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“I met her,” she says when we’re done, folding her copy.
“Who?”
“Bernadette. Your mother. She was mean about my hair.”
I look toward the red-lighted exit sign, thinking about going for a night run later. Anything to run off this energy. “She had a hard time being nice.”
“That’s what you call it? Is that how she always was to people?”
“To people. Yeah.” Not the dogs, though. Never the dogs.
“She was like that to Vicky. A complete bitch about her clothes.”
“That’s what you get when you sign up for Team Bernadette,” I say.
“You think she signed up for Team Bernadette? Dude, your mom stalked her. She pursued her, manipulated her. Vicky did everything she could to avoid that woman, but she wheedled into her life and Vicky took pity on her and she made sure she was safe and all of that. And now here you are, screwing with her, too. Lay off.”
I pause. “My mom pursued Vicky?”
“Your mother literally harassed her, demanding she talk to Smuckers after the fair.”
I frown. “What fair?”
“The fair?” Latrisha continues. “Where she volunteered to fill in for the pet whisperer? Do you not even know this story? That’s how they met. Vicky was there selling those bow ties, and the person who was being pet whisperer or whatever didn’t show up. They had some booth or something. So Vicky volunteered to do it. They put this ridiculous outfit on her. And your mother comes along and Vicky’s like, Smuckers enjoys hearing you sing, and your mother was convinced she had dog whisperer powers from then on.”
Cold steals over my skin. “That’s how it all started?”
“I can’t believe you don’t know. Did you care to even ask? Or were you too busy listening to Coldplay and shopping for tartan plaid scarves?”
“What are you talking about?” My mind reels. Dog whisperer booth. Were these the details Vicky had tried to give me? The ones I refused to listen to? “Singing,” I say.
“Doesn’t everyone sing in front of their pet? That’s what Vicky said. And they’d run into each other by accident after that, and your mom would be all, You have to tell me what Smuckers is thinking! Offering her money and stuff. And Vicky would insist she wasn’t a pet whisperer, insist there’s no such thing. Your mom thought Vicky was withholding her psychic gift from her. Out of spite or something.”
I nod. “Of course she would.” Bernadette thought the whole world existed to spite her.
“Vicky and Carly would run into your mom a lot after that, mostly on this bench they’d pass every day going to Carly’s school. They wondered if she was stalking them. Your mom would hit Vicky up for readings but she’d refuse. And then this one day your mother was all dizzy and faint. It was hot out…” Latrisha relates a story about Mom having a dizzy spell. Mom needing help up to her apartment. Feeling queasy.
Needless to say, I’m the one feeling queasy now. None of this sounds like a con.
It sounds like Vicky, though.
Latrisha tells me about how Vicky saw the dry water bowl, how it made her worry. Of course Vicky would notice something like that and worry.
Fuck.
Latrisha tells me about the moldy bread out on the counter next to the butter. Was it all deliberate, Bernadette playing helpless to pull Vicky into her orbit? Probably.
Latrisha tells me about Vicky refusing money, so Bernadette hired Carly to walk the dog, as an end run around Vicky’s objections. Classic Bernadette—if she can’t pick off the strong animal in the herd, she goes for the weak one.
She goes on about how Vicky started playing dog whisperer when she thought it would help my mom. I walked in on her saying some pretty ridiculous stuff to her in that hospital room, but maybe it’s what my mother needed to hear. How would I know? I hadn’t spoken with her in years.
They all believed Bernadette was alone in the world. Bernadette would have encouraged that belief. She lived for drama.
My heart bangs out of my chest. Vicky told me she was a pet whisperer accidentally and I hadn’t believed her. Who ends up as an accidental pet whisperer?
Vicky does.
Because she cares about people. Because she’s a woman making her way alone in the world—without help, without protection—and she’d have empathy for another woman like that.
