A Woman's Place: A Novel Read Free Page B

her eyes and lay silent. Heavy-hearted, I sat close by her side. After a few minutes, I began to hum and was rewarded enough by her weak grin to put words to the tune. Connie loved Streisand. Starting with "Evergreen," I sang softly until she was rested enough to open her eyes. I finished the last few bars of
    "The Way We Were" and smiled.
    Her own smile was brief and wan. The look that followed was adult, woman to woman, startlingly acute. It held the truth that I feared, and made me say a fast, "Don't even think it."
    "How not to?" she asked in a frail voice. "I'm not able to do much but lie here and think. Ironic. So much idle time." She closed her eyes, sighed. "I was always busy. So busy, with so little to show." Her eyes opened, begging my understanding. "It's frustrating, all I wanted to do in life and didn't."
    "You did tons," I said, "starting way back when Daddy died. You were the one who kept us afloat. You held two jobs, worked night and day."
    "I chased my tail, was what I did. Couldn't seem to get ahead. Like now. I get a handle on the pain, then it hits me again. I'm tired, Claire." It frightened me to hear despair, made me angry, too, because Connie Grant didn't deserve to be dying at sixty-three. She had fought long and hard for a better life, fought even harder when things wouldn't come Page 10
    Barbara Delinsky - A Woman's Place
    easy. "Oh, Mom. There have been positive things. Lots of them."
    "You, certainly." She sighed. "Rona, I don't know."
    "You did just fine with Rona."
    "She's thirty-eight going on twelve." "Well, then, for a twelve year old, she's a whiz. She's been here for you, Mom. Much more than I have. I wish I lived closer."
    "Even if you did, you have a family. You have a business. Rona has nothing."
    "She has friends."
    "They're as lost as she is. Not a one of them has direction, other than to the beauty shop for a manicure. What would Rona do if she didn't have me to hover over? Two husbands have come and gone, she has no children, no career. I worry about her."
    "She's just a little lost. She'll find herself."
    "Will you watch out for her, Claire?" Connie pleaded, more pale than ever. "Once I'm gone, Rona will have no one but you."
    "I'll do what I can."
    "Offer her a franchise."
    "I have. She won't take it."
    "Offer it again. She'll go through Harold's money in no time. Poor thing, she's nearly as dependent as I was when your father died. Maybe she needs a scare, like I had. Sad, how history repeats itself. You try to save your children from making the same mistakes you did .. ." The ardor that had been holding her up let her down. She sank deeper into the pillows. "At least I succeeded with you. Talk to me. Where is this newest franchise?"
    Content to be distracted, I told her about the St. Louis store and about the International Home Furnishings show in North Carolina. She smiled and nodded, though I sensed her floating in and out. Still, Wicker Wise pleased her. So, while she lay there with her head turned my way, I told her about the flood damage to be assessed at our franchise in New Orleans, the possible expansion of our franchise in Denver, the franchisee to be interviewed, and potential locations to be visited in Atlanta. "Good," she said at one point, and at another, "The more cities the better--visibility is important," and finally, predictably, "and New York?"
    We had a store in East Hampton that was thriving, but East Hampton wasn't Manhattan, as far as Mother was concerned. She wanted a Wicker Wise on Fifth Avenue.
    "Not yet," I said. "Maybe in a few years."
    "Now that would be success. Don't you think so?"
    "I don't know, Mom. Manhattan's tough. The overhead alone would be a killer. Maybe a boutique in a department store--"
    "All by itself on Fifth Avenue. No less. Now. Tell me everything the children didn't."
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    Barbara Delinsky - A Woman's Place
    I told her about Johnny singing with the church choir, about Kikit's Brownie troop's flower sale, about their teachers and