Page 41 of You'll Find Out
The hot sun finally forced Mara to get out of the car and face her mother-in-law. Seeing no alternative to coming right out and telling June the truth, Mara steeled herself for what she knew would be a mental ordeal. Opening the door from the back porch, a cool blast of air from the central air-conditioning revived her and evaporated the clinging dampness from her dress.
“Mommy?” a high-pitched voice called. “That you?” Excited feet hurried toward Mara, and Angie rounded the corner, nearly colliding with her mother.
“Hi, sweetheart. How was your day?” Mara asked, her tired face breaking into a grin at the sight of her child.
Angie lifted her small shoulders in a childish imitation of adult indifference.
“Did Grammie let you go swimming in the wading pool?” Mara asked, bending down to lift the child and noticing that beneath the light pink T-shirt, Angie was wearing her bathing suit.
“That’s right . . . and the kitties, too!” Angie agreed, with a wide, mischievous grin.
“Oh, no,” Mara groaned as June, chuckling, hurried into the kitchen to allay any of Mara’s fears.
“They’re all right now. Don’t you worry.”
“But the kittens,” Mara gasped, envisioning the entire scene vividly in her mind, “they’re so small . . .I don’t think they even have all of their eyes open.”
“Believe it or not, they can swim . . . at least for a few minutes,” June laughed. “However,” she stated on a more sober note, “Southpaw was absolutely beside herself, and against her better judgment she jumped into the pool and dragged the bedraggled things to safety.”
“Oh, Angie,” Mara sighed, “we never . . . never, ever put the kitties in the water. They don’t like it.” Mara’s voice was grave.
“They need a bath,” Angie explained, innocence lighting up her round face.
“Southpaw will take care of that . . .” and then noticing that Angie did, for the first time, understand that she had made a terrible mistake, and that tears began to well in the child’s eyes, Mara abruptly changed the subject. “What’s this?” she asked, poking at a brownish smudge on Angie’s cheek.
“Grammie and me made brownies today,” Angie announced importantly.
“Did you?” Mara smiled fondly at her child and kissed Angie’s tousled blond curls. “And are they any good?”
“Better’n you make!”
“That’s because Grammie has a special recipe,” Mara replied with a laugh as she set the child back onto the floor. Suddenly Mara felt that all of her cares and worries had melted. She was in her home, with her adorable child, and the problems of the office seemed distant and unnecessary. Angie, wily child that she was, instinctively knew from her mother’s expression that the crisis concerning the cats was over, so she contented herself in the den off of the kitchen and played with her plastic building blocks.
“That’s a switch,” June observed, looking over the top of her reading glasses to watch her granddaughter.
“What is?” Mara opened the refrigerator door and extracted a pitcher.
“For once Angie is playing with a toy from Imagination. That doesn’t happen often,” the older woman mused thoughtfully.
“No, it doesn’t,” Mara agreed, pouring herself a tall glass of iced tea and offering one to her mother-in-law. “Unfortunately, Angie is a shining example of the kids in America today, when it comes to choosing toys. Why is that? What’s wrong with our line?” Mara asked herself, furrows once again creasing her brow.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bring up all of the worries of the office again,” June apologized. She took off the orange apron that she had been wearing over her black knit suit and folded it neatly before placing it back into a drawer. It occurred to Mara, as she studied her mother-in-law over the rim of her glass, that June looked much better than she had earlier in the day. None of the strain or physical weakness that had been so evident at the board meeting was apparent. And, other than the light wrinkles around her eyes, a slightly pale complexion, and a whiteness around her lips, the older woman appeared healthier than she had in months. For just a few short hours to have passed, the transformation was almost impossible. Could Shane possibly be right? Was her mother-in-law’s health only a convenient excuse, a psychosomatic act, a weapon that June could turn off and on, to use when she needed it?
Mara had known June for over four years. Although it was evident that the woman wielded her power over her family like a brandished sword, Mara found it impossible to believe that June would knowingly try to deceive anyone, family included.
“How did it go—with Angie?” Mara asked in what she hoped would sound like an off-the-cuff manner.
“Oh, fine. Just fine,” June replied. She took a seat at one of the café chairs near the kitchen table and an irritated look settled on her face. “If I were only able to handle the rest of my family as easily as I can Angie, life would be a lot simpler, let me tell you!” The corners of her mouth pulled into a disgusted frown.
“You’re referring to the board meeting?” Mara surmised as she settled into a chair opposite June, near the broad bay window of the kitchen nook.
June smiled wistfully. “You know me so well,” she whispered. Do I, Mara wondered, do I know you at all? Once again June’s agitation lit her face, and she played her fingers over the rim of her tea glass.
“Honestly,” June sputtered angrily. “That Rich, what a spoiled cur he’s become . . . and pompous to boot! Where does he get such a ‘holier than thou’ attitude? Certainly not from Mimi, his mother!” June rolled her eyes heavenward in a supplicating gesture. “And then there’s Dena. What can I say about her? She’s my own daughter, but I swear, she doesn’t have a lick of sense in that gorgeous head of hers!” Pale, watery eyes accosted Mara. “I hope the meeting wasn’t too rough on you. The family can be vicious if they all decide to band together.”
“The meeting went just fine,” Mara lied, and wondered if June could see through her plastic smile.
“Good! Now, let’s just hope we can bring the toy company out of its slump!”
