“Huh. Well, sorry, Janie, but Robin is mine forever.” The idea of Janie being motivated by envy was (I’m ashamed to say) a real boost to my spirits.
I was smiling when I got in my car, but I wasn’t a few minutes later when I picked up Robin’s suit at the dry cleaner’s. Mrs. Sung served me with great speed, as if she wanted me out of there. When I got cash from the ATM at my downtown bank, the drive-in teller was looking out her window with her eyes wide. I took the scenic route home, because it felt so good to be somewhere besides our house and the hospital.
The shooting had not diverted public attention as much as I had hoped. I should have figured we’d come in for our share of suspicion.
My childhood friend Amina was sitting in the park behind our little civic center. The moment I saw her, a memory I’d been groping for snapped into focus. I pulled into the parking area and walked over to Amina’s bench. She looked up when she saw me approaching, and pointed proudly to her daughter, who was going down the slide all by herself. Megan, now three, was adorable, with Amina’s clear complexion, shiny hair, and big smile. I was Megan’s godmother—and Amina’s friend—though my relationship with Amina had hit some speed bumps.
I wasn’t sure my schoolmate was willing to put in the work to relaunch our friendship. It was time to find out.
“Hi!” I called. Amina gave me a reserved sort of smile, but Megan waved with enthusiasm. “Miss Roe! Look at me!” After she went down the slide, she swung herself along the low monkey bars, three in a row.
I was duly impressed. “You’re strong, Megan,” I said.
“There’s Susie!” Megan ran over to play with her newly arrived friend at the sandpit. Susie’s mom sat down by the girls. I joined Amina on the bench, and for a moment I simply enjoyed the sun and the quiet.
But I had to open the conversation, to begin to work my way around to my goal. “How are you doing, Amina? What’s the progress on the divorce?”
“Hugh’s hired a lawyer from his firm, one who specializes in divorce litigation,” Amina said, her voice bitter.
What else did you expect? “Did you think he’d do anything different?” I said, as gently as I could.
“I hoped we could sign forms online and get it over with, for a couple of hundred bucks,” she said. “After all, I agreed to share custody of Megan with him, and I thought the alimony I asked for was reasonable.”
I was doubtful that a couple could get a quick online divorce if there were children or alimony involved, but what did I know? “I guess lawyers are allergic to filing cheap online forms,” I said. “What are you going to do?”
“I’ve talked to Bryan Pascoe,” Amina said.
“He’s got a great reputation. He’s who I’d go to.”
“He said he was a friend of yours.”
“That’s stretching it a little, but we’re friendly.” Bryan was sharp as a tack and very aggressive. He was exactly who Amina needed.
“Megan, do not pick up that stick!” Amina yelled, so suddenly I jumped.
Megan looked guilty and dropped the offending stick immediately. Susie’s mother looked up from her cell phone. “Sorry,” she called. “I’m putting it in my purse! Phones are an addiction!”
Amina waved back in acknowledgment. “Got to watch out for sticks,” she said quietly. “Or…”
“You’ll put an eye out,” we said simultaneously, and we laughed. That had been the standard opinion when we’d been young.
“Do you think you’ll stay here in Lawrenceton?”
“I haven’t decided,” Amina said heavily. She looked depressed. “I have help with Megan here. My mom just loves her to death, and now that Mom’s sold the shop she and Dad have a lot of time to spend with Megan. She’s got ’em wound around her little finger.” Amina’s smile looked both fond and proud.
“Sure she does,” I murmured.
Amina resumed her train of thought. “If I moved to Atlanta, I could get a good job at another legal firm. My former boss said he would give me a great recommendation. But that would be too far for my parents to commute to babysit every day. I’d have to put Megan in a day care, and that’s really expensive.”
“Could you find a job locally?” I had no idea what the job market in Lawrenceton was like. I’d held the library job since I’d graduated from college, a long, long, time ago.
“There’s an executive secretary job open at Pan-Am Agra and I’m really qualified for it,” Amina said. “And there’s day care there. As you know, of course.” Amina looked self-conscious. My first husband had instituted the day care. “I’m just not sure I want to become a small-town girl again.”
I had nothing to say to that. If the choice had been mine, I would stay local in a second, especially with day care provided at my place of work. But that was me, and as I’d learned when I was pregnant, Amina and I were nothing alike any longer, if we’d ever been.
I began carefully framing my next question, which had been my purpose when I’d seen Amina. But she forestalled me.
“They find that Virginia Mitchell?” she said, so abruptly that I jumped a little.
“Not yet.” So we were on-topic, unexpectedly, courtesy of Amina. “Your mom recommended Virginia to my mother, and I couldn’t remember how your mom had met her.”
“Virginia specializes in new moms now, but she used to sit for the elderly, too,” Amina said. “For a while, Virginia sat full-time with Mimi Day.”
Patricia Day (called “Mimi” by her descendants) had been a very exciting grandmother. She’d cursed in front of us children, she’d worn dangly earrings, and she’d smoked like a chimney. Volatile but funny, she’d been an exclamation point in my traditional childhood. I’d never met anyone like Mimi, who’d been married three times. I was sad when a stroke laid the grand old lady in bed forever.
“I was a new widow then,” I said. “I guess that’s why I didn’t remember the details.” I’d dropped in to Miss Patricia’s house a couple of times, but the visits were hazy. I’d been too grieved to take on any more sorrow.
“Right,” Amina said, and was silent for a moment to acknowledge my hard time. “Well, I couldn’t come too often, but I do remember Virginia. She was good with my grandmother, put up with all her bad language and temper. The boyfriend was the big problem.”
“Your grandmother had a boyfriend?” I was startled. Sure, Miss Patricia had been a firecracker, but I’d hardly have thought …
Amina laughed long and hard. “No, no! Virginia’s boyfriend!”
“He came by the house? Or called her too much?”
“He went to jail. It was a big drama.”
I could sure understand that. “For what?”
“Burglary, I think. From a toolshed, but it was expensive stuff. A circular saw, a jackhammer, things like that.”
As far as I knew, my father had never lifted a finger to do a home repair, but I knew Amina’s father had. So I took her word for it that tools could be worth stealing.
“And that was while Virginia was actually working for your grandmother?”
“You bet. It was the most interesting thing that had happened to Mimi in a year. She ate it up.”