Shop On the Corner, page 26
“What happened to Chance?” Laura asked quietly.
“We moved back to Nashville after you left, got an apartment near the downtown music scene and Vanderbilt University. It was kind of a creepy place on the third floor but it was all we could afford. I worried when we moved back and after because our gigs weren’t bringing in much money anymore. After we divided the money with the band every time, Chance and I didn’t get much.”
“How did Chance manage before you got together?” Mitchell asked.
“Chance and the band used to all crash together in some big apartment before I came along. He suggested doing that again, but I didn’t want to live with all those men. They lived really nasty and I didn’t want to become their maid and cook and everything.” She sighed. “Chance and I started fighting a lot in Nashville when we went back in April. He was doing more drugs and crashing out and sleeping a lot afterward and I didn’t like that.”
Neither he nor Laura made a comment.
“One morning after we’d had a big fight the night before, I went for a walk down the street and discovered Vanderbilt’s school of music was only a couple of blocks away. I didn’t know before it was so close. I went walking through the lobby and the halls, sometimes hearing the music coming from the practice rooms, remembering how happy I’d been at Ole Miss. On a bulletin board I saw some job notices and remembered at Old Miss a friend got to take some free classes because she worked at the school. On a whim, I went to the professor’s office, the head of the voice department, to see if I could apply. It was only a receptionist job in the department with a little secretarial work; I knew I could do that. They like people who look nice and have good communication skills for jobs like that.” She smiled at both of them as if reminding them she possessed both.
“The professor’s door was open and I just sort of walked in. His name was Dr. Thurston and he was really sweet to me. I found out there was a process to follow for jobs, but because he liked me, and learned I’d been a voice scholarship student at Ole Miss, he thought I’d be a good fit talking with incoming students. He helped escalate the process, made a couple of calls to the school and stuff while I waited, and I got the job right then. He even said I could take some classes starting in the fall or winter to complete my degree. I only need about a year and half to finish.”
“I’m really happy you’re going to get to finish your degree,” Laura said, and Mitchell saw her smile with pleasure at Georgina.
Georgina wrinkled her nose. “Well, Chance wasn’t happy about it. I thought he would be, that he’d be grateful I could help him by working, too. But he got mad and hollered and said I didn’t believe in him. He got furious, too, because I didn’t talk with him and ask him first. Can you believe that? Even when I explained how it happened, he wanted me to not take the job. I couldn’t believe he was being so unreasonable and mean to me when I was only trying to help. He kept saying the job would get in the way of our gigs and shows when I needed to travel with them to sing. I suggested they could do more gigs nearer Nashville or that he could sing when I couldn’t go like he did before I joined the band.”
She shook her head. “He carried on and on about how this was like a betrayal and he called me some really mean names. I got mad then, too, and I said that it wouldn’t hurt if we both got jobs. He really hollered and yelled more mean and ugly things at me then.” She looked at Laura. “He said I sounded like you. He said you’d poisoned my thinking and belief in him.”
“You know that’s not true, don’t you, Georgina?” Mitchell asked.
“Well, of course. But Chance likes to get his way no matter what, and things went totally downhill after that. I started getting up early for work every day, dressing nice. I had new people to meet, and was actually making money. Chance started wanting my money as soon as I got paid, but I said no, that I was spending it for rent and groceries. We had a big fight then and he went off more and more to hang out with his band friends, sometimes not coming home at night at all. I could tell he was drinking more, too, and doing more drugs. I knew it was bad but I didn’t know what to do.”
Tears came into her eyes. “I didn’t have anyone to turn to that might help me to move out, no family or anything.”
Mitchell could see the hurt and guilt streak across Laura’s face. Georgina was certainly an emotional manipulator.
She leaned her head back and closed her eyes for a moment. “One day I came home from work and found Chance asleep across the bed. I thought he’d passed out again because he didn’t hear me come in. But after a minute I noticed he was too still. I couldn’t wake him up so I got really scared and called the emergency number.”
