing. She
pointed to a spot next to them on the floor. Lisa covered the floor
in their clothing.

“
Get her up,” Mrs. Williams
said. “She’s going to squat like our grandmothers.”

Shots fired outside their door were returned
from down the hall. Lisa and Yazmin helped Lo onto her feet. Larry
grabbed her oxygen bottle. Mrs. Williams situated Lo into a squat.
Sy grabbed Lo’s hand to help steady her. Lisa took her other hand.
Mrs. Williams nodded to Manny.

“
Push,” Manny said into her
ear.

Lo took a deep breath. Her eyes glanced at
these people, the people she loved. They had been with her through
this entire journey. From Yazmin finding her apartment home to Sy
telling her about the VX, they had each helped to carry her through
this horrible journey. They were her strength and her will.

She pushed.

“
Rest,” Manny
said.

Lo worked to catch her breath. Lisa gave her
a drink of water. She looked at each of their focused and
interested faces. She nodded.

It was time. With their help, she’d managed
to get through the worst period of her life.

She could do this now.

“
Here we go,” Manny said.
“Push, push, push.”

And Donald Downs Jr. entered the world.

Q

Four months later

Sunday afternoon—4:12 p.m.

“
Larry!” Lo held out her
arms to hug her brother. “Come in! Come in!”

Lo stepped back to let Larry in the door of
the Lake Worth house.

“
Congratulations!” Larry
hugged her again in the hallway.

“
Thanks,” Lo smiled. “We
didn’t want to make a big deal about it, but Mindy Sue and Lisa got
together and…”

“
A party was born,” Larry
said.

“
I thought Alisha would get
married first,” Lo shrugged.

“
Yazmin and Mutt’s wedding
was fun,” Larry said.

“
Gypsy fun,” Lo
said.

“
With a little Roman
Catholic on the side,” Larry smiled. “Hey, I wanted to ask you… why
did you marry him?”

“
Simon?”

“
I figured I should just
ask you…”

“
Rather than wonder for
fifteen years?” Lo smiled.

Larry blushed.

“
Simon’s a crazy Catholic.
You remember those ladies from Catholic school, right?” Lo
asked.

“
Like Mom?”

“
Right,” Lo said. “He
couldn’t see any other way to be together. Especially now that we
have Donny. I mean, he lost Renee and I lost Don and…”

Lo shook her head. She continued in a low
voice.

“
I think it’s because we
both died, Larry,” Lo said. “It kind of changes things. If I hadn’t
died, maybe I would feel inferior or… But he wants me to be his
equal partner in life.”

Larry hugged her close.

“
He asked when we were in
the hospital,” Lo said. “Before I had that surgery for the
pacemaker. I didn’t say yes right away; not like the first
time.”

Larry’s eyes scanned her face.

“
I know it’s hard to
understand,” Lo said. “I guess it’s hard for me to understand. But,
especially after Donny was born, I laid there in that hospital and
had nothing – no baby, no money, no real home, the Queen of Cool
was thriving without me, and after being so terribly scarred – my
career, the one I loved – being a fitness champion, was over. The
doctor even told me it would be a year before I could work out. So
no training, no workouts… nothing. Outside of the people who came
to see me, I had nothing. I think I felt like it was time to start
a new life. Well, something like that.”

“
He swept you off your
feet?” Larry asked.

Lo smiled. She gestured toward the living
room and he followed her.

“
Is Amanda upset?” Lo
asked.

“
No, that’s the weird
thing,” Larry said. “I can’t imagine Mom getting married so soon
after Dad died. But Mandy, she calls Sy, her second dad.

“
When do you think
you’ll…?” Lo smiled.

“
I’ve asked,” Larry said.
“I’ll have to learn some ‘sweep the girl off her feet’ skills from
Sy.”

Lo opened the sliding glass door to the
party on the lawn. Larry touched her shoulder and went to find
Amanda. Lo stood near the door watching everyone. Just starting to
show from her own baby, Yazmin was playing with Donny. Alisha and
Rick were laughing at something Lisa’s husband Earl had said.
Chased by Manny’s two kids, Lisa’s kids ran by with inflatable
rafts they’d gotten from the boat house. Lisa and Mindy Sue stood
behind the wedding cake. Mutt was arguing with Tobar and Granny
Olga in Romani at a table of Don’s Romani family. Mrs. Williams and
her daughter’s family were helping Sy with the barbeque. Jean-Jean
Monquist, Sy’s mother, and a few of his relatives stood along the
shoreline. After almost a year of terror and tension, she hoped she
would never forget to be grateful for moments of peace, family, and
laughter – moments like this one.

