Happy Hour by Michele Scott Page B

outfits she
donned for her dates with Elvis.”
    “Where’s Nathan? He should be home by now. School is out.”
Dorothy looked at her wrist, at the watch that wasn’t there, and tapped it. “He
is supposed to come straight home. Dinner will be ready soon.” She shook her
head. “That boy.”
    Jamie walked around the kitchen counter and put her hands on
Dorothy’s shoulders. “Mom. It’s me. Jamie. Nathan is gone. Remember? He is an
angel now.” She swallowed hard. Dorothy frequently forgot that Nate was no
longer with them, something Jamie wished she could do. Countless times she
wished she could live in Dorothy’s world, a world where Nate still existed.
    Every time she heard her husband’s name, a weight pulled down on her
heart. Her breath shortened and sorrow closed her throat, but Dorothy couldn’t
understand.
    “Jamie! Yes. You are such a nice girl. I always liked you. You are so
much better than that Ann Marie that Nathan thought he wanted to marry. You
came home with him and it was a ray of sunshine walking through the door. Deano
thought you were a doll. You need to call Nathan and tell him to come home.
He’s been gone too long.”
    “I know, Mom. You’re right. Why don’t you go watch some TV and I’ll let
you know when Dean shows up?” Nora had better hurry her butt up, because
Jamie’s sweet mother-in-law needed a boyfriend.
    “Good girl. I’ll do that. Will you bring me some sherry while I wait?”
    “Of course.”
    Four-thirty rolled around. Maddie would be home any minute from her Uncle
David and Aunt Susan’s place in Marin County.
    The doorbell rang. “Nora!” Jamie yelled, half exasperated, half relieved,
as she opened the door. Nora scurried past her, removed her purse, and laid it
on the sofa. She then said something in Spanish that Jamie thought to be an
apology—either that her brother or brother’s wife was sick and needed help. It
went something like this. “Lo siento. Mi wife de mi hermanos esta esicky.”
    “Your esposa is sick?”
    She smiled and shook her head. “No. Es mi hermano.”
    “Hermano? Hermano? Hermano?” Where in the world was the
Spanish/English dictionary at? In her office upstairs.
    “Es mi brother.”
    “Your brother esta infermo?” Oh yeah, hermano is brother. Should
have known that.
    “Su esposa.” Nora crossed her arms and looked at her with a ‘you are so
dumb’ expression.
    “His wife?”
    She tossed up her hands, nodded, and headed for the kitchen, where she
gasped at the mess Jamie had created and immediately began cleaning. This was
how their relationship went. They spoke Spanglish to each other with Nora basically
in control, and typically aggrieved with Jamie. Nora was almost always late and
sometimes didn’t show up at all (on Sundays). But she always had a fabulous
excuse and she definitely had the knowledge that there was no way in hell Jamie
was ever going to find someone to clean her house (sort of) and take care of
Dorothy for two hundred dollars a week, as well as make the trek out on her
Sundays. She’d wedged Jamie between a rock and a hard place, and she knew it.
So Jamie dealt with it.
     As Nora scurried around the kitchen attempting to clean it, Jamie
checked on the duck and decided to turn the heat up a little. The potatoes were
boiling but she still hadn’t found the saffron. Maddie bounded in the side door
off the kitchen, loaded down with shopping bags. “Hi, Mommy.”
    Jamie stopped the saffron search and wrapped her arms around her
daughter. “Hi baby. Where’re Uncle David and Aunt Susan?”
    “They said to tell you that they had to get back to the city because they
have a dinner or something tonight.”
    “Oh.” Jamie peered out the kitchen window to see David’s Mercedes pulling
out of the driveway. This seemed to be becoming the norm with Nate’s brother.
Maddie’s visits with her aunt and uncle typically meant gifts galore. Then when
David and Susan would bring her home they would visit for less