Snake Queen (2/3)

Part 2

“Yes, yes, I can handle that,” Carol agreed. She switched the phone to her other ear. “You do the financial stuff, and I’ll deal with Donna’s relatives.” She paused. “Well. I told her- it doesn’t matter if she’s ready to have a funeral or not, her mom is 95 years old!” She let out a fairly wild cackle. “If you aren’t satisfied with that, there’s no pleasing you.” She listened for a moment. “Well, not quite like that. But she has to deal with the situation- as much as she can,” Coral corrected, remembering why she and Cassandra were divvying up responsibilities in the first place. “I’ll try to get Donna’s siblings out here.” She made a sound of disgust. “Can’t believe they’re waiting. She’s got 10% of her kidney function left. It’s time to be there and say goodbye.”

“Excuse me,” Susan said. “Could you put that away?” The teacher walked away without waiting for an answer. She resumed counting rows of seedlings.

Coral rolled her eyes and then flashed a fakey smile when Susan glanced back. “I’ll call you later, class is about to start. Oh yes, the gardening class. Yes. Buh-bye.”

There were a couple moments of blessed silence. Coral breathed in deeply and enjoyed the morning air. Then Lenore cleared her throat.

“What was that?” Lenore asked.

‘A bit rude to ask about other people’s personal conversations,” Coral thought.

Magnanimously, she offered her partner a smile. “Oh, a friend of mine- well, not a good friend,” she corrected. “My friend Donna’s mother is in hospice and not doing well. She’s not capable of taking care of things and her siblings are useless, so my best friend and I were just deciding how to help her out.”

“Ohhhh,” Lenore said. She drew the word out with uncertainty. “Are there… is there a lot connected to that sort of event?”

Wasn't Lenore old enough that she should be familiar with death? Coral let out a surprised laugh. “Oh, yes, a fair bit,” she said importantly. “The funeral- a casket, cleaning up her house and belongings, all of that is expensive and time consuming. And in this case of course the family doesn’t seem to understand what’s about to happen, so I have to hunt them down to get them here.”

Lenore made a sound of comprehension, intrigued. Before Coral could continue, the teacher interrupted them.

The practical lesson consisted of a primer on local plants and how to distinguish them from interloping species. Coral locked away the minute differences in coloring and leaf shapes, and committed scents to memory.

“I’ve seen almost all of these,” she said to herself, rubbing her fingers together to get the dirt off.

“So you understand?” Lenore hissed, leaning in. There were two lines of concentration pressed firmly in between her eyebrows. “They all look the same to me.”

Coral offered her partner a real smile. “I know them,” she confirmed. “I can help you look over your plot.”

Lenore’s eyes widened. After a moment she nodded.

“That’s all we are covering for today. You can clean up, I just want to go over a few things. Firstly, while this is not a graded course, I am asking that you submit a final project. By that I mean I would like before and after photos of your work, as well as a written explanation of the choices you made and how you accomplished them.”

Coral nodded along, thinking of her high quality camera and awards for wildlife and nature photography. She could do that. The write up would be a trial but she could get through it.

“The most representative projects will be added into the course catalog as examples, as well as feature in an article on the university website.”

She felt the smile slip off of her face. Unbidden, she looked at Brenda.

There was a bright, cheery smile on Brennan’s smug little face.

She burned. She was consumed by a need fo be victorious over Brenda.

‘I am going to win that,’ Coral decided. ‘My garden probably isn’t as big as hers but I am going to win.’

Somehow, Coral managed to stay collected throughout the rest of the class. She stole glances at Brenda, insufferably smug Brenda. She felt her lips press into a thin line.

“Coral, could you look at my plot?” Lenore asked cautiously. “If you have time.”

She’d promised, so she did. When Coral laid eyes on the “plot” that Lenore had to work with, she was very glad that she had agreed to come out. It was enormous and lovely. She could barely see any neighbors. The land extended into the tree line. When asked, Lenore couldn’t even guess how much of it was hers.

“Lenore,” Coral said casually. “Why don’t we work together and submit this space as our final project?”

The other woman’s eyes darted to the sides before answering. “You prefer to work here?”

“Oh, I think this has so much potential,” Coral said honestly. She was thinking of total domination over Brenda. “It would do much more good to work over a space like this than to toil in my tiny garden in the middle of town. This could have such an impact on the local ecosystem!” She was enthusiastic by the end, caught up in her own excuse.

Lenore bought it completely, dark eyes shining. “Yes,” she agreed. “This place could be wonderful! I was especially interested in the teacher’s explanation of creating cover to attract prey animals. Can we do that?”

“Of course we can,” said Coral, who was thinking about how she would be thorough enough to knock anyone else out of the competition. “It will take a lot of work but we can make this place a paradise.”

The way Lenore sighed in happiness was almost, Coral thought, like air being let out of a tire.

After they had looked over the grounds, Lenore and Coral walked together back to the parking lot. After a very long period of silence, her partner managed her first personal question. “Do you have a plan?” Lenore asked, a bit stilted. “For the day?”

Coral thought it over. “I want to call my daughter,” she decided. “I haven’t talked to her in a while. Do you have children?”

“Oh, yes,” Lenore said casually. “Or, I did. They annoyed me, so I ate them.”

Coral let out a surprised laugh. She didn’t quite get the joke, but she liked it nonetheless. “How many?” she asked. “I just have the two.” 

“Oh, a few dozen,” Lenore said vaguely. she glanced at Coral with the brightest eyes she’d shown so far. “Let me know if you could use a favor. I could eat yours too. Think of all the free time and lack of competition for snacks that you would have.”

”That’s very generous,” Coral played along. “Ask me again later, after I know how this call goes!”

She did call her daughter, as soon as she got into the car. It took a long time for Sharon to answer.

“Hi, Mom,” she said, cutting off Coral’s greeting. “How are you? Is your leg better?”

It took a moment to remember.

“Oh, yes,” Coral said. “Although I’ve been so tired lately. I had a terrible time trying to get out of the bath lately. I’m so weak. Oh, you know, I did pull a muscle in my calf,” she prattled. She flipped on her turn signal and then remembered she didn’t need to turn. She shut it back off. “I was just telling your brother that he could come home and help me out more.”

“I see.” Sharon cleared her throat. “I’m sorry to hear that. How is your-”

“You sound terrible,” Coral cut her off. “What’s wrong with you?”

“Oh.” Sharon made another hacking sound. “Bronchitis, and tonsillitis again.”

Coral clucked with her tongue. “You are sick all the time, it seems,” she critiqued. “What are you doing?”

“Well.” Sharon’s voice came out very dry. “You know, I read that childhood stress leads to a lifetime of bad health.”

“Interesting,” said Coral, not at all interested in the off topic factoid. “But I actually had a very stress free childhood. In fact I think my parents didn’t set me up for success because they kept me too sheltered. I never had to deal with anything. No problems at all! Not until I was sorority president, my second year of university.”

Sharon was utterly silent.

“Anyway, I started taking a class lately,” Coral went on.