Bad News Usually Came Through the Phone, So Marie Was
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Fiction ad news usually came through the phone, so Marie was unprepared to receive it in the Wal- Bgreen's, face to face with her daughter's landlord. She was waiting in line at the pharmacy counter, where she was picking up three months' worth of medication for herself and Jimmy, her husband. There were at least five pharmacies that were closer to home, but Marie chose this one because she didn't want folks in town knowing her family's business. There was Jimmy's Glucophage and Good, Marie had thought. Welcome to Wade's voice was soothing, deep and Coumadin and some cholesterol drug the club. Then, because she knew how mellow as whiskey. She wondered idly (he'd had a minor stroke seven years much doctors valued compliance, she’d what his hands might feel like in her hair, ago); she was also picking up Atenolol put the prescription in her purse. on her waist. Marie felt her shoulders for her bumpy heart, as she called it. Now, as Marie waited in the inter- relax. Then, all at once, she realized that Sometimes, the rhythm would shift from minable line at the pharmacy, she re- Wade was rather handsome, that she was its usual light beat to a chaotic tempo called reading that so many people took at least twenty years older, and that she that felt like a bag of groceries had split these drugs traces were present in the hadn't been distracted by another man open in her chest and things were tum- drinking water. Why, if the whole world in so many years she couldn't begin to bling out of the bottom too fast to catch. was happier on medication, shouldn't count them. Today, she would also receive her first she surrender? She'd taken five days’ Wade tilted his head at her, as if he bottle of Buproprion, which Dr. Khira worth of the sample pills and noticed, if knew what she was thinking. had prescribed at her annual physical nothing else, that she felt a bit more "Hey," he asked, "how's Edna doing last week after she'd ticked the box for awake. these days?" depression. She'd hoped he'd ask her "Mrs. Moore, I was just thinking about "Enda," Marie gently corrected him. about her sadness, but instead he'd you!" Wade Thayer, her daughter's land- "We gave her my mother’s name. Irish." handed her two weeks' worth of free lord in Cedar Grove Apartments, stood "Enda, yes. That's nice. Old-fashioned." pills and a pharmaceutical brochure—an beside her wearing a lime green polo "We spoke by phone last week. You've e"ective dodge, she supposed—that shirt with a flashy swordfish embroi- got your rent?" enabled physicians to avoid speaking at dered over the chest pocket. He was a "Yes, yes." length to their patients. big man, tall and thickly built, and Marie "She sounded fine. She's doing better." In essence, he’d handed her a picture was amused to see him pushing a dainty "Well, good." He sounded genuinely book. First there was a fair-haired woman blue plastic cart full of discounted bat- pleased. “So, she's working?" in a gray kitchen, holding her head. Then teries, light bulbs, and cheap plastic chil- "Enda, yes. She's got a little job help- there was a brilliant yellow pill. Finally, dren's toy sets. One was a princess set ing out at the Gulfstream at lunch and there was the same woman wearing pas- with a tiara, a synthetic blonde ponytail, dinner. Not waitressing, of course. Some- tels, lipstick, and tossing a ball with two and a hand mirror. "I stock up after the times she buses, but mostly she handles children. Marie had looked at Dr. Khira, holidays," he shrugged. the dishwashing. She says she enjoys it." ready to speak, but instead smiled a "Grandchildren?" asked Marie. Wade laughed. "I can see that. Don't smile that was more a reflex, a simple "No, no. I like to give out little things tell my Julie, but I like doing the dishes, revelation of teeth, than an expression of now and again to the kids at Cedar too." Marie o"ered a smile. She'd never her true emotional state. For the smallest Grove when I collect the rent, make re- met Julie, Wade's wife. of moments, he’d appeared bewildered. pairs." "Well, see, the reason I ask about Enda www.brainchildmag.com 47 Fiction F I N D I N G MA R S is that I've been bit worried for her lurch. "I was out there today and told her one of the men she'd dated, though health—since she's taken to wearing that she had to stop. She stormed o" to her Marie doubted people called it that any- wig." Marie blinked. "Wig?" She felt her apartment. She took a few bits with her: more. The livid bruises that ran from the throat constrict. a child's shoe and a bag from Bullock's outside of her wrists to her elbows Well, you know, when you see a wig or Barbecue. I know she's got food; why bloomed huge and alarming, but the a scarf on a younger woman, you auto- does she want that? I tried to talk to her, ones that made Marie weep were the matically think—well," he lowered his but she won't answer my calls and re- small faded blue and green fingerprints voice, "you know." fuses to open the door. I was going to on Enda's upper arms, along her neck. Marie forced out a breathy little laugh. phone you this evening, but," he spread The bartender where she worked wash- "I can assure you, Wade, that Enda does- his hands wide, "then here you were. ing dishes had been her salvation: Enda n't have cancer. She's just—Enda. One Here you are. How about that?" said he'd taken her to the bus station, month she's a redhead; the next she's a "I think you're confusing her with bought her ticket, packed her food, and blonde. Why not a wig?" She waved her someone else, Wade," she said. "I don't gave her his methadone for the long trip hand through the air and her metal doubt the wig, but dumpster diving? home. watch unclasped and flew from her wrist. That doesn't sound like Enda at all." The fee for Enda’s residential rehab Wade fetched it for her. “Mrs. Moore--" was four times the cost of their first "May I help the next person in line?" "Of course, I'll check in with her, just home. At first, Jimmy had refused to pay, "Good to see you, Wade." the same. It's been a couple weeks." arguing that "the girl had to be respon- The cashier retrieved Marie's pre- "Oh, I'm sure that would help." He sible for her own mess." Marie had to re- scriptions and rang her out. Several fliers squeezed her shoulder, his college ring mind him that though Enda was a were stapled to the outside of her bag: sharp on her collarbone. thirty-seven-year-old woman, she'd never one page had her name in bold black let- Marie fled the store but sat for a long held a job with benefits or insurance. ters at the top and the word Buproprion, while in her parked car. The winters were Jimmy relented, though he cashed in also bold. She folded the bag so no one mild along the North Carolina coast, so Enda's unused college fund to cover the could read it. unlike her childhood home in Ohio. It bulk of treatment. Wade Thayer was still lurking around was shirtsleeve weather today, in Janu- "Don’t expect me to keep funding her the pharmacy section, leaning on his ary. Marie ran her hands along the nap forever, Marie," he’d warned. shopping cart with his tanned, sandy- of the upholstery until she felt the hairs "No one," Marie told him, "has asked haired forearms, waiting for her to finish. on her neck settle down, until her eyes you to do anything forever." She'd hoped their conversation was over; ceased to sting. She wished she could Their conflict regarding Enda calci- now she saw there was more. He mo- open her mouth and bellow her fury at fied. Marie felt, as the rehab center did, tioned her over to the shampoo aisle. Wade Thayer. He was concerned for his that Enda had an illness, a mental illness, "Mrs. Moore, Marie, there's something investment, she thought, for his inter- in addition to her former substance else. I don't know how to say this; I'm just ests—not for Enda. She watched as Wade abuse. Jimmy believed Enda had some going to say it. Enda's been in the exited the store with a bit of bounce "issues" that included malingering and dumpsters. I've been out twice this in his step, his burden o#oaded. taking advantage of his ability to pay for week after folks called. See, it dis- her needs. tresses the other residents. And, . Since Enda's return from rehab, she of course, they worry for her, too. Eighteen months ago, after nearly and Jimmy had coiled away from each Does she have everything she two decades of what Marie had other, and meaningful conversation needs?" thought was a sad yet peaceable es- ceased.