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CICI, CLARA, MARY AND Levi sat in silence; each immersed in their own thoughts, perched on cardboard boxes, sipping cold tea from Styrofoam cups and staring at what remained of the neighborhood.
Naked frames and smooth slabs of concrete dotted the boulevard. No home had been spared but the casualties were minimal. The FEMA Region VI official reported few minor injuries and one fatality; they would not release the name of the deceased until the next of kin could be reached. So far no one had stepped forward to identify or claim relation to Mrs. Sadie Fetmore.
“I hope you stopped and filled up the U Haul while you were out.” Mary said to Levi, breaking the uncomfortable silence.
“Yes ma’am, I just filled up the U Haul and before you drill me, I filled up the rental car when I went to get breakfast this morning.” Mary opened her mouth to speak. “Aaa!” He held up a finger, taking control of the conversation and hushing his wife. “You and I will take the truck, Clara and Cici can follow us in the car.”
“I... I’m sorry.” Cecilia stammered, nervously blushing before she forced the words to cohere, “I am sorry I tore up your cars. I will try to pay you all back when the insurance company settles the claim on the house.”
“Don’t worry about it.” Levi said with a quickness that startled her. “We all had insurance that should pay well enough to replace our vehicles. Right Clara?”
“Oh yeah,” Clara grinned, “Jim said I will have a brand new SUV fully loaded with leather interior when I get home.”
“See, we are all going to be fine.” Levi reassured her, “And I have talked to your neighbors – they all seem to be covered adequately and if they need assistance FEMA is on the scene.” Cecilia relaxed her shoulders and slurped at the last bit of cold sugary tea.
“Thank goodness we didn’t come in the Jaguar.” Mary laughed, causing Cici to draw her shoulder’s up again. “No, no,” she said waving her hand “all is forgiven for that terrible day. I was laughing about the day I demolished Levi’s prized Jaguar XJ.”
“What did you do?” Cici perked up, scooping a handful of crushed ice into her mouth.
“Well, you see...” Mary glanced at Levi and smiled. “I begged him over and over to teach me to drive. I had lived in New Orleans most of my life and never needed to drive so I had never—”
“Oh good heavens woman don’t take all day telling the story.” Levi quipped with a wink.
“Okay, to make a long story short I decided to teach myself to drive. I drove to the hospital to pick up Maggie—”
“To snoop.” Levi butted in.
“I still picked up Maggie.” Mary shrugged. “Anyway by the time I got home the car was a wreck. It was covered in dents; I had torn the bumper off, rubbed a hole in the fender and somehow managed to puncture the tires.”
The story lightened the mood and the small crowd cackled.
“You should have seen them coming up the drive,” Levi heaved a sigh and held his abdomen. “The old Jag was moaning and groaning, the tires hissing and rattling like Diamondback and the poor bumper hanging off the roof. Maggie and Mary each had an arm out the window. I thought they were waving, turned out they were holding onto the bumper.”
“That is crazy!” Cici chuckled, cupping her hand to her mouth to catch flying pellets of ice.
“Oh there is a lot more craziness where that came from.” Clara snickered. “You and I will have plenty to talk about on the drive home.”
“I can’t wait.”
“And we really shouldn’t.” Mary weighed in with a somber tone. “Let’s get this stuff loaded. I have been away from my baby for way too long.”
“It’s a good thing Linda went on home.” Clara agreed. “I know she was missing Turner and she is the next best thing to mommy for Adam.”
“Isn’t she Adam’s mother?” Cecilia asked.
“No...” Clara paused. “Mary is Adam’s mother.”
“I guess I assumed—”
“You assumed because I am a grandmother I am too old to be a mother. That’s okay.” Mary stood and patted Cici’s shoulder. “Levi had a mental breakdown when he found out he was going to be a father again. He was ready to be a grandpa but he was scared out of his senses; afraid I would die in childbirth.” Levi offered no rebuttal.
“Speaking of babies,” Clara beamed, “Stella took the privilege of telling Jim he was going to be a daddy.”
“How did he react?” Mary asked excitedly.
“Well I told you I am getting a brand new SUV with all the trimmings. He is ecstatic.”
“What are you going to name her?”
“Her?” Clara stared at Mary for a moment. “How do you know it’s a girl? I haven’t heard anything from her... him... it’s too early don’t you think?”
“She spoke to me last week during the storm.” Mary confessed.
“Why didn’t you come to me?” Clara asked, looking at her tiny baby bump.”
“She felt your anxiety.” Mary spoke from experience, “She didn’t understand what it meant; she only felt the threat.”
“Oh.”
“Keep talking to her and stay calm – she will speak to you in due time.”
“Okay. Holla when you want to chat.” Clara whispered toward her abdomen and smiled.
“Enough with the chatting. I have loaded all of the boxes except the ones you two are sitting on. Chop-chop ladies.” Levi ordered with a clap.
Cici waited until the others were seated inside their vehicles with engines idling. She glanced around the ruined structure; the fireplace was still standing but her painting was gone. Where or in which heap of debris, she did not know.
Leaving the only home she had ever known was unsettling but the thing that bothered her most was the door, or rather the lack of one. There was nothing to lock, nothing left to protect, nothing to come home to and nothing for her here except guilty memories; the happier ones she would take with her.
“Goodbye.” She mumbled with a weak wave and hurried to the waiting sedan.
As they crept along Chancy Boulevard Clara was bombarded with the fearful images of the survivors; their grief for the loss of sentimental items that could not be replaced and the nightmares of the elderly woman who had first spotted the unclaimed woman dangling from a branch.
Cici was oblivious to the emotional aftermath. Clara decided that was a good thing.
“So tell me all about my Uncle Jim. How did you meet?” Cecilia asked with anticipation.
“He is only the sweetest sexiest man I have ever met. Of course it took me a bit to admit that to myself but my mother knew right way. The first time he walked into the café I thought he was too hairy and too rough around the edges for my taste but there was something about him that just drew me to him. My mother said, ‘you will marry that one’ so I tried to avoid him completely. That didn’t work out very well as you can see.”
“Does he have a bad temper?”
“I have never seen him angry. I don’t think he is capable of getting mad.” Clara smiled and shook her head.
“He sounds more like my Da. It is hard to believe he is Mama’s brother. Mom had a nasty temper but thank goodness her tantrums didn’t usually last long.”
“Yin and yang.” Clara mused. “I understand know why their mother wanted to destroy them.”
“Why?” Cici slipped the seatbelt under her arm and turned sideways in the seat. “What do you mean?”
“Dark and light. You’ve heard of the Chinese philosophy... shadow cannot exist without light... the complimentary duo – one giving rise to the other?”
Cici nodded with anticipation.
“Sadie knew together they would have been an incredible force.” Clara paused longer than necessary at a yield sign before merging onto the interstate, “I wonder who and what their father was... if he is still alive?”
“I never heard Mom speak of her parents at all.”
“We will have to do a little investigating.” Clara said as she pressed the accelerator and headed south. She had never intruded on Jim’s memories, accepting the fact he was an orphan with no knowledge of his ancestry. She was not only curious; she needed to know for the sake of her child.
