The Company We Keep. Mary Monroe
whenever she ran into him in public, or if he happened to drop by Nicole’s apartment when she was there, she went out of her way to be cordial. But he treated her no better than he did a dog he didn’t like.
“Nicole, did you and your husband get back together yet?” Grandma Stewart asked with a hopeful expression on her face. Teri and Nicole looked at each other and cringed.
“Greg has remarried,” Nicole reminded in a stiff voice. It was obvious to Teri that Greg was the last thing that her girl wanted to discuss with the Stewarts or anybody else. Nicole cleared her throat, then grabbed a napkin and started to nibble on a turkey wing.
“Now there you go, eating like a bird, too, girl,” Grandpa Stewart complained. “You and Teri are two peas in a pod. No wonder you’re both still single…”
“Can I talk to you two in private?” Teri queried, looking from one grandparent to the other. Then she looked at Nicole. “You can stay if you want. You’re family, I guess.”
Nicole gave Teri a confused look. She didn’t like the serious look on Teri’s face. She decided that whatever Teri wanted to discuss with her grandparents, she didn’t need or want to know. She dealt with the ups and downs of the aged enough in her own family. “I think I’ll join the crowd in the living room, if you don’t mind,” Nicole said. “You and I can chat later.”
“Later,” Teri said, giving her friend a defeated glance. Then she turned to her puzzled grandfather, waving the documents she had taken from her grandmother in his face. “Whose idea was this?”
“What is all that?” Grandpa Stewart wanted to know. He looked at the documents as if he were seeing them for the first time. Then he looked at his wife. They both shrugged. “I thought we settled this.”
“As long as you didn’t sign them, nothing has been settled. Whoever this man is, he’s a straight-up crook. And don’t you dare sign any papers he brings to you,” Teri ordered.
“Isaac, Teri said we could lose the house,” Grandma Stewart said with increasing alarm. “I told you that man didn’t look honest to me. He had enough grease on his hair to fry a chicken gizzard.”
“How do you know so much about this?” Grandpa Stewart asked Teri, giving her a suspicious look. “Do you know this man?”
“I know that people like you are getting scammed out of everything left and right these days. Our accountant’s parents got swindled out of thousands of dollars last month in a similar scheme,” Teri revealed.
“Was it the same outfit? The King Associates?”
“I don’t know if it was the same outfit, but it was the same scam. Look, I know a lot about these things. Please trust me. It’s been all over the news lately.”
“Why would anybody want to cheat us out of anything, Teri?” Grandpa Stewart asked with the wounded innocence of a child. And this was why it was so important to Teri for her to keep an eye on them.
“Because they can, that’s why. But they won’t if I can help it. You’re the two most important people in my life now. I am not going to let anybody take advantage of you.” Teri ripped the documents in two.
“What do we tell that Mr. Brinkley when he calls next time?” Grandpa Stewart asked.
“You give him my telephone number and have him call me. In the meantime, don’t even let anybody into this house trying to sell you anything unless I know about it. I don’t care if they are trying to sell you a fly swatter, you call me before you let them into this house,” Teri said in a stern voice, shaking her finger in the air.
“Well, I guess that’s that. I didn’t think we needed all that mess anyway,” Grandma Stewart said, leaving the room with her husband behind her mumbling under his breath.
Teri didn’t enjoy being in the position she occupied in her grandparents’ lives. But in a way she was glad she was. The fact that she always had to be highly alert to keep them out of trouble kept her on her toes in other areas. She knew that as long as she had her wits about her and could hold her own, growing old alone didn’t seem nearly as ominous as everybody tried to make her think it was.
“Is the coast clear?” Nicole asked, peeping around the doorway, then easing back into the room. Teri stood by a window, looking out at the backyard. Her old swing set and sandbox were still in place next to the brick barbeque grill that she and Nicole had helped Grandpa Stewart build fifteen years ago.
“It’s fine. Come on in. How was your date last night?” Teri asked, frowning at the half-dollar-size purple sucker bite on the side of Nicole’s neck. She promptly replaced her frown with a smile.
“Oooooh, it was nice.” Nicole swooned with a grin and a wink, rubbing her neck. “I can barely walk.”
“Oh, shut the fuck up, you nasty buzzard!” Teri snapped, pinching Nicole’s arm as she joined her by the window. “Happy New Year, girl,” Teri said, giving Nicole a big hug. “But if you don’t show up for work tomorrow, you’re fired. You look like you’ve been mauled.”
“Oh, you mean this?” Nicole said, rubbing her neck.
Teri inspected Nicole’s neck for a full minute, shaking her head the whole time.
“Say what you’ve got to say about it so we can get it over with,” Nicole suggested.
Teri let out a loud breath before she spoke again. “I hope I get one soon,” she said earnestly. Nicole gasped and looked at Teri as if she’d just sprouted another head. Then they both burst out laughing. “Let’s go to my room,” Teri invited. Nicole followed her to one of the two bedrooms upstairs.
Just like the backyard, Teri’s old room looked like she had never left it. And it was the only room in the house that had a youthful touch. There was a brass bed in the center with a blond nightstand on either side. A bright chenille bedspread covered the bed. A few stuffed animals still occupied a high-back chair in front of a vanity table.
“The dreams I used to have in this room.” Teri sighed. “Would you look at us?” She pointed to a framed photo of herself and Nicole on top of the vanity table. “This is the only picture that the folks wouldn’t let me take. We both look like a pair of crazy women trying to imitate Tina Turner with our flyaway wigs and short skirts.”
“We were the original crazy women.” Nicole laughed, looking at the picture as if she were looking at a picture of two sideshow freaks.
“Tell me about it,” Teri responded with a nod. The nostalgia brought tears to her eyes, causing her to blink hard and sniff a couple of times.
“And now look at us.” Nicole paused. “Speaking of crazy, do they know?”
“Know what?”
“That your crazy ass is seeing a shrink?”
“Are you kidding? I’d rather run naked down Sunset Boulevard before I let them know that. You know what their generation thinks about shrinks. Besides, I don’t think of Carla as a shrink in the traditional sense.”
Before Nicole could respond, Elliot, one of Teri’s other young cousins, came tearing into the bedroom.
“The Lakers won! Dwight Davis hit a three pointer at the buzzer!” the boy reported.
“Boy, get your knotty-headed self out of here,” Teri ordered. Elliot did a jig, crossed his eyes, and stuck out his tongue before he ran back out of the room. “That’s what you have to look forward to in a few years with Chris,” she told Nicole.
By five o’clock, most of the Stewarts’ guests had left. Teri and Nicole volunteered to stay and help clean up. They ended up doing all the cleaning. Grandpa Stewart had returned to his favorite chair in the living room and was now snoozing like a baby. Grandma Stewart kept trying to help, but all she did was get in Teri’s way.
“I appreciate your coming over,” Teri told Nicole just as they