Green Tea (9 page)

“Oh, grow a pair!”

I couldn’t believe she said that to me. A grandma! We both laughed so hard I worried we were going to set off an alarm. When we calmed down, I decided she was right, and headed downstairs.

I decided that being brave is good, but being foolish is bad, so with my new pair well in hand, sorry, phrased that wrong, with my new found bravery, I headed for the ER, figuring that I’d stand outside, but in a well traveled area.

It turned out to be a waste of time. I could remember some names, but wasn’t positive I had them right. I could remember some details, but wasn’t certain that I had the right details with the right girls, and unfortunately, a murdered girl isn’t as rare as you would hope.

I even did a Google search for ‘akimbo’. I found everything from a music group to a woman’s help group, but I didn’t find anything that mentioned legs akimbo, like Louis kept saying in his journals, well, except for a couple of novels. I’m looking for real life. Or at least I think I am.

I headed back up to Nana’s room and got there a nanosecond before AJ. He noticed. One of the things I like about him is that we’re so on the same page. One of the things that’s starting to drive me nuts, is that we’re so on the same page.

Nana stepped in before AJ could do more than sputter.

“Stop. She left the room for a moment. What? Do I need a babysitter now? Young man, you and I are going to come to blows if you don’t relax. I’m fine. Cara is fine. You need to be fine too.”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Better. Now, you can tuck in my pillow and blanket, and then the two of you can go home.”

“No. I’m not going home.”

“Young man.”

“Do not young man me. If you want me to go home, then you need to stop talking, rest, get better, get released, then we will all go home. By the way, Suzi called while I was on my way to your house.”

“You weren’t talking on that damned contraption while you were driving were you? God forbid you get hurt, it would be even worse if you hurt someone else.”

“I had my Bluetooth in my ear in case Cara or the hospital called. All I had to do was touch the thing to start the conversation and touch it again to end it. They say that the problem is when you hold the phone to your ear. I kept it short.”

“How is Suzi?”

“She’s more concerned about how you are.”

“AJ, you did not tell that child that I’m in the hospital did you?”

“No.”

“Then what are you talking about?”

“Mom told her.”

“Wonderful. You assured her that I am fine?”

“I tried.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means she says she’s coming home.”

“By the time she gets here, I’ll be home.”

“She isn’t coming to visit, she’s coming back to live here.”

“I’ll have no part of that. She has a new husband. They have a new life and with any luck at all they will soon give me a new great-grandchild. You call her this instant and tell her that she is not to change her life around for me.”

“Oh, believe me, we had that conversation. She isn’t coming only because of you, turns out her husband was offered a transfer. They’re closing down the offices where he now works. He was offered a job in the offices here, or an office in Atlanta, or an office in Ohio. He told his bosses that he would prefer here or Atlanta. They decided to send him here.”

“Okay.
 
That’s reasonable.”

I couldn’t help it. I was so excited that Suzi would be back in town, I squealed. Right there in the hospital. “When?”

“They’ll be here soon to look for a place. The company offered to pay for relocation, a pretty good package, but they decided that they wanted as much goodwill at the office as they could get. They offered to do the move on their own. U-Haul is gonna be their friend. They’re going to pack everything up, caravan the truck and their cars, and do the move themselves.”

“That sounds like fun.”

“It does?”

“Sure. When they’re packing they can get rid of all the stuff they don’t need and organize all the stuff they do need. If they do it right, they’ll have everything set up so that when they move into their new place they can unpack and have everything fresh and organized in no time.”

Both AJ and his grandmother looked incredulous and blurted at the same time, “Suzi?”

“Good point.”

“Perhaps you could be of assistance to them Cara. Perhaps you can walk Suzi through that process.”

AJ sounded frustrated already. “I swear to God Cara, if you would be willing to go help Suzi, I’d pay all your expenses. I know you would never take money for helping family, but I could pay for you to fly there and any expenses you had while you were there. I’d even fly out and drive back with you in the truck or in one of the cars.”

“I could do that.”

“Really? You would do that for me?”

“For you, and Suzi, and Nana.”

Her smile is lovely. I love an aged face. Not my own of course, but on other people, I just love it.

Nana took over. “AJ, you go outside and you call your sister right now. You tell her about Cara’s generous offer. You tell her not to do anything until she talks to Cara. I love the girl, but organization is not her forte, and if they’re doing this on a budget, organization is key.”

“Yes ma’am.”

AJ walked out the door without further comment.

I love that he loves his grandma.

“Thank you Cara.”

“My pleasure. I have a wedding to go to, and my sister and I are going on a cruise at some point, but I’ll make it work. I love to organize and scrub and boss people around.”

