Whispers of the Bayou by Mindy Starns Clark

Author:Mindy Starns Clark [Clark, Mindy Starns]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Mystery, Suspense, Contemporary, Inspirational
ISBN: 9781410416186
Publisher: Thorndike Press
Published: 2008-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-TWO

Silence reigned o’er the place. The line of shadow and sunshine

Ran near the tops of the trees; but the house itself was in shadow,

“What do you mean? It’s not like you hired a stranger. Lisa is Willy’s niece. Wouldn’t you know if she was a nurse or not?”

Glancing down the hallway, Deena continued.

“Yeah, but he hadn’t seen her for about five years, not since before she went off to California to try and become an actress.”

“An actress?”

“Yeah, she was going off to become a star, but then after she got out there she met up with that Creole boy, gave up acting, married him, and moved back to New Orleans. Next thing we heard, they was living in Chalmette and she was going to school for nursing. I figured she was at Tulane or LSU or something. Turns out, she just went to some Vo-Tec place, taking a three-week course on how to change bedpans.”

I sat back, considering this information, thinking how professional and competent Lisa had seemed when working with Willy.

“How did she end up here, caring for Willy?”

Deena shrugged.

“She and Junior lost their home and all their stuff in the hurricane and didn’t have no insurance, so they had to move in with her mama and them down in Houma. Pretty soon after that, Junior got a job on an oil rig and Lisa started taking work as a private duty nurse. When Willy got so sick that we had to hire somebody to help out, he told me to give his niece a call and see if she wanted to do her private duty nursing for him over here. Never crossed my mind to ask her if she really was what she said she was.”

“So you never actually came out and ask what her qualifications were? Never saw a résumé?”

“Nah. She said, yes, ma’am, she had herself a nursing certificate and took the job right over the phone. Got here two days later and been living with us ever since, ’cept for every few weeks when Junior gets back on shore and she runs down to stay with him at some boarding house in Grand Isle.”

I took a bite, thinking about it. Though I understood why Deena felt she had been conned, the situation seemed perfectly innocent to me. I asked what Lisa’s hourly rate had been, and when Deena told me the amount I knew that that was her answer right there. No RN or LPN would ever have done home care for that low of a figure. Deena should have known that she was getting exactly what she paid for.

“So what’s so bad about her being a nurse’s aid?” I asked. “Didn’t she do a good job?”

“I guess, but I let her make a lot of decisions that maybe I shouldn’t have. I trusted that she knew more about medical things than I did, but now I realize she didn’t know squat.”

Taking the last bite of my dinner, I suddenly felt bad for Lisa, who was being unfairly judged here.

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