Death Blow

8

Girl talk. That’s all it was supposed to be. They had agreed to meet at Maria Fernandez apartment at 6:00 P.M. that Tuesday. Milly came five minutes late.

“Some trouble at the office,” she said. Milly worked at Deltron Electronics where she was a lead supervisor in computer services for some of the biggest companies in America. Their hardware and software problems were her problems and she hustled herself and her crews to find the answers before whole computer systems went down. “We fixed the huge glitz, but it took longer than we figured.” She looked around. “No Nancy yet?”

“Not so far. Don’t worry. I talked to her on the phone about noon and her spirits seemed to be up.”

They had coffee in the kitchen around the table. Neither one mentioned the China — Pakistan war that was all over the news media. Maria talked about kids and school and anything else.

“God, it’s almost six twenty,” Milly said. She crinkled her forehead. “You suppose Nancy isn’t coming?”

Maria let out a long sigh. “Lord, I hope she comes. That woman worries me. She just can’t let go of her fear. That’s what’s behind it all, raw, blundering, agonizing fear for the safety of her man.”

Both women were silent for a moment. Both thinking the same thing. They had the fear, too, but over the years had learned to cope with it, push it aside, and concentrate on something else.

A horn honked outside, three shorts and a long.

“That’s V in Morse code,” Maria said. They looked out the front window. Nancy sat on the front fender of her car. She saw them looking and waved.

“Bet you tarts didn’t think I’d show up,” she crowed a minute later when she ran up the stairs and into the front room.

“Wondered,” Maria said.

“Hey, I knew you’d be here,” Milly said. “Who can pass up the cherry pie that this girl promised us along with our fancy cups of tea?”

Inwardly, Maria groaned. Nancy’s eyes were bright and her head held high. She had that cocaine swagger that Maria had seen often when she had worked in drug rehab.

“Well, we’re all here. Coffee or tea, Nancy?”

“Take tea and see,” Nancy said doing a little dance over to the third chair at the table and sat down. “Where’s this delicious type pie I was promised?”

“Coming up.”

Milly turned to Nancy but before she could say a word she saw Nancy starting to unravel. She slumped, elbows on the table, one hand holding her chin. It slipped off and she barely recovered before her chin hit the table. The cup of tea skittered to one side, tipped over and flooded half the white table cloth.

Without a word, Maria tossed a kitchen towel to Milly to start mopping up.

“Oh fuck!” Nancy said. She leaned back in the chair and began to laugh. “I sure as hell fucked up again. Damn it. Shit why can’t I do it like you two bitches do? Why in hell can’t I be normal for just a few God-damned more days?”

Tears spilled out of her eyes and she cried silently. She made no move to wipe the tears away.

“Yeah, Will is still gone, over there beside fucking China where the bastards are killing people. They’ll try to kill my Will, I know it damn well as I’m sitting here.”

Her mascara had melted and ran down each cheek in a long black line.

“Nancy, the men are all on the carrier,” Milly said. “Nobody is fighting with the U.S. We’re out of it. We’ll probably stay out of it. The TV says China and Pakistan will overwhelm the little country of Nepal in two or three days. Washington can’t even get an order through channels in three days. Our guys are going to be fine.”

“Oh, hell yes. Just like when they went into China and one of our guys got wounded. Ardith Manchester called me about an hour ago. She confirmed that our guys went in and brought out that senator who escaped from China a week ago. You bitches know that? No, I didn’t think so. One SEAL was wounded and fancy britches Ardith didn’t know which one it was. One of us could have a shot-up man right now and we don’t even fucking know it.”

“Ardith called today?” Maria asked.

“Just the fuck said so,” Nancy snarled. Then she lifted her eyes and brows and shook her head. “Oh, fuck, I’m doing it again. I’m sorry, Maria. I didn’t mean to…. What the hell?”

She stared at Maria for a moment, then began to sag and tilt out of the chair. Milly caught her before she came unseated. Slowly Milly eased her back into the chair and stood beside her, pinning her there without seeming to.

