AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Support group,” Janice emphasized. “We’re all ex-cons of one sort or another.”
Stormy panicked. “I don’t think I ought to be here. I’m on parole.”
“Aren’t we all? Or probation, anyway,” said Noreen. “You don’t have to be concerned about association, though. We’re a self-help group. It’s allowed.”
Embarrassed, Stormy shifted in her chair. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to imply…”
Noreen smiled. “It’s okay. We know exactly what you meant—that’s why we meet. We do know what each of us faces. We know the hardships, the suffering, and the fears.”
“I had a panic attack yesterday,” said Thelma. “A police cruiser came up behind me with sirens blaring. I thought my heart would bust right out of my chest.”
Noreen laughed. “Didn’t have far to burst, did it? Thin as you are.”
“We can’t all be as blessed as you, Noreen. At least I don’t have to spend half a day’s wages for a fancy underwire bra to hold up mygirls. Anyway,” Thelma continued. “The cop went around me to a fender-bender at the intersection. But I was so shaky I had to pull over and catch my breath.”
Noreen put an arm around Thelma. ‘‘Nothing happened, and you’re safe. That’s the thought to hang on to.” Noreen looked over Thelma’s head to Stormy.
“Thelma let her boyfriend use her car while she was at work one day. Two days later, she was stopped for having a headlight out, and when she had trouble finding the registration, the copshelpedher. In the process, they found a bag of drugs—not hers, of course—under the seat. She was arrested for possession. Her stud disappeared and let her take the rap.”
“I don’t use drugs,” Thelma put in, brushing ragged bangs out of her eyes. “But I couldn’t convince the court.”
Stormy related to that.
The food was served.
Sandy sat down. “How did we do on the garage sale?”
Janice smiled. “More than you need, honey. We got enough to see you through, plus a few extra bills we can split amongst one another.”
Sandy burst into tears.
Thelma looked fondly at the sobbing young woman but spoke to Stormy. “Sandy needed money to pay a lawyer to go into court with her tomorrow. Now she has it. She has a hearing in family court. She’s trying to get her children back from her ex-husband.”
Stormy’s heart turned over. “I couldn’t bear it if someone tried to take Liane away from me.”
“The courts know that, society knows that, the men in our lives know that—so what emotional bullet do you think they use to keep us in line?”
“Point taken,” Stormy said, aggrieved.
Sandy wiped her nose and began to spoon up tiny bites of rice and beans. “Bennie is going to be shocked as hell when I show up in court tomorrow with a lawyer.” She leaned toward Stormy. “He walked out on the kids and me, left us with the mortgage payments, and never paid a dime of child support. Eventually, I lost everything, and we were reduced to living out of the car and shelters when space was available. By that time, Bennie had found someone else—someone moremoral, at least for appearance’s sake. She couldn’t have a husband who didn’tdofor his children, so Bennie had me investigated, and I ended up being charged with neglect.” Her shoulders slumped. “I was just trying to hold it together.”
Noreen got up and made hot dogs for the kids, adding potato chips, pickles, and glasses of iced tea to the tray. “This will occupy them for another half hour,” she said, then went to deliver the food. When she returned, she wore a concerned expression.
“Does one of us have any trouble the rest of us don’t know about?”
The women around the table looked at her.
“What do you mean?” asked Sandy in alarm.
“There’s a dusty BMW parked near the drive. A man wearing a GQ wardrobe as in espadrilles, a splashy aquamarine shirt, and pants rolled to his knees, with sunglasses roguishly on top of his head, is leaning against the SUV as if he owns the world. Not the type to shop garage sales, I assure you. He looks ready to storm a drug king hideaway singlehandedly.”
Stormy’s face flamed. The description fit Tyler. “He’s my trouble, I’m afraid. I’ll go get rid of him.”
Noreen stopped her with a gesture. “Is he your ex? Is he dangerous?”
Stormy shook her head. “Neither. He’s not dangerous in the way you mean. He’s more of an irritation.”
“Oh, well, then, leave him be,” Noreen counseled. “Sometimes a confrontation is what a man is after. It has to do with control or manipulation. Let him hang out there in the sun and twiddle his thumbs. Might do him some good.”
