Page 1 of Jack

Prologue

Taylor watched as two men struggled with a walker across the lawn from them. She didn’t know if it belonged to either man as the thing had balloons and a very festive bag on the front to carry things in. Wondering aloud if they’d stolen it—or had borrowed it from someone at the retirement center.

“Those old fools. Look at them out there acting like bullies. Mr. Reglan will fight someone over the last pea on his plate and then say you stole it from him. Mr. Martin isn’t all that much better. They squabble like small children when I know for a fact that both of them are in their late seventies.” Turning to look at her grandmother, really her great-grandmother, she smiled. “They should have been beaten more as children and—yes, I said it. Had their bottoms beaten more as children, and then they’d know how to properly act around their elders.”

“Mom beat my bottom a great deal. I still have no manners around my elders.” Grandma huffed at her. “I was just thinking about breaking you out of here so we can have some fun. You remember fun, don’t you? Or is watching rude old men without underwear on more your cup of tea.”

“Oh, dear lord. They neither one have underwear on.” Grandma turned away just as one of the people who worked there rescued not just the walker but the men as well before they exposed themselves too much more. “What would possess a person to walk around in that kind of gown. We all have clothing that we brought with us—is that your mother coming up the walkway? Taylor, I have no patience for her today. If she asks me more than one time if I’m all right, I’m going to brain her with my cane. I think I will anyway.” Laughing, Taylor greeted her mom and her new fling.

Her mom told her that she was experiencing life again. That meant that she was dating everyone that she came in contact with who wasn’t married. Divorced was all right, but she’d not be responsible for breaking up a marriage she’d told her when she was old enough to understand that her mom was lonely.

Taylor supposed that her mom’s lesbian phase was going on right now. Not that it bothered her; her mother was a grown woman, and she loved her to pieces. Taylor just wished her mom would settle down and not be so odd all the time.

“Hello, Mom. Jeri. How are you guys feeling?” Grandma tsked at her while her mom went on and on about what the two of them had been up to today. “I didn’t realize that the winery was open this time of year? Or did they just open? It’s hard to keep up sometimes.”

Her mom, Gilda Jane, had been widowed at a very young age. Her dad, Henry Paul Murphy, had had a massive heart attack at the age of forty-three. Leaving mom and her, at only six weeks old, to fend for themselves.

It really wasn’t all that bad. They didn’t ever have to beat down the debt collectors or anything like that. It was just that. They were alone in a hostile world that her mom had never understood. No, she told herself, her mom had never wanted to understand. If her grandma hadn’t taken them in when she did, Taylor didn’t know what would have happened to them. Her mom was as flighty as she’d ever met.

“How are you feeling, Harriette? Are they feeding you well?” Grandma, not hard of hearing, winched with each word that mom would shout at her. “I hope you’re getting enough rest.”

“Mom. You do this every time. She can hear you just fine. More than likely better than you hear. Sit down and tell us what you’re doing here. This isn’t your usual visit day.” Mom settled in next to her, leaving her friend and companion sitting on the ground. Mom asked her how long she’d been here. “Since ten. Grandma and I are going to break out today and go get some supper.”

“Aren’t you afraid she’ll get away?” She told her mom to behave herself. “I am. I don’t know what she’s like when we’re not here. They probably keep her drugged up or something to keep her thiscalm.”

“I’m right here, so stop talking about me as if I’m not. And I can hear you just fine, Gilda Jane.” Grandma rolled her eyes before speaking again. “Didn’t you know that they hook us up to all kinds of tubes when no one is around? Yes, sir. And they have probes everywhere on us. Every orifice has one, too. And we’re not to complain or they take one of our toes off. See that man over there with his foot all wrapped up. It’s because he questioned them one night. Messy thing—”

“Now, who should be behaving. Grandma, you can’t tell Mom that. She believes you.” And it looked as if she had, too. “They don’t put tubes in your orifices either. Behave, or I’ll make you have liver and onions for dinner.”

