Tales of the City 05 - Significant Others

defended.”
    DeDe turned back to Mabel. “Mabel, really, I appreciate your concern, but I don’t …”
    Mabel lumbered past her toward the Winnebago. “Yessir-ree-bob,” she said as she climbed inside.
    Panic-stricken, DeDe turned to Ginnie and asked: “The crossbow?”
    Ginnie laughed. “It’s back in Tacoma. Don’t worry.”
    Thank God, she thought.
    “She gets like this,” offered the woman on the ice chest. “She was with the Post Office for thirty-seven years.”
    Mabel emerged from the Winnebago, gave DeDe a rakish salute, and began marching down the road toward the chem-free zone.
    “You don’t even know where she is,” yelled Ginnie.
    Mabel maintained a determined gait. “The hell I don’t.”
    “She’s doing this for you,” said the woman on the ice chest, addressing DeDe. “She’s showing off.”
    DeDe felt utterly helpless. “What’s she gonna do?”
    Ginnie shrugged. “Kick butt.”
    “Look,” said DeDe, “the last thing I want is some horrible fight over … Can’t somebody stop her?”
    “She’s not gonna do anything,” said the woman on the ice chest. “She’s blowin’ smoke.”
    “Don’t be so sure,” said Ginnie. She turned to DeDe with a look of gentle concern. “Maybe you’d better go after her, huh?”
    “Me? I don’t even know her. Why should I be the—?” She cut herself off, suddenly envisioning Mabel and Rose locked in woman-to-woman combat. She leapt to her feet and bounded down the road after Mabel.
    She caught up with her as they approached the border of the chem-free zone. “Mabel, listen …”
    “Comin’ along for the fun?”
    “No! If you’re doing this for me …”
    “I’m doin’ this for me, girlie.”
    DeDe strode alongside her, breathing heavily but keeping pace. “But if she thinks that I sent you down there to …”
    “Who the hell cares?”
    “I care, Mabel. I’m here with my lover and kids, and … I’m just trying to have a good time.”
    Mabel slowed down a little and smiled at her. “How’s it been so far?”
    “Shitty,” said DeDe.
    “Well, see there? It’s time we had us some fun.”
    “Mabel, a rumble with the security chief is not my idea of a good—”
    “Shhh,” Mabel ordered, whipping a forefinger to her lips. “There it is.”
    “What?” DeDe whispered.
    “Her lair.” She seized DeDe’s arm with a grip of iron, pulled her into a thicket of madrone trees, let go suddenly, and flung herself to the ground like an advancing infantryman.
    Rose’s tent was beneath them, at the bottom of a gentle slope. A lantern burned inside, making it glow like the belly of a lightning bug.
    “Mabel, I want no part—”
    “Get down!”
    DeDe dropped to the ground, her heart pounding furiously. Mabel gave her a roguish wink and made another silencing gesture with her finger. There were sounds coming from Rose’s tent. Not voices exactly, but sounds.
    First there was a kind of whimpering, followed by heavy breathing, followed by: “Yes, oh yes, uh-huh, you got it, all right, O.K., there … yes ma’am, yes ma’am …”
    DeDe tugged on Mabel’s sweatshirt, making a desperate let’s-get-out-of-here gesture. Mabel used her palm to stifle a snicker, then peered down the slope again, obviously enthralled by the drama of the moment.
    The sounds continued: “Uh-huh, oh yeah, oh yeah, mmmmmm, oh God, oh God please … oh Gawwwddd …”
    Mabel shot a triumphant glance at DeDe, then sprang to her feet, cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted, “Don’t you mean Goddess?”
    All sounds ceased in the tent.
    DeDe tried to shimmy away on her belly, but the underbrush enfolded her. She lurched to her feet and stumbled frantically away from the scene of the crime. Behind her, Mabel was cackling victoriously, thoroughly pleased with herself.
    “Come on!” DeDe called, suddenly worried about Mabel’s safety.
    Mabel savored the scene a moment longer before effecting her own escape. She crashed through the madrones, puffing noisily but still cackling. “Was that perfect, girlie? Was that the best damn—”
    She tripped and fell with a sickening thud.
    “Are you O.K.?” DeDe called. “Mabel? … Mabel?”
    Mabel wasn’t moving at all.
    Sick with fear, DeDe made her way back to the grounded figure, knelt, touched the side of her face. “Please don’t do this to me. Please don’t.”
    Mabel’s nose wiggled.
    “Thank God,” said DeDe.
    The old woman emitted a sporty growl and hoisted herself to her knees.