“Gertrude, I have something very special for you.” I pulled out her stack of mail. I’d used a rubber band to keep it all together. “It looks like you got a letter.”
“Oh my word.” Gertrude put her hand up to her mouth. She choked out her words through a sudden burst of tears. “You have made my day. Heck, week. Nope. Month!”
She was so startled that her little wrinkly hands were shaking when I walked over to the other side of the porch where she was sitting next to Ruby and handed the stack to her.
“That’s wonderful.” Millie smiled and put a gentle hand on Gertrude.
“What a sweet daughter you have.” Ruby opened up the box and offered everyone a fried hand pie.
Iris and I passed, but Harriette hurried back inside of her house, leaving us there to watch Gertrude open and read her letter.
“Mind your business,” Gertrude hissed at Millie and turned her shoulder away from her after Millie tried to sneak a peek.
“Your business is our business.” Harriette pushed through the screen door with a serving tray filled with napkins, full cups of coffee, and plates, along with forks for their hand pie. “Now, what is it that Revonda Gail had to say in her letter?”
“She’s coming for a visit!” Gertrude pulled the letter to her chest and smiled so big. “She’s coming for a visit and should be here any day.”
“You know that big RV can’t be pulled up into Little Creek Road. The beautification committee will have a fit.” Harriette reminded Gertrude that the home Revonda had decided to live in, an RV, was too big to park in a neighborhood or street, according to the city rules.
Gertrude’s face fell. Harriette had burst her bubble.
“You don’t have to worry about that.” I handed the other ladies their mail before I hoisted the bag back up on my shoulder. “She can park it at the farm.”
“Are you sure, Bernie?” Gertrude’s attitude turned right around, and her excitement was back.
“I’m positive. I think the old truck Grady used to drive is still in the barn since he got that fancy minivan for Julia and Clara. Revonda Gail can drive that while she’s here.” I didn’t think Grady would mind, since the old truck was technically owned by me on paper. “The farm is plenty big to keep her RV there.”
“Thank you, Bernie. You are a gem.” Gertrude was so happy that she passed the letter around to her friends.
“Iris, what are you doing tagging along?” Millie eyeballed Iris.
The Front Porch Ladies didn’t miss a thing.
“Did you have one of them feelings?” Harriette didn’t miss a thing.
“I did. . .” Iris started to say before I interrupted.
“We didn’t make it to yoga today, and you all saw I was late delivering the mail to the assisted living, so she is walking this second loop with me, and then we are going to the bookstore opening.” I pulled my sleeve up on my cardigan as if I had a watch, but I didn’t. “According to the time, we better get a move on, or we aren’t going to make it.”
Harriette stirred uneasily on the porch swing but didn’t say anything. She let my explanation stand, though she clearly wasn’t buying it.
“We are going too.” Ruby nodded and took a bite of her pie. “This whole day has been glorious. We got our hair done. We have amazing hand pies. We have a new bookstore coming to town. Stella Jane Clark is famous. And now Revonda Gail is going to come visit.”
“Mm-hmm…” Harriette looked at me with a pensive shimmer in the shadow of her eyes. “Glorious,” she murmured sarcastically under her breath.
I tugged on Iris’s sleeve to get her to stop dilly-dallying. We still had the courthouse, the fire and police stations, and the funeral home and library to deliver mail to before we could even think about going to the bookstore opening.
“What was that about?” Iris referred to my reaction to Harriette’s feeling.
“It was about keeping your mouth shut around the biggest set of gossips in Sugar Creek Gap.” We walked back down Little Creek Road the way we came and took a right on Short Street since the courthouse was right across Main on that end of downtown. “If they think you’ve got a feeling, they will turn it around about Revonda Gail or something. I think we really need to keep exploring your feelings before anything happens.”
“Bernadette Butler, you’ve known me all our lives. And since when did you want me to keep my trap shut about my feelings?”
“Well, since you told me in high school that Bobby Peters was going to take me to prom and he ended up taking you.” I gave one example.
“And aren’t you glad?” She scoffed. “You could be divorced from the son of a gun and have a bakery. But now you have an amazing life with Mac,” she teased, snuggling up to me. “Who is the love of your life. I don’t care what you say about Richard. He was not the love of your life. He is no different than Bobby. Maybe worse since his affair spanned years.”
Normally, I wouldn’t let anyone talk to me the way Iris did, but she was right. She was my best friend, and she had been by my side after Richard’s death, which only led to me learning he’d had a whole ’nuther relationship practically the entire time we were together. If I couldn’t take straight talk from my best friend, who could I take it from?
“Gee, if I’d known you were going to give me a smackdown, I’d have not said a word,” I teased and stopped at the stop sign at the corner of Short Street and Main.
“Lucy, I saw that interview this morning with that young girl, and I just can’t help but think that cover looks a tad bit too steamy to have in any bookstore.”
WSCGR, the local radio station, was located on the corner where Iris and I were standing. The station had speakers outside of the building, which was really nice when we had the various festivals, especially Christmas, because the music reflected the season.
In the morning, it was Lucy’s turn to be heard all over Sugar Creek Gap, and she took full advantage of it. Too bad Iris and I stood there like dummies watching her through the side panel glass window. The DJ booth was located right there on the corner. The station’s owner thought it would be a great idea for the public to get an up-close and personal view of what DJs did, so they made that full corner of the building glass.
“I hear you, caller. I’ve fact-checked Stella Jane Clark’s background, and she has graduated from college. Though I didn’t go to college, I’m sure Stella Jane had some experiences she’s put in the books. After all, it was Sugar Creek Gap High School English teacher, Grady Butler, who gave her what she called the best advice, which was write what you know. So I guess we will see.”
Lucy threw the dead air to a song. She turned and looked me squarely in the eyes before she gave me the four-finger wave with a big fat smile on her perfectly collagen-plumped lips.
“Be nice. Jealousy doesn’t look good on you,” Iris muttered through the fake smile and wave she returned to Lucy. “And you got the man.”
“Hi,” I mouthed and waved back to Lucy. “I always had the man,” I said underneath my fake smile, referring to the little breakup Mac Tabor and I had had where he lost his mind and ended up just trying to be friends with Lucy, though it had looked like more than that to me.