Once I’d taken her in, I burst out laughing.
But this time, it wasn’t due to hysteria.
Junk Sunday
Greta
MY EYES OPENED the next morning and at first I was disoriented.
Then the grogginess I felt, the pain in my face, aches down my neck and back, and the warmth cocooning me reminded me where I was.
I was in Hixon’s bed in Hixon’s apartment.
I could feel he was no longer with me.
However he had been.
This astounding event occurred after we’d arrived back at his place from the hospital.
And it was astounding because his children had maneuvered it.
It went like this.
We walked in and Hix started issuing orders, these being, “Right, girls, back to bed. Greta’s on the pullout. Shaw, I’m bunkin’ on the floor in your room. Get your sleeping bag.”
To which Corinne declared, “Greta can’t sleep on the pullout. It isn’t even cool you’re sleepin’ on the pullout. But she has to rest and it’ll be uncomfortable for her to be in our living room. I know I wouldn’t be able to get to sleep in someone’s living room if I was thinkin’ any second someone would have to get up and go to the bathroom, bein’ noisy, or goin’ to the kitchen to get a drink of water. Especially if I barely knew those people.”
“Right, so Greta’s in Shaw’s bed and—” Hix started to amend only to be interrupted by Corinne again.
This time more forcefully.
“Euw, Dad!” she squealed. “Shaw’s room smells like boy. No one should have to sleep in there without an oxygen mask, even Shaw. She needs to sleep in your bed. Mamie and me’ll sleep on the pullout.”
“Fine,” Hix bit out and turned to Shaw. “You know where the sleeping bag is?”
It was Mamie who put her two cents in that time, calling out, “Uh, Daaaaaaaad.” Then stating like he was a dim bulb, “We’re not like . . . three. I mean, isn’t she your girlfriend?”
Everyone stared at her in astonishment, even Hix and me.
“What?” she asked looking around. “All the kids at school said you’re seein’ the pretty lady that works with Miss Lou at the salon.” Her eyes stopped on me. “And you’re Greta, the pretty lady who works with Miss Lou.” Again she glanced around. “Am I missing something?”
Shaw made a noise that sounded like he was swallowing laughter but Corinne stated commandingly and a little snootily, “Uh, no, Mame. You aren’t missing anything.”
Even with this information confirmed, Mamie wasn’t done speaking.
However she was only beginning to work herself up, doing this planting both her hands on her slim, not-so-little-girl-anymore-but-still-a-little-girl hips and screwing up her face.
“Boyfriends and girlfriends sleep together, Dad, like moms and dads sleep together. We’re not babies. We know that. Like, you think that we think, when we’re not around, you guys don’t sleep together? Sheesh.”
She didn’t expect an answer to what she clearly thought was a stupid question that didn’t deserve one.
She threw out an exasperated hand in my direction and kept right on going.
“And she got her nose broke by some bad guy. It’s kinda like me. If I got my nose broke by some bad guy, I’d want you to be close. She doesn’t want you on the floor in Shaw’s room. That’s closer than wherever her kitchen is. But it isn’t close enough. I mean, she ran right to you, Dad. Didn’t wipe her nose or anything. Just came right to you.”
“She’s right, Dad,” Shaw put in smoothly, then demonstrated he was either a young man with a one-track mind (that wasn’t the usual track), or he was a son who knew his father very well and therefore how to manipulate him, for he used this opportunity to remind his dad, “She got her face slammed in a kitchen island twice and then got so shaky we had to hold her hand. You should be with her.”
Hix opened his mouth.
I was a little embarrassed about the truth of the fact that I did indeed get so shaky they’d had to hold my hand, but I opened my mouth too.
But Corinne got hers in first.
“Great. That’s settled. Come on, Mame.” She reached a hand out to her little sister. “Let’s go change the sheets real quick so Dad and Greta can get in there and we can all go to sleep.”
Mamie moved to Corinne and they walked down the hall hand in hand.
“I’ll get you some water, Greta,” Shaw declared. “So you can take that pain pill they gave you at the hospital.”
I watched him go to the kitchen.
Hix watched him go too.
Then Hix and I looked to each other.
“Don’t worry about it, sweetheart. I’ll talk with them after we get you settled. Make sure they’re good with this,” he assured me quietly.
“I . . . all right,” I agreed.
He came to me, wrapped his hand around the back of my head, bent in and kissed the top of mine before he pulled back.
“Go on back with the girls. Ask Corinne to get you one of my tees. Settle in. Yeah?” he said.
I nodded.
Shaw returned with a glass of water and dug the small envelope with two pain pills in it out of his back jeans pocket that they’d given me at the hospital (that, incidentally, he’d slipped out of my fingers the second they’d done that, clearly feeling in my state I couldn’t be trusted with the important task of looking after a tiny envelope).
I took the water and envelope with a smile at Hix’s son, sent that smile Hix’s way, marveled for a moment as I looked between the two of them that they could look so alike and so different at the same time, then I went back to Hix’s bedroom.
It was like the living room, crammed with furniture too big for a room of that size, and I saw the girls were finishing up with the flat sheet. I took the pill, set the glass aside, slipped off my jacket and draped it over a bunch of other clothes on a club chair in the corner and helped them finish up.
Corinne got me a tee and they left after saying goodnight, closing the door behind them.
I changed, got in Hix’s bed, liked it precisely as much as I thought I would (which was to say immensely, he had very comfy mattresses), turned out the lights and settled in, eyes open, staring into the dark, not thinking about some creepy creep who attacked me.
Thinking about how Hix held my hand against my thigh the whole way back from the hospital.
At first, Mamie had chattered a lot.
When it became clear she’d talked herself to sleep, Hix had squeezed my hand and said in a soft voice, “Got there, your neighbor was there with his pistol, so was Hal. Your neighbor said he heard you scream and it woke him up. When he heard the squeal of your tires, he was lookin’ out his window, saw you peel out down the road and caught a good look at your face. He’d already called nine one one, but when he saw that, he grabbed his gun and headed out. Hal had already gotten a call. By the time I got there, Hal was there. Said he arrived, your neighbor was in the driveway, training his pistol on the guy. Neighbor reported he caught the guy stumbling out of your kitchen door and detained him. Hal took over then.”
“Which neighbor?” I asked.
“Man named Ned Cheever.”