A Place to Wait
Excerpt from A Place to Wait
The day Sister and her husband came for Daddy, if he knew what was happening, he didn’t let on. Frances Joe hadn’t figured out what to tell him beforehand, so she didn’t say anything. But after an early supper, she bathed and dressed him in his newest khaki pants and a starched and ironed white shirt. He looked respectable, the way she remembered. Then they sat on the porch, Frances Jo wringing her hands and her daddy sitting easy, stroking Buster’s broad head.
Sister’s place was about twelve miles from Daddy’s and they didn’t come before they had to. When Sister told Daddy to get in the car, he pried himself out of the chair and hauled himself down the steps, shaking off her offer to help. Leaning on his cane and Buster, he made it to the car. Sister opened the back door, and he stopped, turned stiffly and waved good-bye to Frances Jo. He patted Buster’s head and motioned him back to the porch. As they drove away, he didn’t look back. Frances Jo wasn’t sure why; maybe it was his stiffness, or maybe he’d already forgotten he’d left her behind.
After Sister and her husband moved Daddy into town, it all happened about like Frances Jo had feared. Sister kept Daddy away from whiskey, and when he didn’t go on his good days with Buster to the clearing, he quit having good days. He died just before Christmas, three months after Frances Jo left.
The funeral was in the middle of the week, so she didn’t get time off. When she’d asked, the boss yelled something about her being damn lucky to have her job back after the stunt she pulled.
Silas called, saying, “There was a good turnout, considering everybody who’d really known Red was either dead or past going.” Then he added, “Hon, your daddy looked real natural.”
Frances Jo knew the part about him looking natural was just something people said. She’d said it herself often enough. She just wished Silas had said he was sorry for her pain, and that everybody at the funeral had said that it hadn’t mattered that she couldn’t make it back.
Then Silas said Buster had turned up missing. He figured the old dog had gone in the woods and picked his place to die.
After Silas hung up, Jodie poured herself a drink and thought about what he’d said about Buster, and decided that seemed like the right way.