She sighed. “An ambulance came and took him to the hospital and it was an awful time. I wasn’t really his family so they acted funny about telling me anything. I didn’t know a lot of his personal and health information that they wanted to know either, so they called Chance’s parents from the information they found in his wallet. I sat out in the waiting room and cried, not knowing what to do. Then this really nice man came over and sat down to talk with me. He was an assistant minister at a big church downtown. He’d been visiting a church member at the hospital, and he talked with me and prayed with me and helped me.”
Her eyes welled with tears. “His name was Warren Bratton and he saved me in that awful time when I didn’t have anyone to turn to. When Chance died, because they couldn’t save him from overdosing, Warren stayed to help me. Chance’s parents came from Kentucky, all upset and crying, and they took over everything. They would hardly speak to me, like it was my fault Chance died. Warren was really kind to me then though.”
She heaved a sigh. “I had some really bad days after that with Chance’s parents coming to get his things to take back to Kentucky. They wanted Chance to be buried in their family lot. I didn’t even get to go to his service. They took Chance’s car away, too, the only one we had.”
“It sounds like they blamed you more than they should,” Mitchell offered.
“They did and they were really ugly to me. Fortunately, all the furniture in the apartment was mine that we brought from Amory so they couldn’t take that. I was lucky too, that I could walk to the school for work, to the grocery and laundromat nearby. But I was all by myself and the guys in the band dumped me completely after Chance died.”
“I’m so sorry Georgina,” Laura said.
She sent Laura an anguished look. “If I’d known where you were, I could have at least had some family to talk to. But I soon learned Warren’s church, the big Belmont Methodist Church he invited me to, was only a few blocks away, so I started going to church there. Warren and the other senior pastor started talking with me and helping me, and I started singing in the choir and I started getting better.”
She stopped to offer them a small smile. “Mitchell, you may not know it, but I grew up singing in the choir and going to the big Methodist church in Amory. I don’t know if Laura told you our mother played piano in that church or that she met my daddy there when my grandfather was a pastor at the church. I felt like I was coming back to my roots going to Belmont, back to a better place.”
Mitchell wondered if Georgina had ever considered calling that grandfather or any other relatives during her hard time. He knew from visiting with them this summer that none of them had seen or heard from her since she started college and left home.
“I’m glad you’re back in church and are singing in the choir,” Laura said in a soft voice. “Mother would have been happy about that.”.
“I’ve thought about that sometimes.” Georgina offered Laura a wistful look. “Warren sings in the choir, too. He has a beautiful baritone voice, deep and resonant. We got to be friends. We’d go for coffee after choir, and sometimes to eat dinner after church on Sundays. He was really helping me with my faith and my life, and then somehow gradually over the summer we started to like each other more.” She shrugged. “You know.”
“When did you get married?” Mitchell asked.
“We were starting to talk about getting married near the end of July. Warren had a vacation coming up and he was wishing I could go. It wouldn’t have been right for me to go with him not married though. He’s not like that and I’m changed now, so we decided just to get married in the chapel in the church. There wasn’t any point in planning a big wedding. Warren’s parents live abroad right now, his father is with General Motors in Indonesia, and his brother is in the military at a Naval Base in San Diego, California. I didn’t have parents at all, and I didn’t know where you’d gone, Laura, so we just did a small private ceremony with church friends.”
“Warren sounds like a nice person,” Laura said, overlooking the subtle digs.
Georgina dug in her purse. “I have a wedding picture in my billfold.” She found it and passed it around.
Mitchell saw a kind-faced, brown-haired man with hazel eyes, looking with fondness at Georgina. He hoped things would work out and that her feelings for Warren were what they should be.
“I wish you both happy.” Laura smiled over the photo.
