The Thanatos Syndrome

they’re staying there? Why aren’t they staying here?
    Hudeen: I own no. Like I tole Miss Ellen, we take care them, ain’t that right, Chandra?
    Chandra, sobering up from being a TV personality: Yes, that’s perfectly true. We’re perfectly capable of taking care of them. Hudeen is here during the afternoon and I’m here at night. In fact, I offered to take them to the fair and they wanted to go. But after Mr. Van Dorn talked to your wife, they decided it would be better if they stayed at the school with the boarders.
    For the whole week?
    Yes.
    I see.
    â€œHe done give her a whole big box of Go Diver,” says Hudeen, hand on the volume control.
    â€œWhat?”
    Chandra: “After they talked in there,” Chandra nods toward the living room, “more like arguing at first, while we were keeping Tommy and Margaret in here. Yes, he did give her a five-pound box of Godiva chocolates, which she ate while I was packing for her and the children. And about that time I get my call from WOW—”
    â€œYou say she ate them all?”
    â€œI mean all,” says Hudeen.
    They get into a discussion of Godiva chocolates. “She already a little heavy, I tole her!” Hudeen exclaims into the sink. “And I had her breakfast ready, her and the chirren, some fried grits and gravy, which don’t put no weight on nobody.”
    Chandra is shaking her head at me and rolling her eyes up.
    Hudeen, who doesn’t miss much, sees her.
    â€œDon’t you mock me, girl!”
    â€œI’m not mocking you.” Chandra turns to me. “It’s not the calories so much as the sugar metabolism and known carcinogens in chocolate.”
    Sugar metabolism. Carcinogens. I’m not following this.
    â€œJust a minute.” I hold out a hand to each. “Hold it. Let me get this straight. You, ya’ll, are saying that Ellen had an argument with Dr. Van Dorn, that he gave her a box of candy, that you had to pack for her and the children, that she’s gone to Fresno by herself, and that the children are going to stay at Belle Ame with the boarders?”
    â€œSho,” says Hudeen, keeping an eye on Chris Hughes’s granddaughter, a girl in deep trouble.
    â€œShe was quite upset about something,” explains Chandra, again shaking her head at Hudeen, “which was why I helped with the packing—”
    â€œWasn’t studyin’ any packing,” says Hudeen. “I tell her, I say, Miss Ellen, you got to pack.”
    â€œBut she was fine, don’t worry,” says Chandra, as sober and sensible as I could want. “She polishes off that box of candy, which would have polished me off, and is perfectly fine. I don’t like that man,” she adds thoughtfully.
    â€œWho, Dr. Van Dorn? Why not?”
    â€œHe’s manipulative. I don’t trust him,” says Chandra.
    â€œHe biggety too,” says Hudeen.
    â€œHow do you mean?”
    â€œTelling me to call Carrie Bon and tell her Claude he staying out there too. Didn’t ax, told, like I’m working for him.”
    â€œWait. You’re telling me that Dr. Van Dorn asked you to call Carrie Bon, Vergil and Claude’s mother, at Pantherburn and tell her that Claude was going to be staying at Belle Ame too?”
    â€œThat what I’m telling you.”
    I look at Chandra. She shrugs. “That was after I left. I had got my call.”
    â€œWhat did you do, Hudeen?” Hudeen doesn’t turn around but holds up both hands, pale salmon-colored palms turned up. “What I’m going to do, he standing right there holding out the phone. So I told her he be staying on with Tommy and Margaret and she say all right.”
    â€œI see.”
    â€œI sent him some clothes too, but he big.”
    â€œI know.”
    â€œI sent him your sweater and pajamas.”
    â€œGood.”
    â€œDr. Tom—” For the first time Hudeen turns to face me, drying her hands with her apron, eyes almost meeting mine, then falling away. “I sho wish you’d—Ain’t no way I can—” She turns back to the sink.
    I look at Chandra. She too opens her hands. “She means that Tommy and Margaret need more parenting and that Mrs. More is preoccupied with her bridge or with—” She too falls silent.
    Parenting. True, I could use more parenting skills.
    We all fall silent.
    I’m thinking about the argument and the Godiva chocolates.