Killer Calories

downhill fast over there. Too much sun, I expect.”
    “Yes. That would be my guess, too.” Savannah nodded thoughtfully. “It should do much better here in the partial shade. I believe you rescued it just in time.”
    “Well, the job isn’t done yet.”
    Was that a slight hint Savannah heard in Phoebe’s tone? It almost sounded as though the Royal Palms’s Official Pain-in-the-Backside Neighbor was asking another person for help… maybe even a moment or two of female companionship.
    “I could give you a hand with it, if you like,” Savannah said, eager to feel the cool richness of the soil running through her fingers again. It had been too long since she had been in touch with Nature.
    “You’re probably busy,” Phoebe replied curtly.
    “Not at all. I’d love to help.”
    A moment later, both women were on their knees, and Phoebe was mixing a bit of bonemeal into the hole she had just dug. Savannah fetched a bucket of water which she poured in, once Phoebe had finished.
    “Now... there you go,” Savannah said as she eased the azalea into the ground and began to gather the dirt around its roots. Phoebe helped her, and in a couple of minutes, the bush was transplanted.
    “There, that didn’t take long,” Savannah said, looking down at her manicure, which was now ruined, but she didn’t care. Some experiences were worth the price of vanity.
    Savannah took a look around, but they appeared to be alone in the garden. “The last time I was here,” she ventured, “you mentioned something about Kat Valentina actually making a play for your brother. Is that really true?”
    She had delivered the question with just the right front-porch-gossip tone, and Phoebe responded predictably.
    “A play? Heavens no,” she replied. “She wasn’t playing at all. She was working at it. I tell you, it was absolutely disgusting. An old codger like him....”
    Savannah thought it best not to mention that Brother Ford Chesterfield appeared to be several years younger than his sister, Phoebe. And having seen the gentleman, Savannah could understand Kat’s attraction to him. In spite of his advancing years, he was a physically fit, handsome man with sharp, intelligent eyes.
    And, of course, he appeared to be very wealthy. For a woman like Kat, that had to mean more than his thick silver hair or youthful physique.
    “How serious were they? I mean, did they actually...?” Oops, she thought. That wasn’t exactly the most graceful verbal soft-shoe shuffle you’ve ever accomplished, old girl.
    But Phoebe didn’t seem insulted. She pursed her thin lips and nodded vigorously. “Oh, yes, they did. Kat would do ‘it’ with anyone, and of course, my brother couldn’t help himself.”
    “He couldn’t? Why not?”
    “Well, he’s a man. They’re weak, you know. All of them. Ever since Adam took a bite of that apple, they’ve been more animal than human... helpless to control their lust.”
    “Well, I don’t know if I’d go so far as to say that they’re all helpless—”
    “But it’s true. They’re weak, and they’re foolish. Without their mothers, sisters, and wives to keep them in line, they’d never survive.”
    Savannah cleared her throat, trying to put aside all of Granny Reid’s admonitions about respecting one’s elders. Gran had also taught her to confront bigotry wherever she encountered it. Those instructions seemed to contradict each other, given the present company.
    “I don’t think a person has to be male to be foolish,” she said as gently as she could.
    Phoebe slipped off one of her gloves and began to fan herself with it. “Of course not. Women are stupid, too. They marry men, don’t they? That’s why I never married. I practically reared my younger brother, and one man is enough responsibility for any woman.”
    “I understand.”
    “You do not. I don’t see any ring on that finger of yours.”
    “No, but I’m the oldest of nine siblings. Some of them were boys. All of them—boys and girls—were a peck of trouble. From time to time, they still are.”
    “It’s true; we’re never too old to get into trouble.” Phoebe looked away, over the hills to the setting sun, and assumed a philosophical expression. “We get too soon old and too late smart,” she said.
    “Truer words were never spoken.”
    The two women shared a moment of companionable silence before Savannah decided to turn the conversation back to more fertile ground.
    “How did you feel about your brother’s