LITMIR.BIZ

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it all off to spite my mother, who insisted that girls had to wear barrettes and dresses when they went to school. Once I saw Eleanor, all I wanted was long silky hair. I didn’t cut my hair short again until I was sixteen and headed off to college.

      “How did you find me?” I asked. “I tried to call you when I moved back to Atlanta, but they said your number was disconnected.”

      “Hi, sweetie. I googled you and there you were. Funny how we all ended up here—you, me, Tommy. I live ten minutes away in Little Five Points. Small world, huh?”

      Small world maybe, but I wondered if Ellie had moved to Atlanta in hopes of working something out with Tommy. They dated in high school and then broke up when Ellie got a better offer from the quarterback. Loyalty wasn’t Ellie’s strong suit. Forgiving wasn’t Tommy’s. She eyed me, and as usual around Eleanor, I wished I’d combed my hair and put on makeup.

      “Tommy was just here,” I said to get the focus off me. “You missed him by thirty seconds.”

      “I thought I saw his car,” she said.

      “So you two have been in touch?”

      “No, no,” she said quickly. “Haven’t seen him in a year. Tommy doesn’t have time for me.”

      “You and me both. It’s funny though—I thought Tommy just bought that Mercedes.”

      Ellie shrugged. She looked over my yard and my 1920s brick bungalow. “This is a big house. You live here all alone?”

      “I don’t have a man in my life right now if that’s what you mean. But I do have my cat, Majestic, and my dog, Hermione.” I looked around. “Where are the kids?”

      Eleanor seemed to be out for a stroll with no kids in sight. She looked good. Her hair was shorter and her figure was as great as ever. The only thing that looked off was her smile. It didn’t light up her face the way it usually did.

      “What’s wrong? Are the kids sick? I’m seeing a lot of norovirus in the clinic these days.”

      “No, no. The kids are fine. Thank God. Nothing with the kids, and I want to keep it that way. They’re in school. I just stopped by, so we could . . . chat a bit.”

      “Chat a bit” was Eleanor-speak for “I have a problem.”

      “Come on in,” I said after giving her another hug. I could hear her gasping for air. “Sorry, sometimes I forget my own strength. I’m just so glad to see you. Where is your car?”

      “Repossessed. I took a bus. You’re right on the line from Little Five.”

      “Why didn’t you call me? I could have picked you up.”

      “I wasn’t sure I’d actually have the nerve to see you. Not after how I left the last time. I never thanked you for saving my life. Again.” She gave me a momentary mea culpa look and then shook it off with a quick twitch of her slender shoulders.

      Occasionally, Eleanor spoke the truth. This was one of those times. I had rescued her from a thug who would have been happy to beat the crap out of her for promising something she didn’t deliver. That was the story of Ellie’s life. She promised and didn’t deliver.

      “Something smells delicious,” Ellie said as I ushered her inside. Hermione wagged her tail and then settled on the couch.

      “Home-made cinnamon rolls. Can I get you some along with coffee, tea?”

      Eleanor shook her head. “I can’t stay long. It’s a wonderful house,” she said, looking around. “Just the house I’d expect you to have—a house with character.”

      Eleanor knew all my soft spots and most of my vanities. Houses mattered to me. God knows I’d lived in enough of them. Majestic, my large orange cat, swished his way past Eleanor and sat down beside the open door to preen and see what the birds outside were up to.

      Eleanor stood near the front door. “I have a favor to ask. A big one.”

      “Maybe we ought to sit down first,” I said.

      Ellie perched on the edge of my grandmother’s rocker, and I squeezed onto the couch where Hermione was sprawled. “Okay, shoot.”

      “I know this is a huge imposition, but I don’t know where else to turn. You’ve always come through for me in the past. It wouldn’t be for long. Just till I got a few things sorted out.”

      This was going to be quite a favor. “Tell me, Ellie.”

      “Do you think the kids could stay with you for a few days?”

      I stared at Ellie. She looked desperate. Frantic—if the way she rocked back and forth on the edge of the chair was any indication.

      “Of course,” I said. That was always my first response to Eleanor. Tommy said I picked up trouble the way other people picked up a favorite book to read. He swore I had a deep-seated neurotic need to be everyone’s rescuer, the bigger the problem the better. That was Tommy’s latest interest—shrink talk. Ever since he’d gone to therapy for about two weeks, he understood the world of the psyche.

      “But why do you need me to do that?”

      Ellie fidgeted. “There’s just something I have to do. And I can’t do it with the kids in tow. I need to know they’re safe.”

      “Safe?” Now I started to fidget. “Ellie, what are you up to this time?”

      “Don’t press me, Ditie. You’re the only one I can turn to. The only person I know I can trust. The only person I’d leave my children with. Lucie talks about you all the time. When will she get to see her Aunt Di?”

      Ellie found another of my soft spots—a kid who likes me. Kids in the practice like me well enough, but they’re a lot less enthusiastic after I poke them or give them a shot.

      “Lucie must be eight or nine by now. And Jason is what, five?”

      “Jason turns five in a couple of days and Lucie will be nine in September.”

      I was silent, and I’m sure I looked worried.

      Ellie glanced at her watch and stood up. “I have to go. I’ve got something I have to handle, and I don’t want the kids in the middle of it. If you can’t help me out, I’ll find someone who can.”

      “Take it easy. Of course, I’ll help you. But I need to know what’s going on with you. You look frightened.”

      Ellie composed her face. “Not frightened,” she said. “Excited. I’m about to make a killing. Maybe I’ll buy a house next door and we’ll become the sisters we were always meant to be.”

      I smiled. Ellie was like a sister to me. Not always an easy one, but one I loved.

      “The kids won’t be a burden,” she said. “They go to Morningside Elementary. They take the bus from our apartment, but they could walk from your house. Lucie is very responsible. She’s as much a mom to Jason as I am.”

      I nodded. She’d been a mom to Jason the last time I saw them. Lucie got her responsibility gene from somewhere, but it wasn’t from her mother. “Do the kids ever see their father?”

      “Of course not. He’s no good, you know that. Doesn’t pay child support, much less alimony. I don’t even have a current address for him.”

      Eleanor, for all her looks, never had good luck with men. Her father was a run-around, and maybe that’s just what she expected and got from the men she hooked up with. She left her husband before Jason was born and I never knew why.

      “When shall I pick up the kids?” I asked.

      “At five or six, if that works for you.”

      “Sure.” Why did that word fall so easily from my lips? I didn’t actually know how this would work. It was Friday, my day off, but I had a morning shift at the Refugee Clinic on Saturday, and what about Monday?

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