A Peach of a Pair Read online

  “Thank you, Sister,” Lurleen said. And Emily felt like her own heart might burst right then and there over Lurleen’s delight.

  “It is beautiful,” Nettie affirmed.

  “Thank you.” Emily’s words tumbled out, almost startling the poor girl. Emily offered an apologetic smile. “We could never have done this without you. And I’m not completely sure we could have found another fool for our folly.”

  Lurleen threaded her hand in Nettie’s and raised their clasped hands up. “These are the only fools I care to folly with.”

  The train pulled into the station, and Emily had the cab take them to the best beachfront hotel in Biloxi, which turned out to be the Savoy. Emily asked for a single room with two beds and a rollaway, her way of including Nettie in the slumber party. And Nettie had certainly earned that privilege.

  The bellman took their bags to their rooms, and they’d taken turns changing out of their traveling clothes. Nettie was in those dreadful pedal pushers again, but so be it. Lurleen wore the blue dress that matched her eyes, the one Emily had picked out for Lurleen to be buried in. Although she hadn’t shared that with Lurleen, and Sister was never as particular about what she wore as Emily was. Of course Lurleen had drug that horrible gray suit along, but Emily was only too happy to save her sister from yet another fashion faux pas.

  Each armed with a towel, they marched down to the lobby and out onto the huge veranda that overlooked the beach. Of course it was the gulf, and the waves were making a pitiful effort to be heard. Yes, if Emily could change one thing, which was always a caveat because she could never just change one thing, she would make the waves a little bigger. The ocean a little louder. The sky a little bluer. But just for Lurleen so that when she got to heaven and looked down on Emily, maybe she would remember only the good things. How very much Emily loved her.

  Sister was trembling when her feet touched the sand and even faltered a little, almost pulling Emily down, making her heart beat so fast, she felt light-headed, but to be honest, Emily wasn’t sure who was pulling down whom. Nettie steadied Lurleen, who did the same for Emily, and the three of them continued their march down to the surf, which for the love of God could have had a little more oomph to it.

  When they got to the edge of the water, Lurleen didn’t stop. Laughing, squealing, she walked right in until the water swirled around the tops of their thighs. By now, Emily’s hand was numb, Sister was holding on so tight. Emily couldn’t speak; there were no words for this moment. Every puny wave that pushed against them swayed Lurleen.

  Emily’s vision began to blur. She blinked hard and it cleared just long enough to see Lurleen’s jubilant face. Emily’s heart literally burst with joy, and the last thing she saw before she left the earth was the love in her sister’s eyes.

  LURLEEN

  Lurleen couldn’t stop laughing until she saw Emily’s face droop. She knew what was happening. She screamed at Nettie to help her get Emily back to the shore, but it was too late. The lifeguard on the beach pulled Emily out of the water; he turned her on her side and beat her back to try to get her to cough up the water, but Lurleen knew she hadn’t drowned. She was already gone before she collapsed into the surf.

  Lurleen crumpled by Emily’s side, and Nettie did the same for Lurleen until the ambulance arrived and took Emily away. She and Nettie sat on the beach for what must have been hours before Nettie got up and wordlessly extended her hand to Lurleen. They went into the hotel, where the staff hovered over them until they reached their room. Lurleen couldn’t open the door, just pressed her forehead against it and started to cry again. Nettie was sobbing for an old woman who until today had never been nice to her, and she was crying for Lurleen because she’d lost her sister again. Forever.

  Just last night, Lurleen had lain awake on the train, planning on telling Emily the secret she’d intended to take to her grave. She was going to wait until after they checked into the beach hotel and saw the ocean together. Ask Nettie to give them some privacy, and then she was going to tell Emily one of those detectives they’d doled out all that money to had actually found Teddy. In prison in West Virginia.

  But the closer they got to Biloxi, the harder it was to even think about speaking the truth. And why do it now? To unburden Lurleen’s own soul? Why, she had never seen Emily so happy as she’d been since they got on the train, so absolutely flush with excitement, gasping for breath as they laughed over the silliest things. That was the way she wanted to remember her sister. Not brokenhearted. Not broken like she surely would have been if she’d known what had happened to Teddy.

