Mama B - a Time to Love (8 page)

I stayed on cloud nine the rest of the
dinner, gazing into his eyes, hanging on every word that flowed from his lips.
Frank was smart. And
funny
!

He told me about patients with crazy
problems, his first surgery, his first lawsuit. Apparently, the malpractice
insurance for doctors almost made him quit.

I think our waiter got mad at us because
we was takin’ up the table so long, costin’ him tips. But whatever Frank wrote
on that receipt made the young man very happy, so I didn’t feel so bad when we
walked out at nearly a quarter ‘til eleven.

Franked started the car, and I started a
conversation I hadn’t imagined I would have before the lightswitch for Frank
flipped on in my heart. “What do you think we should do for Thanksgiving next
month?”

He took his hand off the gearshift and
stared at me. “Thanksgiving?”

“Yes. I’d love to spend Thanksgiving with
you, seein’ as it looks like we takin’ things a little further.”

All thirty-two of them…teeth come
pointing at me. “B, you’ve made me a happy man tonight.”

“Right back atcha, Frank.”

Now, I done watched a whole lotta movies
and read a whole lotta books and I knew what was supposed to happen next in
these days and times. We was supposed to lean across the armrest and kiss. Not
saying I didn’t want to kiss, but I didn’t want to be forward. And Frank was
too nice to make the first move, given what I had done already told him about
neckin’ and all.

But I was at a point where I knew I
couldn’t keep over-analyzin’ everything. Couldn’t keep comparin’ Frank to
Albert, comparin’ 1975 to the twenty-first century.

Seem like I could almost hear Ophelia
sayin’, ‘B, If you want to kiss the man, kiss him.’

So I hauled off and did it. Pushed my
body right toward his, he met me halfway and I smacked him dead on his big
lips.
Shucky now!

Soon as it was over, I hopped back on my
side of the car like I done somethin’ I wasn’t meanin’ to do, except I did. And
I was glad I did. Frank got his nice lips. Soft. And they covered mine
completely. For some reason, that made me all jumpy inside.

“Woman, I didn’t think I’d ever get any
sugar from you,” Frank teased.

“Me, either,” I snickered. I touched my
lips with my fingers, savoring the tingle he’d left behind. Still couldn’t
believe I’d actually done it.
What would
…no, I wouldn’t even let myself
wonder. For all we knew, Albert and Margie could be holding hands and sitting
at Christ’s feet having a praise party that very moment, not studyin’ us at
all.

The delight on Frank’s face spoke all the
way home, even though he didn’t have a whole lot of words to say. He played a
Smokie Norful CD, a nice mix of old and new songs. When he parked in my driveway,
I asked Frank again about Thanksgiving.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I forgot all about it
after you tackled me.”

I gasped. “Frank Wilson, I did not
tackle
you!”

He grabbed my hand and kissed the brown
side. “Don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone.”

I yanked my hand from him and set my back
against the door, doin’ my best to give him the mean-eye, but it didn’t work.
We both started laughing at me. At him. At the whole situation.

“B, we’d better pray,” Frank prompted.

“Wonderful.”

Again, Frank asked the Lord to lead us,
guide us, and be glorified in our friendship. He thanked God for both of us
being far enough along in our healing to appreciate the new thing He was doing.
He thanked God for His perfect timing and asked that He would give us hearts to
always honor Him, in Jesus’ name.

“Amen,” we said together.

While Frank parlayed around to my side of
the car, I grabbed the bag with Eunice’s bread from the back seat. Though I
would enjoy surprising her with the treat, a part of me felt bad for
contributing to whatever health problems she already had, ‘cause how she eat
got somethin’ to do with all her problems, I was sure.

As Frank escorted me to front door, I got
a notion to ask him about Eunice’s leg. After all he said about the
malpractice, I wasn’t quite sure he was at liberty to give medical advice off
the clock. And I certainly didn’t want him to think Eunice or I was trying to
take advantage of his medical expertise. Just that I couldn’t think of no other
way to get Eunice help.

