Read Online The Girls of Tonsil Lake by Liz Flaherty - Free Book Online Page B

nail polish.
    Andie scooted back into her position, passed a disgusted look all around, and laid her sun-browned hand on top of mine.
    “It’s done,” said Jean, “until we die.”
    “Until we die,” I repeated.
    Vin nodded, just one jerky motion of her head. “Until we die.”
    “Fine,” said Andie. “Until we forny die.”
    “It was an accident,” I now repeated to Andie, for what seemed like the hundredth time. “And the pact worked. I called and you came.” This time I did grin at her. “Of course, you got mad, which you weren’t supposed to.”
    She grinned back. “Hey, you ruined the end of my date.”
    I put each complete outfit into a zippered plastic bag, smushed the air out, and laid the bags into my suitcase. “Ruined it or delayed it?”
    Her smile widened. “Oh, well.” And then she wouldn’t say anything more.
    I laid the folder with the retirement plan on top of the bags of clothes. Andie looked at it.
    “What are you going to do, Suze?” she asked.
    “I don’t know.”
    Then I was the one who wouldn’t say anything more, because I couldn’t talk with panic pushing up into my throat. I just shook my head and leaned over the bed to zip the suitcase closed.
    I went to get my cosmetics case out of my closet and spied one of the bags my company gives away during promotions. I brought the bag with me back to the bed. After clearing my throat to get my voice working again, I said, “These are for you guys. I sent Vin’s to her then forgot to give you and Jean yours.”
    I pulled the flat black cases out and looked at the pressure-sensitive labels on the edges that told the color combinations of the makeup inside. “Here’s yours. They’re travel cases, so you don’t have to take everything with you.” I gestured at my own bag; it was the size of a weekender.
    Andie opened her case and gave its contents a cursory look. “Thanks,” she said, closing it and looking from it to my big blue one. “I think you should leave that here and just take one of these.”
    “Oh, but...” I stopped. If I didn’t take my full battery of cosmetics, I probably wouldn’t be able to cover the fine lines around my eyes and mouth. The light tan spots on my hands might begin to darken. I wouldn’t have samples with me to offer other women who showed an interest in makeup.
    I would have nothing to hide behind and nowhere to run.
    I put my cosmetics case back in the closet.
    Vin
    “Would you be wanting me to go with you, Mrs. Stillson?”
    I looked up from my packing. Archie stood in the doorway of my bedroom, holding a long-handled duster like a staff.
    “The Maine house hasn’t been opened since last summer,” she said. “The guest rooms and bathrooms aren’t ready, there’s no food, the linens need to be re-washed because it’s so damp up there.”
    Martha Mary Archibald had been Mark’s housekeeper when I married him. Although she’d never been less than gracious to me, I knew she had not approved of his marriage to a woman twenty-five years younger than himself. We had been married several years before I realized that she was as in love with my husband as I was.
    I had understood that, and respected it, and life had gone on. Her grief at his death had been sharp and sustained. We had stayed out of each other’s way. When the dust settled and Mark’s children had returned to their accustomed pretense that I did not exist, Archie had stood in my bedroom doorway just as she did today.
    “Would you be wanting me to leave?” she had asked.
    “No,” I replied.
    And that was that.
    “You don’t need to come, Archie,” I said, slipping the makeup case Suzanne had sent into the side of my bag. “What will you do while I’m gone?” I’d never inquired into her personal life before; minding our own business had been part of our unspoken agreement to live in the same house and love the same man.
    She hesitated. “If it would be all right with you, I would like to close the house and go