Nancy looked at Milly a moment, then across the table at Maria who was not good at hiding her emotions. Concern flooded her face, generating a small frown.

“Dear, is there—” Maria cut it off as Nancy’s eyes closed and she sagged down until her face rested on the table. Milly eased her up until she was sitting almost straight again and her eyes came open.

“Oh, God, I need a nap.”

“First how about some of that cherry pie you were looking forward to,” Maria said. “Whipped cream or ice cream on top. Which one?”

Nancy shrugged, sagged toward the table again. Milly held her up. Maria set before her a small plate with a wedge of cherry pie with a lattice top crust and smothered with whipped cream.

For a moment Nancy smiled. She reached for a spoon, but before she could take a bite she threw up, the vomit that had been held in too long exploded across the table splattering the whole table and Maria as well. Nancy heaved again, then once more. Maria threw Milly a small towel and she wiped off Nancy’s mouth and face, then eased her back in the chair.

“Now you’ll feel better,” Milly said. “How about lying down for a while?”

Nancy nodded and tried to stand. She couldn’t.

It took both of them to walk her to the living room sofa and ease her down on the pillows. Maria brought a blanket and put it over Nancy and tucked it in.

Nancy blinked open her eyes and let tears wash out of them, then she whispered. “I’m so sorry, so sorry.”

“Hey, that’s what friends are for,” Milly said. “Now, you get some sleep and you’ll feel better. Somebody with the kids?”

But Nancy had turned off her lights and went to sleep in a half second.

Maria went to the phone and called the Dobler home. Helen, the fourteen-year-old answered.

“Hello, this is the Dobler residence.”

“Helen, are you all right?”

There was a pause. “Mrs. Fernandez? Oh good. Is mom there? I told her she shouldn’t drive. I said I could drive her over there. Did she make it?”

“She’s here, but she ill. Right now she’s resting on the couch.”

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Fernandez. I tried to stop her. She’s been sick all afternoon. Every since I came home from school she’s been up and down. Pills and booze and some coke from what I saw. I’m so sorry.”

“Helen, I’m concerned about you and Charlie. Do you want to come over here?”

“No,” a pause. “No, we’re fine here. Chas is playing with his computer. I have some homework.” She paused again. “And some cleaning up in the house to do. You heard anything about Dad?”

“No. We get an e-mail now and then but they don’t tell us much. The Platoon is still on the carrier Stennis from what we understand.”

“The war over there…”

“I don’t see how we can get involved, so don’t worry. Now, are you sure you don’t want me to come over there? Milly is here, you remember her. Could she come and stay until you guys go to bed?”

“Mrs. Fernandez, I’m fourteen. I don’t need a baby-sitter.” She stopped. “Oh, great, that sounded brattish and juvenile. I’m sorry. You’re being kind. No, thank you but Chas and I will be okay. Will Mom stay there tonight?”

“I’ll try to talk her into staying here. We have that spare room.” Neither of them talked for a minute. “Helen, if you want anything, need any help, you just call. Have you locked all the doors and windows? Do that right now. You’ll be fine. You’re so grown-up I can’t believe it sometimes.”

“Thanks, that was cool. We’ll call if we need anything. Right now I’m making some Easy Mac for dinner. Thanks so much.”

They said good-bye and Maria hung up. She checked on Nancy. She lay with her head thrown back, her mouth half open and a soft snoring sound came out. Maria tucked the quilt in again and went into the kitchen. It smelled of Lysol.

Milly looked up from where she washed the last of the vomit off the refrigerator and the side of the stove. The kitchen tablecloth lay on the floor with a mound of soiled kitchen towels on it. The room was cleaner than it had been two hours ago.

“Thanks, you didn’t need to.”

“Yeah. Now we need to make some plans. Nancy stays here tonight, and I go over to her place?”

“I just talked to Helen. She and Charles are in good shape. Helen doesn’t want a baby-sitter. She’ll manage. Nancy could sleep for six or eight hours. Let’s go check the e-mail.”

