Free Murder Boogies With Elvis by Anne George Page B

here?”
    I nodded. “There were some other adjectives, but I can’t remember them all. They all had to do with his willingness to participate in conception, though.”
    Marilyn nodded but didn’t say anything.
    Finally I asked her if she would clue me in on what was going on. “The poor man was crying at one point.”
    She looked startled. “Charlie was?”
    “Into a very nice, white handkerchief.”
    “Well, I’ll be damned.” Marilyn picked up her fork and began to eat again as if we had been discussing the weather.
    “He said to tell you that he’s at the Tutwiler.”
    “Tough.” Marilyn shoveled a forkful of potato salad into her mouth and chewed slowly.
    “Who is he?”
    Marilyn held up her hand signaling that she was chewing and unable to answer. Finally she took a sip of coffee, pushed her plate back, and patted her lips with her napkin.
    “It’s a long story, Aunt Pat.”
    “I’ve got time.”
    “You’re sure he was crying?”
    The scowl on my face told her that she had better get on with her story.
    “You remember about fifteen years ago when I first moved to Pensacola that I took some courses at West Florida?”
    I nodded that I remembered; I didn’t.
    “Well, one was a speech course, and Charlie was in it. One night he asked me if I would go to dinner with him that Saturday, that it was his birthday. I told him it was my birthday, too, and we found out that we were exactly the same age to the day.” Marilyn hesitated, examining a red fingernail so perfect that it had to beacrylic. I wondered if she had had any fungus problems. I had let Sister talk me into getting fake nails several years earlier and had ended up going to the doctor.
    “Anyway,” Marilyn continued. I pulled myself away from the thought of greenish-black nails and listened. “We had a wonderful time, and we ended up with a relationship that lasted for a couple of years. Then Charlie went back to Lafayette because of his mother’s and father’s health. He asked me to marry him and go with him, but I think he would have been surprised if I had said yes. What we did do, though, was promise to see each other every year on our birthday. We made a pact that if we weren’t married and didn’t have children by the time we were forty, that we would get together.”
    “Sounds like Julia Roberts in My Best Friend’s Wedding .” I could have bitten my tongue when I said it. But Marilyn didn’t take offense.
    “It does, doesn’t it? Their deadline was thirty, though. We weren’t in any hurry.” Marilyn poked at the fingernail, which popped off and landed on the remains of her potato salad. “Damn,” she said, picking it up and wiping it on her paper napkin. The real nail, I noticed, looked pink and normal. “That thing’s been feeling funny all day,” she said. “I’ll have to get it glued back on before I go to the hospital.”
    “You’re going to the hospital? What’s wrong?”
    “Nothing. I’m going to the fertility clinic, Aunt Pat. I’m going to be artificially inseminated like Debbie was.”
    “Tomorrow?” I gave up on the cheese sandwich, which I hadn’t needed anyway.
    “For tests. They have to make sure I’m ovulating okay and that everything’s all right. Then they’ll set the date.”
    “But honey—” I actually felt a little dizzy.
    “Ma’am?”
    “What about Charles?”
    “I called him last weekend and said, ‘Charlie, we’re going to be forty next month, and I don’t want to get married, but I do want to have a baby, and you promised.’”
    “And?”
    “He said he thought our pact had always been a joke. So I told him that was fine, that my sister had gotten her twins at UAB and, by damn, so could I. And that you would understand.”
    “Apparently he’s regretted his decision.”
    “I don’t care.” Tears filled Marilyn’s eyes. She reached for her paper napkin, placing the fingernail on the table.
    A hard shower of rain hit the bay window. Muffin came and jumped in my