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  Going through these drawers and cabinets was something she had wanted to do for a long time, but looking at the job made her tired. Annie tackled it with a vengeance, climbing down on the floor and pulling Tupperware bowls out of the dark recesses of the cabinets. With a Clorox mixture, she wiped out the dust and dirt from crevices Beulah hadn’t seen in years.

  A scream pierced the air making Beulah jump as if she had been shot. The metal gadgets dumped onto the floor.

  “Heaven help us! What in the world?” She grabbed her cane and managed to stand and slowly make her way to the back door.

  “Snake! Snake!” Annie was outside hopping around like she was stepping on hot coals.

  “What in heaven’s name?”

  “Don’t come out! There’s a snake right under the door!”

  Beulah pushed open the door to see what was causing her granddaughter so much distress. There in the threshold was Booger, her old black snake.

  “Calm down. You’ll scare him,” Beulah said.

  “I’ll scare him?”

  “Booger, I thought something happened to you.” Beulah glanced up at Annie. “Hush now, he belongs here.”

  Annie looked at her like she had sprouted another head. “You want a snake next to your back door?” she asked.

  “Booger keeps the mice down. Black snakes also eat poisonous snakes, though we usually don’t have that kind of trouble around here. This is the first time I’ve seen him this spring.”

  Annie was still hopping a bit, like she had to go to the bathroom.

  “Now, if I could only bend down, I’d pick him up and get him out of your way. Do you want to get him for me?” Beulah asked, amusing herself.

  “No! I’ll go around to the front door.”

  She watched Annie high-step it around the side of the house and chuckled to herself. Beulah could almost hear Fred laugh with her. If he was still living, it was something they would replay to themselves over and over, milking the humor until they had their fill.

  Annie picked up the mess Beulah had made when she jumped up at Annie’s screaming, then she hightailed it upstairs to go through more closets. Away from the snake, Beulah thought, laughing again to herself. Her granddaughter had country in her, but it was going to take peeling off layers to get it out.

  Later, the phone rang and Beulah sighed, anticipating the effort to get up out of the chair and answer the wall phone. It stopped ringing and soon she heard Annie coming down the steps, the portable in her hand.

  “That was Woody. He’s on his way over with the tomato cages you ordered. He said he’d put them on for us,” Annie said over an armful of clothes from one of the upstairs closets.

  “Good! My old cages were falling apart. I finally sent them off with Joe to the scrap metal place last fall.

  “Is Woody always this … available?” Annie asked.

  “This is not quite normal, but I’m grateful for it, whatever the reason.”

  Annie raised her eyebrows and shrugged.

  Minutes later, Woody was at the back door.

  “I see Booger’s back,” Woody said.

  “Is he still under the door?” asked Annie.

  “Naw, he’s moved up to sun himself on the old millstone.”

  “Would you like a sandwich, Woody?” Beulah asked. The peanut butter and grape jelly were still on the counter from their lunch. When Woody nodded, Annie sat down at the table with the bread and fixings. Beulah did not know what she would have done without Annie this last week. She had become her hands and legs, doing everything Beulah’s knee kept her from doing.

  “Woody, how’s your mother doing?”

  “She’s no different. I reckon she’ll be laid up on that nursing home until she draws her last breath. I go see her twice a week, but she don’t know me.”

  “Well, it’s good of you to visit her. She may know more than we think,” Beulah said.

  “That’s what I tell myself, but it’s awful hard seeing her like that for all these years. Now, I’ll just tell ya, thar’s things worse than death. Fred did it the right way. He just took out of here quicklike. Made it harder on y’all, but better for him. But a horse kick to the head, now that’s not something to be trifled with.”

  Woody folded his long legs into a chair at the table and wiped his brow with a napkin. To Annie he said, “So you fly around in those airplanes for a job.”

  “That’s right,” Annie said, and Beulah watched her spread the generous portion of peanut butter over the bread.

  “I wouldn’t get on one of those airplanes if my life depended on it.” He blew on the palms of his hands as if they were clammy.

  “Really? Isn’t there somewhere you’d like to go?” Annie asked, setting the sandwich down in front of him.

  “Noooo, ma’am! Anywhere I want to go, I can drive.” He gulped his sweet tea.

  “Don’t you want to go to another country, like France or Italy?”

  “I don’t want to go nowhere the people don’t speak English. I like to understand when somebody’s talking to me. I don’t have no use for vacations. I hear ’em talk all the time about saving up for a trip to Hawaii or a cruise to the Bahamas. They get worked up in a frenzy trying to leave, then they come back all wore out and tellin’ about what all went wrong. I did it once and that was enough. I take my vacation every time I get up on my horse.”

  Beulah saw Woody was getting worked up and decided to change the subject. “Tell Annie about your farm, Woody.”

  His mouth was full of bread and peanut butter, but he tried talking anyway. “Little bit of everything. I still raise tobacco and a little corn. I’ve got goats, chickens, cows and I trade horses here and there. Got several kids too.”

  Beulah watched as peanut butter oozed around his loose bridge, likely the only thing holding it in place. Poor Woody needed a wife to advise him on personal care issues, but as amused as she was with his attention to Annie, she knew that would never work.

