Hell Hath No Curry (Thorndike Mystery) by Tamar Myers

Author:Tamar Myers
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: General, Women Sleuths, Mystery & Detective, Fiction
ISBN: 9780451220332
Publisher: Thorndike Press
Published: 2007-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

“Hey, Mom, what’s going on?”

I awoke to find my dear, sweet pseudo-stepdaughter poking me with the corner of her book bag.

“Alison! What time is it?”

She glanced at my bedside clock, which was still a blur to me.

“Seven thirty, I think. Ya need ta get one of them digital clocks—

hey, ya don’t never sleep in the afternoon. Are ya sick?”

“I was,” I said. “But I’m better now.” A truer statement was never spoken.

“Yeah?” Her eyes strayed to the other side of the bed. “What’s that lump under them covers? That ain’t Gabe, is it?”

“What?” I jerked to a sitting position. There was indeed a lump under the covers. My dear kinswoman was still dead to the world, and had apparently pulled the covers over her head at some point.

“Y’are always yapping about how I shouldn’t have sex before marriage, Mom. If you ask me, this ain’t such a good example.”

She stepped sprightly around the end of the bed and whacked the sleeping lump with her satchel.

“Ach!” Freni squawked and popped up like Lazarus from the dead.

HELL HATH NO CURRY

139

“Ooh, gross,” Alison said. “I ain’t got nothing against them gays, but my own mom with my cousin? That’s sick.”

Her words were music to my ears: my own mom. And the fact that she considered Freni to be a cousin of hers—well, it couldn’t get any more touching than that. The cousin in question, however, was not similarly moved.

“Ach,” Freni squawked again, and like a plump hen pursued by a hungry fox, flapped her stubby arms and virtually flew from the room.

“It’s not what you think, dear.”

“It’s okay, Mom, I’m cool with that. I mean, I ain’t, but I want younz to be happy.”

“Alison, for crying out loud, quit jumping to conclusions. I was having a hard time, and Freni brought me a snack, and then we both fell asleep—not that I need to explain anything.”

The child can be as aggravating as gum on the soles of my brogans, but then a second later she is more astute than Aristotle. She digested my explanation, having apparently found it palatable.

“What kind of hard time?”

“Oh, nothing.” I could feel my chin quiver just remembering my parting words to Gabe.

“Ya got that weird look on your face, Mom. The kind my other mom had when I said I didn’t love her no more.”

“You did?”

“Yeah, but now I ain’t so sure I meant it. I was real mad at her, though, on account of she was acting all goofy toward Pop, like she loved him more than me, and he weren’t even there when I was a kid.”

I looked at the daughter I would never have, but still did have, in a funny cosmic sort of way. True, I didn’t get a chance to carry her in my womb, but then again, I didn’t have to change a single diaper, or get up for a middle-of-the-night feeding. But it was clear she loved me enough to trust me with her feelings, so it was only fair that I be straightforward with her.

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