“Frank, Eunice done took off all her
bandages and she seems to be fine as far as her arms and nose are concerned.
But her leg’s been givin’ her a lot more trouble since she fell. I went in the
other day and saw it’s all dark and drainin’. I told her she should go see a
doctor, but she won’t listen. You think I ought to call 9-1-1?”

He raised both eyebrows. “If she won’t
go, she won’t go. You can’t make her. If it’s not a life-or-death situation,
the paramedics won’t transport her unwillingly.”

“Okay.” My hands wrung themselves.

Frank relented. “I could look at her leg,
if you want me to. If she’ll let me.”

“I don’t want to put you in harm’s way,
professionally,” I made myself clear.

“Looking won’t jeopardize anything.”

“Thank you so much,” I said as I unlocked
the front door quickly, before he could change his mind.

Frank followed me toward the bedrooms. I
knocked on Eunice’s door. “Eunice?”

“Yeah?”

“Honey, I’ve got Dr. Wilson with me.”

“It’s about time,” she belted out. “Y’all
go on. You won’t bother me.”

Too embarrassed to look at Frank, I kept
my face toward the door. “He says he can look at your leg if you’d like.”

The bedsprings creaked. “If it’ll make
you feel better, he can come in. But I’m telling you both upfront, I’m not
going to any hospital.”

I opened the door. Eunice lay on the bed
wearing another one of my muu-muu’s. She’d exposed her leg for Frank to
examine. He switched on the lamp so he could get a better look.

“What’s that you got there in the bag?” Eunice
asked me, oblivious to Frank.

“It’s garlic bread. It came with my meal,
but I didn’t want it so I saved it for you. You want me to warm it up?”

“You know I do,” she cracked a
silly-lookin’ grin.

“First things first, you need to keep it
elevated.” Frank had switched into doctor mode, so I figured that was the proper
time to get the bread heated up.

I stopped off at my bedroom and kicked my
shoes into the room. Them dancing shoes are comfortable enough, but sometimes
my feet swell after being up and out so long. And if you don’t listen to
nothin’ else on your body, you gotta listen to your feet ‘cause they won’t hush
until you give them what they want.

I set the bread on a plate and warmed it
up for Eunice, then tip-toed on down the hallway so I could hear if Eunice was
telling Frank some health information that she hadn’t shared with me. Frank had
already told me that whatever a patient tells him in confidence, he can’t
reveal without written permission. He was already puttin’ his behind on the
line for me. I figured if the time came for me to make Eunice go to the
hospital, I wanted to be able to tell them what they needed to know without
bothering Frank.

But, chile, I wasn’t ready for the earful
I got when I snuck up to the door.

“If B’s too slow for you, I’m ready and
willing,” she mumbled softly. “And I can
make
myself able for somebody
like you.”

Oh my Lord!
My chest pounded.
Did she just
proposition him?

Frank’s voice came through, full of
confusion. “Are you—”

“It’s whatever you want it to be, good
doctor,” she made a second pass at him.

I slid back to the kitchen, hardly able
to believe what I’d just heard.

“B, you got that bread ready?” Frank
hollered loud and clear.

“Just about,” I yelled back, trying to
train my face real quick.

I stomped back down the hallway and set
the plate on the nightstand. “Here you go, Eunice.”

“Thank you soooo much, B.”

Something in me wished I had some kind of
powdered poison to put on that bread.

Frank stood at the doorway. “She
definitely needs to get to a doctor as soon as possible. Looks like poor
circulation, probably coupled with an infection. This could get in your
bloodstream if you’re not careful. But don’t take my word on it—get it
from whomever you see. This is all off the record. If they ask me anything,
I’ll deny I ever saw your leg.”

“Yes, off the record,” Eunice repeated,
her eyes fixed on Frank’s. “And I’ll deny it, too.”

