Hand-Me-Down Love (6 page)

“
I’m
leaving tomorrow,” Mrs. O’Connell told Marla. “Sean has
encouraged me to get back to my life in Atlanta. I knew this time
would come.”

“
Yes,”
Marla said. “You said it would.”

Marla set the
vase on the kitchen table. “It’s the ashes,” she said. Mrs.
O’Connell looked at the vase. “That’s beautiful,” she said.

“
It’s a
family piece,” Marla said. “Meredith loved it but somehow I ended
up with it. I don’t remember how.”

Sean came into
the kitchen as the women were talking about the vase. He looked at it
on the kitchen table and Marla saw pain cross his face. “Is that
it?” he asked.

“
Yes,”
Marla said.

“
I don’t
want it here,” Sean said. “Can you take it with you?”

Marla was
shocked by Sean’s request, but nodded her agreement to take it with
her. “I’m sorry, Sean,” she said. “I thought you wanted me to
bring it to you.”

“
I’m not
ready,” he said. He turned away from Marla and his mother and left
the room.

Marla said her
goodbyes to Mrs. O’Connell, and picked up the vase. She placed it
carefully on the passenger side of her car and drove home.

The next
afternoon, she called Sean. He picked up after several rings.

“
I just
wanted to see how you’re doing,” Marla said.

“
My mother
left,” he said. “I made her leave.”

Marla didn’t
know what to say.

“
I don’t
think I can stay here,” Sean said. “I can’t look at that bed in
there.”

“
I’ll come
over and take care of that, okay?”

“
Okay,”
Sean said dully.

Marla drove
over to the house. Sean opened the door before she knocked. She
followed him into the kitchen.

“
Let me call
the hospice place to get the bed,” she said, punching in the
numbers.

“
They’ll
come get it on Monday,” she told Sean after hanging up. “They’ve
been backlogged.”

“
Lot of
people dying, I guess,” Sean said flatly.

They stood in
the kitchen without speaking to each other.

“
Sean, do you
want me to come over here and stay awhile?” Marla finally asked.

He looked at
her. His face was impassive.

“
I think I’ve
got to get out of here,” he said. “I’ve got to go back to work.
I think the best thing to do is get a place in Mobile.”

“
Okay,”
Marla said. “I’ll help you do that.” Sean nodded.

She left a few
minutes later. It was very clear to her that Sean needed privacy.

The next
morning, Marla called in a favor to a college friend who was selling
real estate in Mobile. She told her she needed a furnished place for
her brother-in-law, preferably near the bank. Something that wouldn’t
require a lot of upkeep. Her friend, Catherine, said her company
managed several condominiums and that they had one that might be
right for Sean. Marla called Sean and told him about the condo.

“
How soon can
I move in?” he asked.

“
Don’t you
want to look at it first?” Marla said.

“
No. I don’t
care. If you think it’s okay, then it’s fine with me.”

Marla called
Catherine and asked if Sean could move in right away. Catherine
offered to send photographs of the place, which she emailed to Marla.
The condo looked fine to Marla. It was in a nice district, close to
the bank. It had two bedrooms and a roomy looking kitchen, not that
Sean would care about that. Marla called Catherine back and asked her
to hold the place and send her the lease. When she received it
through her email, she took it over to Sean. He signed it without
even looking at it.

“
You can move
in tomorrow,” Marla said. “I’ll come help you.”

The next day,
she walked into Sean’s house ready to pack.

“
I’m just
taking some clothes,” he said. “I don’t want anything else.”

“
What about
stuff for the kitchen?” she asked. “You’ll need to be able to
cook and eat there.”

“
No. I’m
not taking anything but my clothes,” he said. “I’ll eat out
when I need to eat.”

So, Marla
really had nothing to do to help Sean move. He brought three
suitcases to the kitchen door and said he was ready to go. Marla said
she would follow him to the new place. She kept close behind his BMW
as they crossed the bay bridge and drove into Mobile. She followed
Sean as he drove to the condo complex. Catherine had left the key
under the welcome mat. “This isn’t how we usually do things,”
she told Marla. “But I’m making an exception for you.”

Marla and Sean
walked into the condo. It seemed sparse and empty, even though it was
furnished. It was empty of the spark of life, Marla realized. Sean
put his bags on the bed and started unpacking.

“
Sean, you’re
going to need some towels and at least some glasses,” Marla said.
“I’m going to go get those things, okay?”

He turned to
her, a shirt in his hands. “Okay. Thanks. I guess I left in kind of
a hurry. I didn’t think about all that.”

Marla drove a
few streets over to Wal-Mart. She got a shopping cart and went up and
down the aisles. She put a set of dishes in the cart along with
drinking glasses and a set of eating utensils. She got a set of green
plush towels and two sets of bed linens. Even though Sean said he
didn’t want them, she got a skillet and a couple of cooking pots.
Sean would need laundry detergent and cleaning supplies for the
kitchen. She got those things and threw them in the cart. As she was
about to check out, she realized that Sean had not brought a
television to the condo. He was going to want that, she thought. He
would need a distraction. She went to the electronics section and got
a flat screen TV.

A couple of
hours later, Marla returned to the condo. Sean was still sitting on
the couch. It didn’t look like he had moved an inch in the entire
time that Marla had been gone.

“
Can you help
me get the TV in here?” she asked Sean.

