Kaye Dacus - Menu for Romance

“‘Round her neck she wore a yellow ribbon....’” Mrs. O’Hara sang.

Tears of relief sprang to Meredith eyes. She gingerly rested her hands on the distraught woman’s shoulders and sang the next line of the song.

“‘When I asked her why ... when I asked her...’” Mrs. O’Hara looked up at Meredith through the fingers she held over her face.

Meredith continued singing. When she got to the chorus, Mrs. O’Hara repeated “cavalry” along with her each time she sang it. Meredith moved from kneeling to sit beside Major’s mother and put her arm around the woman’s shoulders.

After what must have been at least ten minutes of singing the movie’s short theme song over and over and over, Meredith felt Mrs. O’Hara’s taught muscles suddenly relax. She leaned into Meredith’s side.

Without the ranting and screaming to entertain them, most of the people who’d been standing around this whole time dispersed.

“’M tired. Want to go back to my room now.”

Meredith helped her to her feet. “I’ll go with you to your room.”

Major’s mother looked at Meredith as if she hadn’t seen her before. “Mary Kate?”

“No. I’m Meredith.”

“Meredith—Mary Kate.” She grasped Meredith’s arm. “Come back to my apartment, Mary Kate.”

Meredith corrected her twice more but then gave up and answered to Mary Kate, letting Mrs. O’Hara lead her down a couple of halls until they stopped at room number 267.

Mrs. O’Hara pointed to the number. “Twenty-six seven. John Wayne was born on May 26, 1907.”

“Was he?” Meredith figured the easiest thing to do right now was just humor her until she was certain the woman would stay calm.

“Such a sad day when he died. Danny was just a little boy.”

“Danny? Is that Major’s brother?” Perhaps pumping Mrs. O’Hara for information on Major’s family wasn’t the most honorable thing to do, but she never could get it out of him.

“No. Danny is Major. Major Daniel Kirby Xavier ... Major Xavier Kirby...” Mrs. O’Hara frowned and looked like she was building up again.

“Major Daniel Xavier Kirby O’Hara.”

“You know Danny?”

Meredith’s forearms were going to be bruised where Mrs. O’Hara kept grabbing her. “I work with Major. I’ve known him a long time.”

“Come on, Mary Kate, I want to show you my apartment.” Mrs. O’Hara shoved the door open.

As soon as Meredith entered the room, she finally understood where the seemingly random references to John Wayne stemmed from. Framed movie posters lined the walls of the small studio apartment— Stagecoach and Fort Apache and Sands of Iwo Jima and Flying Leathernecks.

But Mrs. O’Hara crossed into the bedroom and pointed to one hanging over her vanity table.

“Mary Kate.” She pointed at the poster.

“Of course.” Meredith took in the illustrated image of John Wayne with Maureen O’Hara in his arms. “ The Quiet Man. Maureen O’Hara played Mary Kate Danaher.”

“You look like her.” She grabbed Meredith’s sore arm again and took her around to look at each of the posters.

Finally, Major’s mother collapsed into the plush recliner in the small sitting area, which included a TV, DVD player, and a rack full of what looked like just about every movie John Wayne had ever been in.

“Take me to see Danny.”

The sadness in his mother’s voice broke Meredith’s heart. “I’ll have to ask Mr. Thibodeaux if I can take you. But Major’s going to need to sleep for a long time after he comes out of surgery.”

“I want to see him.” Large tears dripped from Mrs. O’Hara’s faded blue eyes.

“I understand. Let me go ask.” She glanced around the apartment. Would Mrs. O’Hara stay here quietly if Meredith left to track down the director? “Do you want me to put a movie on for you?”

Mrs. O’Hara nodded.

“How about She Wore a Yellow Ribbon? ” Meredith reached for the case.

“No. Donovan’s Reef. ”

“Good choice.” Hopefully the comedy would get her into a better frame of mind. Meredith put the disc in, and by the time she turned around, Mrs. O’Hara had a remote control in each hand. “You got this?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll be back in a few minutes, okay?”

“’Kay.”

“You’ll be here waiting for me when I come back?”

“Go.”

Startled, Meredith did as bade and left the apartment. She didn’t have far to look for the facility’s director. He came down the hall toward her.

“Sorry I abandoned you. I had to make sure everyone else was okay.” He rubbed his left temple. “You did a great job with her. I can’t believe you recognized that she was quoting lines from a movie. I’ve never even heard of that film.”

“It’s one of John Wayne’s westerns—and one of my favorite movies.” Meredith turned to walk back to Mrs. O’Hara’s apartment with him. “She asked me to take her over to the hospital to see her son.”

He shook his head. “After that episode, it’ll be better if she stays here. One of our psychiatrists is on the way here. He’ll give her something to help her sleep through the night so she doesn’t relapse.”

Meredith cringed. “I thought you said you didn’t want to give her something to knock her out.”

“That would have been different. We would have been giving her a powerful antipsychotic drug. Instead, it’ll be a mild sleeping pill along with her other medications. It’ll keep her from suffering adverse affects from the episode.” He knocked then opened Mrs. O’Hara’s door. “Hi, Beverly. May I come in?”

“Where’s Mary Kate?” Beverly O’Hara asked without turning away from John Wayne on the small TV screen.

Meredith resigned herself to answering to the character’s name. “I’m here, too.”

“Okay, you can come in then.”

She followed the doctor in and sat on the edge of the loveseat.

“Beverly, I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to go to the hospital to see your son. You wore yourself out tonight. And he’s going to need his rest, too. So it’ll probably be better for you to stay here and for your son to come see you when he gets out of the hospital.”

Beverly looked at Meredith, worry crinkling the papery skin of her forehead and around her eyes.

“Mrs. O’Hara, I think it’s a good idea. I promise I will bring Major out here to see you as soon as he’s released. But just so you know, that may be a couple of days.”

Major’s mother chewed her thin lips. “But what if I need him before that?”

“How about this?” The director spoke before Meredith could respond. “I’ll ask Ms. Guidry to leave her phone number for you—but only if you promise that you won’t call her unless it’s an emergency. Can you promise to do that, Beverly?”

Her gaze flickered back to the TV—and after a little while, it seemed as if she’d forgotten anyone else was in the room. Meredith looked askance at the director, who shrugged.

“I agree. I’ll only call if it’s an emergency.” Beverly reached into the end table beside her chair and pulled out a marker and a pad of sticky notes. “Major uses these to write down things I need to remember.”

Meredith wrote her cell phone number in large, clear numerals and handed the pad back to Beverly. “Mrs. O’Hara, I will call you with an update on Major in the morning.”

“Promise?”

“I promise.”

All three turned at a knock on the door. A nurse came in with a young man in a white doctor’s coat.

“Hi, Mrs. O’Hara. I came to talk to you about what happened earlier.” The kid-doctor offered Meredith a nod and smile of acknowledgment before scooting past her to sit on the loveseat.