“Very well.”

  “Speaking of A.J.’s grandmother, aren’t you guys going out to lunch soon?”

  “We are. I’m quite looking forward to it.”

  “I’m glad. Is there anything I can do before the doctor gets here?”

  “Cards?”

  “Love to.”

  Adeline and I were neck and neck on the scoreboard when the doorbell rang. I’m embarrassed to say, even after a handful of visits to the house, I couldn’t find my way to the front door without Adeline nudging my memory. Part of it is that I am directionally challenged; part of it is that I’m still not completely comfortable with the setup of the whole house. We tend to stick to the kitchen, the white room, and Adeline’s personal quarters. I can’t imagine living in a house and not using every room. There are whole wings of this house not used.

  On the one hand, it is Adeline’s home, and moving might be too hard. On the other, a small condo might just make her life easier, and if it is in a building with lots of people her own age, she might actually have a life. She seems to be somewhere between a recluse and a misanthrope. I always think of a recluse as accidental and a misanthrope as intentional, not sure if that is an accurate categorization. Where is Teagan when I need her?

  Out playing on a boat, that’s where she is.

  I opened the door to a beautiful woman, my age, but way more confident and together. “You must be Cara. My name is Anastasia.” She shook my hand. “If you will show me to the patient.” A dazzling smile. Just the right amount of dental work. Perfectly white straight teeth, but not Chicklets.

  She followed me back to the white room. I am proud to say that I didn’t get lost.

  Anastasia was pulling what I assumed to be a medical bag on rollers. Kind of like a cross between a rolling carry-on and those mini-trunks you see the lawyers pulling toward court when they are defending some really rich dirtbag. Anastasia didn’t have the traditional black; her bag was red crocodile, or maybe alligator, since this is Florida after all.

  “Adeline, please allow me to introduce Anastasia. She will be checking on your health today.”

  “Anastasia. Where, might I ask, is Doctor Newman?”

  “He has recently retired.”

  “How recently?”

  “About five years ago.”

  I tried to excuse myself, to give them some privacy, but Adeline cut me off. “Cara, dear, you are the person responsible for this…” She waved her hand, trying to come up with an appropriate word, dismissed several from thought, and let the comment hang.

  “Would you like me to stay? I could go make you some tea.”

  “Stay. I would like you to hear for yourself that this is simply a case of a woman aging with grace, not trying to rebuild the structure, nor stave off the inevitable.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Anastasia did all the normal things. She took pressures and checked oxygen levels and looked in ears and such. She took notes on a laptop and took a full history. She then had Adeline go through a series of neurological tests, and some do a number of things I don’t understand.

  She told Adeline that she would take blood, but that she wanted her on an antibiotic right away. She said her lungs were quite congested, that her ears and sinuses showed significant inflammation, and that she has liquid in her right ear.

  Anastasia didn’t want to make any comments until the test results were in, and said that she would have information for us by the end of the day. She also said the pharmacy would deliver the prescription within the hour.

  I saw Anastasia to the door and asked if she thought there was a serious problem. She said she doubted it, but would call with the test results. She also said that based on the medical history and my current concerns, there would probably be further investigation. She first wanted to clear up the current problems and then get to the bottom of the underlying problems.

  I fixed a couple of meals and some snacks for Adeline and told her I’d be back in the morning. I made sure she had contact numbers for Jovana, the doctor, and me.

  I texted A.J. while sitting in my car. I wanted to give him the opportunity to invite me to spontaneously drop by the studio. No response. I decided to go home.

  At home, I decided it was time to re-Cara myself. Seems like a long time since I’d been me.

  First, I scrubbed for a while. Cleaned out my fridge. Washed my sheets. The basics.

  Then I took a nice long bath, using my very best citrusy smelly good stuff. Shaved and pumiced everything important. Shaved my toes, since talking to Adeline brought it to my attention. It had been a while. My hairy toes weren’t quite ready to be French braided, but it wasn’t good.

  I washed, chemically improved, and blew my hair out, then put in some hot rollers while I slapped on some makeup. Somewhere between my usual and full face. Full face makes me sound like a clown, but you know what I mean. Tinted moisturizer, creamy blush, I mixed my eye shadow with water so that it was a little more transparent. Gray eyeliner and Falsies mascara — I’m learning to love that stuff. A non-slimy lip gloss, and I was good.

  I went into my closet, straight to the good stuff. Last time I was in the mood for such things, I’d picked up two pieces to add to my collection. One was pink with black trim; the other was black with pink trim. They were mirror images of each other. I grabbed the black one, since the pink was a little over the top for daylight conditions. I put it on and decided to paint my toenails the same color.

  My house clean, and my body covered in smelly good stuff and ultra sheer fabric, I was a very happy girl.

  I will admit to a tad of residual weirdness. Walking around the apartment in an outfit that might as well be hanging in the closet for all the modesty it gave me, I put the maid lock on the door.

  It dawned on me that if I felt that insecure, in my own apartment, where nothing bad had actually happened, I just don’t know how Morgan has pulled herself together. I have so much respect for her. I don’t understand her family at all. To me, she is a hero, and if she were my daughter, I’d scream it from the rooftops.

