cutting board with a box of crackers. Then I lined up the wine bottles and a half dozen wineglasses and remembered I couldn’t find a corkscrew the last time I looked for one.
“Leslie? Please see if you can find a corkscrew, and if you can’t, ask the Scarecrow to bring one. Please? I’m going to go and change.”
The Scarecrow was the guy in The Wizard of Oz without a brain.
“Good one,” Momma said.
I stopped in my tracks and looked back. She gave me a thumbs-up.
I got to my room and stopped again. Something had changed in the house. I wondered what it was and finally, I realized what was different. Everyone was happy. That may seem to be an overly simplistic way to state the very complicated facts, but it was the truth. That happiness was so hard won. I had scars to prove it. We all did.
I took off my dirty gardening clothes, rinsed off in a fast shower, and put on a clean sundress and sandals. I couldn’t wait to see Ted. I could’ve waited a long time before I saw Archie, but if I guessed correctly, he was going to be here a lot, sniffing around for Leslie like an old hound dog. What can I say? It had always been this way. She was Brigitte Bardot to my Tammy Tell Me True. She was wired in a way that was the complete opposite of me. And did it really matter to me if Archie wanted Leslie and not me? Well, there was a smidgen of a sting to it, but I had Ted, and I didn’t have to change myself for him to like me. In the cool of the afternoon, that matters just a whole lot more to me.
Ted and Archie were prompt. Leslie answered the door and I remembered she had not really been introduced to Ted. Although Ted knew Archie, because of Sharon’s hysteria and, ultimately, her death. So I hurried out to meet them to make sure that Ted was introduced to Suzanne as well.
“Hey!” I said to Ted. “Don’t you look nice? Hey, Archie.”
“Hi, Holly. It’s nice of y’all to have me.”
Leslie smiled at Archie like a large, slinky, satisfied feline. Archie gave her kind of a lascivious look. Ted caught it, raised his eyebrows, looked at me, and handed me his Ella Fitzgerald album.
“There you go!” I said. “Y’all come on in!”
All at once the physical differences between Archie and Ted were crystal clear. Ted was a younger man, muscular and fit. His hair was close cropped and he was tanned. Ted was a well-made specimen. Archie’s posture wasn’t as sturdy as Ted’s and he looked pale and unkempt instead of like the Sexy Professor. And he had a little belly I’d never noticed before. The truth was that Archie was a lot less appealing, to me, anyway. Leslie seemed to be less picky.
Archie, who had brought his corkscrew, shook hands with Suzanne and said, “I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name?”
Suzanne said, “I’m just the proverbial boy named Sue. Me and Johnny Cash.”
“That’s funny,” Archie said. “Miss Katherine? I heard you were under the weather? I hope you’re feeling better now.”
“I’ve never felt better,” Momma said. “Thank you.”
Suzanne turned to Ted and said, “And you’ve got to be Ted.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Ted said and extended his hand for a shake.
“Thanks, son,” Suzanne said and shook his hand soundly without batting an eye.
Leslie began filling glasses halfway with wine and handing them around. Ted, who in my experience was a beer drinker, took a glass and thanked her. I put the music on and soon Ella’s rendition of “All Through the Night” filled the room.
“That’s our song,” I said to Ted.
“So, young man,” Suzanne said to Ted, “do you know your way around a grill?”
“I think I might,” Ted said. “Can I give you a hand?”
“You sure can. Grab that tray of meat and follow me outside.” Suzanne passed me and whispered. “Love this guy. He’s a dream.”
Momma picked up a shrimp on a toothpick and said to Archie, “I pickled these today. May I offer you one?”
Memories of Momma’s gastronomic prowess must’ve crept into his tiny mind because he said, “I’m going to wait for dinner, but thank you. Big lunch.”
“So, did you find a home for Sharon’s cats?” I asked.
“Yes, I gave them to one of my students,” he said. “I’m really more of a dog person.”