Read When the Sun Goes Down Online
Authors: Gwynne Forster
When the Sun Goes Down (26 page)
Frieda stood as Gunther and Shirley approached her. “Could you beat this?” she asked them. “I’m in shock, and I know you are, too. I never had any idea who my daddy was, and Coreen refused to tell me. I’m glad she didn’t, because I’d a done something terrible.”
Gunther opened his arms and brought her to him in a hug. “That’s all in the past, sis. I’ll take the DNA test as soon as we find a clinic or diagnostic service that does that kind of work. I expect the results will have to go to Riggs.” He turned to Coreen. “Can we get Frieda’s birth certificate?”
“I know where to get a copy if Frieda doesn’t have it.”
“I have one, but it doesn’t have my father’s name on it.”
“I don’t think that’ll be necessary,” Shirley said. “All Mr. Riggs needs is your date of birth. How old are you?”
“Thirty-seven.”
“That’s about right. Edgar’s almost thirty-six.”
“He’s upset,” Coreen said. “Is he going to be trouble for Frieda?”
Gunther looked to the ceiling. “He’s going to be trouble for all of us, including Donald Riggs.”
Coreen regarded him carefully. “You don’t seem to resent this. Why?”
“All I ask is the opportunity to make a good life for myself and anybody I’m responsible for. I’m doing that, and I am not depending on what my father accumulated. I would have been happier if he’d spent more time with me and less on his pursuit of wealth.”
Coreen looked from Gunther to Shirley. “When I realized that Frieda was working for a man named Farrell, I was terribly uncomfortable, even though she told me what a wonderful person you are and that the two of you got her such a prized job. I didn’t expect anything like this when Mr. Riggs called me. At last, Bates and I will have a real nest egg, and we can take a decent vacation. I’d better be going, Frieda.”
“I’ll take you home, but I have to be back at work Thursday,” Frieda said. She looked at Gunther. “Can we get the DNA test while I’m up here in Maryland?”
He turned to Riggs. “Can we?”
“Sure. I’ll make the appointment. Somehow I have a feeling that it isn’t necessary, but that’s what the will requires.”
Gunther looked at his watch. “It’s twenty minutes past twelve. What do you say we all go to lunch?” He looked at Donald Riggs. “Will you join us?”
“Thanks, but I have a few things to attend to, including making an appointment for that test. I’ll call you as soon as it’s set. By the way, Gunther and Shirley, I know how unsettling this has been for you, and I’m proud of you both for dealing with it as mature adults.”
“We already liked Frieda, so now we’ll try to develop closer ties like siblings. I feel sorry for Edgar,” Shirley went on, “but he deserves that reprimand. The problem is that Father should have made him shape up when he was a kid.”
Riggs nodded, almost as if lost in thought. “There are many things that Leon should have done but didn’t. I’ll phone you about the appointment, Gunther.”
Outside, Gunther noticed Frieda’s protectiveness of Coreen. “You two stay right here, and I’ll get my car. It’s parked in the next block.”
“It’s all right,” Frieda said. “I drove.”
“Leave your car here. I’ll bring you back.” He looked at Coreen. “I hope this hasn’t been too much of a shock for you. We’re all in the same boat. You probably made a wise choice to get on with your life. My father was not an easy man to live with, and after our mother died, he became neglectful and uncaring. I hope you at least live in a loving environment.”
“I hated him so long for the pain he caused me,” she said. “But until today, when I saw Edgar, he’d become a blur that I rarely thought of. I can thank my husband for that. You ... You’re a very kind man. I’m glad Frieda has you in her life.”
Gunther drove the short distance to the restaurant, and as they were about to enter, Cory stepped out of the adjoining delicatessen carrying what appeared to be his lunch. “Hey there,” he said to Gunther, who detained him with a hand on his arm.
“Hi. Meet my sisters and my older sister’s mother.” At Cory’s quizzical expression, he added, “Not to worry; it’s as clear as mud,” and they enjoyed a hearty laugh. “My sisters, Frieda Davis and Shirley Farrell,” he said. “And this is Coreen Treadwell, Frieda’s mother. Ladies, this is Cory Benjamin, one of my associates.” He noticed that Cory’s gaze lingered on Frieda, and considering her sudden and uncharacteristic shyness in accepting the introduction, he made a mental note to follow up on it. Cory headed for the office.