The computer growled at them, came on, and settled down. Maria had learned to use the computer in self-defense. Miguel was so good at it she had to get on board. She called up her AOL program, hit the sign-on key, and waited. They heard the small musical electronic tones and sounds from the hardware; then the screen came on with the e-mail window, and a voice said: “Welcome, you’ve got mail.”

There were two entries. The first one with the subject of “Uncle Henry’s ill.”

She looked at the second one. “Dull in China Sea.”

She clicked on the second message and it came on the screen.

Hey, Maria and Linda. Love you guys. All quiet here on the big tub. Just floating along. We’re on standby but don’t see how we can get involved. Nobody is talking much. At least they haven’t started to censor our e-mail. That will be when we know something is afoot.

Linda, you still want to take riding lessons? We’ll talk about it when I get back. Might be able to give you a few to see if you really do like horses. Hey, just heard that we have another five mile run up on the flight deck. Gets monotonous doing all those laps. Five times down the flight deck for a mile. So, take care, and I’ll write again as soon as I can. Love. Miguel.

As soon as she saw the message was from Miguel, Milly turned away and looked at a book on the shelf. When Maria had read both messages, she looked up.

“Milly, you want to check your e-mail. Easy, we just go back to the start and list you as a guest and…”

“No, we know that nothing is happening there right now. What was the date and time it was sent?”

Maria giggled. “Tomorrow about two in the afternoon.”

“Yeah, they are ahead of us time-wise,” Milly said. They went back to check on Nancy. She hadn’t moved and still snored softly.

Milly looked at her friend and worry clouded her face. “Maria, you worked in drug rehab. What can we do for Nancy?”

Maria waved her to the kitchen where she fixed them the tea they hadn’t had time to drink. She also saw that the pie had not been hit by the vomit and set out wedges of the pie with vanilla ice cream on top.

“In rehab we made suggestions. We showed a path they could follow. It’s like with an alcoholic. First the person themself has to want to quit, to dry out, or nothing that we could do would make any difference. They know what they’re doing. Some of them really didn’t know how to wean themselves off the drugs. When they admitted that and asked for help, then we could do some good and get some of them straight again. It didn’t happen often. We had no clout, no court orders, and no big money charges so we could insist that people dried out. We were county and advisory only. A real mess and mostly a waste of money.”

“So what can we do for Nancy?”

“We hold her hand, we clean up after her. We let her know that we love her and want only the best for her. We make ourselves available twenty-four hours a day for her. We baby-sit her when we can.”

“What shouldn’t I do?”

“Both of us shouldn’t scold her or put her down. We can’t indicate that we’re ashamed of her. We don’t let her think that we disapprove of anything she does. We tolerate it, we turn a blind eye to her tantrums and her drunks and her drug bashes. We maintain and do everything for her that we can.”

Something thudded in the living room. Both women hurried in. Nancy had fallen off the couch. She sat there, leaning against the couch, hair a mess, no make up, her blouse spotted with the vomit and the contrasting pants dark stained at the crotch.

“What the hell? Where am I? Oh God, do I feel like shit. Where?” She looked around, then nodded. “Yeah, good old Maria. The drunk’s favorite savior. What the fuck did I do this time, good old Maria?”

“You were sick, Nancy. You had a little nap.”

“Now, I’m going home. Just get me to the car and I can drive. Nobody else to drive. Damned lousy husband is off playing war games again. Fuck him!”

She struggled to stand but couldn’t. Maria and Milly hurried to her and helped her to her feet.

“Home, I want the fuck to go home.”

Maria nodded. “Sure, Nancy, we’ll help you get home. Might be better if we drive you. I know, I know, it’s only a little over a mile and a half. But it’ll be better. No trouble. That’s what friends are for, Nancy. We’ll help you however you want us to.”

“Home,” Nancy said. There was a pleading in it they hadn’t heard before. Not a sober tone, but closer to it.

They helped Nancy down the steps and to her car in the parking lot. Maria pointed to the back seat of the three-year-old Chevy and they eased her in where she promptly slid down with her face on the seat cushion.

Maria pointed to Milly to follow them in her car. Nancy’s keys were still in the ignition.