Nursing a Grudge: An Earl Walker Mystery

Chapter 3

Earl barely slept that night. Images kept flickering through his mind—of the party, of Kent collapsing like that, of how everyone behaved afterward.

After Kent hit the floor, the other two men finally got him back up and headed down the hall, presumably to get the sick man home to his apartment. Meanwhile, the party petered out. Conroy busied himself inspecting the coffee table and couch around where Kent had sat. Gloria and Sally had gathered up the glasses, bowls, and silverware. Then Sally came and started examining the carpet around Earl’s wheelchair.

Gloria and Stanton came out of the kitchen, the man sporting something of a shiner. Stanton stopped by the coffee table and took a peek out of his one good eye. But the strain seemed too much, and he needed Gloria to help guide him to the door. On the way out she said her apologies to Earl and Jenny.

The party officially over, Earl and Jenny had followed the rest out. He hadn’t said much to the college girl after that, and in retrospect he felt like maybe he should have said something. Deep down he knew he was being far too grumpy to such a nice young girl. But somehow it came easy.

Of course, what kept him awake were thoughts of a woman named Gloria—

***

He took it slowly the next morning. In fact, he was still in his pajamas that afternoon when there was someone at the door. It was Jenny. “May I come in?”

Earl regarded her a brief second then shrugged lightly. He put hands to his chair’s wheels and rolled back from the door.

Jenny came in. “How are you doing? I suppose you heard about Mr. Kent.”

“What happened?”

“He died in the night of kidney failure.”

Earl pulled his chair back into a corner. “I’m not surprised.”

“Bless your heart.” Jenny found her way to a chair. “Is that a different blanket?”

Earl looked at the blanket across his knees, nodded, and then thumbed to the afghan thrown on the couch. “After he pawed all over it, drooling like that—well, I thought it’d be good to wash that before I use it again.”

They sat in silence. Earl felt like he should try to entertain her somehow—after all, she came out all this way—but no useful ideas came to mind. Finally he said, “You seem to be dressed for something.”

“Oh—yeah, I went to church this morning. Did you?” She looked at him and apparently realized a man in his pajamas probably had not. She continued. “After what happened yesterday, I had some trouble focusing on the service. You know, after I called the front desk about Mr. Kent and all.”

“Uh-huh.”

“I had hoped that the service would help take my mind off things. But even after I got to church, my state of mind didn’t improve by much. I mumbled through the hymns. I barely listened to the announcements. I just couldn’t focus. All I could think about was that poor man, George Kent. I couldn’t put out of my mind the look of pain on the man’s face when he fell to the floor.”

Earl tried to think of something to say. He said, “Uh-huh.”

“And then as Pastor Benton went to the podium for the sermon, I had out my notebook and pen. I was determined to focus.” She sighed. “But after some twenty minutes, the sermon was suddenly over and my notebook page was still blank.”

“Would you like some tea or something?”

“No, thank you.” She smiled weakly. “After the service, I was able to talk with the pastor. Actually I started to bawl, standing right there in the church atrium.”