Small Town Rumors(46)

Jennie Sue started up the engine and backed the van out, drove a couple of blocks to Main Street, and then headed south to Sweetwater. “How did you find out so fast? It hadn’t been three minutes since I called 911.”

“Someone must’ve heard it on the scanner and called Amos and he called me. I dropped what I was doin’ and pushed the gas pedal to the floor on my old truck. She’s so skinny, and she’s been clumsy her whole life. If they’ll keep her, I can have these trees gone by the time she gets home,” Lettie declared.

“Folks are going to say that I’m bad luck. They may tar and feather me and run me out of town,” Jennie Sue said.

“Why?” Lettie stopped sniffling and whipped her head around to stare at Jennie Sue. “Did she land on you when she fell? Are you hurt?”

“Of course not. I wouldn’t have let her climb up in that tree if I’d known what she was up to. She said she was doing yard work, so I figured she was pullin’ weeds out of her flower bed. But think about it, Lettie. First Cricket sprains her ankle, and then Nadine has a bad fall. Am I bad luck?”

Lettie shook her head hard enough that all her chins wiggled. “Stop that kind of nonsense talk. You weren’t anywhere near either of them when they fell. Cricket slipped on a wet sidewalk. Besides, she was wearin’ them spike heels, and they don’t make her look a bit skinnier. Them things is just askin’ for trouble. And you sure didn’t tell Nadine to climb a tree.” She pointed toward the sign that said to turn for the emergency room. “You park right there. If they got a problem with it, I’ll straighten them out. And I’ll hear no more about you bein’ bad luck.”

“I hate seeing my friends get hurt.” She parked near the emergency doors.

“Everyone does, but that burden ain’t yours to carry, child.” Lettie undid her seat belt and was out of the vehicle so fast that Jennie Sue had to rush to catch up to her.

Lettie didn’t even slow down at the admissions desk, but told the lady to open the doors or she’d kick them in. The doors were already swinging open when Lettie and Jennie Sue reached them.

“Nadine, where are you?” She raised her voice as soon as they entered.

“Lettie, I’m in here,” Nadine called out from the first room on the left. “They’re takin’ me to X-ray, and I’m not goin’ without you.”

Jennie Sue followed her as she breezed into the room like a class 5 tornado. No one even bothered to ask if she was related to these two like they had with Cricket.

Lettie went straight to the bedside where Nadine was still on the body board and nodded at the lady waiting to push the bed down the hallway. “You can go now. I’m here and I’m going with her.”

“You’ll have to sit outside the room,” she said.

“Leave it cracked so I can hear her,” Lettie informed the woman.

“They can’t, sister,” Nadine said. “But I’ll yell loud enough they’ll hear me all the way in Bloom if they hurt me. I don’t trust those machines.”

“Aliens,” Lettie whispered to Jennie Sue. “I swear to God and all the angels that they are workin’ their way to Earth through all this damned technology crap.”

“Don’t be givin’ away our information. That’s classified,” Nadine whispered.

The lady rolled her eyes and pushed Nadine out of the room. Jennie Sue sank down in an uncomfortable chair and tried to remember if she’d locked the door on her way out of the house. And if she had, did either of the sisters have a key to get back in? While she was pondering on that and sending up prayers that Nadine hadn’t broken her neck or her back, her phone rang. She didn’t recognize the caller ID, but she answered it anyway.

“What’s happened to Nadine? Did she die? Please tell me she didn’t die. I’m not sure Lettie would live a month without Nadine,” Cricket said at Jennie Sue’s greeting.

“She’s in X-ray, but they don’t think anything is broken right now,” Jennie Sue said. “She fell out of that big pear tree in her backyard.”

“Holy cow. I’ll call back later for more news. I’ve got to make half a dozen calls right now so folks will know that she’s not dead. The ladies at the church are already tryin’ to decide whether to start thinkin’ about a funeral lunch for the family and friends. And Elaine said that the flower shop has had a dozen calls wantin’ to know if she’ll be at the local funeral home or the one in Sweetwater,” Cricket said. “You’ve got my number, so if you hear anything, call me and I’ll pass it on.”

“Small towns!” Jennie Sue groaned.

She’d begun to think that the hospital had swallowed both of her new friends and had started to pace around the small emergency room when she heard Nadine and Lettie arguing loudly.

“You cut down one of my trees, and I’ll set fire to your house and blame it on them damned little bald-headed fellows from outer space.” Nadine’s tone was high and squeaky.

“You have to promise me with one hand on Mama’s Bible and the other raised to God that you will never climb up in one of those trees again or I’ll do it,” Lettie said. “You’re lucky this time, but next time you might kill your fool self. If the trees need trimmin’ or pears need pickin’, you can hire the work done. You’re not poor, for God’s sake.”