A Cat’s Curiosity
“I found the casket and ordered it. It cost twenty-five hundred dollars. I can’t believe Mr. Brown was giving us a bargain at five thousand dollars. We saved half.” Dawn rubbed the back of her neck, trying to relieve some of the muscle tension.
“But, of course, the merchants on the Net are charlatans!” We slapped high five. “Damn, it sure is good to hear the quiet. I turned off the TV since Devin is sound asleep.”
“Gurl, my son has the right idea. We only slept a couple hours last night. We should take a few minutes to nap ourselves. Where’d Roberta go?”
“She went home to clean up her guest room. You know, a strange thing happened between us. I was ready to give her what-for again, but she started to tell me how being with us made her feel loved. The only real love in her life. My heart went out to her and I embraced her. I felt her pain. She is genuinely grieving.”
“So now you like her?”
“I didn’t say all that. But I do understand. We don’t know what it’s like not to be loved. I just know that Daddy would be mighty disappointed with us the way we’ve shown our natural behinds the past few hours.”
“I guess you’re right about Daddy. But Roberta must be real love-starved if this is the only love she gets. The only one who even tolerates her is Renee. Don’t let her snow you. She’s as fake as Tammy Bakker’s eyelashes.”
“You could be right, but what she felt just now was real.”
“Whatever.”
“I’m glad we’re alone for a while. Let’s go lie on Daddy’s bed and rest,” I said, and we headed to his room. “I talked to Uncle Thomas last night about the pills we found.”
“Stop! What did he say?” Dawn asked as she folded back the comforter.
“He knew. He said Estelle tried to talk him out of taking them. But it was a man thang, and I just wouldn’t understand. He also said he didn’t think Daddy had even taken one of them because he had just gotten the prescription.”
“Well, we can sure as hell find out!”
“How?”
“Count the pills, gurl! The number of pills is right on the bottle.”
“Damn, why didn’t I think of that?”
“Good thing you’re not going to be a prosecutor.” We laughed as she went to the bathroom counter, opened the bottle, and counted each pill.
My heart raced in my chest. Please let there be pills missing. I wanted a reason for Daddy being dead. “Well?”
“There’s one missing.” All of the vitality had drained from Dawn’s voice and body.
“I see.” I fell on the bed, at a loss for words.
“We have to tell Renee and Collette what we found.”
“You know the fur is gonna fly! Renee has finally come around to at least being decent to Estelle. This’ll surely cause an irreversible divide between us.”
“But, Glynda, if she is responsible for Daddy taking these, are Renee and Lette so wrong?”
“She tried to stop him, remember? Uncle Thomas tried to make me understand how a man feels about sex at any age, but especially when he’s older.”
“Well, Reginald told me he would rather be dead than impotent. Is that deep or what?”
“Uncle Thomas told me the same thing.” We slipped into bed fully clothed and pulled the cover under our chins the way we did when we were kids.
Sleep enveloped me instantly. I drifted into a peaceful dream. I was in a meadow and Daddy was pushing me on a swing. Beautiful flowers surrounded us. Clouds so white and fluffy, one would think a painter’s brush had created them. In the distance a young woman in a beautiful yellow sundress ran in our direction in slow motion. Daddy stopped swinging me and began to glide without steps in her direction. As she came closer, I realized the beautiful woman with the angelic look was my mother. She stretched her arms in Daddy’s direction. All of a sudden an air-raid siren sounded, and we all looked panicked. I wanted Daddy to make it stop, but he floated higher and higher as he and Mama met in midair. The siren took on the sound of a ringing telephone. It took several rings before I realized it was actually the phone. I groggily reached for the receiver.
“Hello, this is Glynda Naylor.”
“Ms. Naylor, this is Chuck Morgan with Brown’s Funeral Home. We just wanted to let you know that we got the call from the coroner’s office releasing Mr. Naylor’s remains. Mr. Brown had told us that you wanted to know when that happened so that you could contact Mr. Naylor’s doctor.”
“Thank you, Mr. Morgan, I’ll let my sisters know. We’ll have his clothes brought down to you tomorrow morning.”
The phone conversation awoke Dawn. She raised herself up on her right elbow and stared at me intently before speaking. “Well, mystery number one has been solved?”
“Yeah, the coroner released the body. We have to call his doctor to get the results, though.”
“That’s standard. You want me to call?”
“I guess. Should we wait for Renee and Collette to get back?”
“Well, only one of us can talk to the doctor, and I know all the right questions to ask. I’d rather do it without Collette in the background being Collette.”
“I’ll get the number. I’m sure it’s in his phone book. I saw it yesterday in the den.”
“Gurl, why didn’t we think of this last night?”
“Think of what?”
“Nina Blackford’s number is probably in that phone book. You know that raggedy old thing was his bible. We would buy him new ones and he just put them in the drawer. Where is it? I’ll get it.”
“On the end table next to the phone.” The information that was held by the good doctor would have to wait. Mystery number two might be solved with just a minimal amount of snooping. I was on her heels so close that, when she stopped short in the doorway, I ran into her.
“What’re we going to do if we find her number in the book?”
I hadn’t considered the options once we had, in fact, found her number. “Should we call her?”
“Well, running the risk of sounding like Collette … hell, yes, we should call her.” Dawn’s hands trembled as she reached for the phone book held together with a rubber band.
“Let’s take it to the table and go through it.”
Sitting side by side at the table, we looked at each other before removing the rubber band. There was a small explosion of paper that fell onto the table and floor. Gathering the small pieces of paper and business cards from the floor made me think this had to be the only area of Edward Naylor’s life that was disorganized, though he had always called it organized chaos.
“I wonder if we should call all of these people to let them know Daddy died.” Dawn seemed to be speaking more to herself than to me.
