“Then I thought someone might say a prayer. But if that is a problem…?”
Wanda knew she was being chided. As badly as she wanted to, though, she couldn’t find a way to strike back. Nothing Janya said was unreasonable.
“As long as there are no graven images. You folks seem to have a lot.”
“I have left all my graven images at home where they belong.”
“Wanda, please sit,” Tracy said. “We’ve got this under control. Let’s all take a deep breath and a moment to think of something we can say.”
Wanda sat, smoothing her skirt under her like the lady she should have been. She wasn’t sure where all that about heathens and graven images had come from. She couldn’t even remember the last time she’d gone to church. Not since she’d moved to Sun County, that was for sure. She was too mad at Ken to risk sitting there and getting struck by lightning.
Alice was the first to rise. Personally, Wanda was pretty sure she never wanted to stand up again, at least not for the next ten years. She slid her tingling, sweaty feet out of her sandals and leaned back in her chair.
“When Karen died, Herb came to my house. He…” Alice paused, as if she were trying to find the words or the right way to finish. “He wasn’t rich. He was a working man, a welder—”
“That’s where he met Clyde,” Wanda said, sitting forward suddenly as the information clicked. “There’s our connection!”
“Shhh…” Tracy said, waving her to silence.
“Welders are not rich,” Alice said. “It’s a hot job. Hard work. Especially in Florida.”
“So Herb came to see you,” Janya said, as if to steer her back.
“He brought me dinner. I think they had coupons at the Golden Grill across the bridge….”
“Yes?” Tracy said, when she didn’t go on right away.
“And sometimes you could buy two entrées…you know, for the cost of one? He shared. When he could have saved it all for himself. He wanted me to feel better.” She nodded and sat down.
They shared a moment of respectful silence. Then another. Then, when Wanda thought for certain nobody was going to have anything else to say, Janya got to her feet, feet that were adorned with a slender bracelet around one ankle and several toe rings.
“Every day trees fall and houses are built. The world’s rain forests are diminishing.”
“Herb was a lumberjack and a welder?” Wanda asked.
Without even looking, Tracy waved her to silence again.
“Some people use up the world’s resources, and some people take care of them,” Janya said.
Tracy interrupted this time. “I hope this isn’t a commercial against selling Happiness Key to developers.”
Janya lifted one elegant brow and waited until the room was silent once more. “Mr. Krause was one of those who nurtured plants and trees. Even though he owned no home of his own and could not plant his own little forest, he kept many plants in flowerpots so they could move with him. Plants in flowerpots are not easy to care for. They must be talked to, fussed over.”
“You won’t catch me talking to a plant,” Wanda muttered.
Janya waited, as if she wanted to be certain Wanda had finished. “They must be watered regularly, with no lapses. They must be fertilized, pruned, and when they outgrow their flowerpots, they must be repotted. These things take a great deal of time, of love, of good instincts. So though I know little of Mr. Krause, I know he was a man who could lavish love when it was needed, who was willing to work hard and take time from easier things to do what was required, a man whose good instincts produced a forest in flowerpots that the rest of us can admire and enjoy today, even though he is gone.”
She nodded and sat down.
Tracy looked uncomfortable, but when it was clear Wanda wasn’t going to speak next, she sighed and stood. “When I moved here a few weeks ago, I really wasn’t happy to be in Florida.”
“You’re saying that’s changed?” Wanda asked.
Tracy ignored her. “My life was topsy-turvy. Suddenly I was living here, and I’ve got to tell you, I’d only been to Florida once, and we stayed at the Ritz Carlton in South Beach. I know all of you will agree with me. Nothing out here on Happiness Key is much like the Ritz.”
“Amen,” Wanda said with feeling.
“Mr. Krause came over when he saw me moving in. And I guess he thought I might