The Ladies' Room(2)

“It’s sad, isn’t it? But she’s always been that way. Even when we were kids, we could convince her of anything. She’s so blind. She’s like an ostrich with her head in the sand and that big bubble butt in the air,” Marty said.

A lump caught in my throat. I swallowed a dozen times before it went down. If they hadn’t been so intent on talking about me, they’d have heard the gulps.

Betsy giggled. “Maybe not blind. Just naïve. Hasn’t got a clue as to what really goes on around her. She actually liked Gert.”

“Anyone who liked that salty old witch deserves to be running around in the dark. Let her live in ignorance. They say it’s bliss. Besides, Trudy’s always had it all, and I’ve been jealous. She deserves to have to get her hands dirty. If she gets the place, she’ll work her chubby little rear end off getting it all organized. There won’t be a doily or an ugly knickknack that she doesn’t categorize,” Marty said.

My face burned, because that was exactly what I’d been thinking since I’d heard Aunt Gert was dead. Her prized stuff might not bring much, but it could be given to a good charity.

“That’s Trudy—her head so far into good deeds, she doesn’t see what’s right before her eyes.” Betsy chuckled. “Give me a drag off that. Does God strike people dead for smoking in a church? We’ll have to go out and blend in with the crowd in a minute, and it’ll be an hour before we can smoke again.”

My skin prickled with hives. Was I that predictable?

“God won’t strike us dead for smoking, but Gert would have. Maybe Drew will talk sense to Trudy and make her bulldoze the place,” Marty said. “He’s a smart lawyer. Guess Trudy don’t care what she has to put up with for that fancy house and all that money.”

Cigarette smoke drifted under the toilet-stall door. I clamped a hand tightly over my mouth to keep from coughing. Talk about a disaster. It would be the beginning of a family war for sure if I got caught now. And Aunt Gert would rise up out of that coffin if we got into it in the bathroom while her funeral was going on.

“Do you think she knows about either her husband or her daughter’s shenanigans, or has her head been in the sand so long that she’s never coming up for air?” Betsy asked.

“If she doesn’t know, she’s dumb, not blind. Everyone knows about Drew,” Marty answered. “How could Trudy not? It’s been goin’ on ever since the week after he married her.”

My eyebrows furrowed so tightly, I felt the birthing of a dozen new wrinkles on my forehead. What was it that everyone except poor Trudy, bless her heart knew about Drew? And what did they know about my grown daughter, Crystal, that I didn’t know?

Marty lowered her voice slightly. “Remember when Trudy did that overnight sleepover in Dallas with Crystal and her little friends on—what was it?—Crystal’s seventh birthday so the kids could go to see Disney On Ice? Lori Lou came over to my house and borrowed my casserole recipe for hot chicken salad. I caught her coming out of Drew’s house the next morning when I delivered the newspaper.”#p#分页标题#e#

My stomach did thirty-nine flip-flops before it settled down to plain old nausea. If I got sick, they’d hear me, and then I’d have to endure a gazillion apologies with excuses about how they should have told me but really thought I knew and was ignoring it to keep my marriage intact. Hearing the words was so much worse than the niggling little suspicions I’d had through the years. My two cousins had turned on the lights and showed me exactly what Drew was, and now I had to deal with it.

I wished I had that little .22 pistol from my nightstand. When the custodian came to clean the church bathrooms after the funeral dinner, there would be my two female cousins, one bullet in each. If only I’d had the good sense to carry a gun in my purse instead of candy bars.

My ears hurt so badly, it sounded as if Betsy was yelling, but she was really just talking in a conversational tone. “Lori Lou wasn’t the first, you know. He was looking over the crowd and flirting even at his and Trudy’s wedding reception. Only person who doesn’t know that Drew is a rich, good-looking, philandering fool is Trudy. She just thinks he’s rich and good-looking. I’ve always said that if she doesn’t know, then I’d let her live in bliss. I heard his newest toy is that new twenty-year-old blond teller at their bank. Her name is Charity something. Trudy gets older and frumpier every day, and his toys get younger and prettier. You’ve seen her, haven’t you?”