Page 33 of The Party Line

Her voice caught. “We just need to talk.”

“Then I’ll be over in half an hour. I’m up here in the dusty attic right now, and I need to take a quick shower.” Worry replaced any guilt that had washed over me when I’d opened the small trunk.

“That will be fine,” Mama said, and the screen went dark.

Chapter Eleven

Mama was probably the second-strongest woman I knew, coming in just behind Aunt Gracie. She had always been one to grab the bull by the horns, spit in his eye, and dare him to charge her. So I wondered what on the great green earth could have happened that had upset her. I didn’t take time to blow-dry my hair or even slap on a little makeup to cover up my freckles. I just jerked on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt and hopped in my vehicle. It seemed like the five-minute drive from my house to hers took every second of an hour. All kinds of scenarios went through my mind. Maybe she had found out she had a disease—something wrong with her heart. Aunt Gracie had died peacefully in her sleep from a heart attack, so the gene could be in the family. My hamster mind jumped from that to wondering what it would be like to simply go to sleep and not wake up in the morning. Did God have a pair of wings ready, or was He going to have to keep those Pearly Gates closed just a little while longer?

I braked hard at the end of her driveway and slung gravel halfway to Poteet. I parked beside Annie’s vehicle, got out of my SUV, and jogged across the yard to where Annie and Mama were sitting on the porch. Neither of them looked deathly sick, but their expressions said they were worried.

“Are y’all okay?” I asked after a couple of short bursts of breath.

“We’re fine,” Annie called out from the porch swing.

“Then what’s this news that I needed to get over here for?” I waved at the gray gravel haze blowing across the porch. “After the day I’ve had, I feel like I’m spittin’ dust.”

“Oh. My. Goodness!” Annie giggled—a bit nervously, which concerned me. “You sound just like Gracie sometimes.”

Mama nodded and headed into the house. I had barely sat down on the top porch step when she returned with a longneck bottle and handed it to me. “This should settle anything you’ve breathed in. Annie and I have been talking, and ...” She took a deep breath and rubbed her forehead. “I’m so sorry, Lila.”

“For what?” I was getting pretty worried; not even a couple of drinks of icy-cold beer settled my nerves.

“We were taken up in the heat of the moment, and ...” Annie said, and then there was another pregnant moment of silence.

“Somebody tell me what’s going on beforeIhave a heart attack,” I whispered.

“We don’t want to open a catering business,” Mama blurted out. “And I feel horrible that you quit your job.”

Had I heard her right? Was she teasing me? I was completely tongue-tied, and my chest tightened.

Everything happens for a reason.

Aunt Gracie had said that too many times to begin to count. I’d even said the same thing when she’d left me her property and I made the decision to move to Ditto.

I repeated the words in a whisper: “Everything happens for a reason.”

“What was that?” Annie asked.

“She said, ‘Everything happens for a reason,’” Mama told her. “Gracie said that all the time, and I believe it—but, Lila, what brought it to your mind at this moment?”

I took another long drink of the beer. “On the way over here that evening when y’all told me about the decision to start a catering business, I was having a little hissy fit about needing some excitement in mylife. That gave me a reason to quit my job that had become so boring since everything shut down a few years ago. Now I will have time to find my true passion in life. I don’t know what it is, but I believe with my whole heart that it’s out there somewhere, just waiting for me to open my eyes.”

“Or stumble over it?” Annie asked.

I thought of the notes on the outfits in Gracie’s closet and of stubbing my toe on the small chest—both in the last few hours—and had to smile. “Most likely, that’s exactly what will happen.”

“You’re taking this better than I ever thought you would—and again, I’m so sorry to disrupt your life twice in only a few days,” Mama said.

“Aunt Gracie was right when she said that about things happening for a reason. We might not know what they are today, but it’ll all come out in the light.” I was amazed at myself for not being disappointed or even upset.

“Whew!” Annie wiped her forehead in a dramatic gesture. “We were both sitting here going over every which way about how we could tell you.”

I took a couple more sips of my beer. “What made you change your minds about catering?”

Mama’s eyes were filled with excitement. “We want some time to do what you just said. Find our passion, and it’s not really in the food business. When I slowed down, I realized I was diving into something out of desperation.”

“And a need for security,” Annie added with a nod. “Not financial but mental. Like your mother, I’ve worked since I was just a kid. I thought I had to be busy, or I would be ...” She struggled to find the word.

---