  Of course it was none of Emily’s doing. Brother had set his course for destruction long before he left home. He started getting into trouble before he turned fifteen, vandalism, stealing. He hung out with a rough crowd, a bunch of hoodlums, mostly older than him, who drank, gambled, and pulled sick pranks. Alcohol and Teddy became good friends by the time he was sixteen, but they never agreed with each other. It made Brother mean and destructive to anyone who got anywhere near him.

  Word around town said that same rough crowd, part young men, part juveniles, had gotten drunk and then turned four dogs loose in Albert Jessup’s turkey farm. They watched as the dogs went on a killing spree, leaving hundreds of birds dead in a matter of minutes. Up until then, Brother’s antics hadn’t harmed anyone but himself and Mother, who grieved his descent into madness to her deathbed and beyond, but Jessup wanted retribution. Rather than go to jail, Teddy left the morning of his birthday without so much as a word.

  Lurleen had gotten up that morning to find his bed made, his rucksack missing. He’d roamed as far as West Virginia and had taken a job in the coalmines in Mucklow. Believing he was a murderer because of John’s death and Mama’s, one by accident, the other slow and painful. He’d proven himself right in a bar fight and had barely made it to nineteen before he killed a man.

  He went quietly to prison, and waited to be executed. Two years’ worth of letters from Lurleen were never returned to her, but she doubted he’d ever read any them. She’d even called the prison and spoken to the warden, explained everything about John, about Teddy’s alcoholism, his feeling responsible for Mama’s death. The warden liked Teddy and agreed to let Lurleen speak to him by phone, but Teddy had refused.

  And in case Lurleen had any ideas about coming up to see him, Teddy had told the warden he’d exercise the only right he had left and refuse to see her.

  “I’m sure he loves you; he just doesn’t want you to see him like this,” the warden had said. Although, Lurleen doubted Teddy had said so. “He says he’s ready to die, ma’am.”

  Of course he was. He’d been ready to die since he was fourteen and errantly pulled the trigger, killing John Young. It’d taken him seven years to fulfill his own destiny, and, as much as Lurleen hated it, on his birthday, February 16, Lurleen had honored his last wish and let him go home to Mama and Daddy alone.

  The warden called the house when the execution was over. Lurleen had been waiting by the phone. He expressed his condolences, said there were folks who belonged in prison, but even with what Brother had done, he didn’t believe Teddy was one of them. Lurleen hung up the phone and went upstairs to Teddy’s room. She threw herself on his bed and sobbed into his pillow until she collected herself. She went downstairs to break the ridiculous silence she’d kept for seven years to constantly remind Emily everything horrible that had happened was her fault. Even though years ago, Lurleen had admitted to herself that what had happened was nobody’s fault.

  Emily was standing in front of the refrigerator, in stocking feet, all dolled up from one of her many dates that she never allowed to go beyond a free meal and gay conversation. There was a tune on the radio, Lurleen couldn’t remember what it was, but Sister was shuffling her feet and singing. Happy. Until she looked up and saw Lurleen standing there.

  Her face went as blank as Lurleen’s had every time Emily had looked at her thro
ughout seven years of silence. During that time, Mama had passed. Lurleen had handled all of the arrangements because Emily was crushed. But Lurleen never uttered a consoling word, never laid a hand on her sister. The silence had continued so long, Lurleen didn’t know how to stop it because it had become as much a part of her and Emily as their sisterhood.

  And God knows, Emily had long since given up on ever hearing Lurleen speak to her again. She had accepted her punishment without protest because she felt she deserved it. And if she didn’t believe that from the beginning, Lurleen’s refusal to acknowledge her existence reinforced the point.

  “There’s some banana pudding on the top shelf,” Lurleen said. It was a stupid thing to say. Of course there was pudding. Always on Brother’s birthday, courtesy of Emily, who believed with all her heart Teddy was alive and well and would come bursting through the door and devour the whole bowl before tearing up the piano that remained silent long after Lurleen’s armistice.

