Garden of Dreams by Patricia Rice

Author:Patricia Rice
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Book View Cafe
Published: 2012-06-13T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19

“Helen! Look at you. I knew you’d come home.”

Wrinkled and so shrunken that she looked as if she’d wasted away, leaving only her skin behind, Hattie sat upright in her wheelchair, observing her visitors. Her gaze was alert as it focused first on Helen, then on Nina. “It’s about time you got here, young lady. I’m ready to go home now.”

Nina’s heart sank. Of all the days for Hattie to be coherent, she had to make it the day Helen visited. For months now, she’d prayed for a day when she could talk with her great-aunt, get her advice, her assurance that she did the right thing. Her opportunity had finally arrived, and she had to share it with this stranger who claimed to be her mother.

“Hattie! How wonderful to see you again.” Helen hugged the old woman. The cloud of her perfume wafted through the tiny room, and Hattie immediately waved the scent away as her niece stepped back, smiling.

“See you still haven’t learned subtlety, girl,” Hattie grumbled. “You smell like a bitch in heat. Open the window, will you?”

Nina smothered a laugh, kissed Hattie’s cheek, and bounced down on the bed beside her. “Oh, Aunt Hattie, it’s so good seeing you well again. I have so many things I want to tell you. I’ve found a landscape architect who’s making designs for the garden for free. They’re the most marvelous things you’ll ever see!”

“With what you’re paying to keep me in here, we could be planting the gardens,” Hattie grumbled. “My hip’s all better. I can go home now.”

“Of course you can, Hattie.” Apparently deciding the hermetically sealed window wouldn’t open, Helen took the small chair stuffed in the corner. “I’ll talk to your doctor today. Now that I’m back, I can look after you.”

Hattie gave her an approving look. “I always knew you were a good girl. That husband of yours wasn’t ever any good. You married too young. But I taught Nina better. You’re just like your grandmama, but Nina takes after me,” she said proudly, patting Nina’s hand. “She’s too smart to let any man talk her into throwing her life away.”

Nina sighed. This wasn’t the direction she wanted the conversation to take. If she had only a few minutes of coherency, she didn’t want her aunt wandering down dead-ends. “The cell phone people want right-of-way to your hill, Aunt Hattie,” Nina said quickly, before Helen could find some suitably sugary reply. “They want to put a tower right where your rose garden is. I’ve told them they can’t have it, but they’re talking about having the land condemned. Do you mind if I hire a lawyer to keep them out?”

Hattie didn’t even look in her direction. Nodding sagely, she stayed with the one path her mind could find. “We all must come home someday. You’ll be glad I held on to that farm for you, Marietta. We can raise Helen the way we were raised. These modern ways lead to the devil.”

Helen bit her lip and threw Nina an uncertain look.

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