  I was settled on the couch, waiting for A.J. to get home, reading a great book, when the phone rang.

  “Hey.”

  “Jesus, Teagan, you sound terrible. What’s wrong?”

  “I spent the whole day feeding the fishes.”

  “Feeding the fishes? I didn’t know you were fishing for shark.”

  “That’s chumming the water, dingleberry. Feeding the fishes is barfing over the side of the boat.”

  “Why were you doing that?”

  “For the sheer fun of it.”

  “Sorry, stupid question. Are you okay?”

  “I’ve never been so sick in all my life. I swear to you, Cara, I threw up my toenails.”

  “Yuck. Anything I can do?”

  “Jessie, poor guy. He feels terrible. Thinks it’s all his fault. He went to the store. He’s gonna get me anything and everything he can think of to calm down my stomach. I told him that now that I’m on terra firma, I’m good.”

  “Fix yourself a cup of tea. You’ll be fine.”

  “I’m concerned.”

  “He won’t leave you for being sick to your stomach.”

  “I’m not worried about Jessie seeing me blowing chunks, although it was embarrassing, all those guys fishing and me with my butt up in the air, head over the side.”

  “Well, at least they had a good view.”

  “Shut up.”

  “Yes, ma’am. If you aren’t worried about Jessie, what is your concern?”

  “Cara, I just had one of the worst days of my life, and we are about to do the same thing all day, every day, for a week. I’ll be green around the gills on the best day, stuck in their sick bay on the worst.”

  “You’ll be fine. Being on a cruise ship is very different than being on a wee little boat.”

  “We’ll see. I also booked us on a wee little boat for that excursion. That’ll be lots of fun. ‘Look at the bear, wait, barf, okay, look at the eagle, wait, barf, okay, look at the moose.’”

  “Again, not the same. We’ll be on a lake. You won’t have the salt air in your face, and the air you have will be cold air. You’ll be fine.”

  “I hope you are right. You didn’t see me. You’d be embarrassed too.”

  “Not me. We don’t look anything alike. No one will even know we are together.”

  “Very funny.”

  I filled Teagan in on everything that had happened during my day. She was as impressed with Anastasia as I was. She refused the puppy I offered her. Spoilsport.

  We discussed the fact that there is nothing new on Jerkface or his sister, which was good news. We hadn’t expected anything, but it would take a while to accept that things were finally over.

  She had no brilliance to throw in Morgan’s direction, but we decided that we would bring her out to lunch before we headed for the boat.

  The ship departs on Sunday at four in the afternoon. We are going to fly out to Seattle on Friday and see what Seattle has to offer, then have a leisurely breakfast Sunday and wander to the port to be in line to get on the boat at about noon. You have to be on by two.

  Teagan covered her packing list in broad strokes. I hadn’t even thought about it yet. Probably why she is a little more glam than I am.

  We’d just hung up when A.J. called.

  “I’ve never been so tired in my whole life.”

  “Bad day?”

  “Great day.”

  “Good. Are you going to want to eat?”

  “How about I drive through?”

  “Works for me.”

  “Be home in half an hour.”

  “That’s even better. I’ll stick some Pepsis in the freezer.”

  I put our drinks in the freezer. Took the maid lock off the door so that A.J. wouldn’t drop everything on his way in. Did a quick walk through the apartment to make sure everything was the way I wanted it and then sat on the couch to wait.

  I called Morgan. “Hey, you want to go out to lunch day after tomorrow?”

  “I’m okay, Cara. You don’t have to babysit me.”

  “I get that. You want to go out for lunch tomorrow? Teagan spent the day on a boat, turned green, spent the whole day tossing her cookies into the sea. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. You want to help me permanently imprint this one, or you want to skip it?”

  “Are you guys always this evil to each other?”

  “Consider it bonding. Besides, self-esteem is not given; it is earned. It is earned by overcoming hardship and knowing that you can handle it. I’m helping Teagan to improve her self-esteem. That is not evil; that is being a good sister.”

  “Probably a good thing I’m an only child. What time?”

  “Noon at the diner?”

  “Perfect. See you there. Thanks.”

  “My pleasure.”

  I was thinking about getting up and getting some paper to make a packing list when A.J. came in the door, hands full and head down.

  I jumped up to help, he glanced up, and it almost caused him to drop everything right there on the tile floor.

  I love that.

  “Wow.”

  “Thank you, sir. I feel like me again.”

  “Feeling you is a very good thing.”

  “I said I feel like me.”

  “You say it your way. I’ll say it mine.”

  “I’ll get the Pepsi.”

  “What for?”

  “Dinner.”

  “You want to eat dinner?”

  “Kind of why you went to all the trouble to drive through, and if you stand there and drool, the French fries are gonna get cold.”

  “I can live with that.”

  “I hate cold French fries.”

  “I’ll go get you more later.”

  “You said you were tired.”

  “I’m not now.”

  “How about we eat? Then you can take your shower, and we can relax for a little while. Then we can go to bed.”

