Читать книгу Moonrise - Cassandra King - Страница 13

A PATIENT, AND PATIENCE

I can’t think of a blame reason for me to be so nervous, but I know what Momma’d say if she was still here. If you don’t feel right about doing something, then you’d best stop and ask yourself how come. Could the Lord be trying to tell you to think twice?

Well, I’ve thought not just twice but lots of times, and it keeps coming out the same way, that I’m getting myself into something I’m bound to regret. Just give it a try, Noel tells me, and if it don’t work, all you have to do is say so. But you’re gonna do fine, he always adds. He reminds me that they could hire a real nurse, but Linc won’t stand for it. Only because it’s me did he go along with the idea of hiring help. Noel’s too polite to tell me so, but I doubt Linc gave in without a fight. He probably agreed just so they’d shut up and leave him alone. Summer folks love nothing more than minding each other’s business.

I knock again, louder this time. I can hear them inside, and know dang well they heard me the first time. “Coming!” Myna sings out, and I sigh. If I can survive my first day, the rest oughta be a piece of cake. She wasn’t supposed to be in town, but she outsmarted Noel by claiming she needed to show me the ropes. I told Noel flat out if she ended up staying longer than today then count me out, but he swore she couldn’t even if she wanted to. She’s teaching graduate classes at Bama this summer.

The door opens a crack, and Myna peeks out like I might be an ax murderer. I swear, for somebody who’s supposed to be so smart, that woman don’t have the sense God promised a goat. First she called out “Coming!” in a friendly way, now she acts all suspicious. I just stand there and don’t even say good morning till she opens the door for me.

She looks a sight. That’s either a white cotton robe she has on, or a sheet. Whichever, it’s big enough to wrap around her two or three times, and her bushy hair’s flying every which way. Holding a mug in her hand, she squints at me behind her little-bitty glasses. Eleven o’clock in the morning, and her just now getting up, the lazy heifer.

I don’t see Linc, but heard his voice when I was on the porch knocking. Classical music is playing in his room behind the kitchen, so I figure Myna must’ve run him off so she can have a go at me first. Since Linc can no longer climb the stairs to the loft, the back porch was closed in to make a downstairs bedroom. Myna sent the orders, and Noel told her not to fret, he knew a good contractor who’d handle everything. First time I came to clean, I noticed that Linc had the new room to himself, and Myna’s stuff was upstairs. Then I heard her squawking like a wet hen because the expanded room wasn’t big enough for the two of them. She got on the phone and told Noel to get his ass over there, right