“Gurl, it seems everyone already knows. It was like there was an emergency broadcast message announcing his death.”
“Sister Greene,” we said in unison, laughing.
We began separating the pieces of paper from the business cards. The pages in the book were worn and browning. Many of them had freed themselves from the stitched binding. We silently started with the pages in the book. Every page was full, including writing in the margins. When Dawn sat up straight and stared at me, I knew my daddy’s secret was about to be revealed.
“Did you find something?”
“Nina Blackford, 104 Elm Drive, Jefferson City, Missouri, 314-555-1611.” Dawn had hit pay dirt.
As if I didn’t believe her, I had to look at the information myself. I stared at the personal information of the stranger who meant enough to my father to receive an equal share of his estate. My palms began to sweat, my throat constricted, my vision blurred.
“Should we call the number?” Dawn spoke first.
“Maybe we should wait for the others to get back.”
“I think we should do it before the real drama queen gets back. Collette will make a scene with the woman on the phone, demanding to know who she is and how she’s eligible to be one of Daddy’s heirs.” Dawn’s statement was logical but not practical.
“But then if we call without her, she’ll turn that wrath on us.”
“You act like you’re afraid of Collette.”
“And you’re not?”
Nervous laughter filled the room.
“Who’s going to call?” I asked, hoping she’d volunteer.
“You’re older, you do it.”
“Since when has my age been anything other than a source of ridicule?” I searched for reasons not to dial the number.
“Gurl, just make the call!”
With much effort I raised myself from the chair; the heaviness from the previous day had returned again. I slowly moved toward the phone by the back door. Did I subconsciously choose this phone because rotary dialing took longer? I let my hand rest on the receiver to calm the trembling. Slowly, I raised the receiver and dialed, hesitating between each number. After what seemed like time without end, the phone began to ring.
On the second ring a young woman with major attitude answered. “Yeah?”
“May I speak with Ms. Blackford, please?”
“She ain’t here. Who’s this?”
“Who wants to know?”
“My name is Glynda Naylor, and I need to speak with Ms. Blackford as soon as possible. May I leave a number for her?”
“Do whatever you want.”
“Will you be so kind as to write it down?”
With a long, extremely winded sigh, the young woman finally managed a barely audible “Hold on.”
“She’s real pleasant. But at least we got the right number,” I said while waiting on the line. I heard her moving items about, apparently searching for a pen.
“So, what is it?”
I repeated Daddy’s number to her before I asked, “And with whom am I leaving this message?”
“You sure do ask a lot of questions. My name is Edwina.” The next sound I heard was a click.
“Glynda, all of the color has drained from your face. What is going on?” Dawn asked.
“It may be a coincidence, but her name is Edwina.” I was numb and feeling even heavier.
“No shit? Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
“That she’s our sister?”
“Yep, yep!”
“Gurl, I can’t imagine Daddy having a child and not telling us. Plus she is way too arrogant to be a Naylor girl. Daddy would have broken a foot off in her rude ass.”
“How old did she sound?”
“Definitely a teenager. She has that know-it-all attitude that comes at about age fourteen and sometimes lasts until half-past forever.”
“That means I’m not the baby girl!”
“Oh, get over it! This is far more reaching than your level on the food chain. If Daddy had a baby and didn’t tell us, what else could he have been hiding?”
“When did she say she would give Nina Blackford the message?”
“She didn’t. I would assume around six or so. After work.”
“So are we going to tell the others? If she calls and we haven’t told the others, all hell’s gonna break loose. I just don’t want Lette to get the number and start calling every fifteen minutes.”
“I’m so confused. Why are we the keeper of all the secrets?”
“ ’cause we real nosy?”
Laughing, I continued, “It would’ve almost been better if we hadn’t found the number. That way the mystery would’ve stayed just that. The lawyer could have gotten in touch with her for us. Why did you insist we find the phone book?”
“Me? This was all your idea!” she yelled.
“What was all Glynda’s idea?” Collette startled both of us.
“You need to wear a bell or something. We didn’t hear you come in.” I was sure she could hear my heart pounding.
“Oh, so now I’m a cow?”
“Oh, save the drama! I was thinking a cat, but why degrade cats!” Collette really seemed to be able to bring out the worst in me at will.
“Whatever, so what were you two talking about?”
Stalling for time to make up a believable lie, I asked, “Were you able to get all of your business handled this quickly?”
“I have a great assistant, and she just handled everything for me and sent me on my way. She asked me to convey her condolences to everyone. You still didn’t answer my question. What was all your idea?”
“We were discussing flowers. I wanted white roses and Dawn said it was too feminine. What do you think?”
Collette eyed me suspiciously and slowly answered, “I actually think white roses would look great on top of the burgundy coffin. Why do you think that would be too feminine, Dawn?”
“Speaking of caskets, I found the model he wanted at half the price the funeral home was going to charge.”
“Oh, really now? See, that’s what I’m talkin’ ’bout. So what about the roses?”
“I’m not really certain Daddy would like roses. He never had them in the house. He loved gardenias, though. They’re white and smell soooo good,” Dawn added casually.
“Gardenias? Do you know how—” Collette stopped abruptly.
“We’ll take a vote when Estelle and Renee get back,” I said, relieved that Lette’s slip into fiscal scrutiny had diverted her attention away from Dawn and my conversation.
“This voting shit is really working my nerves!” Collette pulled a cigarette from a fresh pack in her jacket pocket.
“Well, maybe you’re working everybody else’s nerves!” I screamed.
The multiple telephones ringing in stereo caused the three of us to freeze as though we were in a silly childhood dance contest.
“Saved by the bell,” Collette said as she moved to answer the phone.
“I’ll get it!” Dawn shoved Collette out of the way.
Collette stared at Dawn in disbelief. Now how did we plan to explain this one?