Page 35 of No Remedy for Love

“All you and my mama do is cruise,” Remi laughed.

“Yep, we’re two old, retired widows enjoying life.”

“I know that’s right and you both deserve it. What did granny say about it?”

“She said she’s thinking about it but that means no. She always say that when she don’t wanna do something.”

“I don’t know why, it ain’t like she’s doing shit else. She might be scared to leave them in the house while she’s away, but I’ll make sure everything is straight.”

“I said the same thing, but you know how she is. I told her all she needs to do is pack a bag. I’ll take care of the expenses.”

“I’ll talk to her when I go over there. But how have you been, Mae? We haven’t really had a chance to have an in-depth talk since the funeral.”

“Truthfully, I’m doing better than I thought I would. I guess seeing the world with Lollie helped out a lot with that.”

“Yeah, I know you had to stay close to home when my daddy got real sick. I never told you this but I appreciate how you loved and cared for him right up until the end.” Remi grabbed her stepmother’s hand as she spoke.

“For better or worse. There’s no doubt in my mind that he would have done the same.”

“What about the house, Mae? Did you ever decide if you wanna go back or not?”

“I thought about it and I seriously doubt it. We had some good memories in that house, but that’s a part of my past that I’m leaving behind. Let Viola stay in there for as long as she wants and you can do whatever you want with it after that. I’ll go get a one bedroom condo or something whenever Lollie gets tired of me being here.”

“Chile, well, you ain’t never going nowhere. This house is not nearly as lonely with you being here. You’re the traveling partner that I never knew I needed.” Lollie walked into the kitchen on the end of their conversation.

“Hey Ma. I hear y’all are going to Jamaica soon.” Remi got up and greeted her mother with a kiss.

“Yes, honey, and I can’t wait. Me and Marva are gonna travel the world until you bring us a husband and some grandkids.”

“Well, honey, travel on,” Remi laughed as she got up to fix herself another bowl of gumbo. Her mother was an okay cook, but Mae knew her way around the kitchen like nobody else. She sat there and talked to her mother and stepmother for a while before she left to go see her granny.

She would usually see Ms. Bertha earlier in the day but she had been in the hospital for the past week. She was in the casino when she started to feel a tightness in her chest and they had to call an ambulance for her. It turned out to be a lung infection, which was common for her diagnosis. Blaze was stressed out because he was the only one who was up there with her most of the time. One of his female cousins, Zita, helped out as much as she could but her work schedule didn’t always allowher to. The whole family knew that Zita was money hungry, and Blaze always looked out for her. At least she took the time out to offer her assistance and he didn’t mind paying her for it.

Besides visiting for a few minutes, Bertha’s other kids and grandkids didn’t seem to care one way or the other. Remi gave him a break sometimes to go home, eat and shower, but she really couldn’t do much more than that. Thankfully, the hospital appointed a sitter to be with her at all times, so Blaze mainly went to stay there at night while he worked in the day.

“Hey, my baby. I was just about to call and see if you were still coming over,” Viola said when Remi walked into the house. It was rare for her to see her granny sitting downstairs since she had everything that she needed on the second floor. She got around great, so the stairs was never an issue.

“Yeah, I just stopped by my mama and Mae first.”

“She came over here earlier to bring me some gumbo. That girl know she can cook. That’s why your daddy started gaining all that weight,” Viola laughed sadly as she reminisced about the first and only child that she’d ever lost.

“I just went over there and ate. They told me about the cruise. Why don’t you wanna go? You know you wouldn’t have to pay for anything.”

“I told her the same thing,” Shiva spoke up and said.

“Girl, I didn’t even see you sitting over there,” Remi noted. Her cousin was sitting at the end of the kitchen counter with only the light from her computer visible.

“I’m too damn old to be doing all that traveling. The last vacation I took was to Arizona to see my baby.” Viola waved both her granddaughters off.

“Granny, stop. You came to see my daddy when he got too sick to come see you. And that was not a vacation since you insisted on waiting on him hand and foot.”

“I know but I can’t swim girl. That’s a lot of water to fall in.”

“You are not gonna fall. Think of it as a floating hotel. It won’t even feel like you’re on a boat. You can eat all day and night if you want to. They even have casinos on some of them.”

“Really? A casino on the cruise boat? I only play the penny machine when I go. Do they have that?”

“I don’t know but I’ll make a deal with you. If you go on the cruise, I’ll give you all the money you need for the casino. That way, you can play the dollar machine and increase your chances on winning.”

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