from the comfort of my truck.
This truck, now, it’s a hoot, if I do say so myself. Maxine calls it the “Mama-mobile,” and thinks we should paintit pink and glue acrylic gems all over the hood. David and I bought it to haul shrubs and mulch and landscaping tools and all manner of concrete lawn ornaments that we thought for sure would become a part of our daily life in retirement. Two years now, and I haven’t lifted a spade, planted a bush or found a home for a single red-capped garden gnome. But I do love to tool around town, windows down and attitude up, in my beat-up old truck. It’s way more fun than a chubby pale-haired lady ought to have. Certainly more fun than Jake and Bernadette were having.
“Young people!” I folded my arms and pressed my hip to the front fender of the truck. “Left to their own devices, I wonder if any of them would ever find one another and start to work on producing the next generation.”
“Folks been managing to do it for a whole lot of years without your help, Odessa. I have an inkling most of them just might get the job done, despite your misgivings.”
“Some of them.” I watched Bernadette, the hem of her bright print dress floating around her sturdy but still lovely legs as she flounced up to the minister.
He stepped back, his hands up, and said something. Probably some lame joke, telling her not to hurt him today.
She stopped short and looked at the ground.
“But those two?” The tableau they made just about broke my heart. “They are going to need all the help we can give them.”
“We?” Maxine looked genuinely surprised.
I found it cute that, regardless of how much she likes to tell people she knows exactly what I have in mind and usually wants no part of it, I could still catch her off guard. “Youknow, Maxine, I have never been one of those women who meddled in other people’s lives.”
She said nothing.
“You’re not going to argue with that?”
“I’m still trying to decide how I got dragged into this we-have-to-help-those-two notion of yours.” She got out of the truck and shut the door soundly behind her. “As for you saying you don’t meddle in other people’s lives…? Well, a statement like that is the kind of thing I’d have to leave between you and the Lord, because…” She winced, looked skyward, then cocked her head and aimed her gaze square at me. “Odessa, there are times when being a sister in Christ and being a woman of good manners just plain clash. For me, that used to happen maybe once or twice in a decade. Now, every day I spend with you, it happens once or twice…an hour!”
“You have issues with me, Sister Cooke-Nash?” A quick glance showed the targets of my matchmaking walking our way, Jake in long confident strides and Bernadette…What was she thinking, wearing those espadrilles out here? I mean, they are too cute for words, but look at the height on those heels and the flimsy ribbons around her ankles! She is going to fall flat on her face. Or worse. I could see the two of them trying to explain how they both got mud-covered backsides! Texas in the summer wasn’t usually a wet place, but somehow the whole flea market parking lot and the walkway into the place seemed to remain forever soggy. Bernadette knew that. And she should have taken it into account. “You know, I have my nurse’s shoes behind the seat of the truck. Do you think I should get them out and insist she get herself into some sensible footwear before—”
Maxine laughed. “Odessa Pepperdine, you are the most meddlesome woman I have ever met. How can I stand here and listen to you say otherwise and not have issues with it?”
“Fair enough.” I laughed, too.
Then I put my hand on her arm and swiveled her around to see what I saw. Bernadette clumping and wobbling along, clutching her skirt for dear life, all the while trying to make light conversation and maintain control over her windswept hair and the cumbersome keys in her
This truck, now, it’s a hoot, if I do say so myself. Maxine calls it the “Mama-mobile,” and thinks we should paintit pink and glue acrylic gems all over the hood. David and I bought it to haul shrubs and mulch and landscaping tools and all manner of concrete lawn ornaments that we thought for sure would become a part of our daily life in retirement. Two years now, and I haven’t lifted a spade, planted a bush or found a home for a single red-capped garden gnome. But I do love to tool around town, windows down and attitude up, in my beat-up old truck. It’s way more fun than a chubby pale-haired lady ought to have. Certainly more fun than Jake and Bernadette were having.
“Young people!” I folded my arms and pressed my hip to the front fender of the truck. “Left to their own devices, I wonder if any of them would ever find one another and start to work on producing the next generation.”
“Folks been managing to do it for a whole lot of years without your help, Odessa. I have an inkling most of them just might get the job done, despite your misgivings.”
“Some of them.” I watched Bernadette, the hem of her bright print dress floating around her sturdy but still lovely legs as she flounced up to the minister.
He stepped back, his hands up, and said something. Probably some lame joke, telling her not to hurt him today.
She stopped short and looked at the ground.
“But those two?” The tableau they made just about broke my heart. “They are going to need all the help we can give them.”
“We?” Maxine looked genuinely surprised.
I found it cute that, regardless of how much she likes to tell people she knows exactly what I have in mind and usually wants no part of it, I could still catch her off guard. “Youknow, Maxine, I have never been one of those women who meddled in other people’s lives.”
She said nothing.
“You’re not going to argue with that?”
“I’m still trying to decide how I got dragged into this we-have-to-help-those-two notion of yours.” She got out of the truck and shut the door soundly behind her. “As for you saying you don’t meddle in other people’s lives…? Well, a statement like that is the kind of thing I’d have to leave between you and the Lord, because…” She winced, looked skyward, then cocked her head and aimed her gaze square at me. “Odessa, there are times when being a sister in Christ and being a woman of good manners just plain clash. For me, that used to happen maybe once or twice in a decade. Now, every day I spend with you, it happens once or twice…an hour!”
“You have issues with me, Sister Cooke-Nash?” A quick glance showed the targets of my matchmaking walking our way, Jake in long confident strides and Bernadette…What was she thinking, wearing those espadrilles out here? I mean, they are too cute for words, but look at the height on those heels and the flimsy ribbons around her ankles! She is going to fall flat on her face. Or worse. I could see the two of them trying to explain how they both got mud-covered backsides! Texas in the summer wasn’t usually a wet place, but somehow the whole flea market parking lot and the walkway into the place seemed to remain forever soggy. Bernadette knew that. And she should have taken it into account. “You know, I have my nurse’s shoes behind the seat of the truck. Do you think I should get them out and insist she get herself into some sensible footwear before—”
Maxine laughed. “Odessa Pepperdine, you are the most meddlesome woman I have ever met. How can I stand here and listen to you say otherwise and not have issues with it?”
“Fair enough.” I laughed, too.
Then I put my hand on her arm and swiveled her around to see what I saw. Bernadette clumping and wobbling along, clutching her skirt for dear life, all the while trying to make light conversation and maintain control over her windswept hair and the cumbersome keys in her
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