Georgina looked at her watch as she put her billfold back in her purse. “I need to go back to Junaluska. Warren came here for meetings with some people he knows about maybe coming for a Music Weekend later. Different groups attend for specialized workshops and learn about new anthems. Our choir director couldn’t come to this pre-meeting so Warren offered. He likes the mountains. I agreed to come, too, because he told me Waynesville was right near the Junaluska Conference Center. I’d told him earlier I thought you lived here in Waynesville now and that we’d lost touch. I didn’t tell him I really found the address in Chance’s stuff.” She shrugged. “If things had gone bad when we met again, I could say I didn’t find you or something.”
“Well, I hope we can meet Warren someday,” Laura said with her usual graciousness. “I’m sorry about Chance—I really am—but I’m glad your life has been turning around to become happier.”
“Will you come over to the Bistro Lakeside to have an early lunch with us at eleven tomorrow before Warren and I have to drive back to Nashville? It’s four hours so we need to leave early. We both have to be at church tomorrow and in the choir. The restaurant opens at eleven though. We’re staying at The Terrace Hotel, and the Bistro is on the third floor of the hotel.” She hesitated, looking down at her lap. “I told Warren if I found you, I’d see if you would come to meet him. Will you?”
“Well, sure,” Laura’s eyes moved to Mitchell’s with appeal. “I hope Mitchell will come with me. I’d like both of us to meet Warren.”
He nodded. “We’ll both come. Laura and I will meet you in The Terrace Hotel lobby and then we’ll go to the restaurant together. You might ask Warren to call and make a reservation. Sometimes the Bistro gets crowded on a Saturday.”
“Oh, I’ll ask him to do that,” Georgina said, getting up to leave. She went over to give Laura another small hug. “I’m so glad we found each other again and got things worked out. Family is important.”
Mitchell pasted on a smile as she said these words. The fact that Georgina had not offered one single apology bothered him, but he felt sure Laura would still be happy her sister had found her. No matter what a person’s family members were like, good or bad, kind or selfish, they were still your family.
CHAPTER 23
Laura heaved a huge sigh after letting Georgina out the front door and locking it behind her. Mitchell had walked to the door with her and he reached out now to take her into his arms and hug her.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“I think so,” she answered, moving to sit down on the small sofa in the vestibule.
He glanced at his watch. “Before Mom left she said for us to come over for dinner when Georgina left. She put a roast in the electric cooker earlier, and she also said she wanted to hear the rest of the story.”
“I guess that will be all right,” Laura said.
Mitchell leaned over to give her a kiss. “I know you’re worn out from all this but we do need to eat.”
Her lips twitched. “Well, you know we won’t hear the end of it from your mother either if we don’t fill her in on all that happened.”
“It does read somewhat like a soap opera.” He sent her a grin. “Can I call her and tell her we’re on our way?”
“Sure. I’ll get my purse and turn off the lights in the back rooms while you do.”
At Evelyn’s, they were met with the usual excitement and greetings from the children and Zoey. Laura hoped someday she and Mitchell could have a dog like Zoey, always so excited to see you. She squatted down to pet the little collie mix, talking to her and enjoying her enthusiastic welcome. Something about a dog or cat just cheered you up sometime after a bad day.
“You children come sit down,” Evelyn said. “I have dinner ready.” She gestured them to the table already set.
“Can I do anything to help?” Laura asked.
“No, no. Everything is done. I popped a shoulder roast in my electric cooker earlier this morning with carrots, potatoes, and onions, and then cooked some green beans after I came home. I put some quick biscuits in the oven, too. They’ll be ready in a minute. Let’s sit down and say grace before we eat.”
Hearing Mackenzie’s sweet little words saying grace and then listening to the warm chatter of the children talking about starting school again began to gradually ease Laura’s tension away.
“Mackenzie is in the same class this year with Taylor,” Charlie told them. “And my best friend Matthew is in my class.”
Mackenzie’s eyes lit. “Taylor is my best friend, Laura, and she lives right next door,” she explained. “She went to the movies with us one Saturday. Remember?”
