a sitting position, but it was like lifting a rag doll, a one-hundred-pound-plus rag doll. She tried again, and this time, using every bit of strength, she was able to pull Alice into something approximating a sitting position, so she was lying against Tracy’s chest.
Tracy shook her, and not gently. “Alice, we’ve got to get you out of here.”
Alice’s eyes opened, but she didn’t speak.
Tracy debated what to do, and as she did, she heard the sound of a car pulling to a stop out front.
“You get here now,” Wanda said into her cell phone. “And turn on that siren of yours, Kenny. I mean it.”
She hung up and motioned to Janya. “It’s going to be a while before he arrives. Grab those flowers.” She pointed to a motley silk bouquet in a basket on her coffee table. The bouquet had been ready for the trash can for months. The only thing that had stopped her from tossing it out was inertia. “We’re going to call on our neighbors and see if they’re home.”
Janya grabbed the basket. “Tracy has been at Alice’s house for more than ten minutes.”
“I told her not to go unless I was here!”
“She told me to call you. She didn’t want to wait.”
“Yeah, well, good thing you had my cell number.” Of course it was too bad Janya’s call hadn’t come five minutes later, after Wanda had already checked out and put her groceries in the car. Now she was going to have to go back and shop all over again. She just hoped she got a different cashier.
Outside, Janya peered up at the sky. “It’s starting to rain.”
Wanda had noticed that, too, although the lightning worried her more than the splatter of raindrops. “And that husband and brother of yours are coming home when?”
“Rishi is showing Yash his office.”
“Well, we’re on our own here, then. Let’s get going.”
As they sprinted toward Alice’s house, Wanda saw Lee Symington’s SUV driving up the road toward it.
“Lord have mercy.” This time she wished she were a Catholic, so she could cross herself. Not only did they have confession, Catholics had an edge over Baptists in emergencies.
Janya was making plans out loud. “We will tell Mr. Symington we bought these flowers for Alice. Then we’ll keep him talking.”
“I’m not sure that’s going to do it. We don’t know where Tracy is. And if he hears her opening the back door to get out…”
“By then your husband will be here.”
Wanda thought of all the times Ken had failed her. “Don’t count on it.” She glanced at Janya. “You happen to know karate or kung fu? Something like that?”
“You only have the continent right.”
“This isn’t my lucky day.”
Wanda took a deep breath and turned up the walk to Alice’s house. Lee was just getting out of his car. She’d been a fan of All My Children for so many years, she figured she would just pretend she was on camera, walking through her part. She would be Erica, who always got what she wanted.
“It’s going to be a gully washer,” she called cheerfully. “Good thing you got home when you did, Lee. Someday that road’s just going to wash away. Shame the city doesn’t take better care of it.”
Lee slammed his door, but he stayed in place.
Wanda marched right up to him, as if he had welcomed her with a smile and extended his hand. “Janya and I have a little gift for your mother-in-law. I hear she’s having a hard time of things. We want to cheer her up.”
She saw Lee glance down at the arrangement in Janya’s arms. “You must be worried about Alice to come out in a storm.”
“Well, we are, you know. We never see her anymore. And we miss her.”
“The doctor says no visitors.”
“Does he? You just never know what a doctor’s going to say these days, do you? One minute they’re preaching this, then the next they’re preaching that. Now, Janya here’s a vegetarian, and some doctors think that’s the way to go, but then you read about iron and protein and all that other slobber. And you have to ask yourself if anybody knows anything, whether they have letters tagging along behind their names or not.”
“I’d love to debate this with you,” he said in a tone that made it clear he would rather tie his incisors to a doorknob, “but I need to check on Alice.”
“Mr. Symington,” Janya said with a pleasant smile, “I have wanted to share with you some thoughts about