NaNoWriMo 2022
Leonie’s Lion
American Kingdom: Day 9
Previous chapter:
We loaded up Leonie’s pickup — after she had given me a hug that embraced my whole body, lasted a full minute, and I desperately needed — with all my current worldly possessions and I was good to go.
I gave Brian and Marion a quick hug and Leonie gave them rather more comprehensive hugs.
“Don’t forget, Molly,” Marion said. “Regardless of what you decide, we’ll be your attorneys. Good luck!”
I waved as we drove off. Leonie blew her horn, toot-toot. What a sweetie!
“It’s good you’ve got lawyers,” she said. “Maybe they can sue the pants off that cheating partner of yours.”
“Ex-partner. And thanks for loading me up with that image.”
Leonie shook with laughter. The whole car shook. “I didn’t mean that. You know.”
“I know.” It was so good to be with her. Genuine, joyful, earthy. “They’re okay. Good people, just a little nutty, that’s all. She freaked out when she saw my scar…”
“She saw your scar? Wow! Just what did you get up to in there? C’mon, you can tell me!”
“…and her husband came rushing in with a gun.”
“Oh boy! We are going to feed you full of gumbo and beer and get to the bottom of this!”
“You made gumbo?”
Leonie’s cooking was legendary.
“Started it off this morning. Kem’ll have been watching over it while I was working. If he was awake at all. Never know, we could come home to a blackened pot and we’ll both be looking for a new man.”
Kemba know what was good for him and Leonie’s tiny backstreet house was full of the fragrance of simmering gumbo when she opened the door.
“Kem! I’m home, and I’ve got Molly with me!”
She winked at me. “I done told him and told him that we having you stay for a few days but like as not he’ll still only be in his shorts if I don’t remind him. Or none at all.” She chuckled. “That man!”
Kemba emerged from the back room, dressed decently in his work uniform. Tall and well-built, the contrast with his dumpling wife was startling.
“It’s a good’un,” he said, greeting me with a warm hug. “I had a bite to eat earlier.”
“Good, it will all be et up long before you get back.”
“Yes’m,” he said. “I can see Miz Molly here is the hungry type.”
“Oh hush you!” Leonie said, grinning. She knew perfectly well what he meant. “I need you to bring Molly’s things inside. We can put them in the garage for the moment and the truck can sit outside.”
“I’ll help!” I said. “It’s my things, after all.”
The tiny garage was packed already. I didn’t see how Leonie could possibly park her truck inside and get in and out. Her beanpole husband must have trouble just opening the door.
Kemba made no complaint as he piled my boxes up and I leaned my bike against them.
“Just for a day or so, Kem,” I promised. “Ted and I broke up and I need to get back on my feet.”
“He came sniffing around earlier,” Kemba said. “he had some wild story about you being drunk and off your head, falling over in front of the tourists. As if.”
“I fell off my bike, right enough. Not this one. One of the tourist bikes. Went home to swap it over and I found him in bed with another woman. Again. He’s had his last chance, and I’m done with him.”
“You stay as long as you need, Molly,” he said, bless his sweet heart. “Leonie is right pleased to have you here. Me too. Not sure the cat will approve though. He won’t want to share.”
True enough. Pill the cat hissed at me when we came back inside and stalked out of the kitchen, tail high and lashing at the tip in irritation.
Leonie laughed. “Look at my little lion. All miffed and sookie. Wait till he finds out you’re sleeping on his bed.”
“Poor thing.”
“Huh. He’ll get over it. You rank higher than a cat.”
I watched her bustle about. “Can I help with something?”
“You bet! Open a couple of beers. Tell me all about your erotic adventures with those two.”
The reality didn’t match up to Leonie’s imaginings but we had a time exploring both. I was glad she hadn’t asked me to chop up vegetables or something. I could have done myself a damage I was laughing so hard.
I’d like to say we sobered up after a while but no. Leonie ladled the gumbo out over beans and rice, we loaded up sides, opened more beers and let our hair down, two girlfriends bouncing our laughter off each other.
There was dessert — of course — and we found room for key lime pie and cream. I’d best find a place of my own quickly; a few more meals like this and I’d be too stuffed to do more than lie on the sofa and moan happily.
Just what I needed.
“Leonie,” I said when we had quietened down a little. “You know Luke 23:43?”
“Jesus answered him, ‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.’”
“Yes, that’s the one. What does it mean?”
“It means that if you believe truly and honestly, then you go to Heaven.”
“Yes, but isn’t that a bit of a cheat? Here’s this criminal being executed and he goes straight to Heaven with just a few words. That doesn’t seem fair.”
“Think about it,” Leonie said, placing one of her hands over mine. “There were two thieves. The other one mocked Jesus. Once he had heard Jesus tell the other thief that he had earned a heavenly reward, then what was stopping him from saying the exact same thing? Maybe he did; he sounds like the sort of wise guy trying all the angles.”
“He didn’t believe in his heart. He went to the other place.”
“Exactly right.”
That felt right. You don’t get to Heaven by being a fraud and a chancer.
But you can get there if you are a bad person, deserving of capital punishment. Hmmm. I’d have to think about this some more.
I helped Leonie wash up — a funnier, gigglier chore than normal, especially with a six-pack aboard between the two of us — and then found my way to the sofa, where Leonie had made up a bed for me. Darling woman.
“Oh, Molly?”
“Yes, Leonie?”
“Kemba usually finishes his shift around two in the morning. He’ll try to be quiet coming in, but if you hear a man in your room, don’t worry, I’ll take care of him.”
“Thanks for the warning, Leonie. Hey, you’re a sweetie, you know that?”
“It’s the company I keep.”
The whole story (NaNoWriMo work in progress)
Daily notes
Gosh, it’s hard to avoid distractions!
Not a lot to say about this scene. It resolves one dilemma about getting good with the Lord but leaves the other hanging — so to speak.
Apart from that, it’s pretty much a cheat, just setting up what’s coming next.
Molly
