Queenie's Cafe Read Online Free

rooms. She needed time alone to digest all they’d told her.
    When Laura left the apartment, Florence was in the kitchen crying, and Dad looked lost. If they were waiting for her to say everything was all right, they had a long wait coming, because everything wasn’t all right. All these years, Dad lied to her. He said Queenie was her mother.
    Now she knew the truth.
    Her mother was a prostitute.
    <>
     
    Florence lay in Bruce’s arms that night. Her tears had finally stopped, but she hurt right down to the bone. Her only child didn’t want a mother like her. If there’d been any other way, if Queenie hadn’t been so vindictive, if Bruce had shown some backbone and stood up to her, Florence could have been Laura’s mother from the beginning.
    Bruce rubbed her arm. “Don’t blame yourself, Florence.”
    “I feel so bad for Laura. What kind of life did we give our little girl?”
    “The best we could under the circumstances. It was Queenie’s fault.”
    That was what he believed, but she couldn’t lay all the blame on Queenie. They could have taken Laura and moved across the country years ago. The chances of them getting caught were slim, especially if they changed their names and started over. Now it was too late to give Laura a real family.
    Laura was a grown woman.
    And Queenie was dead.
    <>
     
    The next morning, Laura stood on a ladder cleaning air vents in the dining area when the cars and trucks started to arrive. It couldn’t be customers, or could it? Did she forget to put the CLOSED sign in the window?
    She climbed off the ladder and unlocked the door. Florence brought a plumber, a roofer, an exterminator and an HVAC repairman. Others, men and women, carried buckets, mops and cleaning supplies. Most of these people were customers, neighbors, and friends. Some she didn’t recognize at all. Florence had at least twenty people with her, more than Laura had ever seen in the café at one time.
    “Hi, honey,” said Florence. “All right, y’all, let’s get to work.”
    “I don’t believe this,” said an astonished Laura. All these people came to help her.
    Florence winked at Laura. “We should have this place spic and span in no time.”
    Laura heard someone walking on the roof. The plumber went right to work snaking out the drains and fixing the stopped up toilet. The exterminator checked the pantry and went outside to spray around the building.
    One of the women pulled rubber gloves on over her beautiful manicure. “I used to work as a cook, honey. I know how to clean a stove.”
    “It’s pretty bad in there.”
    “You’re going to have to replace this vent, Laura.” Marv Walker, the HVAC repairman, was a kind man nearing retirement age. “It’s so full of grease it’s a fire hazard.”
    “Can you give me an estimate?”
    “I can do better than that. I think I have enough material left over from another job to make a new one. All you’ll need to buy is a new fan, and I may have one in the shop.”
    “That’s great!”
    Laura climbed on a ladder and cleaned the dust and grime off the ceiling vents. She took the covers off and ran the vacuum inside, then washed the covers before she put them back. The ceiling light fixtures were filthy and half the bulbs were burned out. Laura handed the burned out bulbs down to Florence and replaced them with the new ones someone had found in the pantry.
    Florence smiled up at her and Laura couldn’t help but smile back. She didn’t quite know what to say to this woman. Her mother.
    Someone called from the kitchen, “Florence, this grease cutter stuff you bought works real good on this old stove.”
    Someone else said, “Laura, the mice have been in the flour and sugar.”
    “I know,” Laura called back. “Throw everything out. I’ll have to start over.”
    “You can do it, honey,” said Florence. “I know you can make a go of this old place. Queenie couldn’t do it, but you can.”
    Could she? Laura looked around at all the people working