In the restaurant, they placed their orders, and he marveled that they didn’t seem ill at ease. Watching Frieda’s protectiveness of Coreen, adjusting her jacket, asking the waiter to exchange her napkin when it slid to the floor, and observing her hawklike, Gunther wondered if Frieda realized that she loved Coreen. He meant to have a conversation about it and tell her it was time she addressed the woman as “Mother.”
However, Frieda’s thoughts were elsewhere, and her entire nervous system seemed to have unraveled. When Gunther asked her whether anything was wrong, she realized that she couldn’t blow him off, and she didn’t want to. He was her brother. Unable to control the shaking of her hands, she put them in her lap.
“Calling you Gunther is gon’ take some adjusting,” she said. “I was just thinking how I’d love to tell Edgar a few things. He told me the biggest lie. Fortunately, I didn’t believe him. Knowing what I know now, if I’d followed through on his lie, we wouldn’t be sitting here.”
Shirley leaned forward. “Go ahead and tell us if you want to. You will learn that integrity is not one of Edgar’s character traits.”
“He told me more than once that Gunther was attracted to me and that I was a fool if I didn’t encourage him. I told him he was lying, that I knew when a man wanted me and that Gunther liked me only as his nurse. I realized that he was trying to foment trouble. I need to ask him how he became so unprincipled and to tell him how close I came to indicting him for that hit-and-run. If I can just tell him those two things, I can start to see him as my brother.”
Coreen picked up her glass of water, put it down, and turned to Frieda. “I’ve learned the hard way that when there are people around you who are in the dark, you have to provide the light. Don’t be too hard on him. You never know where your blessing will come from.”
Frieda stared at Coreen. Maybe a mother’s wise counsel was what she’d missed after she ran away from her adoptive parents’ home. Coreen hadn’t tried to counsel her, perhaps because they both acknowledged that she didn’t have the right, but maybe Coreen hadn’t attempted it because she was afraid of losing what she barely had. She patted Coreen’s shoulder. “I know you’re right, but telling him off would be better than punching him.”
Suddenly, she laughed. “When Gunther was sick, Edgar came to the apartment and tried to throw his weight around. I put my hands on my hips, glared at him, and asked him if he wanted me to toss him across the room. He tucked his tail in so fast that I could hardly keep from laughing. I couldn’t throw a basketball across Gunther’s living room.”
“I think we should help Edgar all we can,” Coreen said, with the wisdom of an experienced social worker. “Sometimes all a person needs is a chance.”
“That’s just it,” Shirley said. “Edgar gambles away what he makes and what he borrows, and we keep on lending him money. But he knows we won’t do that anymore. He’s older than Gunther and me, and we are not going to support that awful habit of his any longer.”
Frieda nodded. “That’s right, because you will wind up right where he is. With absolutely nothing. It’s a pity.” Suddenly, she changed the subject. “Shirley, I meant to tell you that I’m taking classes at the university, and I can get my RN in two years studying evenings. And the cruise line is paying for it. My ship has really come in.”
Gunther looked at Coreen. “You and I have experienced Frieda’s wonderful nursing. Want to bet that ten years from now, she’ll be head nurse for the Paradise Cruise Line?”
Coreen’s face softened into a smile. “I sure wouldn’t bet against it. She’s a wonderful nurse. I’m so proud of her.”
“So am I,” Gunther said. They finished lunch, and he took Frieda and Coreen back to Frieda’s car. “I want to have a talk with you when you have time,” he said to Frieda. “Where are you staying?” She gave him the name of her hotel. “You can stay at my place if you want to. Get there in time for dinner. See you later.” He hugged Coreen. “It’s been a very good day.”
“Are you going to stay at Gunther’s house tonight?” Coreen asked Frieda when they were alone.