She laughed. “For that too, but what I was speaking of, is the love you have for my grandson. I’ve prayed his whole life that he would fall in love with a woman who would light up every time he walks in the room. You do that. His eyes light up every time he says your name. They say that a man will fall in love with a woman very much like his mother…”

My brain flipped. That sure went from a compliment to an insult in a hurry. Was I detached? Cold? Before the whole thought could form, Nana explained.

“I prayed that AJ would find someone quite unlike his mother, someone kind, and family oriented, and someone that would love him through the bad moments in life. I think he has found you.”

I didn’t know what to say, and I didn’t want to cry, “Thank you.”

“Cara, I’m fine now, but when you get to be my age, you start to recognize that the life you have left is getting shorter. You want to make it worth something. You want to make sure that the people you love, the people you will leave behind, will be well cared for.”

I took a deep breath and slapped my thighs with my hands, making just a little bit too much noise in a hospital room, “Okay, you know what, this is getting all together too heavy-hearted. All my life I’ve tried to avoid giving my dad a heavy heart. We can’t go there our very first meeting. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate what you have said about AJ and me, but you need to know, that whatever happens between me and AJ, you will always be the most important woman in his life, and you need to stick around.”

I decided I’d cry later. The smile on her face was enough to keep me together for a little while.

I decided to change the subject to something a little safer, like serial murder, “So, I went downstairs and searched everything I could think of, but I didn’t get much information. Your idea is probably the best one anyone has had so far, I have no idea why I didn’t think of it.”

“Sometimes when you’re in the middle of a problem, it’s hard to see around the corners.”

“True. I’ll do all those kinds of searches when I get home.”

“Good. And Cara, while you’re at it, you might want to do a couple of other little things.”

I pulled out my phone to take notes. “Shoot.”

She laughed, “Nothing that drastic Dear. It is unreasonable for you to hand over the memory cards to another party and not even know what is on them. Should a situation arise that you need that information as a bargaining chip, you have nothing to put on the table. You are not protecting yourself at all.”

“You know, I don’t know what came over me. There are two kinds of people in the world. Those that want all the facts so they know what’s going on, even if they can’t do anything about it right that second, and those that don’t want to know what’s going on, almost until it’s too late, so that they can ignore the problem. I’ve always been the first kind of person. I hate the kind of person that looks the other way when a challenge is presented. I’ve never been that kind of person, well, not until lately.”

“So, what changed?”

“I’m not sure.”

“Could it be that you’ve never had anything to lose before?”

“Not really. I’ve always had my family. I would do anything for them. I’d trade my life for any one of theirs.”

“But Cara, in your life, your family has always been a given. In a very real sense you take for granted that no matter what happens, if it is within their control, your family will stand with you 100%.”

“That’s true.
They
might want to kill me, but they would never allow anyone else that privilege.”

“Perhaps all this self-doubt and self-deprecation comes from a place of insecurity. Perhaps you’re not being as bold as you once were, for fear that if you are, someone will find it unattractive.”

“Crap. You might be right. I honest to God didn’t see it, but maybe you’re right. Maybe I’ve been living like a ninny because I just haven’t recognized it. Maybe it’s because my last boyfriend left me for two reasons. The first was my family. He just couldn’t stand the fact that we were all so close. He said we were dysfunctional to the point of pathology, which I don’t think is true, but I can understand him feeling that way. He also said that I needed to tone it down. A lot. That I’m a ball buster and I’ll never find a man willing to put up with my attitude and my family. Maybe I actually, on some unconscious level, believed him.”

“He’s an idiot.” It was AJ’s voice coming from behind me.

I hate hospitals. They leave the door open. You never know who’s coming and going.

AJ walked up behind me and rubbed my shoulders. A thousand times more intimate than kissing me and right there in front of his grandma probably more appropriate.

“Your grandma is one of the smartest people I’ve ever met”

“I know.”

“You’re really blessed to have her.”

“I know.”

“She told me you were a bed wetter till you were in junior high.”

We needed a laugh to break the tension in the room.

“She did not.”

“True, I told her you were in high school.”

Another good laugh and we were back to normal.

Nana got serious again. “I’ll tell you one thing that I am sure of. Your generation makes things so much more difficult than they need to be. Problems, most problems, are easily solved. With a little thought and a little work, you can take care of your problems one, two, three. What your generation does is to complicate them. To make them into such a huge problem that they seem insurmountable, then you have a valid reason not to address the issue at hand. My generation learned that if you break a problem down into its individual little pieces and take care of each piece, any problem can be solved quickly and completely.”