Good Woman Blues Read Online Free Page A

have.”
    Darlene decided she was not going to touch
that one. “She’s been pushing herself too hard since she was a kid.
I guess it just finally caught up with her. I’ll bet there’s some
guy in the mix.”
    Rosalinde’s head snapped back. “Erikka has
sense when it comes to men. I taught both my girls that happiness
doesn’t depend on having a man.”
    “Maybe so, but she’s still human. Erikka is
turning thirty, she’s single, and has no kids. Maybe what she wants
is a family.” Darlene shrugged at Roz’s grunt of skepticism.
    “Not Erikka. I do know that much. She’s
ambitious, smart, and enjoys her life,” Rosalinde said.
    Darlene turned around as she dried her hands
on a yellow dish towel. “At least you thought so.”
     
    ***
     
    Therapeutic recreation, Erikka mused as she
dutifully browsed through the crafts booths at the country flea
market. She had wondered when her family would start creating ways
to keep her busy and, sure enough, her cousin Monique had picked
her up for an outing. People milled around, some eating nachos with
melted cheese sold at one of the food vendors. The smell of french
fries and sausage wafted overhead in gusts as two large fans blew.
Everyone seemed friendly and happy to be out on a sunny
Saturday.
    Erikka tried not to hate them all. Laughter
jangled on her nerves. Smiles hurt her eyes like glaring lights.
Their joy just made her feel like a freak. She’d known it would be
this way, which is why she’d avoided going out for days. At least
they had loads of junk to gawk at instead of her.
    Darlene had practically pushed her out the
door when Monique showed up. Maybe she was sick of babysitting.
Erikka needed to get back to her own day-to-day groove. If she
could get up energy to do more than sit on Darlene’s porch watching
clouds drift by, that is. She picked up one more cheesy piece of
bric-a-brac without thinking. The jumble around her reminded Erikka
of how she felt; stuff just seemed to pile up inside her head.
    “That’s kinda cute.” Another shopper nodded
at Erikka with a smile, then moved on.
    “Huh?”
    Erikka glanced down at what she was holding.
A fat ceramic frog grinned at her. Dark green spots were painted
all over its grass green body. She held it out and looked for cute
somewhere on the thing. If cute was there, she sure as hell
couldn’t see it.
    Monique glanced at the figurine. “Maybe in a
so-ugly- it’s-cute sorta way. On second thought, no.”
    “Grandmaman Lillie collects elephants,”
Erikka said. She turned the frog over in her hands, examining it
from all angles. “Maybe I should start collecting something as a
hobby.”
    “You wanna start with that?” Monique
pointed.
    The longer she held him, the longer he felt
like hers. “Why not?” Erikka found a price sticker on the bottom.
“Fred is worth three dollars.”
    “Fred,” Monique repeated.
    “He reminds me of my high school biology
teacher. Mr. Fred Franklin had eyes and no neck just like this. We
called him Fred Frog behind his back.”
    Monique laughed. “Poor guy.”
    “Looks aren’t everything. He cared about his
students, volunteered time to help kids struggling with their
grades.” Erikka continued to warm up to Fred as she gazed at
him.
    “Then Fred must have been waiting right here
for you. Amazing some smart shopper didn’t snatch up this prize,”
Monique joked.
    “Listen, honey. I watch that antique show on
public TV. You could be holding a hidden treasure,” the older lady
still standing nearby said with an eager nod. She was dressed in
jeans and a pink T-shirt with the word GRITS embroidered on it.
    “Yes, ma’am,” Erikka answered.
    “Let me show you. Ya gotta look for the
markings.” Erikka made it a point not to look at her cousin while
the woman rattled on for ten minutes. In no time Erikka knew her
name, that she had three children and six grandchildren. Monique
rolled her eyes when the woman finally ran out of steam and
left.
    “All that fuss