“It just so happens, and you well know it that I love liver and onions. Especially the onions part. With mashed potatoes and dark gravy. Now I’m hungry.” Standing up, reaching for her ever-present cane, she asked if her mom was coming with them. “I don’t mind the company, Gilda Jane, but you will be eating where I want. Not that you have terrible tastes in things, but I want comfort food, not something that costs the world, and I have to stop someplace on the way home to get something more substantial in my belly.”

“I was going to suggest the new place called Fling down the street from here.” Grandma was already shaking her head, no. “All right. We can go with you. But please, when you order, don’t ask for a coloring book for me. I never get enough colors to finish the pictures.”

This time, it was Taylor who rolled her eyes. Her mother, she didn’t believe, had ever grown up. She knew that it had to have been especially hard on her, losing her husband when they’d only just started out in life, but she didn’t know if her mom had always been this way. She didn’t know her father other than the stories that they’d tell her. He’d been gone before she’d been able to form any kind of lasting connection with him.

Taylor drove her and Grandma to the restaurant. Mom was taking her own car in the event that she didn’t care for anything on the menu. She didn’t care one way or the other, but she had a feeling that her grandma had called her this morning for a reason. And they’d not gotten to that as yet.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t eat here. They deep fry things, and that’s not good for your body. Harriette, you should consider not—” Grandma put up her hand to stop Mom from browbeating her about the food. “I’m just trying to tell you that it’s not all that healthy for you.”

“Gilda Jane, I’m nearly ninety-nine years old and I don’t give a good fig if they deep fry fingers and call them Frenchie fries. I want comfort food, not some kind of fad diet that I didn’t eat as a child. Now, I’m going to go have me a meal that I can be too full from but enjoy it enough to suffer from the pangs of it. You can stay or not. I’m having a good meal.”

Her mom left them there with a huff. She actually stomped her foot on the way out, too. Shaking her head, Jeri followed. She wondered if they’d be together much longer.

“I wonder if the two of them are suited.” Taylor told her grandma that she was thinking the very same thing. “I don’t know what gets into her sometimes. I wonder now what my grandson saw in her. But I can forgive her almost anything because I have you at my side. Let’s have the buffet, darling. I really do want something that will stick to my ribs.”

Grandma really didn’t eat that much, certainly not enough that it cost them to get the buffet. But she was happy, and that’s all she cared about. When she ate the last of her slice of chocolate silk pie, she looked at her. Bracing herself, she leaned back to listen to what she had to say.

“I’m old.” That, for some reason, made her laugh. “I don’t believe that’s the least bit funny young lady. Why would you laugh at me?”

“Grandma, you’ve been old since I was a child. But it never seemed to stop you before. What’s really going on? Did a doctor tell you something that will make me have to hunt him down and murder him?” Grandma pulled out her hankie and wiped at her cheeks. “I’m sorry, Grandma. Tell me what he said to you if that’s what is going on.”

For a few minutes, they didn’t say anything. Their teas were refilled, and Grandma asked for some hot tea as well. Taylor didn’t drink tea in any form, but she did have a refill of her water. Afterwhat seemed like to her a very long time, she turned to look at her.

“You remember that young man that you told me about when you were in high school? Did you know that he went on to get his law degree?” Taylor asked her if she meant Hudson Tucker. “Yes, that’s him. He married a lovely woman, and she’s an attorney too. I’ve contacted him for some changes in my will. Actually, it’s a big undertaking, and I’m not looking forward to it. I’ve not done a revision to it since my grandson passed. I need to update a few things.”

“All right. Is there a reason for this to be done now?” She told her what she’d told her mother, that she was ninety-nine. “Grandma, I don’t know if you believe this or not, but you have a lot to live for. Also, you don’t act like anyone near your age but as if you were fifty years younger.”

“You don’t need to butter me up, child. I’m leaving everything to you.” She told her grandma no. “What do you mean, no? I can do what I want, and you’ll do what I tell you to. I’m leaving it to you so that you can make sure that my wishes are finished. There are a great many places that I’d like to make sure they get what they deserve.”

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