In some cultures, chicken soup was the solution to all problems. In Tante Lulu’s world, it was gumbo. And St. Jude.
Within an hour, Tante Lulu arrived. She must have been gardening when Charmaine had called because she was wearing bib overalls and rubber shoes. On her head was a big straw hat over black-as-coal hair. Lordy, Lordy! I wonder who dyed her hair. The shoe repair guy? It looks like bootblack.
The first thing Charmaine did was sit down on the front steps with the old lady and cry her heart out. Again!
“Now, now, everythin’s gonna be all right.” She patted Charmaine’s back like she was a little girl. How many times had Charmaine done this over the years? Tante Lulu was more like a mother to her than her own mother, though Charmaine had been taken aback by the news that her mother had come to the ranch with the FBI guy to protect her. “Have a good cry, then pull yerself’t’gether. Yer a strong woman. Time ya picked yerself up and stopped wallowin’.”
Well, no pity from that quarter. And, really, Charmaine did not want pity.
“Ya go take yerself a nice, hot bubble bath while I fix us up some lunch. Take a glass of wine in with ya. I brought some of my dandelion wine from last year’s batch.”
A short time later, a much-refreshed Charmaine sat down at the kitchen table with Tante Lulu. Crawfish gumbo steamed in the bowl in front of her with a hunk of fresh bread to one side and another glass of dandelion wine to the other. To her surprise, Charmaine found that her appetite had returned, and she consumed everything that had been placed before her.
“Did ya see this?” her aunt asked, shoving yesterday’s edition of the Houma newspaper in front of her. The headline read, “Local Mafia Thugs Nabbed,” while the photo showed Bobby Doucet and some of his cronies being led off to jail in handcuffs. FBI agent Dirkson Denney was quoted profusely in the article and attributed with a prime role in bringing the bad guys to justice. Charmaine’s name was not mentioned, but Remy had told her that she might be asked to testify when it came to trial. She’d told him she would do so gladly.
“How’d you get your car back?” Charmaine had noticed Tante Lulu driving up in the infamous T-bird.
“Clarence drove it to my house last week and left it there while we was in hiding. That was great fun, wasn’t it? All of us crammed in that Whinny-bago?”
Oh, yeah. Great fun!
Silence hung in the air between them then as Charmaine pondered whether to ask the next question or not. She had to, of course. “How is he?”
“Who?”
“Pfff! You know who.”
Tante Lulu patted her hand. “He’s fine.”
“And that’s all you’re going to say?”
“The lawyers from Blue Heron Oil are scurryin’ aroun’ like rats, tryin’ to avoid jail time and big fines, but they pretty much admitted intimidating Charlie Lanier before his death, killin’ those steers, and settin’ the fire.”
“What a bunch of scuzzbags!”
“Speaking of scuzzbags, yer father, ever the one fer good timing, went out to the ranch last week and tried again ta get Rusty ta sell. Dint even bat an eyelash at the burned-down barn.”
“And?”
“And Rusty tol’ him to go ta hell.”
Charmaine smiled. Even when she swore, Tante Lulu was adorable.
“That cop that got Rusty busted fer sellin’ drugs has been busted himself now. When the dust settles down, I ‘spect there’ll be other cops what was on the take from Blue Heron. But the most important thing is Rusty got his conviction reversed. Went to court and everythin’ yesterday to get it all settled.”
And he didn’t feel the need to tell me.
But my phone was off the hook
That wouldn’t have stopped me.
“So now he can be a veterinarian again, I suppose.” Charmaine imagined that would make him happiest of all. Finally, he would get to do the work he loved most. Maybe he would even leave the ranch to Clarence’s management while he went off to Lake Charles to set up a practice with the good Dr. Amelie.