“I might, since he asked me to. Imagine that. He’s my brother and that trifling Edgar was trying to get me to start an affair with him. I’ve seen the time I’d have made a play for him just because I figured I could. But I thought about my stupidity with Glen, and that was enough to make me use some sense.”
“You’re over Glen, I hope.”
“Yes, but it wasn’t easy. I had so much guilt about it that the feeling for him eventually faded. Glen said the same. We’re a lot alike. We attract the opposite sex, and we exploit them. We’ve both screwed up. I’m through with that nonsense.”
“I’m glad to hear it, because that man Cory, who we met before lunch, looks like a decent guy, and he’s interested in you.”
“He sure threw me for a loop. But that’s life. I’ll probably never see him again.”
“Ask Gunther if he’s married. If he isn’t, tell Gunther you’d like to see him again, and I’ll bet he’ll arrange it.”
“I didn’t think of that. Thanks. Now I know I’m spending the night at Gunther’s place.”
She arrived at Gunther’s apartment at about six o’clock, and Mirna answered the door. “Girl, I heard all about it. You gon’ be such a big shot you won’t sit up in the movies with me and eat popcorn no more.”
“Hi,” Frieda said. “That’s the first time I ever heard you say anything that even a child could see was stupid. Soon as I get some of that inheritance, you and me gon’ spend a week in Italy. I don’t want to stay away from work too long, ’cause a lot of people looking for jobs. The good thing is I got some more real nice blood kin; I know who my daddy was, even though he wasn’t all that great; and I’m finally gon’ get me a little piece of property.”
Mirna stared at her and shook her head as if puzzled. “And you telling the truth, too. You ain’t never gon’ change as long as you live.”
Frieda released a throaty laugh. “Good thing you qualified it, ’cause everybody changes soon as they dead. Is Mr... . Is Gunther home?”
“He upstairs. Go on up.”
“But—”
“You his sister. Miss Shirley would go up without thinking about it.”
“But, Mirna, she lives here.”
“Girl, don’t get on my last nerve.”
“Oh, all right.” But she couldn’t do it, so she went to the bottom of the stairs and called him. “Can I come up, or are you busy?”
“Hi. Come on up. I’m in my office.” She walked up, turned left at the top, and went to his office, where he sat at the computer.
He turned off the computer, got a bottle of tawny port out of a cabinet, and poured two drinks. “I was hoping you’d decide to come. I want to talk with you as brother to sister.” She wasn’t sure she was ready for that. He raised his glass and waited until she did the same. “Welcome to the family. I want you to know that I’m proud to be your brother. After what you’ve told me about your life, what you’ve gone through and the battles you fought and won, I truly admire you.”
She could hardly believe her ears. “Thank you. I’m not a crybaby, but if I’m not careful, I’m gonna be gushing.”
“I think you should reflect on your relations with your mother. I watched you with her today, and I saw that you care deeply for her. Don’t you know that?”
“I like her a lot.”
“No. You care deeply for her, so stop punishing her and call her ‘Mother.’ ”
She glared at him but was immediately chastened by his stern look. “Is that what I’m doing? Yes, I feel a lot for her. I think I’ve been fighting it, but somehow she gets to me. And after hearing what my father wrote in that will, I have to admit I don’t know what I would have done if I’d suffered a rape and then gone through the horror she lived for the next nine months. She said her aunt didn’t even offer her an aspirin when she was in labor and that she gave birth on a tiny cot that had an inch-thick mattress, the cot she’d slept on during her stay with her aunt. The woman treated her worse than some people treated their slaves.”
“Some women put their unwanted babies in the dump,” he said. “She didn’t do that, and it isn’t her fault that your adoptive father proved to be depraved.”
“I know, and I shamed myself long ago for blaming her.”
“Good. The other thing I want to say is this: If you have any problems with Edgar, let me know. Don’t think you can handle it. I know how desperate he can get. Tell me immediately, and I’ll take care of it.”
“Thanks. You have no idea how much I respect you,” she said. “If I ever have any children, which doesn’t seem likely, I’m going to teach them to be just like you. I’d better go see if I can help Mirna,” she said, suddenly embarrassed.
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