Death by Polka

Chapter 2

2The West End Fire Department managed two buildings--the banquet hall out back and the fire house in front. I was so agitated when I got outside that I walked clear around both of them. Didn’t stop till I got to the front of the garage, which was empty. The firemen had pulled out the gleaming red fire truck and two rescue vehicles and parked them along the driveway in honor of the late Polish Lou.

I stopped around the corner of the garage and slumped against the brick wall there. Took some big deep breaths and tried to stop shaking. I needed to pull myself together, if that was even possible on a day like today.

Unsnapping my black clutch purse, I rifled the contents, without thinking, for my cigarettes. It took a full minute to remember I didn’t have any, because I’d quit. Not a puff for the past six weeks.

Though if I’d known beforehand that my dad was going to die in his sleep two weeks in, I sure as hell would’ve picked another time to kick the habit.

Suddenly, everything boiled up in me, and I’d just had enough. With an angry grunt, I chucked the purse through the air; it landed in the middle of a bunch of geraniums in a big cement planter along the driveway.

But that was just the beginning. Throwing the purse seemed to bring everything to the surface.

Overwhelmed with emotion, I plunged my face into my hands and started to cry. I’d been holding it back all day, and enough was enough.

I’d been holding it back longer than that, actually. My life had been on the skids for quite a while. Los Angeles had not been kind.

There was a reason my fiancé hadn’t come with me for my dad’s funeral. And another reason for my being in Johnstown, to boot. I hadn’t come home just to say goodbye to Polish Lou. I had an ulterior motive.

And I hated myself because of it. I was just as bad as all those people whooping it up in the banquet hall at Dad’s expense.

Maybe worse. At the moment, I couldn’t think of too many people I liked less than myself.

“Lottie?” And here came one of them. “Are you all right, sweetie?”

I kept my face in my hands for an extra minute. As if she might go away if I waited long enough. Though I knew there was no chance of that.

She was like a fly that keeps buzzing around you no matter how many times you swat it. The harder you tried to drive her away, the closer she stuck to you.

Her friendly, mid-range voice was deceptive. It concealed the heart of a stalker, the mind of a lunatic. The polka monster from the black lagoon.

My de facto stepmother.

Otherwise known as Polish Peg. “Do you need me to get you something, sweetie? A cup of tea might help.”

Looking up from my tear-soaked hands, I saw the sun streaming through her frizzy, light-brown hair, almost an afro. Her bright green eyes were enormous behind the powerful lenses of her glasses; I thought the red-with-white-polka-dots frames looked like something a clown might wear.

“No thanks.” I sniffed as I rubbed tears from my cheeks with my thumbs. I hated letting Peg see me this way...or any way, for that matter. Ever since she’d buzzed into the picture fifteen years ago, I’d made a point of keeping my distance.

“I think you dropped this.” Peg smiled as she held out my black clutch purse. “I found it in the planter over there.”

“Thanks.” I managed the smallest smile as I took the purse from her grip. “I wondered where that got to.”

Peg looked at me hard from behind those magnifying glasses of hers. She started to say something, then looked away.

I felt intensely uncomfortable, as I always did around Peg, though she’d never really done anything evil. Other than stealing my father away from my mother, that is.

Something about her made me want to run. Maybe she was just too eager to please. Maybe it was her weirdness or her tacky polka style. Maybe something I couldn’t put my finger on.

But she made me want to run. Snapping open my clutch, I fished out the keys to my rent-a-car. “I’d better get going.” I snapped the purse shut and moved to walk past her. “I’m exhausted.”

Just then, Peg the Clown did the unexpected. She caught me by the shoulder as I tried to get past. “Hold on, Lottie.”

I couldn’t believe it. Polish Peg never, ever touched me. “What?” I turned an ice cold glare on her, brimming with contempt.

If it hurt her, she didn’t show it. “Can’t you stay a little, Lottie?”

I hated having her hand on me, but I didn’t pull away just yet. “It’s been a tough day. I really need to get some rest.”

“Please come back to the party, sweetie.” Peg tipped her head to one side. “For your dad, okay?”

No fair playing the dad card, but I wasn’t going to let her guilt me on this. “It won’t make any difference to him whether I’m there or not.”

“Yes it will.” Peg let go of my shoulder. “There’s going to be an announcement.”

I frowned. “What kind of announcement?”

“I don’t even know,” said Peg. “His attorney’s going to present it. Lou left strict orders that all of us be in the room when he does. The whole family.”

Even after fifteen years, I couldn’t bring myself to think of her as family. But I didn’t say it. “Whatever it is, someone can tell me about it later.” I shoved the purse under my arm and marched past her.

At which point, she grabbed my elbow and held on tight. “I won’t have it!”

Spinning, I gaped at her. She’d surprised the hell out of me by raising her voice, which was something else she never did when it came to me. “You won’t have what?”

“Lou...your father asked you to do one thing for him.” Peg’s frizzy ‘fro quivered as she let me have it. “I won’t let you ruin it.

“I think you can carve fifteen minutes out of your busy day to honor your father’s last request. Don’t you?”

I stared at her, wanting so bad to get angry, needing to go off on her for once and for all. But I couldn’t quite do it. Couldn’t give her what she’d had coming for the last fifteen years.

“Okay.” That was all I could bring myself to say. “Fifteen minutes.”

“Thank you.” Peg let go of my elbow and nodded. “On behalf of your father.”

“Let’s just get this over with,” I said, walking back toward the banquet hall, leaving The Clown buzzing in my wake.