  “Are you speaking to me again, Sister?” Emily whispered.

  “Yes, I believe I am,” Lurleen had said like they’d just had the longest conversation and she was tired, so very tired.

  From that moment forward, Emily never once mentioned Lurleen’s silence, she just accepted that things would go back to being the way they’d always been, and she was so happy, there was no point in telling her what had happened to Brother. Besides, Lurleen was so ashamed that she’d kept his whereabouts and his death a secret because she had robbed Emily of Teddy as surely as Lurleen had been robbed of John.

  Even as anguished as Teddy had become, he loved Emily best. She always found a way to comfort him when he tormented himself. They had a special bond he and Lurleen didn’t share. Emily was his favorite, and he would have done anything for her if he could have. He would never have deliberately taken another man’s life. He would never have left home. He would have sobered up. But he was so very sick and could do none of those things.

  In the beginning, Lurleen never intended to protect Emily from any of this. She wanted her to feel the blame, the hatred Lurleen had for her. Keeping Brother from her for spite had been a much more potent payback.

  But paybacks are indeed hell, and Lurleen could almost see the ends of the tethers of her life. It wouldn’t be long now. She knew it was selfish to let Emily leave this world without knowing Teddy was finally at peace. Spineless. And Emily had deserved to know the truth. Still, Lurleen couldn’t come right out and tell her face-to-face, for Lurleen was indeed a coward of the worst kind.

  She was going to wait. Wait until the time was right. Wait until Lurleen was settled in her bed back home. Wait for that quiet moment, just after Emily had turned out the lights and said good night. The pregnant pause just before the door closed. Lurleen was going to tell her. All of it. But she couldn’t. Emily was gone.

  27

  NETTIE

  My hands were shaking. After the first few words, I couldn’t speak.

  “She’s crying sir, just gave the number and broke right down,” the operator said, “so I’m guessing this is a collect call.”

  “Nettie? Nettie?”

  “Sir, do you accept the charges.”

  “Yes,” Remmy barked. “Nettie, honey, talk to me.”

  Miss Lurleen had cried herself to sleep by the time I left the room and ran to the nearest pay phone. I’m not sure how long he listened to me cry, consoling me. Swearing because he couldn’t hold me.

  “Nettie, honey, I’ll get there as quick as I can. Where are you?”

  “Bi—loxi.” I hiccupped.

  “Goddamn it. I can’t hang up the phone, not with you like this, but I want to be there with you.” I could hear desk drawers opening and closing and then pages rustling. “I’m looking at the atlas. I can drive there, be there in maybe fourteen hours. Hell, that’s too long. I can drive to Augusta and fly to Mobile for sure. Maybe they have a flight to Biloxi; if they don’t, I can rent a car or take a taxi. Soon as I get to you, honey, we’ll all fly home together. You and me. Miss Lurleen. God, Nettie, please don’t cry.”

  I’m not sure if it was sheer exhaustion or the insanity of watching someone I’d grown to love die right in front of me, but I laughed at the thought of getting Miss Lurleen on an airplane. “That’s such a sweet sound, honey,” Remmy said. “God, I’ve never felt so helpless in my life. I should be with you, but for the life of me, I can’t hang up this damn phone and leave you alone.”

  “I’m okay,” I lied. “But I’d better go. Miss Lurleen might wake up, and I don’t want her to be alone.”

  “Miss Emily died?” Remmy asked incredulously.

  “They said she had a stroke.”

  “How’s Miss Lurleen?”

  “They took her blood pressure and gave her something to help her sleep, but she fought it; I really need to go in case she wakes up.”

  “Go be with her, and I’ll be there as soon as I can get there.”

  I nodded my head, but the three of us began this journey together; it was only fitting that Miss Lurleen, Miss Emily, and I come home together. Besides, Remmy riding in on a white horse was all well and good, but I knew I needed to find my own happiness before I fell into his arms.

  “Don’t come.”

