Read Online Aurora 03 - Three Bedrooms, One Corpse by Charlaine Harris - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Charlaine Harris
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and then gave a little laugh. “I know that sounds stupid ...”
Actually, she sounded quite perceptive, something I’d never suspected.
“Maybe he’s just having sort of an early mid-life crisis?” I suggested gently.
“Of course, you’re probably right,” Susu said, obviously embarrassed by her own frankness.
“Come see how I decorated Bethany’s room! She’ll be a teenager before I know it. Roe, I expect her to tell me any day that she’s started her periods!”
“Oh, no!”
And we oohed and aahed our way up the stairs to Bethany’s pretty-as-a-picture room, still decorated with childish things like favorite dolls—but the dolls were sharing space with posters of sullen young men in leather. Then we viewed Little Jim’s room, with its duck-laden wallpaper and masculine plaids. It seems to be the view of those who design “male” decorations that the male DNA includes a gene that requires duck-killing.
Then we moved on to Sally and Jim’s room, resplendent with chintz and framed needlework, an antique cedar chest, and ruffled pillows on the beds. A picture from their wedding hung by Sally’s dressing table, one of the whole carefully arranged wedding party.
“There you are, Roe, second from the end! Wasn’t that a wonderful day?” Susu’s pink fingernail landed on my very young face. That face, with its stiff smile, brought that day back to me all too vividly. I had known exactly how unbecoming the dreadful lavender ruffled bridesmaid’s dress had been, and my unruly hair was topped with a picture hat trailing a matching lavender ribbon. My best friend, Amina, also a bridesmaid, had fared much better in that get-up because of her height and longer neck, and her smile was unreserved. — Susu herself, radiant in fully deserved white, was gorgeous, and I told her so now. “That was the wedding of the year,” I said, smiling a little. “You were the first of us to be married. We were so envious.”
The memory of that envy, the thrill of being the first, momentarily warmed Susu’s face.
“Jimmy was so handsome,” she said quietly.
Yes, he had been.
“Honey, I’m here for lunch,” bellowed a voice from downstairs. Susu’s plump face aged again. “You won’t believe who’s here, Jimmy!” she called gaily.
And down the stairs we tripped, stuck in a time warp between that picture-book wedding and the reality of two children and a house.
Jimmy Hunter quickly brought me back to the present. It had been a long time since I’d seen him close up, and he’d aged and coarsened. The basic goodwill that had always lain behind his character seemed to be gone now, replaced by something like confusion, laced with a dose of wondering resentment. How could Jimmy Hunter’s life not be idyllic? he seemed to be wondering. What could possibly be missing? I’d always thought of him as an uncomplicated jock. I saw I would have to revise this assessment of Jimmy just as I’d had to correct my reading of his wife.
“You look great, Roe,” Jimmy said heartily.
“Thanks, Jimmy. How’s the hardware business?”
“Well, it keeps us in hamburger, with steak on the weekends once in a while,” he said casually. “How’s the realty market in Lawrenceton?”
Of course everyone in town had heard by now I’d left the library, and heard and speculated about my legacy from Jane Engle.
“Kind of upset, right now.”
“You mean about Tonia Lee? That gal just didn’t know when to quit, did she?”
“Oh, Jimmy,” Susu protested.
“Now, sugar, you know as well as I do that Tonia Lee would cheat on her husband any time it came in her head to do it. She just did it once too often, with the wrong man at the wrong time.”
As right as he might be, he said this in a very unpleasant way, a way that made me want to defend Tonia Lee Greenhouse. Jimmy was the kind of man who would say a woman deserved to get raped if she wore a low-cut blouse and tight skirt.
“She was unwise,” I said levelly,
Actually, she sounded quite perceptive, something I’d never suspected.
“Maybe he’s just having sort of an early mid-life crisis?” I suggested gently.
“Of course, you’re probably right,” Susu said, obviously embarrassed by her own frankness.
“Come see how I decorated Bethany’s room! She’ll be a teenager before I know it. Roe, I expect her to tell me any day that she’s started her periods!”
“Oh, no!”
And we oohed and aahed our way up the stairs to Bethany’s pretty-as-a-picture room, still decorated with childish things like favorite dolls—but the dolls were sharing space with posters of sullen young men in leather. Then we viewed Little Jim’s room, with its duck-laden wallpaper and masculine plaids. It seems to be the view of those who design “male” decorations that the male DNA includes a gene that requires duck-killing.
Then we moved on to Sally and Jim’s room, resplendent with chintz and framed needlework, an antique cedar chest, and ruffled pillows on the beds. A picture from their wedding hung by Sally’s dressing table, one of the whole carefully arranged wedding party.
“There you are, Roe, second from the end! Wasn’t that a wonderful day?” Susu’s pink fingernail landed on my very young face. That face, with its stiff smile, brought that day back to me all too vividly. I had known exactly how unbecoming the dreadful lavender ruffled bridesmaid’s dress had been, and my unruly hair was topped with a picture hat trailing a matching lavender ribbon. My best friend, Amina, also a bridesmaid, had fared much better in that get-up because of her height and longer neck, and her smile was unreserved. — Susu herself, radiant in fully deserved white, was gorgeous, and I told her so now. “That was the wedding of the year,” I said, smiling a little. “You were the first of us to be married. We were so envious.”
The memory of that envy, the thrill of being the first, momentarily warmed Susu’s face.
“Jimmy was so handsome,” she said quietly.
Yes, he had been.
“Honey, I’m here for lunch,” bellowed a voice from downstairs. Susu’s plump face aged again. “You won’t believe who’s here, Jimmy!” she called gaily.
And down the stairs we tripped, stuck in a time warp between that picture-book wedding and the reality of two children and a house.
Jimmy Hunter quickly brought me back to the present. It had been a long time since I’d seen him close up, and he’d aged and coarsened. The basic goodwill that had always lain behind his character seemed to be gone now, replaced by something like confusion, laced with a dose of wondering resentment. How could Jimmy Hunter’s life not be idyllic? he seemed to be wondering. What could possibly be missing? I’d always thought of him as an uncomplicated jock. I saw I would have to revise this assessment of Jimmy just as I’d had to correct my reading of his wife.
“You look great, Roe,” Jimmy said heartily.
“Thanks, Jimmy. How’s the hardware business?”
“Well, it keeps us in hamburger, with steak on the weekends once in a while,” he said casually. “How’s the realty market in Lawrenceton?”
Of course everyone in town had heard by now I’d left the library, and heard and speculated about my legacy from Jane Engle.
“Kind of upset, right now.”
“You mean about Tonia Lee? That gal just didn’t know when to quit, did she?”
“Oh, Jimmy,” Susu protested.
“Now, sugar, you know as well as I do that Tonia Lee would cheat on her husband any time it came in her head to do it. She just did it once too often, with the wrong man at the wrong time.”
As right as he might be, he said this in a very unpleasant way, a way that made me want to defend Tonia Lee Greenhouse. Jimmy was the kind of man who would say a woman deserved to get raped if she wore a low-cut blouse and tight skirt.
“She was unwise,” I said levelly,
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