Almost A Wife

“I miss your Mommy, too,” he said, guided by pure instinct. “I knew her when she was a little girl just like you.” Not altogether true. Kathy had been much older than Sunny when she first came to play in his yard.

It worked. Sunny choked back a sob and her eyes widened with interest. “You did? You saw Mommy when she was little like me?””

He nodded, and her questions were eager and rapid. “Did she look like me…have a bear like mine? Could she read?”

He sat on the floor, settling them against him, as he talked about Kathy with colorful, exaggerated details that soon had them giggling. After that, it was easier. They consumed some of the peanut butter sandwiches and hot chocolate he’d ordered, splashed in the tub for a short while, helped him find pajamas and books in their luggage. The suite was a mess, but he finally settled them together in one bed and read to them as instructed. “That’s what Mommy does.”

It was after ten when he picked up the phone in his own room. Thank God Nanny, Incorporated was a round-the-clock, twenty-four-hour operation.

“I’m a little worried about my grandfather,” Lisa told Joline. “He’s acting…well, not like himself.”

“Oh? How?”

“Grandma said he got into an altercation with a man at lunch one day. Over passing the salt of all things,” Lisa said, trying to picture her affable, always agreeable grandfather in an altercation with anybody about anything. “And Grandma says he gets very confused at the bridge table.”

“That’s too bad. Has he seen a doctor?”

“Yes. Grandma finally got him to go, and she talked to the doctor later.”

“And?”

“He’s not sure. Maybe just aging he says. Lots of people get irritable when they get older it seems. And forgetful. But Grandpa has always been so mild-mannered. I’m worried.”

“Guess so. Do you think he could be getting that…what is it so many old people are getting now? Alls…something. Mrs. Salter, a lady I work for, says her father got so he didn’t even know her.”

“Oh, Joline, don’t mention that for goodness’ sake. I couldn’t stand that.”

“Couldn’t pay for it neither I reckon. Them places is awful expensive, Mrs. Salter says.”

“Oh, we wouldn’t have to worry about that. My grandparents bought into that senior complex which guarantees continuing life care without raising the cost. That’s why gramps insisted it was the best place. He said he didn’t want me to have that burden in case either of them became ill.”

“That’s the best way. Be prepared.”

“Yes. Grandpa was like that. Extravagant, especially where I was concerned. But really smart.” She chuckled. “So why am I worried about something like Alzheimer’s? Whatever happens, Gramps’s not likely to lose that sharp mind of his.”

The phone rang, and she picked it up.

“Hello, Lisa,” came the voice of Mrs. Dunn, whose house she cleaned every Thursday. “I’m calling for a neighbor, a family that just moved in next door. They are desperately in need of a cleaning person, possibly twice a week. Interested?”

“I certainly am.” Twice a week. She needed as many jobs as she could get. It was getting harder and harder to make the money for her grandparents and take care of herself too. If she didn’t get a decent job soon—

“Good. It’s the house on the right, 168 Pine Grove. This is the phone number…The name is Kingsley.”

Lisa wrote down the number and slowly replaced the phone, wondering…Kingsley. Why did that name ring a bell?

CHAPTER FOUR

THE Dunn’s house, always a mess, had taken all morning. It was well after one when she rang the bell at 168 Pine Grove.

The door cracked open, and a small girl peered up at her, eyes wide. “It’s not your turn,” she announced.

“My…turn?”

“Bronsie’s already here.”

Had she come too late? The man said afternoon was quite all right. The man! Perhaps… “Could I please speak with your mother?”

“You can’t. Tangled curls danced as the child shook her head. “Mommy’s in heaven and she’s never coming back. She—”

“Sunny! Who you talking to?” The shout from the back of the house was followed by the lumbering steps of a heavy woman wearing a light blue uniform. “I told you not to open the door.”

“You said don’t let anybody in. I didn’t.”

“Never mind that. Go up and see about your brother ’fore he gets into something.”

Her eyes still on Lisa, the child backed away to obediently mount the stairs.

“And you keep quiet! Don’t wake him up if he’s still asleep. Which I hope to God he is,” the woman said to Lisa. “He don’t set still a minute. Come on in,” she added, opening the door to admit her. “I reckon you the cleaning lady?”

“Yes. I’m Lisa, Lisa Reynolds.”

“I’m Mae Bronson, from Nanny, Incorporated, and I’m mighty glad to see you. This place is a wreck. Ain’t no hotel. Might as well be camping out. Nobody picking up nothing, or—”

“Well, I’m here now. If you’ll just show me—”

“Right. He said you’d be here and I was listening for you, but I sure didn’t hear the bell. Lord, such a commotion! Angela telling Ken she’s pregnant, and he—”

“Angela?” Lisa gave a wary glance over the woman’s shoulder.

“That’s her name, but she ain’t no Angel. She’s a she devil if there ever was one. In that soap, The Turning World. You watch it?”

“No. I—”

“That bitch ain’t no more pregnant than I am. But she knows he’s in love with Kathy and she mean to put a stop to that! Lord, the messes people get into. You see…Huh? Oh, yeah, supplies. Back here.” She led Lisa to a washroom at the back of the house.

“Thank you.” It was all there: washer, dryer, vacuum cleaner and a pail full of cleaning rags and supplies she had requested. Except for the washer and dryer, everything, even the cleaning rags, brand-new. “I’ll start upstairs, if that’s okay with you,” she said.

“Just don’t wake that boy. Oh, the mister left this for you.” Mae reached into her pocket and handed Lisa an envelope. “He say you’re to clean everywhere, just don’t touch his desk. In his bedroom. Upstairs. You’ll see it. And see what that girl is up to, will you? Can’t leave those kids alone a hot minute. Gotta get back. Time for County Hospital.” She darted off, leaving Lisa to find her own way.

It did look as if they were camping out, Lisa thought, as she wandered through the house. Probably the household furnishings from their former residence hadn’t yet arrived. No dishes or cooking utensils, and all the downstairs rooms empty, except the sparsely furnished one where the nanny was seated before a blasting television.