the road toward the bridge.
“Tracy?”
She recognized Alice’s voice. “I’m afraid Lee just left, Alice. Are you trying to reach him?”
“No…I made cake. I thought…you…the others…”
Tracy waited, then filled in the blanks. “Did you want us to come over?”
Alice sounded relieved. “In an hour?”
“Would you like me to call Wanda and Janya? I found out something interesting today.”
“Oh, yes.”
Tracy hung up and wondered if Alice had waited for the exact moment when Lee would be gone. For some reason, that possibility disturbed her.
Alice’s cottage was decorated in soft florals and smelled like lilac air freshener. A flamingo lamp sat on a tinted-glass table beside an overstuffed sofa, but the focal point was a huge aquarium on a knotty pine cabinet. Multihued plants waved from layers of white gravel, a treasure chest opened and closed in one corner, and iridescent fish darted between fronds.
“I tried one of these,” Wanda said. She leaned over and squinted through the wide expanse of glass. “I lost more fish than a Yankee on a deep sea charter boat.”
Janya joined Wanda, and they leaned over together, staring at the circling fish. “They are so beautiful. This must be work, to keep it so clear and clean.”
Tracy had been afraid her two feuding neighbors might refuse to attend the same gathering, but something had transpired between them since the incident at Herb’s. Whatever it was, she was glad they had resolved their problems.
“I’ve had aquariums…” Alice joined them. “Since I was first married. My Fred?” She pointed to the cabinet. “My birthday. He made this for me.”
“He was a talented carpenter.” Wanda straightened, hands against her lower back. “Kenny now? Give him a hammer and he’ll have a black thumb to show for it, and not one thing more.”
“How long were you married?” Janya asked Alice.
She didn’t hesitate. “Forty-five years.”
“Now that’s a long time.” Wanda leaned farther back. “Kenny and me? We been married almost thirty. I figure that’s long enough. I’m still so young I ought to be good for another thirty with somebody else. But no more cops.”
“Does your Kenny know he is…what is your idiom? History?” Janya asked.
“It will probably take him a couple of months after I’m gone to notice.” Wanda began to wander, lifting a photo in a silver frame and holding it out to Alice.
“You and Fred?”
“Yes. Wasn’t he handsome?”
“My, yes, he certainly was. And you look beautiful. All dressed up with someplace to go.”
“Ballroom dancing.”
Tracy smiled, trying to imagine the Alice she knew whirling around a dance floor. It wasn’t as hard as she’d expected. Tonight Alice seemed relaxed and more confident. Even her speech wasn’t as halting. And when she held up one hand and did a little dance step in front of the aquarium, Tracy could glimpse the younger woman.
Wanda studied a shelf of multicolored pillars topped with couples in ballroom poses. “Are these your trophies?”
“We were good,” Alice said, lowering her eyes modestly. “Fred…tango was his dance.”
“I’m certain you were just as good,” Janya said.
Olivia came in from the bedroom and greeted everybody. She put her hand on Tracy’s arm as the others moved into the next room. “Did you find out if Daddy will let me pierce my ears?” she asked.
“I talked to him, and I told him you’d love the rec center camp, too. Let’s keep our fingers crossed on both fronts.”
“Awesome!”
The others were still enjoying their peek into Alice’s life, and Olivia brought Tracy up to speed. “Nana’s showing them the tablecloth she’s making for when I grow up. Come see.”
The group was watching Alice carefully remove something from a fabric bag on wooden legs.
“Alice is making a tablecloth,” Wanda said. “Crocheting the whole thing.”
“You can crochet a tablecloth?”
“Not everything comes from China. Sometimes people make things.”
“I can glue shells on anything that doesn’t move,” Tracy said. “Next week I’ll make you a Christmas ornament.”
Wanda snorted, and Tracy decided she really would.
“My grandmother…” Alice gently lifted the tablecloth from the bag. It was a soft winter-white, crocheted from impossibly thin yarn, or maybe some sort of thread. Tracy knew nothing about yarn crafts, but even she could see how intricate this was, and how beautifully done.
“My grandmother,” Alice started again. “She was so accomplished. Sewing. Knitting. Crochet.” She unfolded the tablecloth so they could see the lacework better. “She made one…not this…for my hope chest. It was my pride.”
“I can just imagine,” Janya said. “Do you still have it?”
“No. There was a house fire when Fred and I lived in…St. Petersburg.”
“Nana and my grandpa lived