  “Nettie—”

  “I’m going to be fine, Remmy. Miss Lurleen and I have each other.”

  “Honey, I just want to be with you.”

  “And I want that too. I do. Just not now. I’ll see you when we get to Columbia.”

  “Are you sure you don’t want me to come?”

  Snippets of the last few days with the sisters raced through my mind, blurring with images of my own sister. “Right now, I’m not sure of many things, but I know I need to finish what I started, and I’m sure of you, Remmy. I’m sure of you.”

  “You really know how to make a guy fall for you, Nettie Gilbert.” He sounded happy. Relieved. I swiped my tears away and laughed too because I was already gone.

  • • •

  I awoke with a start at three a.m. when Miss Lurleen sat up wailing, sobbing, gasping for breath. The loss was so deep and so fresh, if the pain had been constant, it would have taken her life. But it came in waves of laughing and crying and stories. Pieces of her and her sister’s life she shared with me.

  “You’re a good friend to me, Nettie. To Sister,” she sighed after she rode the last wave of grief down.

  “I loved her,” I laughed, swiping at my tears. “She didn’t want me to, but I did.”

  “I love you, sweet girl, and because I’m very old, I have a certain license to say any old thing I want. And, whether you want to or not, you’re obligated to hear me out.”

  “Of course. You can say anything to me.”

  “You might not like this very much, but again, I’m old and I’m right most all the time,” she chuckled and took my hand. “First of all, you may call me Lurleen. All my friends do, and you can drop the yes ma’am and no ma’am as well. Secondly, I told you I didn’t speak to Emily for seven years.”

  “Yes, Mis—” She raised her eyebrows. “Of course, Lurleen,” I said. My mother would have washed my mouth out for such a breach of etiquette.

  “I have few regrets in my life, but that is the sorest one. I tried to make it up to Emily over the years, but nothing could ever truly repair the ugly scar my silence left. I have unsaid things I will take to my grave, things that Emily should have been told, and now she’s gone.” Lurleen’s voice trailed off. I put my arms around her and pressed her head into the curve of my neck. Not once since I’d met her had she ever worn any dusting powder or perfume, but she was wearing a hint of the Evening in Paris her sister had worn unsparingly.

  She pulled away and swiped at her eyes. “I don’t want that for you, Nettie. I’ll go home with you if you like, or if you want to go home alone, I’ll take Emily on to Camden. But you must go to your sister, if
not for yourself, for me.”

  “She needs me,” I whispered. “I could feel it when we passed through Alabama; the feeling isn’t as strong, but it’s still there. She needs me.”

  “Then go to her.” Lurleen held both of my hands in hers. “Forgive her.”

  “I’m not sure I can.” It was easy to hold on to all of the sordid details. Forgiveness was complicated. The hardest work.

  “No one’s asking you to agree with her, Nettie; you don’t even have to like her. But you must forgive her.” Lurleen smiled. “She’s your sister.”

  • • •

  We’d fallen asleep around seven or eight in the morning and slept until noon when we dressed to go make arrangements for Miss Emily’s body to be embalmed and shipped back to Camden. On the way to the funeral home, the cab went about four blocks down Main Street. “We’ll get out here,” Lurleen said.

  “But the O’Keefe Funeral Home is over on Howard Avenue,” I said, following her out of the cab. She waited for me to take my place at her side, cupping her elbow, and nodded toward Learners’ Dress Shop. “Emily would want you in a stunning new dress when you see that bastard, and I believe I’ll get one too.”

  “No, Lurleen—”

  “No arguments, Nettie. We’re doing this for Emily, and that’s final.”

  Almost an hour later, we emerged with two shopping bags with a dress for each of us, and a new pair of pumps for me. I hailed another cab, and the driver gave us a look when I told him where we were going. Still, the car rolled forward about fifty feet. He turned left and went maybe a hundred more feet and there we were in front of the funeral home, where Lurleen singlehandedly changed the casket industry in the interest of women everywhere, but particularly for her sister.

  “Well, why can’t you get one in blue?” Miss Lurleen snapped.