Free Tea Leafing: A Novel by Weezie Macdonald Page B

up. “Yeah, that sucks. I can’t believe that shit.” He
tapped the orange stick on Sam’s nail twice as a signal to switch hands.
    “How’d you hear? Have
Birdie and Mary Jane been in?”
    “No, Princess Nikki was
in the other day.”
    “Oh?” Sam raised an
eyebrow. “Do tell.”
    Rocky shifted in his
seat and sat upright, pinching his shoulder blades together, trying to crack
his spine. “It’s just gonna piss you off, I don’t want to stir up shit.”
    Sam glanced at Grace.
    “BLOODY FACKIN’ ‘ELL!”
Screamed a familiar voice from a partitioned back room.
    “Birdie?” Grace looked
at Rocky.
    Rocky nodded without
looking up, “Brazilian wax.”
    “Hey Bird!” Grace
yelled.
      “Okay, spill it, Rocky.” Sam turned her
attention back to the beefy twenty-something.
    “Well,” Rocky puckered
his lips, recalling the details “She was pretty high, which is normal.” He
hushed his voice, leaned in and rested the orange stick lightly on his chin.
“She was saying that Lena got what was coming to her.”
    The pedicure ladies
exchanged a look and the older one demanded in a shrill voice, “You pick your
color!”
    Rocky’s head snapped
around as he bitched at her in Laotian. He gestured at two bottles of polish
sitting on the table between the chairs. The two women stood and headed for the
back room.
    “Sorry, I told them to
go have a smoke and get the paraffin bath for your feet.” he rolled his eyes
back as if to remember what he was saying “She said that Lena got what she
deserved and anyone who messes with her will get the same.”
    Sam turned her face toward
Rocky and Grace, mumbling, “Was she making it sound like she had something to
do with it?”
    “She was trying to act
like she was in charge, you know, like she’s the boss’s girl and that makes her
special. She just kept saying that she and Fedya are protected. She wasn’t
coming right out and sayin’ anything specific. I couldn’t tell if it was the
drugs or her talking. Too hard to separate the two.”
    “EEEEEEEaaaahhhhhh.
CUNTS!”
    “Hey Bird, hang in
there!” Grace yelled at the white half-wall.
    Most of the women in
the salon smirked, in sympathy for the wax ritual. A few had a puckered,
distasteful look, probably for the language rather than the shouting.
    Birdie yelled, “Are you
birds warkin’ tonight, Grace?”
    “Plannin’ to. I guess
you’re not, huh?” Grace referred to Sam and Birdie’s suspension.
    “YYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEE
Haw.”
    Grace and Sam stifled
their laughter. “Wanna get some coffee? We’ll wait for you.”
    “I fink a Scotch would
be more like it . . . EEEEEEESSSSHHHHH.”
    The nail ladies
reappeared smelling like menthols. One of them carried a lavender scented
paraffin bath and plastic bags. Working in tandem, they began the dip and drip
process on Grace’s feet.
    As if there hadn’t been
a lull in conversation, Rocky blurted, “Plus, she has shit taste in nail color
and always forgets to tip, soooooo, there you have it.” The ladies grunted
their agreement.
    It hadn’t occurred to Sam
that Nikki could have had a hand in Lena’s death. She thought the comment about
Fedya had more to do with show than actual fact.
    “Did she say anything
more about Lena? I just don’t get how Lena might have ‘messed’ with her.”
    Rocky shrugged his
bulky shoulders, “I don’t know. Like I said, she was being all bad-ass . It coulda just been talk. You know, makin’ herself
feel more important than she is? Coke will do that to you.”
    “Yeah, I guess.” Sam
thought back to her drug days, remembering how her own sense of self had become
over-inflated. She knew Lena and Nikki weren’t friends, but they also weren’t
enemies. Her mind turned over the information, trying to see it from different
angles. Hoping something would make sense if she focused hard enough.
    Grace groaned and
motored her chair into a full recline position, head back, feet up…
    Rrrrrriiiiiiippppppp .
    “Holy