Mercy Me by Margaret A. Graham

to call me and panicked even more when she couldn’t get through. She scribbled me a note, stuffed a clipping from the newspaper in the envelope, and mailed it overnight express! In the note she said she was shaking all over, which, with all her fears, was nothing new.
    It don’t look like I will live long enough for my dreaded disease to come back on me. Yesterday up in Springs County two masked men come in a gas station and killed the old man who was running it. They got clean away and chances are they are headed this way. I have no doubt in the world but what I am next on their hit list. Every car rolls up I duck down behind the cig counter and peep out to see if they are wearing masks.
    Esmeralda, if you should read in the paper that I been shot, remember you promised to look after my estate. You will find my will right between the mattress and the box springs.
    A pickup has just drove up.
    This is wrote later. It was the pigtail man who comes in to buy coffee. Drives that truck with a sign on it, Insect Killer Company. Most likely insects is not what he has on his mind. For all I know he is a cereal killer.
    Yours very truly,
    Beatrice
    P.S. I will see you in heaven if I can find you.
    I read the details in the newspaper story and found out that man who got killed was not old, he was just my age. I was sorry he got gunned down, but, of course, my main worry was Beatrice. She was in that store alone most of the time, and it was that kind of store gets robbed time and time again.
    The phone got fixed that very day, so I called her up. When she used to get herself in a panic, first thing I would do was joke around, hoping that would help her get a grip. “Beatrice, if fears were dollar bills, you would be right up there with them lottery winners,” I said. “You don’t need to worry about getting killed by a bullet. A masked man come in your station, I guaranteeyou will drop dead before he can fire off a shot. Ha! Ha! Besides, that holdup happened a couple or three days ago, and Springs County is just across the river. If they were on their way to rob you, they must’ve got lost or run in the river. Mr. Splurgeon says, ‘Fear God and you got nothing else to fear.’ Now get over it, honey!”
    â€œThat’s easy for you to say, Esmeralda,” Beatrice said with a big sigh, “but if you were in this store all day by yourself, facing such danger as this, you would not be laughing. I just shake all over.”
    â€œI would not be shaking all over. I would be trusting the Lord and taking no chances. Tell you what, when you get off the phone, draw yourself a full tub of warm water and take a long bath. Then drink some warm milk and go to bed.”
    â€œI’m out of milk.”
    I ignored her and went on to the next thing I always would do to calm her down. I changed the subject like I wasn’t concerned about the danger she was in. I told her about Maude dying, but I didn’t give her all the details. To tell the truth, I was too nervous to go into all of that.
    So I said, “Beatrice, quit worrying about that termite man. He’s just loafing to pass the time.”
    I was running out of things to say, but I had to keep her on the line until she felt better.
    I began again and tried to sound lighthearted. “Let me tell you about Clara,” I said. “Clara is deaf as a post but won’t think about getting a hearing aid. I don’t understand people who are too vain to wear hearing aids. They don’t know what they’re missing. A hearing aid will giveyou the edge, I tell you. Mine picks up sounds I have not heard in years. I can hear every stomach that growls, and when Boris lets go with that Nashville sound, I can tune out. On my pew, all the heads are gray and all them hearing aids whistle, sometimes together, sometimes not. Either way, we’re a lot better sounding than them bell ringers. Ha! Ha!”
    Beatrice was not laughing.
    I