Splendor in the Glass by Tamar Myers

Author:Tamar Myers [Myers, Tamar]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: aVe4EvA
Publisher: Avon Books
Published: 2011-05-22T18:43:06+00:00

16

gasped. “Excuse me!” One of the drawbacks of being diminutive is that folks don’t always see you coming until the last second. This can be problematic when you don’t bother to look at all.

“Unnh!” The tall, dark woman with whom I’d connected did a little hopping dance until she caught her balance.

I gasped again. “Ms. Salazar! I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize you were there.”

Brunhilde looked remarkably placid for a woman whose solar plexus bore the imprint of my cranium. Given her personality, she looked downright comatose.

“Eeth okay. I vas coming to zee youth anyvay.”

“Youth? How nice, do you have a grandchild who lives nearby?” Brunhilde didn’t look old enough to be a grandmother, but then again, neither do I. I’m not a grandmother, by the way, but I am old enough. At any rate, grandparents of any age are easily distracted when their descendants are mentioned.

“I haff no enkelkinder.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Zee grunchildren. I vas newer married.”

147

“But the youth—ah,” I said as it dawned on me. “You’re looking for the College of Charleston. Just go right back up King Street and hang a left on George. Now if you want the frat houses turn left on Went-worth—”

“I don’ vant zee cullege. I vant to shpeek wiz youth.” She extended a long tanned arm and prodded me on the chest with a finger the size of bratwurst, only a good deal firmer.

“Oh! Vell—I mean, well—would you like to step into the shop? It’s a good deal cooler in there, I assure you.”

“Zee polyeshter,” she muttered. “Eeth hot.”

“This isn’t polyester,” I wailed, tugging at my dress, which was nonetheless sticking to me. “It’s one hundred percent cotton!”

Brunhilde rolled her eyes. “Vee talk here, yah? Een shop eez too many pepples.”

“Have it your way. What’s on your mind?”

The truth is I was delighted to see the Amazonian— or Rio de Janeiroan, or whoever she was. She was the next person on my list to pay a little visit to. I was thinking that after the movie I’d cut out from the group and do my civic duty.

“Youth haff been talking to zee poleeth, yah?”

That took me aback. How did she know? Surely Sergeants Scrubb and Bright wouldn’t have mentioned my observer status. Perhaps the woman with the hybrid and somewhat variable accent had been staking out my house.

“Why do you say that, dear?”

“Eeth yooth a gueth, but a goot vahn, yah?”

SPLENDOR IN THE GLASS 149

“It’s preposterous,” I said.

“Vaht eeth zeeth perpotherouth?”

I couldn’t have gotten any more wet had I stood in the sun all day. “It means ridiculous.”

“Zo, youth don’ talk to zee poleeth?”

“Well, of course I talked to them.” Thank heavens I’m an Episcopalian, and not a Mennonite like my buddy Magdalena Yoder up in Pennsylvania. Lying, for me, is only a minor sin. “But we never talked about you. What would be the point in that?”

“I shtink maybe you shtink I haff zumshting to do weeth Meeshus Shadbark’s dess.”

“Absolutely not! But if we continue to stand here in the broiling sun, we’ll both shtink for sure.

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