Chapter 2

I didn’t have a chance to brood about Philip because the phone rang right after I heard him stomp down the stairs. “Hello?”

“Laurie Anne?”

“Vasti? What’s up?” My cousin rarely spends money on long-distance charges from North Carolina to Boston, and it wasn’t even weekend rates yet.

“I wanted to make sure that he got there all right. Mama was watching the Weather Channel and she said that y’all were having a snowstorm up there.”

“Richard left last night, and the storm hasn’t started yet, so everything’s fine,” I said, touched by her concern. I should have known better.

“Richard? I’m talking about Thaddeous.”

“What about Thaddeous?”

“Did he not make it in?”

“In where? What are you talking about?”

“Aunt Nora said he was leaving first thing Saturday morning, and even with changing planes in Charlotte, I thought for sure he’d be there by now.”

“It’s Friday, Vasti.”

“Oh dear!” she said unconvincingly. “I’ve gone and spoiled the surprise.”

“What surprise?”

“I’d better not say another word. ‘Bye, now!”

“Vasti!” It was too late. She had already hung up. I thought I knew what was going on by then, but I called Aunt Nora, Thaddeous’s mother, to make sure.

“Hello?”

“Aunt Nora? This is Laura.”

“Why, Laurie Anne! This is such a surprise,” she said, in a theatrical voice that would have told me that something was up even if I hadn’t already known it.

“Aunt Nora, is Thaddeous coming up here?”

There was a short silence. “How did you find out?”

“How do you think?”

“Vasti?”

“She just called.”

“I knew I shouldn’t have told her, but it slipped out. And Thaddeous wanted it to be a surprise.”

Looking at the mess in my living room, and remembering that the kitchen was even worse, I was pretty sure that it was Thaddeous who would have been surprised. “How was he planning on getting to my apartment?”

“He figured he could take the subway, like you do.” As I was trying to imagine my cousin making his way to my place on the subway all by his lonesome, Aunt Nora added, “He figured he could stop and ask somebody for directions if he needed to.”

“It’ll probably be better if I meet him at the airport,” I said, trying to be diplomatic. Knowing how much Aunt Nora likes surprises, even vicarious ones, I said, “Tell you what, don’t tell him I know, and I’ll surprise him instead.”

“That’s a good idea.” She paused. “Then you don’t mind him coming?”

“Mind? I’ve been wanting him to come visit for I don’t know how long.” I would have preferred more notice, but that was neither here nor there.

“That’s good. He hasn’t taken any time off from the mill in a coon’s age, and he’s got so much vacation stored up that they were going to take it away from him. Besides, I thought maybe you could use the company with Richard being gone.”

I knew which of those reasons was the real one, of course. Though Aunt Nora tries to be a nineties woman, she just hates the idea of my being in a big city without my family around. But she meant well, and I really was looking forward to seeing Thaddeous. I got his flight information, and before I hung up, warned her, “Now don’t let him talk to Vasti before he leaves.”

So much for my plans to mope about Richard, pig out on sour cream-and-onion potato chips, and watch the snow come down. I looked out the window. No snow yet, but I could tell from the gray glow in the sky that it was coming. Then I went into the kitchen and sighed. I knew Thaddeous wouldn’t expect my place to be as clean as his mama’s, but he wasn’t going to be expecting dirty dishes on every available surface, either.

I was pushing up the sleeves of my sweater to start washing up when I thought about something else and opened the refrigerator. It wasn’t empty, but I didn’t have enough food to feed my cousin even one meal. Thaddeous is a big fellow with an appetite to match. That meant I was going to have to go out to the store. Normally, that wouldn’t have been a big deal, but since it was right before a storm, the stores would be filled with people buying enough milk and bread to last in case this storm turned out to be as bad as the legendary Blizzard of 1978.

I wasn’t happy about it, but there was nothing else I could do. So I pulled on my coat, grabbed my pocketbook, and left. I did check to make sure that Philip wasn’t hanging around when I left the building, but the coast was clear. I just wish it had been that empty in the grocery store.

By the time I got to the airport the next day, I had finished my shopping, washed all the dishes and most of the laundry, mopped the kitchen and bathroom, vacuumed and dusted the living room and bedroom, and neatly stacked everything I couldn’t actually put away. I didn’t think Thaddeous would write home about my housekeeping, but he wouldn’t decide to stay at a hotel, either.

