Carole Halston - Separate Bedrooms...?

“Hi, Mamma. How are you?”

Rose ignored her conversational opener. “Are you talking on that cordless phone?”

“Why, yes.”

“I don’t want the whole world listening in to what I have to say, even if it is a pack of lies.”

Recently there had been a feature on the local news about the lack of privacy in using cell phones and cordless phones. The news reporter had played recordings of intercepted conversations, some of them embarrassingly personal.

“Why don’t I come over in about fifteen minutes?” Cara said. She might as well go ahead and finish the job of calling a halt to the wedding preparations. Especially since nosy Agnes had laid the groundwork.

“We’ll be here. Your daddy is at a meeting,” Rose added.

So “we” meant Rose and Sophia, Cara deduced, the dread settling over her like a heavy blanket and making her clumsy as she hurriedly put the uneaten dinner in plastic containers to stow in the refrigerator. My stomach feels hollow, but I’m not even hungry. That’s a first, she thought, wiping up spillage on the counter.

The drive to her parents’ house took her only ten minutes. She parked in the driveway and entered through the rear porch, as was her habit. It wasn’t necessary to use her key since the doors weren’t locked and wouldn’t be locked until bedtime.

“We’re in here. In the kitchen,” Rose called out.

Cara inhaled the mouthwatering aroma of food. The worst case of nerves couldn’t deaden her tastebuds to her mother’s cooking. “I smell something delicious.”

Sophia spoke up, “Stuffed manicotti. Your mamma is heating some up for you in the microwave oven in case you didn’t eat supper yet.”

None of Rose’s children could err badly enough to kill her nurturing instincts. That knowledge gave Cara some slight reassurance.

“I haven’t eaten,” she said from the doorway. Rose stood by the counter, a pot holder in either hand. Sophia sat at the table, wearing a robe, looking thin and gaunt and ever so dear.

“Sit down here, next to me, cara mia.” Sophia patted the seat of the chair adjacent to hers.

Cara went over and hugged her grandmother and kissed her on the cheek before she did as instructed. Rose set down a plate in front of her. “You want iced tea?” she asked.

“Please.”

“Eat,” Sophia scolded. “It’s good.”

Cara picked up her fork. “Thanks, Mamma,” she said when Rose served the glass of iced tea.

“You’re welcome.” Rose sat down across from them, her hands firmly clasped in front of her. Cara knew better than to expect a reprieve while she was eating, and, sure enough, her mother came right to the point. “So who’s spreading these lies about you fooling around with your boss behind Roy’s back?”

“How did you hear?”

“Angela from next door came over, all embarrassed, and told me it was the big topic of conversation at the Ladies’ Altar Circle meeting this afternoon. She thought I ought to know. No sooner had she gone than your Aunt Mary called to say the story was all over Hammond. I gave her a piece of my mind when she asked me if there was any truth to it. Then she had the gall to say she hoped the wedding was still on. I said, ‘Of course, it is,’ and made an excuse and hung up.”

Mary Landry was Cara’s father’s sister, and no love was lost between her and Rose, as Cara well knew.

Sophia smoothed the placemat in front of her with a bony, fragile hand. “Poor Mary’s always been jealous because you had pretty daughters and her girls are so plain, Rose. It wouldn’t surprise me if she started the gossip herself out of pure spite.”

Cara laid down her fork. “Aunt Mary didn’t start the gossip. I’m guessing Agnes Tanner is behind it. She was at the same restaurant last night where Neil and I went to have dinner.”

Rose’s brown eyes grew as round as marbles. “Cara Marie,” she said in a shocked tone. “You don’t go out on dates with other men when you’re engaged to be married.”

“Neil isn’t ‘other men.’ I’ve known him forever.”

“Where was Roy? Where is he tonight?”

“Last night he was at his regular poker game. And tonight he came to my apartment. He’d heard the gossip, too, and believed it. We had a big fight and broke up.”

“She broke up with her fiancé, Mamma. Did you hear that? There’s going to be no wedding.”

“I heard,” Sophia replied. To Cara’s anxious eye, her grandmother seemed to shrink and grow more frail. Sophia had regained some of her old animation during the past few weeks since Cara had announced her engagement. Now that animation had died.

Rose sat with her palm clapped across her forehead and her eyes closed, reciting a quick prayer.

“I’m so sorry,” Cara said. “I realized a few days ago that I couldn’t marry Roy. I don’t love him, and he insisted I give up my job….”

Sophia patted her arm. “Finish your supper. Then come and tell your nonna good-night. I’m going to lie down and rest.”

“But, Mamma, your favorite TV show is coming on,” Rose said. “You want me to tape it for you?”

“Yes. I’ll watch it tomorrow.”

Cara wanted to burst out crying, but what good would that do? It wouldn’t change the fact that she was the cause of the disappointment weighing down the atmosphere in the room. She had to do something, say something to dispel the gloom and revive the expectation she’d cruelly fostered in the first place. Her mother was healthy and could cope, but Nonna wasn’t in good health.

Neil had given her permission to claim he was her new love interest, Cara reminded herself.

“Before you go to bed, Nonna, I have a secret to tell you and Mamma. Now don’t you breathe a word to anyone. You swear?”

Rose and Sophia both leaned toward her.

“Those rumors about Neil and me? Well, there’s some truth in them.”

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