Ghost Not Forgotten

V: Now

Business was slow at Della's the day after I skinned my elbow (along with my pride) in front of Bennet. Not that the diner wasn't packed. It was. The place was chock full of loud yammering bodies, but they hadn't come to eat.

"You're throwin' a what?" I cried from behind the counter.

I glared at the ladies sitting at the counter – Della, Melba, Daisy, Callie Kesler and Nancy Curtis. Callie and Nancy were the only ones who weren't old biddies, they graduated when I did, but they were part of the church council, like the other ladies at the counter, which was why their heads were together.

They looked at me with wide doe eyes.

"Well, Natty, we thought it'd only be right if we threw Bennet a welcome home party," Callie said in her mousy voice. "It's a miracle that he's back after all this time, that deserves some sorta celebration, doncha think?"

"No!" I said, not caring that I was yelling. "Y'all've had him over for supper and horseshoes and Mabel's makin' him a quilt for God's sake! Isn't that celebration enough?"

"But, Natty, it's Bennet," Daisy said, as if that explained everything. I shouldn't have been surprised, and I wasn't, not really, but it didn't stop me from getting hopping mad.

"Yeah, it's Bennet," I said, punching my fists into my hips. "Bennet who disappeared on us without a word, had us thinkin' he was dead. Don't you remember the searches we went on? The vigils we held for him? The months and months of worryin' sick, the years of not knowin', and then he just swoops back in like nothin' happened, and y'all wanna pat him on the back for it?"

The rest of the diner – who had been busy planning the decorations, food, and music for Bennet's welcome home party – had all turned to me by now. I had the whole diner staring at me. Outnumbered.

"I mean, we don't even know why he left in the first place," I said, lowering my voice as I felt every eyeball in the place on me. But I had to get them to come to their senses. "Has he even told anybody why he left like he did?"

The church council ladies exchanged glances before Nancy Curtis – who I'm pretty sure has had a stick shoved up her backside since we were little bitty kids – said in her snotty tone, "No he hasn't. He says he won't tell anyone until you let him tell you."

Now that I hadn't expected, so I froze. Nobody had told me that. Why would he–?

Then it hit me. He had turned it around on me, had he? Now it was my fault that no one knew the story? Boy, was he lucky he wasn't in the diner. He'd have his head twisted the wrong way.

Then Nancy shot me her nasty curled lip. "So why don't you stop your hissy fit long enough to let him tell you?"

I clenched my fists, trying to keep my temper down, shaking my head. "I'm not the bad guy here."

"Just the victim?" Nancy said, raising her brow.

Della looked over at her. "Nancy, shut your mouth. You ain't helpin'."

Nancy rolled her eyes, looking away and shaking her head. Like I was being so unreasonable. And selfish. And wrong.

"How can you all act like nothin' happened? After what he put us through?" I looked at Della and Melba and Callie, who usually had more sense than the others.

But Daisy was the one who answered first. "Baby girl," she said, patting my hand like a mother would. I resented that. "It's been so long since he left, you can't hold things against 'im."

"What matters is he's back," Della said, pushing Daisy's hand away from mine so she could grab it. And though I welcomed her contact more than Daisy's, I still didn't want her to comfort me. I took my hand off the counter and put it in my pocket.