Рита Браун - The Tail Of The Tip-Off

Harry thought a moment. "Why not?"

BoomBoom replied. "Yes, I think it would be-fun."

BoomBoom's affair with Fair Haristeen had occurred during his separation from Harry, or so she declared. It provoked Harry to file for the divorce. Fair, then in his early thirties, had been going through a crisis. Whether it was midlife, masculinity, or whatever, it was a crisis and it cost him his marriage, something he deeply regretted. BoomBoom, not one to take relationships with men seriously, tired of the tall, blond, handsome vet soon enough. Her conventional beauty and flirtatiousness always brought her another man, or men, which was perhaps why she didn't take relationships seriously. Oh, she always wanted to be on the arm of either a handsome man or a rich one, preferably both, but she never thought of men as much more than a means to an end; that end being comfort, luxury, and hopefully pleasure.

As she matured into her late thirties, she was starting to rethink this position.

Harry, on the other hand, had given her heart and soul to Fair. When the relationship unraveled she was devastated. It took her years to recover, although on the surface she seemed okay. Naturally, Fair's apology and desire to win her back helped this process but she was in no hurry to return to him. She was wondering if maybe BoomBoom didn't have the right attitude about men: use them before they use you. Yet it wasn't really in Harry's nature to be that way about people, and at the bottom of it she didn't differentiate between men and women. People were people and morals didn't come in neatly wrapped gender packages. Living an upright life was difficult for anybody. Once she realized that she did forgive Fair, she wasn't sure she could ever be in love with him again.

She rather hoped she would fall in love again, if not with Fair then with somebody, but somehow it didn't seem so important as it once was. Losing Fair turned out to be one of the best things that had ever happened to her. She was forced to fall back on her own internal resources, to question conventional wisdom.

As each party repaired to their vehicle, Miranda and Tracy Raz emerged from the gym. Tracy, freshly showered after the game, had his arm tightly wrapped around his treasure, Miranda.

Harry waved to them. "See you tomorrow."

Seeing Miranda happy made her happy. She now knew that's what love really was, joy in another person's existence.

She certainly took joy in Mrs. Murphy, Pewter, and Tucker, who greeted her as she opened the door to the 1978 Ford truck.

"Some game, huh, Mom?" Tucker wagged her nonexistent tail.

"We heard the word 'asshole' quite a lot," Pewter giggled; she'd had the giggles all day.

"'Cause Fred Forrest is one." Mrs. Murphy pronounced judgment. "Karma."

"You ate a communion wafer and you believe in karma?" Tucker feigned shock as Harry closed the door, started the engine and the heater.

"You all are so talkative. Must have missed me." Harry smiled.

"We're having a religious discussion," Pewter answered. "Can you believe in ideas from different religions?"

"No, that's what Tucker's talking about. Probably suffering a spasm of guilt after eating so many communion wafers. Dogs are such pigs." Mrs. Murphy paused. "I said 'karma' because Fred Forrest will sow what he has reaped."

"She must be a very Holy Dog." Pewter leaned against the corgi.

3

The snow fell steadily but roads were passable the next day thanks to the new yellow snowplows the state had purchased. The major arteries had multiple plows continually pushing the snow off into ever-growing banks. Even the smaller roads like Routes 250 and 240, the main roads into Crozet, had at least one major machine keeping them clear.

Then, too, just about everyone out in the country owned a four-wheel-drive vehicle. It was folly not to have one. Those huge gas-guzzling boats so out of place in the city were a godsend in the country.

Rob Collier, delivering the mail sacks from the main post office on Route 29 in Charlottesville, stamped his feet. "Not bad."

Harry glanced up at the big clock, which read seven-thirty.

"Hello!" Miranda breezed in through the back door. "Rob, you're out bright and early."

"I always am. Hey, I hear you all may be getting a new building."

Miranda waved him off. "I've heard that since 1952."

"Might do it this time. You girls are getting cramped in here." He tipped his baseball hat and left.

"That would be nice, a bigger place to play in," Mrs. Murphy thought.

"Leave well enough alone. Why spend the money?" Tucker replied.

"Because the way human government works is they have to spend the money, otherwise they'll squander it somewhere else. Talk about stupid. Every department has its budget and the money has to be spent. Humans are crazy," said Pewter.

As if picking up on Pewter's sentiment about humans being crazy, Harry pulled the mailbags back behind the mailboxes. "Did Josef tell Tracy about what happened in the parking lot?"

"Indeed he did. What's the matter with Fred? There's no call for acting like that."

"You should have seen H.H. and Matthew when he threatened to take it out on them. And every other word out of his mouth was 'asshole.' I couldn't believe it." Harry's voice rose.

"Wasn't it a good game, though?"

"Better if we'd won." Harry flipped up the divider in the counter between the public area and the work area. "Look at it come down. I think it's going to be a bigger storm than the weatherman says."

"Have you ever noticed once we get on the other side of New Year's the weather does change? Winter."

"Yeah. Well, the chores have to get done no matter what the weather. God bless the person who invented thermal underwear."

"It's my feet and hands that get cold. I just hate that." Miranda rubbed her hands together.

The main topics of conversation for the morning were the weather and the basketball game.

Big Mim opened the door at eleven. "I'm late. Did I miss anything?"

She usually appeared when the doors opened in the morning.

"No. Weather and b-ball. That's the buzz." Harry leaned over the counter.

Behind her the cats slept on the chair at the small kitchen table. Tucker was curled up on her big beanbag.

"It's just us girls." Mim sounded conspiratorial. "Tell me, what do you think about my daughter dating Blair?"

"Uh," Harry stalled.

"It's wonderful." Miranda came up next to Harry. "Mim, dear, how about a cup of coffee or a hot chocolate?"

"No, thanks. I want to run a few errands while I can get around. If this keeps up, the snow is going to outrun the snowplows."

"It certainly looks like it."

"You really think it's a good pairing?"

"It's not what we think. It's what they think," Miranda replied.

"But he's a model. What kind of prospects does a man like that have now that he's getting older? I know he makes a good living, but, well-"

"He's bright enough. He'll find something to do. He's made some shrewd investments. Remember, he's got Tetotan Partnership."

"Oh, that. All those wells in western Albemarle County. Well, that may pan out for him and that may not. I've heard about the water table until I'm blue in the face and I've heard about the new reservoir being built for thirty years and it's not built yet. Kind of like the rumors about a new post office."

"Oh, you heard that, too?" Harry said.

"These rumors recur like malaria. The one thing I will say for Blair is when he first went into Tetotan he had the brains to have H. Vane Tempest for a partner and H. Vane doesn't make too many mistakes. Of course, Blair made the mistake."

Mim alluded to an affair that Blair had with his former partner's wife about three years ago.

"Nobody's perfect," Harry lightheartedly replied just as Herb burst through the door.