voice. “Daddy found it behind the house sitting on the trash can when he came home this afternoon.”
“He found it? Just like this?”
“When we got home Nana looked all over for it, and she got more and more upset. I didn’t know what to do. She was digging through drawers, taking boxes out of the closet. Daddy brought it in and showed it to her. He said before he left this morning she was upset because she realized she had made a mistake at the beginning. He told her it didn’t matter, that nobody would ever notice, but she got more and more upset. He thought she would calm down….”
Tracy gazed around the room, because she was afraid to look at the girl. “Were you here when all this happened, sweetie? I mean, could you tell how upset she was?”
“No, I was riding my bike, and Nana was waiting in the yard after Daddy left, so we could go to Janya’s. But she seemed fine. Daddy’s so worried about her. He made her take some pills and go to sleep. I’m supposed to stay inside and watch her. He went to get pepperoni pizza for dinner. He said he didn’t want Nana to cook tonight.”
Tracy didn’t know how to phrase the next question. She looked at Olivia and asked it straight out, but softly, as if it didn’t matter. “Olivia, did your Daddy know that we had a party at Janya’s today?”
“I don’t know. He came home after we got back. He didn’t say anything.”
Tracy wondered if Lee had been right all along. Had thoughts of the upcoming party stressed Alice so much that she had ripped out the tablecloth, maybe hoping to fix it, and destroyed it instead? And had she somehow forgotten?
Alice, the same Alice who remembered the name of the new bar in Cargo Beach that had once been Gasparilla’s. But didn’t dementia work that way? Things from the past were clear, but things that had happened that morning were enveloped in fog?
She pulled herself back to Olivia. The little girl was clearly troubled. Tracy didn’t want to make things worse, but she had to ask. “Did your grandmother seem okay to you when you walked over to Janya’s?”
“She’s tired all the time lately, but she wanted to go.”
Tracy wondered if Alice had suffered another stroke. She hated to think that might be the case, but again, maybe Lee had been right all along. Maybe Alice did need quiet and rest. And instead they’d been at Janya’s eating unfamiliar food, learning a strenuous Bollywood dance. And at home, the heirloom pineapple tablecloth, Alice’s pride and joy, had been just a hideous pile of tangled thread sitting on her trash can.
On her trash can. Tracy wondered. That part didn’t make sense. Why wouldn’t Alice have lifted the lid and stuffed the tablecloth inside to hide it? Why would she leave the evidence where Lee would find it?
Find it before he even learned it was missing.
Had this been anything else, she might not have felt so unsettled. But Alice had been making the tablecloth for the granddaughter she cherished, as a reminder of all the women in their family who had come before her. The Alice Tracy knew was more apt to use a flaw in the tablecloth as a teaching tool. Not everything was perfect in life, but it could still be beautiful. Tracy had never heard her say those words, but she thought Alice believed them.
“Is she awake?” Tracy asked Olivia.
“I don’t think so. She was crying. A lot. But it stopped.”
Tracy felt sick again. She didn’t know what to believe, and she didn’t know what to do. She pulled Olivia close for a quick hug.
“I’m going to leave, then,” she said. “It’s probably not a good idea for your daddy to find me here, but Olivia, you know where I live. You know where Janya and Wanda are. If anything happens, and you think another adult should know about it, just run to any of us and we’ll help. I promise.”
“Daddy says we can take care of Nana without anybody else.”
“Just remember what I said, okay? Because sometimes…” She tried to think of a good way to say this. “Sometimes daddies are wrong about things. Okay? And sometimes another grown-up can help when a daddy gets stuck. You’ll remember?”
Olivia nodded. Her eyes were huge.
Tracy let herself out.
Rain was beginning to fall, and now the thunder sounded closer. A lollapalooza storm was on its way. Tracy shuddered