at the services and didn't know how that was going to play out, but considering his track record with her and Gracie, he'd be lucky to get out with his hide.
Mamie and Joel were on the way to Sweetwater. It was a good five plus hour drive from Austin, and the cool air blasting from Joel's Lexus kept the makeup on Mamie's face from melting.
She'd spun the story about deciding they should stay in a motel instead of out at the farm, due to her reluctance to stay where her sweet mama had died, and Joel had bought it.
But the real test would come with how much Gracie revealed back at the farm after everything was over. She didn't expect it would be pretty, but she knew how to turn on the tears. And she was sad about her mama's passing. It was just that Mamie had left home so many years ago, that she often forgot she'd ever been there. Her world was upscale now, and that's how she meant to keep it.
Joel glanced at his wife as they drove, ever conscious of her whims and needs, doing everything he knew how on this earth to make her happy because he loved her so much.
He knew she was flighty, but her inability to cope made him feel needed. He knew she was self-centered, but he fed the need with constant gifts and received the abundance of her attention as a result. They were what a guidance counselor might have categorized as "compatible enablers."
"Mamie, honey...do you need to stop for a potty break? Or get something cold to drink?"
Mamie sighed. "You are so thoughtful, darling. Yes. I would appreciate that."
"There's a big truck stop just ahead, and we're still over a couple of hours out of Sweetwater. So, we'll pull in there for a bit and stretch our legs."
Daphne Dunham left Dallas just after 9:00 in the morning. It was just a little over four hours to Sweetwater and arriving early served no purpose. She kept picturing friends and neighbors arriving at the old farmhouse to pay their respects and wondered how Gracie was explaining away their absence.
What they'd done to their baby sister was so awful and so wrong, there was no way to make amends, and she was the first to admit it.
But Daphne had also known her limitations. The last Christmas they’d all been there together, which was two years after Gracie had taken up residence as the caretaker, Delia had alternated between a faded version of their mama and a glassy-eyed stranger. It had scared Daphne in a way she still could not describe. All she had been able to think of was getting away. Going back to Dallas, to what was safe and familiar.
And now, she had to face the cowardice of that act and the ensuing years afterward. Basically, they had all hung Gracie out to dry.
Daphne had to apologize. She was going to admit her cowardice and say she was sorry. But she also knew it wouldn't mean shit to Gracie.
Ramona Harp was in the beauty shop getting her hair done for Delia Dunham's service tomorrow. As the pastor's wife, she believed part of her job was her deportment.
Her appearance should be pleasing.
She should be the epitome of calm within a storm.
And she should always be on hand as the "hostess" at all the church functions.
When the dinner for the family began tomorrow, she would be in the background, making sure all was running smoothly, while her husband got all the attention and glory.
Sometimes it irked Ramona that everyone looked to him as their guide to heaven, because he was just as big a doofus and sinner as the next guy. But she’d understood when she’d married him that would be their life, and she'd jumped in with both feet.
So, this was why she was sitting in her stylist's chair, draped in a plastic cape, getting her white roots dyed back to black. It would be the height of poor judgment to show up for the funeral looking like a skunk.
Gracie got home with four new pairs of shorts and two pairs of long pants, all of which fit, for under a hundred dollars.
"I will be Walmart chic and grateful for it," she said, as she stood at the washer, removing tags and tossing all of the clothes in to wash, then she went to her room to change into old clothes.
She was double-checking to make sure she had all of her personal