Lisa Djahed - Bee Stanis 01- The Foolish Stepmom by Lisa Djahed Read Free Book Online Page B

was really the only reason we came today , to see if she showed, to pay our respects and to try and get some answers for Jesse’s sake.
    “I might, last time I checked I wasn’t on the visitor list, you know they can only have four visitors listed, right?” she stated and moved us along the line greeting the next person behind us.
    “What?” I said as I turned around towards her but she was already in the arms of some coworker of Drew’s. I suppose the receiving line was not the best place to have a conversation, but she lied. I knew for a fact that she must be on Jesse’s list. I mean, she’s his mom, ok, maybe he took her off after she was missing, but it would only take a phone call to clear it up. I was huffing and puffing when Ben nearly had to drag me away. We went outside and saw that more than a few people were milling around in a somewhat polite way. I suppose it wasn’t good form to take right off after a memorial service but we really didn’t know that many friends of Drew’s if any. Just then we saw another neighbor from the other side of Drew’s house, Mr. Stidmore, Hank .
    “Hey Hank” said Ben.
    “Hey Ben. What a shame eh?” Hank was an older black guy that Drew seemed to get on with well. I remember being over there only once, when Drew dragged me over to raid Mr. Stidmore’s avocado tree, he had this huge tree that apparently only yielded fruit for one week a year and the avocados literally rained down during that week. Drew said that he and Hank had planted that tree together when they both moved in years back and were the only two folks on the block.
    “Yeah , really strange what they are saying.” Ben added.
    “ Tell me about it, you can say what you want, but that Jesse, he ain’t no killer, dumb as a skunk on a trunk, but a killer, no way.” Hank added shaking his head.
    “I think the same thing,” I piped in.
    “Did you see Bev?” Trying to gage his reaction.
    “Yeah , that tart looks pretty good don’t she?” added Hank. “Yeah,” was all could say to that, smiling.
    That was pretty much all we had to say to each other and we all knew we had run out of things to say , so when in doubt, bring up the Florida weather .
    “What do you think is it going to turn cold anytime soon , feels like this summer never ended.” Ben was always the one to keep a conversation going.
    Just as they brought that up , I realized I had left my wrap in the funeral home. I excused myself and went in. The room was almost empty except for, interestingly, Pam and Bev, flanked by her two sons. And they were talking, furiously it looked like. I pretended to drop my scarf so I could spend more time in the room, but the only thing I heard was something about “back rent” from Pam. Bev noticed me and shushed up and threw me a dagger look. I waved my wrap at them and went on my way.
    I could see Ben was having more trouble in the conversation with Mr. Skidmore since the weather had run it is course, so I quickly piped in, “we have to go honey” as I took his arm and he strided and I wobbled on my heels back to the car.
    “Ok honey , when I went back in Pam and Bev were talking in not so nice tones, the only thing I heard was something about back rent” I garbled out wanting to dissect the whole day and get his reactions to things.
    “Yeah , they clearly don’t like each other so that makes it weird that Bev is renting to Pam, unless Pam found out about Drew and that he was available and jumped on it.” Ben speculated.
    “Yeah , that could be it. But what did you make of Bev lying about being on Jesse’s list.”
    “We’ll just have to wait and clarify it with Jess when he calls ,” Ben’s so pragmatic it hurts, I wanted gossip not advice .
    “But what do you make it of, where has she been?” And as we were pulling left out of the parking lot we saw him, Mr. Hunk-a-doo, in his red Nissan ZX, across the street, parked in a restaurant parking lot.
    “Look honey , it’s the boy toy