“
I’m
sorry,” he said. “I’ll get it. Thanks for doing that.” He
sounded hollow.

Sean and Marla
walked outside and Marla popped the trunk. Sean lifted the TV easily
and carried it inside. He busied himself with taking it out of the
box and hooking everything up. Marla brought the rest of the bags in.
She took the sheets out of the plastic wrapper and threw them into
the washer along with the towels. Marla put the dishes, glasses, and
utensils in the dishwasher and rinsed the pots and pans and set them
on a towel by the stove to dry. When the sheets and towels were dry,
she made the bed and hung the towels in the bathroom.

She walked back
into the living room. “I’m okay,” Sean said, looking away from
the television and up at Marla. “You don’t have to worry. I know
you’ve got your shop and a lot to do.”

Marla didn’t
want to leave Sean in that impersonal condo, but she felt the vibes
from him that he wanted to be alone.

“
Will you
call me if you need anything?” she asked Sean as she picked up her
purse.

“
Yes. But I
don’t think I will. Thanks for everything you’ve done to help me
today.”

“
What about
the house?” Marla asked.

“
I can’t
think about that right now,” Sean answered. “I just need to let
that alone.”

Marla hugged
him goodbye and got in her car. She headed back to the bridge, and
then home to Bay Point. How was she supposed to keep an eye on Sean
like Meredith wanted if he wasn’t even living in Bay Point anymore?
She didn’t know how to do that. Sean was gone, and Marla felt like
an intrusion on his life.

As Marla slept
that night she had a dream about Meredith. “What are you doing
here?” Marla asked her sister in the dream. “You’re dead.”

Meredith looked
at Marla and laughed. “Dead but not forgotten,” she said
impishly. That’s when Marla realized they were sitting in the tree
house they had built as children. She looked around the cozy place
and it was just as it had always been. The plywood sides were painted
lavender with leftover paint from Marla’s bedroom. Marla saw the
one spot that the paint had missed, close to the floor of the tree
house. It was real.

“
Where have
you been?” Marla asked Merrie. “Where have you been all this
time?”

“
I’ve been
right here,” Meredith answered. “Right here.”

“
Sean moved,”
Marla said. “He didn’t have a TV.”

Meredith
laughed. “I know,” she said. “Are you going to look after him?
You promised you would look after him.”

“
Yes,”
Marla told her dream sister. “Yes. I’m planning to do that. It’s
good he got a TV.”

Meredith
laughed again and was gone. Marla sat alone in the tree house.

She woke up
suddenly, still in the dream, still sitting in the tree house. She
looked around the room for Meredith. Gradually, she realized she had
been dreaming. It took a while to go back to sleep.

Marla called
Sean every night for the next several days. Finally, on the fourth
night, he said, “You don’t have to check on me every night,
Marla. I’m okay.”

“
I’m sorry.
I just want to make sure you’re doing okay,” she said.

“
Well, I’m
doing as okay as a person can be in this situation,” he said. “I’m
going to work every day. I’m eating. I’m keeping myself clean. I
guess that’s about all I can hope for right now.”

Marla agreed.
“I know you’ll call me if you need me,” she said before ending
the call. She resolved that she would only check in with Sean every
now and then. It was obvious that he wanted his privacy.

Chapter
Nine

Business at the shop
was brisk. It seemed that everyone wanted vintage, and they knew Bay
Point Antiques and Vintage was the place to get it. Jada started
making chocolate chip scones every week to have in the shop for
customers. They munched on the scones as they went through the
vintage side, picking up vases and planters, rubbing their hands
along tables and chairs, picking up linens to admire the embroidery
or old printed fabric. Sales were so good that Marla considered going
totally vintage. But her business self told her better. It was the
fine antiques that brought in the big money, even if they sat there
awhile before the right buyer came along. Bay Point Antiques, after
all, had a reputation to maintain.

It had been
several weeks since Marla had seen Sean. She stopped calling him, but
she texted occasionally, usually saying simply, “Hi.” He always
texted back “Hi.” As long as he did that, Marla felt he was doing
all right. As long as he kept in contact. Marla had not dreamed of
Meredith again. She kept herself busy with the shop and only at the
end of the day, in her apartment with Lucy, did she allow herself to
feel the grief. She cried often up there, alone. She missed her big
sister.

The summer
moved into late fall. Meredith had died in June. It had been five
months since then. Life was going on, though that was still hard for
Marla to imagine. That life went on after such a huge loss. The shop
hosted a Fall Days sale, which Jada promoted on the blog, the
website, Facebook, and Twitter. Customers were at times crammed into
the shop. Marla had a new shipment of dough bowls, too, and they were
gone within a couple of hours. It was a busy day and at the end of
it, Marla went upstairs and fell on her bed, exhausted. She dozed
with Lucy curled up against her side.

Her cell phone
jangled her out of sleep. She had left it on the side table in the
living room. She didn’t make it in time to answer it, but checked
the missed call. It was Sean. She immediately called him back. “Hey,”
he said when he answered.

“
Hey,”
Marla said. It sounded noisy on Sean’s end. “Where are you?”
she asked.

“
I’m at
Jackson’s,” he said. He sounded slurry.

“
What’s
that?” Marla asked. “What is Jackson’s?”

“
It’s just
a bar,” Sean slurred.

“
How are
you?” Marla said. She didn’t know why Sean was calling.

“
Can you come
get me?” Sean asked.