Els colored, fearing that instead of complimenting, she’d dropped another clanger, and anything further she might say would only make it worse.
Vivian moved her mug out of Peanut’s reach. “Nothing in there to trip over,” she said. “Or run into.”
With Eulia watching, Els raised her mug, hesitated.
“Might taste a little unaccustomed,” Finney said, “but probably work some benefit on you.” He sipped. “What this one good for, gyull?”
“Fancy company,” Eulia said. She put the tray on the ground, took Peanut, and sat down with him in her lap. “Mamma’s herb doctor friend Miranda mixed different tea bush and hibiscus, what give it that pretty color. She say doan drink it too hot.” She took the remaining mug. “Go on,” she said to Els. “It ain’t poison.”
Els took a sip. The brew tasted swampy and floral and made her throat tingle.
“You’ve probably made big changes at Jack’s,” Vivian said.
“Repairs, a little paint, a few of my own things here and there.”
“And his books?” Vivian asked.
“I’m reading my way through them.”
“Was a time Jack share those books with Viv,” Finney said. “They talk and talk about history and literature.”
Els had imagined schoolteacher Vivian as upstanding, even priggish, and the notion that she and Jack had shared an intellectual friendship increased the intrigue about both of them. “So that was before your . . . foot.” Vivian’s forehead creased, and Els sensed another gaffe. “You must come and borrow anything you please,” she said.
Vivian flashed an eager smile at Eulia. “We just hit the jackpot.” She chuckled at the pun. “Eulia and Finney have already read me everything we have, more than once. There are few books to be had here besides the occasional Mills & Boon from the church jumble sales.”
Els cringed that Vivian might look down on the romance novels she found so comforting, but this gracious former teacher didn’t seem the type to discourage reading in any form. “What about the steps?” she asked.
“If Finney takes my one arm and Eulia the other, I think I could run right up to reach that treasure.” Vivian’s glance at Eulia had a pleading quality.
Peanut squirmed out of Eulia’s lap and crawled under Els’s chair. Eulia watched him, her lips compressed. “Let she help Daddy haul you up,” she said. “Doan need me.”
“You must come see what I’ve done to the place,” Els said. “Let’s go right now.” She looked at Eulia. “Would you help me move things about to make room in the boot for the wheelchair?”
A car roared past, throbbing music trailing it like a tail. Eulia glanced at Vivian, then clasped Peanut to her chest and stood up in one motion, a spring uncoiling, and handed the baby to Finney.
When she and Els reached the Jeep, she touched Els’s elbow. “He visit like they say?”
Els stowed a water jug and beach towel and squinted at a hen and three chicks that stopped pecking near the roadside to scatter, amid peeping and beating wings, for no apparent reason. “Why would he?” she asked.
Eulia looked toward the sea. “If is something he want, Jack never leave ’til he get it.”
“Any idea what that might be?”
“Guess you gotta ask that jumbie.”
While Els carried the fidgeting Peanut, Eulia struggled to push the chair across the court, its wheels digging deep grooves in the gravel.
“Help me up, Husband.” Vivian grasped the chair arms.
“You just hang on,” Finney said. “We gon’ roll you right up.” He backed the chair to the stairs, and he and Eulia pushed and hauled Vivian up. By the time they reached the gallery, sweat beaded his face.
Els swept open the door and Eulia maneuvered the chair over the sill. “Tell me what you see, Child,” Vivian said.
“Same leather chair, table, books everywhere,” Eulia said. “New cushions and pretty things all around. A clock over there, taller than me with sun and moon faces on it and gold hands, new strange pictures, and a paintin’ of an old lady in a big gold frame hangin’ by the stair. She looks vex.”
“Child!” Vivian said.
“My paternal grandmother,” Els said. “A warrior’s heart trapped in a woman’s body.” She handed Peanut to Vivian, popped open the secret door, and said, “Tour of the upstairs, anyone?”
“I goin’ keep Viv company,” Finney said. “You go ’long, gyull.” He put his hand on Vivian’s shoulder and she leaned her cheek against his forearm, making Els long for such tiny caresses.
“None a’ we got any business up there,” Eulia said, eyeing the nudes.