Folly Beach - Dorothea Benton Frank [44]
“Aunt Daisy?”
“Yes?”
“In the end, I didn’t like him, either.”
“Well, now we’re getting someplace.”
“And what am I going to do if that woman with the little boy turns up?”
“We’ll deal with that if and when the time comes. That’s why God invented lawyers.”
“I’m not so sure that was God.”
So, while we talked about my children and Patti and Mark, we ate Swiss cheese omelets and rye toast and drank glass after glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice.
“I do love me some orange juice,” Aunt Daisy said, sounding like a silly young girl from the ’hood.
She was so funny sometimes.
“You know, Cate,” Ella said, “your aunt was voted the number-one supporter of the Marsh Tacky Association and they sent us a bushel of oranges.”
“And I got a plaque! Don’t forget I got a plaque! A nice one, too, with a little three-dimensional brass horse on it. I’ll show you later.”
“Humph,” Ella grunted. “She needs another plaque like a hole in the head.”
“You two,” I said, remembering Aunt Daisy’s wall of fame in her office. “Listen, why don’t you let me clean up the kitchen and y’all can go get dressed?”
“She’s pretty particular about her kitchen,” Aunt Daisy said, hooking her thumb in Ella’s direction.
Ella smiled, shook her head, and pushed back from the table.
“I’ll inspect it later with my magnifying glass. Come on, Old Cabbage, let’s get moving.”
“Old Cabbage?” I said.
“It’s what Prince Phillip calls Queen Elizabeth!” Aunt Daisy said, beaming. “I saw it in that movie Queen.”
“Helen Mirren,” I said. “Love her.”
“We saw it ten times,” Ella said. “That woman was so good, wasn’t she? Made me want a Corgi.”
“Oh, now!” Old Cabbage said. “That’s what we need is a dog! Cate? Did you hear what she said?”
I giggled.
“Mirren’s a genius. Like Meryl Streep,” I said. “They really and truly can make you believe they’re somebody else.”
“That’s why they make the big bucks!” Ella said and turned to Aunt Daisy. “You want me to help you with that cast or what?”
“Are you telling me what to do?” Aunt Daisy said. “Because when the day and time comes that I need someone to tell me what to do, I’ll let you know.”
“She’s impossible,” Ella said, pulling a dry-cleaner bag from the stash of them in the pantry closet. “Come on!”
I could hear them bickering all the way up the stairs and I couldn’t stop laughing. They weren’t really bickering though. It was how the old cabbages showed their affection for each other.
After I wiped down the last counter and turned on the dishwasher, I repacked my overnight bag and went outside to assess the damage to my car in the daylight. It was pretty banged up alright. Well, at least it gave me an excuse to see that nice guy again. What was his name? I pulled his card from the side of my handbag. Risley. John Risley. The gorgeous married one with the legally insane dangerous wife. I wondered if I would hear from him. I had to get my car fixed before the bumper fell off onto the street but the last thing I needed now was a fling with anybody. Even if he did have the most beautiful eyes I had ever seen on a man.
I heard a door close from under the house and looked up to see Aunt Daisy leaning on Ella’s arm as they made their way from the elevator. All the new beach houses had elevators now, which would have been considered nothing short of ludicrous when I was little. But when Aunt Daisy renovated her house and had it jacked up to the required height to meet the code, she realized she wasn’t getting any younger, so an elevator was added to the architect’s plans. It was also very handy for them when they went to Sam’s Club or Costco and came home with tons of paper towels, cases of water, and whatever else they stocked up on in case of an emergency.
“You follow us!” Ella called out.
“Okay!” I called back and started my car.
We drove the short distance down West Ashley Avenue to the Porgy House and pulled up in the yard. On the way over I sent a quick text message to Russ to let him know I had arrived. Maybe he and Alice would like to get