Boston’s Logan Airport maintains what they call “sterile concourses,” meaning that I couldn’t go down to the gate to meet Thaddeous as he came in. Instead, I waited at the end of the concourse, hoping to catch sight of my cousin before he headed for the baggage claim.

I needn’t have worried about missing him. Thaddeous towers over most crowds, unless the Boston Celtics are around, and I spotted him long before he got to me.

“Thaddeous!” I yelled. “Over here!”

He peered over heads until he saw my wildly flailing arms and grinned. “What in the Sam Hill are you doing here?”

“I live here. What’s your excuse?”

By now he had made his way to me and nearly lifted me off my feet in a great big hug I did my best to return.

“Just thought you might like some company for a few days,” he said.

“A few days? If you try to get back on that airplane in less than a week, I’m going to knock a knot on your noggin. And two weeks would be better than one!”

“How did you find out I was coming?” Then, before I could say anything, he answered his own question. “Never mind. I knew Mama shouldn’t have told Vasti.”

I saw we were blocking traffic, so I said, “Come on, we’ll go get your luggage.”

I’ve flown in and out of Logan enough that it took me no time to find the right baggage carousel, meaning that we had that much longer to wait for his suitcase to arrive.

It was while we were waiting that Thaddeous leaned over and whispered, “Am I dressed all right?”

“You look fine,” I said. He was dressed in blue jeans, a flannel shirt, and his winter jacket, and carrying his Walters Mill ball cap. His mama must have reminded him to take it off inside. “Why?”

“I just wasn’t sure what I should wear up here. I didn’t want to embarrass you by looking like country come to town.”

“Thaddeous, I’m so glad to see you that you could be wearing a lime green polyester suit and I wouldn’t mind. Besides, this is Boston. You can get away with wearing anything here.”

“Is that right? Then I should have brought my Stetson, like I wanted to.”

Actually, it was just as well that he hadn’t. The only men I see wearing cowboy hats in Boston are tourists, gay, or both.

Thaddeous’s suitcase showed up then, and after he grabbed it, I said, “I thought we’d take a cab into town.”

“What about that subway you keep telling me about?”

“There’ll be time for that later. This way you’ll get to see a little bit of the city on our ride in.”

Fortunately the cabbie knew my neighborhood, so I didn’t have to spend the whole trip directing him. Instead, I could show off for Thaddeous. “That building with the clock is the Custom House Building,” I said. “Just wait until you see it lit up at night. And that’s Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market. It’s just filled with funky shops and places to eat. The Aquarium is right by there, and I know you’ll like that.”

“I thought y’all had snow last night,” he said, “but it looks like everything’s open.”

“We did get about six inches, but Boston doesn’t close down every time it snows, like Byerly does. They get the streets cleared pretty quick, so about the only real difference snow makes is messing up the sidewalks and making it even harder to find a place to park.” I pointed to a snowbank blocking two car lengths along the curb of a side street. “See what I mean? Makes me glad I don’t have a car.”

“I’m right surprised that there’s so much traffic,” Thaddeous said. “I thought I’d miss it coming in on the weekend.”

“This isn’t much traffic, Thaddeous. Wait until you live through rush hour.” I kept on pointing things out for him until I decided he was overloaded. Then I leaned back and watched him. Seeing his face made me remember how I had felt when I first came up North to go to college. Until then, the biggest city I had ever seen was Charlotte, and Boston had seemed magical to me. I envied Thaddeous, seeing it all for the first time.

When we got to my street, the end was blocked with police cars, so I paid off the cab there and we walked the half-block that remained.

My upstairs neighbor, a man I knew just enough to speak to, was standing on the steps of my building.

“Hi, John,” I said. “This is my cousin, Thaddeous Crawford, from North Carolina.” The two men shook hands. “What’s going on?”

“The police found a body in the alley behind the building,” he said.

“Are you serious?”

He nodded. “Some bum froze to death back there.” A car pulled up and honked its horn. “There’s my ride. See you later.”

Thaddeous looked at me, but all I could say was, “Welcome to Boston.”