  “How old are your kids?” Annie asked.

  “Well, let me think. I had twins two weeks ago and a set of triplets the week before. Last month it was another set of twins and quadruplets.”

  Annie’s eyes grew wide with amazement.

  “He’s talking about his goats,” Beulah said.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Annie rubbed her arms, not sure if they were sore from riding the horse, planting more rows of beans and corn, or scrubbing out cupboards, drawers and closets. Either way, the pain reminded her she was making good use of her time here. After sprinkling a generous amount of Dead Sea salts into the water, she eased down into the warm bath and relaxed in the old clawfoot tub.

  While her grandmother was in the notion to do it, Annie had gone full force into cleaning and sorting through the stuff in the house. The days had flown by, and it felt good to clean out areas that had not been touched for years.

  “This will make things so much easier if you ever decide to move,” Annie had said once when they were both working in the kitchen. Her grandmother had not responded. It had to be considered, Annie decided, with the reality of surgery looming.

  More than once she came across a small stash of bills. In the guest room, she found five one-hundred-dollar bills stuck between the Old and New Testament of a Bible in a nightstand. In the kitchen, she found two hundred dollars stashed in an envelope marked “tomato seeds” stuffed inside a Mason jar.

  “There’s money in a vase in the corner cupboard of the dining room and tucked between tablecloths in the linen press,” she had said when Annie started working in there. In each case, her grandmother knew about the money and even told Annie where the other hiding places were. And every item Annie pulled out for her to say what to do with it, she knew exactly what it was and where it came from. There was no sign of senility yet, thank goodness.

  There had been no new updates from Janice, but a call on Sunday from Prema had made her homesick again for Manhattan.

  “Annie, we miss you. The three of us are preparing
to go out to an art festival and we decided we must call. We know how much you love this kind of thing,” Prema had said, and then passed the phone around to Evie and Kate.

  Annie could imagine them getting up and having brunch together and then dressing for the outing. Annie did love those first outdoor events after a long winter. There was excitement in the air, anticipation of a summer, and a feeling of goodwill in the village.

  Despite a few bouts of homesickness, she had fallen into a comfortable routine with her grandmother. Annie was queen of the upstairs now that her grandmother was sleeping on the first floor. It seemed an absurd amount of space to loll about in compared to her small apartment in the city.

  She reached for the shampoo and massaged some into her hair. Frequent phone calls from Jake had gone long past her grandmother’s report, going on to books they had read, recent movies, and current events. Annie was a sounding board for him as he analyzed the options and she liked it not just a little. He told her of Camille’s father who wanted to develop a business with him, of the bank’s foundation work and what his job might look like, but most of all he talked of farming.

  He even talked about grass. Orchard grass, timothy, clover, fescue, alfalfa, and Johnson grass and the right mix that made the best nutrition for cows and how chickens were good to bring in after cows and how it all worked to make the land produce the way it was designed.

  She told him about her travels and experiences, about life in New York and about the men she had dated right up to her relationship with Stuart. Annie had missed him in the two weeks since he went back to Cincinnati. Even that was an odd revelation for her, that she could miss someone after being apart for so many years. But she looked forward to the next weekend when he planned to come down for a meeting with like-minded farmers.

  After rinsing her hair, Annie grabbed a towel and stepped out of the tub. She had daydreamed too long in the bath and would not be ready for her dinner in Lexington with Lindy if she didn’t get a move on.

  Dressed and downstairs just in time for Lindy’s arrival, Annie called goodbye to her grandmother and was out the door. A sweet aroma assaulted her and she stood for a moment breathing it in. Catalpa, her grandmother had called the tree. Large, white blooms hung in conelike shapes from the branches. It would only be this way for a week or two and Annie took every outside opportunity to let it fill her senses.

  Once in the car and on their way, they talked nonstop while green farmland rolled by. When they were just outside of Lexington Lindy said, “Okay, I’ve been dying to ask you: Why did you break up with your boyfriend?”

  “Well,” Annie said, trying to figure out how to sum up her feelings. “He wasn’t what I thought he was,” she said, waiting for the sensation of a blade twisting in her gut. It didn’t happen this time.

  “The rumor around town is that he worked for the airline and had to fire you, and that’s why you broke up with him,” Lindy said.

  “People are saying that?” Annie asked in an agitated tone. “It’s a small town. People fill in the blanks with what is most interesting,” Lindy said. “Don’t take it personal.”

  Annie pictured herself in a romantic entanglement with Bob Vichy and burst out laughing. “That’s so ridiculous it’s funny,” she said, hardly catching her breath.

  “You know what they said about me when I came home? I had nowhere to go, so I came back to work with my dad. Annie, I had offers from Chicago and Atlanta, but I never even told anyone. I figured they’d find out soon enough if I could handle it.”

  “Who are ‘they’?”

  Lindy adjusted the radio. “Women who married young, green with envy that we got out. Loafers down at Bill’s Diner, the old men and women with time on their hands. It’s fairly harmless, but annoying just the same. Can I ask you another question.” Lindy had a mischievous look in her eye. “Did you ever date Jake Wilder?”

