Dust by Eva Marie Everson

Author:Eva Marie Everson [Everson, Eva Marie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Firefly Southern Fiction
Published: 2021-03-22T22:00:00+00:00

Michelle woke shortly after Westley left. By then the nausea had passed and I’d managed a shower and getting dressed. I ate a slice of toast with butter and even started a load of clothes. In the sudden rush, Westley had failed to tell me—assure me—if he planned to meet Cindie somewhere other than our home. So, just in case …

The baby and I arrived at Miss Justine’s a little after ten. Rose Beth—now referred to lovingly as Ro-Bay by Michelle and, subsequently, Westley and me—opened the door with admonishment on her lips. “’Bout time,” she said as the door swung wide. “Miss Justine,” she hollered over her shoulder, “they’re here and one of ’em looks like death warmed over.”

I stepped over the threshold and into a foyer that continued to impress, but no longer intimidat me. “I take it you mean me,” I said wryly.

“Well, I don’t mean that sweet chile …” She stretched her arms for Michelle, who struggled to be free of me, the irony striking harder than expected. “Come on to Ro-Bay,” she said as Miss Justine’s house shoes slapped against the floor in rhythm to her walk from the back of the house. “What’s kept you so …” She stopped and stared at me with her fists planted on her hips. “Good land of the living, what’s happened?”

“I woke up sick and then Westley …” I didn’t continue. At twenty-one months, Michelle had begun repeating my words, sometimes to my delight. Often to my chagrin. “I feel fine now though.”

“Mm-hmm,” Ro-Bay said with a knowing look toward Miss Justine as she closed the front door and Michelle reached for one of her large-hoop gold-filled earrings. “You thinking what I’m thinking, Miss Justine?”

“What are you thinking?” I asked them both.

“Auntie Flo come to see you in a while?” she asked.

“Auntie who?”

Miss Justine chuckled as she reached me. “Come on, darling. Let’s go have a talk. Rose Beth, bring us a little hot tea, will you? We’ll leave you in charge of Little Bit for a while.”

“Ain’t I always …”

Miss Justine and I walked arm in arm toward the back of the house, Michelle’s giggles becoming more distant. “Cindie’s coming into town this Friday,” I said both confidentially and quickly.

We stopped and Miss Justine looked up at me. “Oh, dear. I reckon I’d hoped … but of course not. She’s the baby’s mother.” Her face grew firm. “How did Westley take it?”

“Like you,” I answered with a grimace. “She’s …” I couldn’t say the word. I wanted to, but right then, I couldn’t.

We continued toward the sunroom. “Westley is in a tough place.” She tapped the center of her chest. “In his heart, he’d like nothing better than for you and him to be all the family that child needs. But he made a deal with Cindie and he’s trying to keep it. Can’t fault a man for being a man of his word.”

“No, and I don’t, but is this the way it will always be?”

We reached the sunroom then, its comfort and light welcoming me as it did most weekday mornings.

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