A New Kind of Bliss Read Free Page A

how “good” the deceased looked. “Oh, Ruby, Earl looked beautiful.” “Ruby, he looks just wonderful.” “He looks like he’s going to sit up and talk.” He’s dead, I wanted to shout. Don’t you get it? He’s through with talking!
    I’d lived in Euliss for the first eighteen years of my life and had known many people, most of whom I’d eventually lost touch with after I moved to the Midwest, if not before. Because so many years had gone by I wasn’t expecting to see any faces from the past, and it came as a pleasant surprise when I recognized old friends who came to pay their respects. Some of them I hadn’t seen in ten or fifteen years.
    I’d kept in touch with Rosalind Hunter, and even though I didn’t have time to inform her or anyone else, I wasn’t surprised to see her approaching. I’d know her anywhere. Even as a teenager, Rosalind had always stood out in a crowd. She was striking, tall and slim with wide-set eyes and long black hair, only now that hair was short and auburn.
    “I love your haircut!” I exclaimed as we embraced. “And the color, too. If I didn’t know better I’d swear it was natural.”
    “Thanks. It took John a while to get used to it, but now he likes it.” She squeezed my shoulder in concern. “How are you, dear?”
    “Oh, I’m doing all right. Let’s move down here so we can sit and talk.” Mom, Cissy, and Sonny were all involved in conversations of their own, and I saw no reason why I shouldn’t do the same. The wake had turned into a social event of sorts, a cocktail party without the cocktails. But I’d rather chew the fat than sit and sob for two hours, and I knew Pop would prefer it that way as well.
    “I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to call you, Rosalind,” I said after we were seated. “How did you hear?”
    “The notorious Euliss grapevine. Valerie Woods called me.” Rosalind scanned the room. “I see a lot of people came out to pay respects.”
    “Yes. I haven’t seen Valerie, though.”
    “She said she plans to stop by tomorrow morning, before the service. She’s got…she’s awfully busy at home.”
    I wondered what Rosalind meant—Valerie was single with three children, but the oldest was about sixteen, certainly old enough to give her mom a hand—but before I had a chance to ask, a male voice greeted, “Hello, Emily.”
    I stared at the man with the close-cropped sandy brown hair, long nose, and close-set eyes, who was clearly enjoying my confusion. I watched as he and Rosalind exchanged amused glances.
    My mouth dropped open in a lightbulb expression when I finally realized who he was. We all thought Wayne Pittman was incredibly handsome in junior high, as we did with every guy who was light skinned and had a big ’fro. His being a football player by the time we got to high school didn’t hurt, either. I ran into him and his wife—not a Euliss girl—at the annual Thanksgiving morning football game about ten years after graduation, long after Afros went out of fashion, and then it struck me that he was about as good-looking as Godzilla. But Wayne had always been a nice guy, easily able to straddle the line between being friendly and a come-on. To this day he was the closest I’d ever come to having a male friend, except for my ex-husband before our marriage went the way of the rotary dial.
    I stood to hug him. My arm muscles were sure getting a hell of a workout tonight, and so were my cheekbones. “Wayne, it’s good to see you. Thank you for coming.”
    “I’m sorry about your father, Emily.”
    “I know. Sit down with us. I haven’t seen you in how long, fifteen years?”
    “That’s about it. At the Euliss–Horace Mann Thanksgiving game, wasn’t it? You and your husband.” His eyes darted about, like he was looking for said spouse.
    “Yes. We got divorced a couple of years after that.”
    “Oh. Me, too.” Wayne leaned forward so he could see Rosalind. “What’s up, Slim?”
    “Not a thing. How’re your