Vivian stood by the bay window in the front room around 10:30 a.m. and watched trees sway in the wind. She could see that the hot Santa Ana winds had arrived. Blades of grass simulated waves on the front lawn and leaves from nearby shrubbery fluttered.
She pondered, deep in thought. Since being thrown out the second time, her anger surfaced. It had simmered at a steady rate.
I’d like to pop her a good one, Vivian thought in reference to Rose, though she knew she couldn’t. I need to reason with her, whether she likes it or not.
Vivian figured it may be a waste of time, but at least she had been determined to make an effort to set things right—for her own sake.
Vivian’s yellow Honda Civic appeared in Christine’s line of vision through the telescope. It rounded the semi-circular drive and stopped by the front door. The driver’s door opened and Vivian stood in the bright afternoon light.
“What the hell?” Christine said. “That’s my sister! Oh, man, what’s she doin’ there? She’s cracked, I tell ya.”
Vivian walked up to the front door and pressed the doorbell, waited a moment, then knocked.
“Hello?” Vivian said. “Anyone home?”
Vivian knocked again, then cocked her head and strained to listen for any sound from within. She looked through the sidelight and cupped her hands to block the glare from the sunlight. She saw no sign of life from within. She rang the bell and knocked on the door once more.
“I’m not leaving until someone answers,” Vivian said. She stood there for several minutes.
“Why is she standing there like a harebrained statue?” Christine asked herself as she continued to watch Vivian. “She might as well have been a hand-carved stone replica of some repressed woman back in ancient Rome, the kind who desperately needed it from a man and finally got it in the nick of time just as Mount Vesuvius blew its top.”
“It’s just like her,” Vivian said, frustrated. She opened her purse and retrieved her keys. “So typical of her to pack her things and take off to who-knows-where. I wouldn’t be surprised if she were staging a second death.”
Vivian went to her car and drove off.
“Well, I guess it’s a good thing the cantankerous shrew and her skeleton crew haven’t returned yet,” Christine said. “I wouldn’t have wanted her home just yet, not with my dumb-ass sister around there like that. I want to be the one to personally deal with her.”