With Sue Ellen’s death, the Feds had
released Don’s estate. According to Bo, Sue Ellen’s financial
records completed the picture and cleared Don’s name. Since outside
of the sale of VX, any money Sue Ellen had came from Don, Alisha
insisted on combining the estates. At Lo’s recommendation, Amanda
received the house Don grew up in, Sue Ellen’s home. Amanda and
Larry were having a great time remodeling. Lo insisted that Alisha
and Rick take the River Crest property across the street. The
insurance was paying to rebuild the home. They were up to their
elbows in architectural designs and, of course, complaints from the
HOA. Lo gave her mother’s home to Lisa and they were rebuilding the
garage.

The bulk of Don’s estate went to Lo. With
Alisha’s help, she created the Lorraine and Donald Downs foundation
out of the individual foundations and charity funds Don had set up.
For all intents and purposes, she now represented Don in the
charitable endeavors he felt most passionate about. She’d even
taken his place in the Stockyards Station Partnership and his spot
on the Board of Directors of the Opera.

Larry and Lisa had taken over much of the
responsibility at the Queen of Cool. Lo went in once or twice a
week to sign documents or sit in meetings. Mutt was thriving as the
head of his own department of mechanical problem solvers. The Queen
of Cool had gained a solid reputation as the “go to” place if you
needed tricky HVAC repair. They’d won the Dallas Cowboys contract
on their reputation alone. But when things went terribly wrong for
a customer, she was the one they wanted to talk to. After all, she
was the Queen of Cool.

Her first real purchase was the house next
door to the Lake Worth house. She had given the house to Yazmin and
Mutt as a wedding present. With Yazmin next door, Fifka and Nadya,
the cook and housekeeper from her house in River Crest, returned to
help them with both houses. With their help, and Mutt’s financial
security, Yazmin decided to go to school to be a midwife.

For reasons she’d never quite understand,
Jaden had left most of his estate to her son, Donny, and made her
executor. Lo laid Jaden to rest in the Downs’ plot at the Oakwood
Cemetery and had his own angel made to watch over him. Everyone
questioned her decision, but only she was with him in that little
room. She knew in her heart that she and Donny owed their lives to
Jaden Sadler. There wasn’t anything anyone could say that would
change her mind.

“
You okay?” Manny asked. He
gave her a beer and took a drink of the one in his hand. “You’ve
been standing by yourself for a while.”

“
Just taking it all in,” Lo
said.

“
Is it too much? I know
you’re not one hundred percent yet. I mean the kids are loud
and…”

“
No,” Lo smiled. “It’s
perfect. I think I’m still getting used to everything being… over,
you know? It wasn’t so long ago that I lived every moment of every
day in complete terror.”

“
Of the Goat Man?” Manny’s
eyes twinkled with his joke.

“
I saw him, you know,” Lo
said. “Or maybe her.”

“
You did?”

“
About a month ago,” Lo
said. “Donny and I were out for our morning walk. I can walk about
two miles now. Anyway, we ran right into him. I don’t know who was
more scared – me or the Goat Man.”

“
What did you do?” Manny
asked.

“
Oh Manny,” Lo said. “After
everything that’s happened, how could a little old goat monster
scare me? Donny laughed at the furry guy.”

“
It didn’t eat you?” Manny
asked.

“
No,” Lo said. “When Donny
laughed, it stopped moving to look at me and Donny. I swear it
smiled and ambled off.”

“
Do you think it was a
visitation?” Manny said in a soft voice. “You know Don showed up
for a visit?”

Lo’s eyes traced Manny’s face and she
smiled. He laughed.

“
Any word on Will Wallace?”
Lo asked.

“
Nothing,” Manny said. “I
talked to Bo last week. The man has effectively disappeared. No
one’s even sure who he worked for and no one knows where he went.
Bo’s best guess is some super-secret CIA thing. He said anyone
connected with the VX has crawled into a hole to hide.”

“
Good riddance.”

“
I’ll say,” Manny
said.

“
How are the pie classes
going?” Lo asked.

“
Sy’s mom is amazing,”
Manny said. “And so funny. She comes once a month to teach us. I
guess you know that.”

“
She stays with us,” Lo
said.

“
Well, you should see us.
You’d laugh. We practice all day; study all night. I still can’t
get over that Sy doesn’t remember how to make pie.”

“
It’s amazing what a few
bullets take from you,” Lo nodded. “Plus, I honestly think Renee
was the creative genius behind the pies. He can follow her recipes
and has some basic memories of making pies but that’s about it. How
does Mindy Sue like it?”

“
We’re in heaven,” Manny
leaned into her. “I’ll tell you they call once a week to beg me to
come back to FWPD. Not a chance. I’m a pie man like Sy
now.”

“
What’s Mindy Sue?” Lo
asked.

“
Pie gal?” Manny
asked.

Lo laughed.

“
We’re getting the hang of
the business part of it too,” Manny said. “We’ll never be as good
at everything as Sy is, but we’re having fun. I love it when the
shop is full of happy customers, the music’s blaring, the kids are
in a booth doing their homework, and Sy’s in the back baking pies
like a mad man. I don’t think I’ve ever been happier.”