Free The Devil Has Dimples by Pepper Phillips Page B

on a
red wooden rocking horse outside.  The pleasure shown on his round little face,
his small hands grasping the handles for all he was worth.
    “These are all in order.  I guess it would be smarter to
start at the back.”  Margie gave a weak smile, and turned to the back of the
book.  Grant must have been in his early teens, with braces.  His arm around a
young Tina, who looked hard even then.
    “He’s dated Tina since high school?”
    Margie gave a low chuckle.  “That’s what she believes.  It’s
more like she dated him.”
    “So, she’s chasing him?”  I asked.
    Margie raised her eyebrows.  “Relentless in her pursuit, is
more like it.  Grant abhors the thought of marriage again, but she’s in there
trying like the dickens to get him to the altar.”
    How interesting.
    “Why does he hate the thought of marriage?”
    Margie snapped the book shut.  She looked at me with pain in
her eyes.  “He’s always been against marriage, and when he did marry, it was a
disaster.  Could you get the next book?”
     I had stepped into dangerous territory, so I rose to do her
bidding.  As my hands reached upward, I asked.  “Just how many books are
there?”
    “Oh, just two.  Grant was impossible to catch for photos
once he was in high school.”
    My hands grasped the book and I handed it to Margie.
    Her hands were quieter now.  She turned immediately to the
back and turned the pages from left to right.  There were photos of Grant and
some high school boys dressed for wrestling.  When Margie turned the next page,
she stopped.
    “This is it.”
    There stood Grant.  And my mother.  Maudie.  Pride shown on her
face as she turned up to look at Grant.  Her dainty hand on his chest.  I moved
my finger to touch my mother’s face. She seemed so tiny next to Grant.  She was
in profile, so I couldn’t see her clearly, but she had a graceful quality to
her.  I don’t think I looked anything like her.
    How I wished that things could have been different.  My own
graduation picture showed my mother--Edna--standing there, looking
uncomfortable.  I doubt that she was as happy as Maudie appeared to be.  Grant
wasn’t Maudie’s child, yet the love showed on her face.  Where was the love on
my mother’s face?
    I let out a deep sigh.  Some things would never be known.
    “You can have that picture.  That is if Grant says it’s
okay.”
    I carefully removed the picture from the corner holders and
slipped it into my pocket.  “I’ll ask him if I can have it.”
    “Maudie was a lovely woman.  I miss her.”  Margie said.
    “I’ve heard so many conflicting statements about her.”
    There was a pause, as though Margie debated on what to tell
me.
    “Maudie was awfully good to me.”  Margie stated.
    I looked at the woman next to me, and asked softly. “How?”
    “Oh, she took Grant in hand after Lenny and I married.  He
was so hostile.  Still is in many ways.  I know our marriage bothered him.  We
never told him the real reason we married so quickly after his mother died.”
    “Don’t you think you should?  Maybe it will release some of
his anger.”
    She snorted.  “I don’t think so.  I was pregnant.”
    “Oh.”  Yeah, I don’t think that Grant would take that news
gently.
    “I lost my baby two weeks after we got married.  The doctor
told us there wouldn’t be any more.”
    “How sad for you.”
    Margie shook her head.  “How sad for us all.  Grant lost his
mother, I lost the only chance of ever being a mother, though I surely tried
with Grant.  I’ve left this place exactly as it was when his mother died, so he
could always feel like he was ‘home’.”
    Surprise.  Surprise.  Surprise.  No wonder it looked
outdated.  It was.
    Should I tell her?  She seemed like such a nice person, and
she deserved more from Grant.  “Redecorate.”
    “What?”
    “Redecorate.”
    “Oh, I couldn’t do that.”
    “This is your home.  Grant has to get over the fact of