  “How about you eat while I take my shower, and then I take you to bed?”

  I grabbed the bags of food, one from Arby’s and one from McDonald’s. Sandwich from one, fries from the other. I love that.

  I made sure to swish just a little on my way across the room.

  Anticipation is a good thing.

  We ate dinner, and A.J. took his shower. We sat on the couch and talked until the whole situation was moving from teasing to mean; then down the hall we went.

  It’s good to be me again.

  In the morning I made scrambled eggs with ham chunks, kind of like a ham omelet without anything added. Pancakes, the batter on the thin side, somewhere closer to a crepe. Cinnamon-butter sauce. Orange juice and tea. It was good.

  Jovana called right after A.J. left. She’d stopped by Adeline’s and heard that I’d actually gotten her to see a doctor. I guess I should have called and told her that myself. She was very pleased and said the family was sure to give me a big bonus. The test results should be back today. Finally, some answers.

  We discussed some errands she wanted me to run.

  I got dressed and was headed out the door when I ran into my neighbor. He said that the chief was all but certain that Jerkface didn’t know about the murders until well after they were done. We wondered aloud if a serial murderer is ever really done, and if not, then didn’t that make Jerkface accountable for allowing his sister to be free to do more murders? Questions neither of us really had an answer for.

  He headed off for work.

  I headed off to run errands for Jovana. Since I’m getting paid, I guess that qualifies as work, even if it seems more like helping out a friend.

  I called Teagan to make sure she’d pinked back up. She sounded a little worse for wear, but said she would survive. She was driving to work. I was driving to a photography store just outside of town to pick up Jovana’s order.

  We had time to discuss the fact that I hadn’t bought long underwear for the trip.

  We discussed the fact that Jessie was headed to his third interview and was almost certain to be offered the job. She still didn’t tell me where that might be or if she was really serious about going there with him. I’ve really grown as a human being. I thought really seriously about saying all kinds of things, but when it came down to it, I was mature and kept my mouth shut.

  This is a life decision for Teagan, and I’m not giving my opinion unless I’m asked for it, and even if I’m asked for it, I’m going to measure my words for once.

  I informed Teagan that we had a lunch date with Morgan the next day, that Adeline’s tests would be in this afternoon, and that we should make sure to hit Mom’s house before we left on the cruise.

  She got to her destination before I got to mine. We disconnected, and I turned up the radio and enjoyed the sunshine and music.

  I fit Jovana’s whole order in my car, barely. Headed to the studio figuring that A.J. could help me unload it. He wasn’t there. I parked in the loading zone out front, ran back and forth, locking the car and the studio door every time. There are days Old Town just feels like there is going to be a problem. Today was one of those days.

  Once I got everything in the studio and the really expensive stuff locked in the closet upstairs, I left a note for Jovana and headed over to see Adeline.

  She looked better. Not great, but better.

  We went for a nice walk around the grounds. We talked and played cards and fixed several dinners together so that Adeline would have some choices while I was gone.

  I couldn’t stall much longer, but I wanted to be there when the call came in with the test results.

  Instead of the phone ringing, the doorbell rang.

  Anastasia.

  Once settled in the white room, she explained that all of Adeline’s numbers came back well within the normal range. For a woman her age, she is actually quite healthy.

  Although reason to be pleased, we still don’t know the reason for Adeline’s various symptoms. Anastasia ticked off a long list of tests that she proposed, giving a very brief explanation of each. Before I could even offer to run Adeline around to all the various labs I assumed would be involved, Anastasia produced a large glossy brochure. She explained that the spa-like retreat provides the client with all the amenities, five-star accommodations, the best in everything from food to massages and facials, and that the medical tests are done onsite and as unobtrusively as possible. Anastasia made clear that while not enjoyable, the experience would be tolerable, and that the patron is provided with discrete transportation to and from the establishment.

  Adeline took the brochure and stood, saying she would take the suggestion under advisement.

  I saw Anastasia to the door.

  Walking back into the white room, before I could say a word, Adeline commented, “I’ll go. I want to lunch with Aileen and Joy first, but I will go.”

  I am assuming that Nana Jo is Joy and that Aileen is A.J.’s grandma. I didn’t ask. Instead, I said, “Adeline, you make it sound like we are asking you to take that long slow walk.”

  “Cara, I am not a stupid woman. I’ve known for some time that there is something wrong with me. Something more than age. Now I have to face what that is.”

  “But the doctor just told us that all your numbers are well within range and that you are actually in very good health.”

  “There are many health issues that do not make themselves known with a simple blood test.”

  “Adeline, I understand, I really do, but it is better to know so that whatever the problem is, it can be treated.”

  “Not all health problems can be treated, Cara.”

  “True, but I have talked to Anastasia, and she assured me that she believes you’re fine.”

  “Then there is no reason for you to worry, Cara. By the time you return from your trip, I will have had my tests, and we will have some answers. I will hope it is good news, but either way, I am grateful for your concern.”

  “Whatever happens, Adeline, I promise I’ll be there to walk through it with you.”

  “I am grateful. Now go home to your young man.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  The rest of the day was uneventful.