Free Wild Stars Seeking Midnight Suns by J. California Cooper

she had long taken him, and life, for granted. She thought they would both always be there. He seemed invisible at home, until she gave a dinner or gathering. His son always wanted his dad to visit him in the East. But he didn’t want to pack a suitcase just for three or four days, and he couldn’t enjoy staying any longer.
    So . . . he thought of Lily Bea. More than liking her so much; she could talk about interesting things, and she was a puzzle to him. When he thought of her, he felt just the slightest thrill-twinge in his mind and heart. Thoughts that gave him any kind of thrill or just reminded him of any thrill, were often on his mind.
    Weldon divined that Lily Bea must be terribly unhappy in the old cleaning shop. There had not been a bit of happiness in her face, or even a hint of the beauty he had seen there in the past.
    One morning Weldon decided, “I have to do something.” He called the Clean Cleaners and asked that Lily Bea be sent to pick up an order because he had a few questions to ask her about a new fabric.
    Maddy had answered the phone. He said, “Oh, don’t worry bout her, Mr. Forest. I can take care of that all right. I’ll be right on over there to see bout things.”
    Mr. Forest’s mind formed a plan without his permission or thought. He told Maddy, “Well, all right. But I am going to send a package of books to your place. I want you to give them to your . . . Lily Bea. They are about fabrics. I want her to read them. Then I want to talk to her about some new fabrics, and systems. Do you understand, Maddy? She has studied these things; she will know what I mean.”
    “Oh, yes, sir.”
    “Maddy, does Lily still do all my work orders?”
    “Yes, sir. I have taught her and she knows. I watch and see what she does. When they leave here, I know they right.”
    “I’m sure you do. Still, I want Lily to come to my office so I can discuss some things with her. She can tell you when she returns . . . home.”
    “Yes, sir. Sure will. Thank you, sir.” They hung up. Maddy grinned, proud of his business-self. Weldon to sit back in his plush grey leather chair, thinking. Under his breath, he said to God, “I never lied once.”
    The order with two books was sent that day: one book on new European fabrics from France and Italy and their care; another on cathedrals, thick with pictures from France, Italy, and England.
    Maddy called out to Lily where she was cleaning their house. “He done sent a order of work for you and a coupl’a books for you to read. You betta read them things. We in business to make money, and he the money-man. I’ll cook my own dinner or just heat somethin up.”
    Lily Bea was drudging in the rooms behind the cleaning shop in the kitchen, which had no light of joy in it. She heard Maddy’s words and could hardly wait to see the books, but she didn’t want to appear excited to her husband. She moved into Maddy’s bedroom, hastily smoothed the covers, and turned quickly away from his bed. Maddy cared nothing for symmetry, or harmony of the furniture in the rooms. The “furniture” was mismatched pieces from secondhand stores or the dump.
    When they married he had said, “This all we need.” He laughed as if it was a pleasant joke. “These things, and us, all look the same in here in the dark: broken and used.” He always included her because he needed her ugliness to make her as crippled as he was. He never complimented her, not even on her special work. He would look over the fine work she had done and tell her, “Oh, it’s all right.” There was no joy in her life. And lately, it had reached the place where she did not know how she could continue living her life.
    Her heart grieved so much from her life, recently she had gone to her mother, Sorty. Sorty had listened, with another glass of gin in her hands, bought with the money Maddy gave her every month. Said something like, “Chile, you lucky! We all got a cross to carry, but, at least, your belly is full, and