“I do, and she’s nice.”
Mackenzie nodded. “It’s happy to have friends you like in your class.”
They babbled on, Charlie telling jokes and Mackenzie showing off her fingernails, decorated with ladybug decals she and Taylor had pasted on them after school. The two children interacted with such warmth and affection, and Laura noticed this especially tonight. Her relationship with Georgina had always been different. Funny how she’d never really seen that before or recognized their affection as not as rich and loving as it should have been. She’d always been more the smaller planet circling her sister’s sun.
As they finished dinner, Evelyn said to the children, “Since you already did your homework before dinner, you can go watch that new Spy Kids movie I picked up for you when I was out today.”
“Is it The Island of Lost Dreams?” Charlie asked.
“Yes. That’s the one you and Mackenzie said you wanted after watching the first one,” Evelyn answered.
“Thanks, Grammy,” Charlie and Mackenzie said almost in unison as they scrambled out of their chairs to head to the den.
Evelyn turned to Mitchell and Laura. “They’ve really gotten into detective and spy stories lately. Mackenzie has read Harriet the Spy and they’ve discovered a Disney series about Mira the Royal Detective among a few others.” Evelyn carried the last of the plates to the sink. “Let’s go take our coffee out on the porch. These dishes can wait. I’m dying to hear about the rest of your visit with your sister, Laura.”
After settling into wicker chairs on Evelyn’s screen porch, Mitchell and Laura took turns filling Evelyn in on the rest of Georgina’s story.
At the end, Evelyn commented. “Honestly, like Mitchell said, your sister’s life could make a great soap opera. Pardon me for saying that. I know she’s been through her share of sorrows, too. It had to be traumatic and painful for her finding Chance dead like she did.” She shook her head. “But she does have a way of landing on her feet.”
Mitchell nodded.
Evelyn reached across to pat Laura’s hand. “I know you must be relieved, dear, that your sister is out of that difficult situation. Being involved with a group doing drugs, hanging out in places like the ones she talked about, was dangerous.”
“It always scared me that she was involved with Chance,” Laura said. “It wasn’t that I didn’t believe in her, like she said. Her situation simply didn’t feel right. I worried about her.”
“You had a right to worry. I hope she sees that now.”
Laura frowned. “I’m not sure if she does.”
“I’m not either,” Mitchell put in. “Not once did I hear Georgina offer an apology or a thank you for all you did. She always made it sound like it was just your obligation to help her in any way needed, no matter how she acted or what she did.”
Evelyn looked out into the yard thinking. “Well, despite all this, Georgina seems to have turned her life to the good. She’s married to a minister now. That certainly is a step up from her situation before and surely he will be a good influence.”
“I don’t mean to put in a negative word here but I still see that Georgina’s focus is on herself,” Mitchell said. “I hope she hasn’t used Warren as a route out of her problems.”
“Well, even if she has, perhaps his stability and morality will impact and change her,” Evelyn replied.
Mitchell made a face. “Maybe. But in all her talk, I didn’t hear any references to God, how He’d changed her, how He was helping her day to day. I didn’t hear anything in her conversation about a growing depth of faith.”
“But she’s back in church,” Laura put in.
“Yes, and that’s good,” Evelyn said. “We all have to start somewhere, Mitchell. A steady diet of church and living with a minister will surely have an impact. Let’s be hopeful. Real faith takes time to grow. At least perhaps she’s in the right environment now and certainly in better company.”
Evelyn turned to Laura. “Did she give you an address for a wedding invitation?”
“No. With everything that was going on, I forgot to ask for it. I’ll ask for her new address tomorrow.” She hesitated. “Do you think I should ask her to be in the wedding? Everything is all set. I’ve already asked Elizabeth to be my matron of honor, Becky, Paula, and Allison to be the bridesmaids. All the dresses are ordered. I would feel awful to ask any of them to give up their place to Georgina.”