I walked Frank to the door. He dusted my
cheek with a kiss I barely even felt, thanks to Miss Eunice. He might have been
trying to talk to me for a second longer, but I politely kicked him on out the
door. “I’ll see you…I don’t know when.”

“How about you coming to church with me
Sunday?”

“Yeah,” I agreed without even thinking.
“That’s fine. We’ll talk tomorrow. Good night.”

 I paced back and forth across the
living room.
How dare she? After all I’ve done for her!

I wondered if maybe I should have
confronted her with Frank in the room. Naw, I didn’t need Frank there. This
kind of thing is best handled woman-to-woman.

My first mind said to go back in that
room, snatch my good 500-thread-count sheets off her body and order her to
leave my house that very hour! She had some nerve layin’ up in
my
bed,
breathin’
my
heated air, makin’ passes at
my
…man-friend. And
callin’ me
slow
, too!

My head throbbed with anger.
That
back-bitin’ floozy
! “Lord, Jesus!” flew out of my mouth.

“B, you alright?” the witch’s voice
called to me.

“Yeah!”

“Okay. This bread sure is good. Thanks
for thinking of me.”

“Uh hun.” I was
thinkin’
about her
alright. Thinkin’ about how good it would feel to pack up all her stuff in them
plastic grocery bags and set her right out there on my porch, then wake up in
the morning to find her disappeared. This time I would
not
go lookin’
for her. Just let her rot wherever she wound up, I didn’t care.
I didn’t
deserve this! No wonder nobody in her family fools with her!

The Voice of wisdom, which thankfully
never sleeps or slumbers, came to the forefront of my mind.
B. Calm down.

I managed to plant my behind on the couch
despite my heartbeat springing all over the room. My hands, by virtue of all
the years I’ve been walkin’ with the Lord, I guess, formed a steeple at my
forehead. “Lord, this is ridiculous and You know it. She can’t stay here,
Father God. She got to G-O, go.”

B. Calm down
.

I slammed my fists on my knees. I didn’t
want
to calm down. You do something nice for a person—take ‘em into your
house, feed ‘em, bring a
doctor
to see ‘em, give ‘em everything you
have. And this is how they treat you? “This ain’t fair, God.”

Jesus feels the same way.

Now why He always gotta bring Jesus into
everything, I don’t know. Well, yes I do. I can be mad as I want to, but when I
think about all He done for me, everything else happen be small compared to His
goodness.

This little reflection was enough to
bring me back to myself. I had to think this through. If I went in there and
kicked her out, she would be, literally, on the streets with no place to go.
Probably try to squat somewhere and bust her nose again. Not that it would be
my fault, just that she’d be hurt when she could have been safe here in my home
at least until daylight, when she could hustle her bad leg on back to wherever
she wanted to go. Me kicking her out that night would be two wrongs.

Plus, there was the issue of her health.
She couldn’t have made it all the way down the street if she’d wanted to.

I grabbed my cell phone off the coffee
table and sent Libby a text message I hoped she’d see first thing in the
morning.
Give me Eunice’s son’s number
. This boy needed to come get his
Momma quick, fast, and in a hurry.

When I finally settled into bed to
process my heart with the Lord, my anger gave way to the fact that I was hurt.
I certainly wasn’t starvin’ for friends, but…I liked Eunice. I thought we were
going to at least be the kind of friends who’d catch up with each other by
phone once or twice a year.

In seventy-two years, I done had my fair
share of folk lyin’ on me, gossipin’, repeatin’ stuff I thought was
confidential, and undercuttin’ me. I used to work in a salon, remember? This
was different, though. I’d never actually witnessed with my own ears somebody
bein’ so deliberately two-faced with me—for no
real
reason.
What
Eunice gon’ do with a man? She can barely stand up!

I thought about all the times we’d sat up
talkin’ and laughin’. She’d cooked for me, told me I should be proud of my
kids. Come to think of it, she’d given me the courage to move on past Albert.
And she was one of the captains of the B-and-Frank cheerleading squad, next to
Libby!