The Sassy Belles. Beth Albright

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СКАЧАТЬ to the wooden planked bridge that guided us to the gazebo.

      I heard the sounds of the sirens coming in the distance.

      We located Sonny and found a small huddle of people standing east of the gazebo and, at the center of the group, with bare shoulders shaking, stood young Mandy Morrison, Tuscaloosa’s Miss Everything. She was head cheerleader, Miss Tuscaloosa High School, Miss West Alabama Fair Queen…. She had plans of moving to New York and launching herself on Broadway.

      Seeing how distraught she was, I had a feeling this event might slow things up a little.

      Mandy, her mom, dad and younger brother were all at the Cypress Inn celebrating her high school graduation and acceptance into a small liberal arts college in New York when Mandy and her dad went for a little father-daughter stroll along the river. They had stopped to smell the wandering vines of honeysuckle when Mandy spotted the body—well, part of the body.

      Right there, bobbing against the bank, was someone’s leg and the lower half of their torso.

      Vivi and I pushed into the little crowd of people just as Mandy was recounting her unfortunate vision.

      “I was just giving my dad a hug and, like, I looked over his shoulder and I saw a leg! At first I thought it was, like, a log….”

      Mandy kept talking…enjoying the attention even though she was somewhat “grossed out.” As she kept up the frenetic, breathless encounter of her graduation dinner surprise, Sonny took notes and the officers collected the evidence.

      Vivi and I peeked over the crowd of people now gathering at the banks.

      “For God’s sake!” she hollered. “It’s not even the whole entire body! But this is the half I know best. No. No way is this my Lewis.” Vivi could not keep it to herself.

      Harry jumped in immediately. “This is not a good time to share your opinions unless someone asks, okay?” He was clearly on edge.

      Vivi looked up at me with her half-drunk eyes. She was purely exhausted and it was showing. She pulled me down the bank away from Mandy and the crowd and headed toward the river. “C’mon, Blake, I’ve got to get a better look.”

      “Vivi, say nothing unless it is in a whisper directly to me. The last thing we want is to get you any more involved than you need to be. This is critical.”

      “I’ve got it, Blake. But if there’s a chance in hell this is my Lewis, don’t you think I ought to at least try to identify the half of the body that just washed up?”

      “Honey,” I said, “I’m right behind you.” My curiosity had taken over, too. I just had to see it, not that I would recognize the half that just washed up. But down to the muddy riverbank we went. I knew that with Sonny nearby, he would make sure we were able to slip through the crowd without a problem.

      We reached the edge of the river and there it was. Big and hairy, it was definitely the leg of a man. Sonny joined us. We were on the slope, and he was above us in the crest of the bank. At six-three he was a big presence anyway. But up on that riverbank he loomed like a superhero there to save us all. Vivi moved a little closer to him and leaned in as if in secret.

      “Sonny, it’s only half a body,” she said quietly.

      “Yes, Miss Vivi, we’ve got that part figured out.”

      Vivi stood between us, her head moving from side to side in slow motion, in disbelief. Silence fell over us. The three of us stood there on the banks of the muddy Warrior River under a darkening Southern sky.

      Vivi broke the silence. “Well, thank God this is the half I know best, huh? This is not my Lewis.”

      She leaned in and squeezed Sonny’s arm and tears rolled down her cheeks. We stood on the bank and watched the river roll. I looked at Sonny and noticed his face had softened in the moment. He looked at me full on and gave a little grin. I knew with his help we would all be okay.

      Harry walked toward us in his determined, deliberate way. He looked exhausted but still pulled together. His white oxford shirt still looked as starched as it had been that morning, the silver wire frames sitting on his nose sparkled along with the silver hairs sprinkled throughout his dark hair.

      “Well, the body part is already causing a problem.”

      “Why, Harry?” Vivi asked. “’Cause there’s no dental record for you?” Vivi smirked.

      Harry then told us the police would perform the DNA tests in the morning, and would try to match what they swiped at the motel room. He wanted to talk to me alone. Then Vivi said she wanted to talk to both of us alone.

      “Well, I know when I’m a third wheel,” Sonny said and winked at me.

      “Do you have anything else for us?” I asked Sonny before he walked off. I didn’t realize it, at first, but I was touching his arm.

      “No, Blake, I’ll get in touch with you in the morning,” he said. Something came over me. I squeezed his wrist and, I don’t know, but a feeling of comfort swept in and it made me feel warm and calm. I looked up at him and he was looking right through me. I let go and looked forward to the morning.

      “Okay, ya’ll. Listen to me,” Vivi began after Sonny headed back up the banks. “That is not Lewis’s lower half. There is no way in hell. I would bet my life on it.”

      Harry and I were silent and looking at each other.

      “Dammit! I know him. This is not him! Believe me…that little thing would have never kept me coming back!”

      5

      It was a quiet drive back to the McFadden place. The crystal-­clear night sky was ablaze with starlight. The moon hung over the tall pines and dodged in and out of sight, like a thief following us.

      I sat in back with Vivi, her head on my shoulder. The quiet felt good. No radio. No conversation. We had all been through a tremendous amount of emotions and it was a relief to take a minute and let everything digest.

      I stared out the window at the cloudless night sky. As the city baked in moonlight, slow-motion movie scenes flickered like a Super 8 film in my head. Scenes of my life with Vivi.

      It had always been just like this. I’ve always taken care of her. I think we both liked it this way. I’m older than Vivi by only three months, but Vivi’s the kind of girl who always needed a caretaker. I’m a little stronger, a little more able to focus. I am on a perpetual schedule. I like things neat and orderly…and predictable. Meanwhile, Vivi is full of adventure. She always loved a spontaneous road trip, though for me, that meant I had no time to pick out all the shoes I would need for the journey. But Vivi could just jump in her Thunderbird with no luggage, saying, “Oh, hell, we can get what we need when we get there.” Oh, I still jumped in the car with her, but immediately I’d get out my notebook and pen and start making a list. The more I thought about it, the more I realized we balanced each other out. She may have needed me to take care of her, to organize her life and keep her on the right track, but I needed Vivi to remind me of my wild side. To remind me to really live in the moment. As I sat in the car reflecting on the days I’d been living lately, playing second fiddle to my husband’s burgeoning political career, trying to forget what true love and romance really felt like, I realized that maybe I needed to СКАЧАТЬ