but danger is everywhere. We just have to be smart. I can’t live my life in fear though.” She took another sip of her drink, placed the glass down on a coffee table, and picked up another book from the pile. An old paperback, “The Thorn Birds,” by Colleen McCullough.
“You don’t have a man to protect you anymore. You won’t let me come and—”
“And if I do end up in an area that I believe may not be as safe as Marietta, I can always hire a security guard to work the evenings and get an alarm system. Please stop this. I’ll make it work, I always do, and I don’t need a man to make things better. Men have been trusted to run the world, and look at it. Destruction. Ego over everyone else. Don’t even get me started, Daddy. Y’all need to step aside and let us take care of things for a change, quite honestly. Jesus ’bout to come down here and scoop our asses right on up… all this foolishness.”
“Lauren, you’re hardheaded. I’m just trying to help.” She could hear her father suppressing a laugh… but she had no doubt he was as serious as she was.
“This has nothing to do with my being stubborn. I am, I’ll give you that, but that’s beside the point. Even if I had a man, Daddy, he can’t be with me twenty-four-seven like some assistance dog. He’d have a life of his own. You mean well, but this conversation isn’t helping and you know I’m going to end up handling it how I see fit anyway. I will take care of this. Now, is there anything else you want to talk about?”
Dad got quiet once again. All she wanted was to be off the phone with the man at that point. Him bringing up her husband had rubbed her the wrong way. He knew darn well that was a hot button issue with her.
“Hold on, Lauren. Somebody is at the door. I think your Mama ordered something again,” he grumbled.
“All right.” She heard Daddy shuffling away after putting his cordless house phone down. The man was so old school, apart from being a busybody. Mama complained that he would peek out windows all the time and spy on the neighbors, or tell everyone’s secrets the first chance he got. That wasn’t the man she recalled from her youth. Perhaps old age was taking hold, changing him into someone else.
No, that couldn’t be it. Maybe he just didn’t have enough to do, so that caused him to stick his nose in everyone’s business, then offering unsolicited advice on a regular basis. It was downright worrisome. Why couldn’t he go and call her brother and harass him instead? I know why. I just wish he would, all the same… Speaking of whom, I need to give Landon a call sometime this week too, see how he’s doing. He called me the other day but we couldn’t speak for long.
Landon Jr. fielded Daddy’s calls under the guise of being busy, but she knew better. Older by only one year and three months, Landon was a pharmacist and her friend. He’d taught her how to read before the teachers at school had, protected her from bullies, and while Daddy was away with his sales job, travelling all over Georgia, Tennessee, and Texas, and Mama was sometimes too ill fighting her battle with anemia, Landon had stepped in and picked up the slack. When it came to their father, Landon didn’t say much. Their relationship had grown tense over the years.
Landon was in fact truly busy, yet he always answered her calls, day or night. He wasn’t perfect, and neither was she, but he was indeed a wonderful person with a heart of gold and the family adored him. They’d put him on a pedestal… until he got married. That was when it had all gone downhill. Landon had married a lady whom their father didn’t approve of, so he seldom came around unless it was a holiday or an issue with Mama’s health.
“Daddy?” she called out as she reached for a hardcover book. On the cover was an etching of a map of Japan on a dark brown background. It looked rather ho-hum and lackluster, but she of all people knew that could be deceiving. She began to flip through it, recalling why she’d chosen it from Aries’ father’s home library. It was the simplicity of the design that had drawn her. Like