  “Jake? No! We’re only friends. We used to be like brother and sister growing up. We barely kept in touch the last several years, although I don’t know why. I guess life takes you in different directions and you forget how much someone means to you.”

  “You have to admit, he is a catch,” she said.

  “It sounds like he’s been caught,” Annie said.

  “Maybe. Evelyn was in the office yesterday, bringing us cinnamon rolls, and said Camille is coming with him next weekend.”

  They had talked about everything but Camille when Jake called. But of course he would bring her, especially as he was considering moving home as one of his options.

  The restaurant walls were covered with black and white pictures of local celebrities. Featured prominently were the University of Kentucky basketball and football coaches, and some of the players, both past and present. Even Hollywood stars like Ashley Judd, George Clooney and Johnny Depp were proudly featured Kentuckians. The fare was fine Angus steak, grass-finished and locally grown, served in an atmosphere of dark paneled walls and white table linens.

  After the salads arrived, Annie asked, “So what happened with your mom?”

  “I was in my last year of college. She had a brain aneurism and died almost immediately. It was shocking. My older brother was home at the time, quite by accident. He called 9-1-1, but she was basically gone before they got to the hospital.”

  “I’m so sorry,” Annie said.

  “You know what it’s like. It made that first year of law school way harder, but I also had a determination not to let Dad down after all that. And I realized I had a great mother for a lot longer than some folks.”

  “It’s still painful, no matter when it happens.”

  “It made me realize none of us are here forever and sometimes when you say goodbye to someone it might be the last time you see them on this earth. I was home the weekend before it happened. I had no idea when I kissed her goodbye on that Sunday that I would never see her again, in this life anyway.”

  They fell into silence, and Annie pondered Lindy’s words. The thought of a life after this was pleasant enough. She was brought up to believe in Heaven and Hell, but were they really true? With her life in New York so full of activity, schedules and events, she had not spent much time thinking about what happened beyond. Really, she had not wanted to, other than to console herself with the belief that her own mother and grandfather were in some better place.

  Annie’s cell phone vibrated. “Excuse me,” she said to Lindy. “It’s Evelyn. I better take this.” Annie left the booth and walked just outside the front door.

  “I was going to leave you a message. I hope I’m not disturbing anything.”

  “No, it’s fine. Is everything okay?”

  “Oh yes. I had an idea and wanted to see what you thought. Beulah’s been talking about painting her house with that money from your renter. Of course, Fred had always handled that sort of thing for her, and she doesn’t realize it won’t be nearly enough. I may get in trouble for this, but we’ve cooked up a way to get your grandmother’s house painted while she’s in the hospital.”

  “How?”

  “A couple of church members have volunteered to do the work for free. Now, you know Beulah won’t take outright charity, so we’ll let her pay for the paint and materials, which will probably be a good chunk of the money she set aside. They can start the morning she has her surgery, and with the few days in the hospital and if the weather holds, they should get a good start on it before she gets home.”

  “Evelyn, that’s wonderful,” Annie said. “She’ll be thrilled.”

  “I promised to provide lunch while they’re there, so I might need your help and use of the kitchen.”

  “No problem. I’ll do whatever I can.”

  Back at the booth, she shared Evelyn’s idea with Lindy.

  “I would love to help!” her friend said. “I think my schedule is a little crazy next week, but any free time I have, I’ll come paint.”

  After the dinner and movie, they stopped for a cappuccino. And this time Annie bought a bean grinder and
beans to leave at her grandmother’s house. There was still hope she might persuade her grandmother to leave off the cheap stuff.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Beulah tied her orange apron around her waist, the one given to her by her Aunt Sara years ago. It was still her favorite, despite her having half a dozen now. Soft as a lamb’s ear, it felt the best to her and she needed a little comfort today. Slices of country ham sizzled in the iron skillet. A dozen store-bought eggs sat awaiting their turn in the frying pan. They were pale, anemic little things compared to the rich eggs she used to gather from her own chickens. That was one of the many things she had let go of after losing Fred. One by one, the hens died of old age, and she never replaced them.

  Tomorrow was her surgery, and she dreaded it. The nurse told Beulah not to eat a thing after midnight, but who in the world ate anything after midnight? Yet somehow, hearing what she couldn’t do made her feel deprived. Surgery was not for the weak, but neither was growing old. She flipped the ham slices, breathing in the salty aroma. Well, the Lord knew best, and she had to trust Him. That was all there was to it.

  Preparations were made. Every closet and drawer in the house had been organized and cleaned. The garden was growing and beans would be ready for picking soon. She might even be able to help Annie break beans, if the Lord let her live through the surgery.

  There, she had pulled the niggling thought out into the open. What if she went to sleep and never woke up? It wasn’t that she was afraid to die; no, the Lord had taken care of that for her. It was Annie. Beulah felt the child was in the middle of a great transition and needed her right now. With everyone else in her life abandoning her either by choice or by death, Beulah did not want to leave Annie alone, and especially as their relationship had taken a subtle turnabout.